Clay runs (sneaks) Seive City 61,000

By Clay Wright

What a Spring!

4.5” rain yesterday on top of 2” the day before… haven’t seen
62,000 cfs here in years!
All I’ve got is a cell-phone shot from Tara, but that’s my Hero – the
little red dot bottom left of Seive City runnout…

I put in below some trees at the bottom of the Overlook steps and ran
down the left – where we usually scout – then ferried across to a
perfect 10′ boof back to the middle (just left of the log you can see
in the photo). The move was easy but intense, with few landmarks
and LOTS of debris. Landing the boof, I ferried out to the middle
for the waves above the put-in to keep out of the trees and the wood-
blender going on in a left eddy at the powerhouse . There was a
MASSIVE hole where the current falls back in off the right ledge
above our put-in; incredible feeling just to look into it on my way
up the shoulder – Hypoxia’s got nothing on this beast!

The ‘seal launch’ rock (normally 17′ up) was just above the water
and I ferried hard right to miss the bridge piling in the middle of
the wave train. The sheer volume was energizing.. mystery moved my
Hero in the seam just below the hole where the right channel comes
back in while ferrying hard back right to avoid Brave Wave: this
exploding hole/pocket eddy thing where water falls off the left bank
into the main flow. Incredible feeling just traveling so fast among
the crazy water, trees, and trash. Another huge big boily seam /
hole thing below brave wave where the current slams into that
vertical wall and creates all sorts of chaos.. 20′ logs bobbing
around, submerging in the seams and re-surfacing on both sides.

I was so psyched on the Hero! In that crazy water I could always
turn towards the boils when they formed and even when I got pulled
back down into a whirlpool I was stable as can be while all that
volume kept me close the the surface. So glad I didn’t take the All-
star on this mission – far too much volume with debris not to have a
bit of speed and every extra gallon was appreciated.

Yeah – someone might have run the ‘meat’ if you could only get to
it … EJ – the rocks we ferried out from at 30k were not just
covered up, but the hole was flushing and the current was heavy
heading straight into the trees. Makable? Probably. But the
little ‘taste’ I got of what has to be the biggest rapid on the East
Coast at this level was fine by me.

Clay