South Fork Feather: October Dam-Release Epic!

October 17, 2008

By Stephen Wright

After a great September on the Gauley and Russell Fork, it was time to head to the West Coast. Fortunately, there’s a SICK dam-release creek run going-on in October on the South Fork Feather. It’s hours of mostly class 4/4+ with a few harder and bigger drops available to those who don’t portage. One of the bigger drops is a 30 foot falls into shallow water that Rusty Sage has the first D of—unfortunately he broke a boat doing it! There’s also a manky boulder drop with a nasty undercut 2/3 of the way down, and a WILD 6 foot drop into a boat-wide slot shooting another 12 feet. This run goes for more than 3 weeks straight in October! I’ve gotten on the run twice now, and it’s an awesome run (especially when the rest of the country is dry as a bone).

I met-up with Phil Boyer and our friend Mike yesterday (Thursday) to do the shortened run, which takes-out at Post Creek. We had a fantastic run, despite a late start and having my gear bag stolen the night before. We all paddled the new Hero, which continues to amaze me. It’s just a great boat. Phil and I spent 15 minutes scouting the 30 footer, which looks better every time I’ve examined it….maybe next run. All rapids went great until the last one above Post creek. I managed to go through a sieve on the right (which was fortunately clean and deep enough to get through easily) and Mike broke his paddle and knocked his nose.

Enjoy the photos, shot by Phil Boyer and some jerk 🙂 Here’s the link to the AW write-up on this run.

Live from Reno, NV,
Stephen Wright