Scott River, IV/V-

This is my first blog post. Hmmmmmmm. I'll just pretend like it's not, then I can avoid all the introduction bullshit.
On Thursday, March 22, I got out of class at 10 am. By class I mean my math final. I had just bombed a test, Kyle had lost a paycheck, and Will, well, I'm sure Will could find something to be bummed about. Anyway, at least some of us needed some hydrogeous therapy, a.k.a., boating. The Scott River was running around 1150 at Fort Jones, so we missioned down there for they day.

The river seemed lower than we'd seen it before, or maybe I'm just getting more confident with my own paddling. I did step up and take my playboat down this time through.

Will and Kyle at the put-in

Kyle hadn't been on this run before and I wasn't totally sure on his skill level, so I we ran everything "blue angel" style with me leading. The first couple miles were all pretty fun long class III rapids with a couple class IV's. We didn't scout anything until we got to Whitehouse.

Above: Tombstone Rapid. Below, a fun ledge just below Tombstone

After scouting the line at Whitehouse, Kyle and I jumped in our boats. We both got a little lost in the lead-in, but I was able to find a good place to drop in and skirted the big hole with enough speed to punch the second ledge hole. Kyle got turned around in the top drop and ran the second ledge backwards with no speed. It stopped him and he threw a few cartwheels before flushing upsided down. Will styled his line in the raft and bounced on through.

Kyle and I scouting Whitehouse

Here are videos of Will, Kyle, and Myself running Whitehouse

Next up we scouted Tompkins Creek Rapid, a long class IV+ boulder garden. At this flow, there were lots of options and it would have been fun to run wide open, except for the undercut on the bottom left. Previously, we'd always gone far left and cut to the center above the undercut. Today, I picked out a line right through the middle, while Will made some impressive ferries to get far right and dropped through a cool slot just wide enough for his boat.

Kyle and I in the middle of Tompkins

We took out just below Tompkins today since we got a late start. We got to run one more small ledge with a fun boof before getting off the water.

The Scott is definately one of my favorite runs. It's close enough to town to do in a day after class and is loaded with fun class III/IV rapids. It's got a big water feel and no major horizon lines, but a few rapids that are still intimidating. We ran it at 1150 cfs at Fort Jones and I consider 1000 the low end of the range. I've run it up to 2200 and it just gets bigger and faster. Some of the rapids, like Tombstone, Schuler's Gulch, and Whitehouse really clean out as the water rises, while other sections turn from class II to class IV+.