Early morning rain, brought it up on Sunday. A few of us caught the 3.8ft surge for a cold but enjoyable day that included heavy snow on the shuttle.
Monday brought sunny skies and warmer temps, so after checking in at work I headed up again and met up some others on spring break. Most notable point was just above Upper Screw-up, Hunter Hobbs declared he was going to "Get a Big Boof", we cleared him for take off and he nailed it!
Caught up with work on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I could claim at least a little productivity.
Made preparations to be off on Thursday as a little rain was forecasted Wednesday night. Only a moderate rain was predicted, but that's all it would take to bring it back up to boatable levels. Joined a couple folks for a mtn bike ride through Burns Park in the evening, the exhaustion helped counter the anticipation of the rain so I could sleep.
Met up with small crew at the put-in. 6-inches of airspace pre-shuttle (4.7ft on the gauge), 8-inches of airspace at launch time. Hunter decided to pass due to the level and waited in hopes to join in on a second lap later in the day after the creek level dropped.
After launch, the backside of the system passed through and dumped some heavy rain for a while. Then after a couple swims by a newer boater, he was given instructions on hiking out (River Left) from Crack-in the Rock/Green Rock area. The rest pressed on. Upon reaching the Devil's Forks, it was determined that enough flow was present to run the falls, so the boats went on the shoulders for the hike up. A quick scout of the falls determined an ample flow, so Chuck B. strapped in and launched followed shortly by Jim A. I noticed some leaves coming down the creek and commented that it was rising a little from the rain we had earlier, which should help pad up the launch. Nick H. made his first descent of the falls followed shortly by Mark. Someone signaled that he was swimming at the bottom, so I waited a couple minutes then slid in the eddy. It was surging a bit as I positioned my entry into the current, but didn't give it much thought. Made my standard line, just left of center but instead of resurfacing quickly, I flipped underwater at the bottom. Tried a roll - no bite, reset and got partially up but enough to see a waterfall curtain close by, reset and tried again as I felt water pushing on me from multiple directions. Decided I needed air and pulled the cord. Can you say
?I came up and swirled around for a couple seconds getting my bearings. I was in the middle of the pool between the waterfalls. I saw my boat flushing toward Chuck on river left, Jim and Nick on river right and Mark behind me on the bank between the waterfalls. Then I felt bottom and stood up in neck deep water in the middle of the pool. Mark pulled me to the bank between the falls and as I crawled out, Jen followed my fate. Still confused as to what was going on, I noticed the from the side angle that the boil at the bottom of the Long Devil's side (the one we ran) was rather large. I walked behind the Big Devil's side to get to my boat that Chuck grabbed. Then I noticed the culprit. Long Devil's creek had flashed in the few minutes between the Chuck and Jim's runs and the last 3 of us. It was at least 3 or 4 times more volume than when we first arrived. The force of the water pushing out to the left side from the bottom of the falls met the water coming off the Big Devil's side and was creating a 3-foot tall boiling seam. The one that all 3 of us landed in. The edge of the storm must have been right at the ridge between the two creeks. Looking up, Long Devils was an angry maelstrom of dark brown water that drawfed the meager and slightly discolored Big Devil's side.
Chuck, Jim and I boated back down to Richland as the others portaged due to the push of the creek and inconveniently placed downed wood. Once at the confluence, the Devil's fork was doubling the flow on Richland making the lower part of the run nice and juicy.
We loaded up at the bottom and headed back up to find the level at the bridge to be -2 or -3 inches of airspace. Jim and I launched for a second lap. Nick, Hunter and Mike headed over for some Falling Water action. There were no pools on Richland as we were pushed down the first mile of the creek through the shoals, once the gorge started, every rapid offered large features, (holes, waves, cross currents, etc.). Splat rock was a nice boof, the Roadblock rock had water over the top of it (didn't boof it), the far right slide at Cindy's was a meaty hole as well, Apple Pie had a large hole on river right with a tounge on the left that ramped up on the rock then dropped into another hole. The waves on the bedrock below lower screw-up were impressive and there was no sign of the Magtag rock, just another big hole
. The run just over an hour, including a quick foot stretch break. Headed home to check in at work, since I didn't put in for Friday leave based on the forecast of moderate rain. Checked in that morning and luckily no pressing issues, so back to up to Richland with sunny skies. Heath joined my on a Shredder for his inaugural R2 run. He only tried to fall out once and we were able to hit a few nice lines while some others were hmm, no so smooth. At the bottom of Maytag, a white globe appeared in the clear blue sky. We scammed some shuttle space on another group so we could leave Heath's truck at the bottom. After a burger at the Cookie's Cafe in Deer, Heath, Mike O. and I proceeded with at 10pm launch under the moon. Off the creek before midnight and finally to bed by 2:30am.
Awoke to sunny skies and a large number of boaters on Saturday. Heath and I were a behind a ways at the put-in, but due a lengthy boat extraction at Roadblock slowed them down enough for us to catch the main groups. Lots of first time Richland boaters on the creek which provided plenty of carnage, luckily nothing else resembling the Roadblock carnage. I was able to entice Diane C. to make a second run since she was feeling spunky after completing her first 'no portage' run of Upper Richland. Everyone else decided that once was all they wanted. :roll:
Halfway down the thunderstorms passed over with some
, 
, a little hail and a rainbow to top off my 8th run of the week including 3 consecutive 2 lap days. So, when is the next spring break?
Sorry dad! 
