It turned out to be a great time at the Cossatot this weekend. I met up at 5:30 am in Bossier w. Harlan, Rusty Mills, Corey, and Vernon. Level was in the mid 5's when I woke up sat. morning so I knew it'd be a good day. We got there hoping Baker would be running but it had already dropped out by the time we arrived. So we set up camp at the Falls, met up w. Zach Feldman and off we went to warm up from 246 to Ed Banks. On the way we ran into Michelle Ashford and roped her into the adventure. It didn't take too long before Zach and I took off on our own. The rest were going a bit slow and there wasn't enough action to keep me warm, oh yeah, it was snowing all morning and cold. So we bombed down to Ed Banks, got out for a few minutes then headed for the Falls for warm cars and cold beverages. Ed Banks down was definitely what I came for at this level so I was excited. Zig Zag was cool, nothing too crazy. When we approached the Esses we saw some characters halfway up the rockwall that runs down river left, as we got closer we saw a blue raft tied up at the bottom and realized it was Jody and Jim Simmons who we'd seen at the Falls earlier. Those fools were up there on a ledge w. a nice fire going and taking pictures. I can't wait to see those fellas, the Esses were insane at that level. Just fast moving, big violent waves and holes. I think Zach and I were side by side the whole time, I remember when we got to the big rock, which is a big hole at that level, just down from the sycamore eddie, I went left and he went right. Pretty sweet and lots of adrenaline. The waterfall on river right below the Esses was so big it looked runnable. So we went on down and got out at the falls and warmed up for about 45 minutes until the rest showed up. Then the action began. I knew the lines would be a little different at this level so I consulted w. Vernon on where to hit em. Unfortunately some others didn't have this idea and they paid the price. Eye Opener caused a bit of a ruckus. I had heard a nasty hole developed at that level but got to witness the power of it firsthand thanks to the unnamed individual who spent a little time developing a friendship with it. My hat goes off to ya Harlan......OOPS!!! We got to run the Machine over the top, which was my first time and something I'd wanted to do for a long time. After that I just had to bomb down as the rest of the rapids became one. From there on was nice as well, Deer Camp and Devil's hollow are nice and beefy at that level. Got to run Devil's Hollow Falls for the first time as well. So we got off and went back to camp for some much needed R&R.
Sunday was great. A lot of boaters showed up including Walter Felton, my personal hero
With Walter around, I definitely had to step it up and yesterday was hands down the best I've ever paddled that river. Highlights for me were learning an attainment move at Zig Zag, catching the far left eddie on Cossatosser, and catching the Hairy Ferry eddie at Whiplash. Thanks Sabrina for sitting in the eddie and yelling at me to "Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!!". The rest of the trip was great. It was a nice warm day and a perfect level to paddle. On a sidenote, I am REALLY starting to like my Viper 11 that I recently switched to. I don't know if it was the level yesterday, or the boat, or a combination of both, but that thing is super manueverable and just lets me do what I want to do and go where I wanna go w. ease. Anyways, that's pretty much it. Enjoyed paddling with everyone and hope we get to meet up again before canoe school. See ya on the river!!
What the HELL, wife wanted me home, she left and went shopping 
Way to go Roman 
You might want to add me to that list. Thank you guys for letting Billy, Bert and I tag along. It was a blast and can't wait to do it again!