Lower Deschutes Rapid Questions

[daveg]

I am going to float Macks to the mouth leaving this Wednesday. I have not floated that section with me rowing in over 12 years.

Where is Washout and the line? It is not in the Amato book.

Also line info on Gordon, Colorado, Rattlesnake would be great.

I have found that the Amato info is no longer valid for some of the rapids as the river changes over time.

We have two boats, the other guy has done this float several times.

Thanks for any advice.

[Bobberman]

The BLM guide is good, check your local fishing shop, or BLM office.

[CHOSENBOY]

Washout can be ran on either side in a float boat. I run it river right in the jetboat, but most of the time I am running a float boat I just run the wave train down on the river left side. You can find a few good videos on youtube showing safe passage through the lower rapids.

[tumalt]

Washout is right underneath large powerlines. As your floating you'll see them in the distance. Most mellow line is either far right or left. Just avoid the big holes in the middle. Colorado has a huge breaking wave/hole that is easy to avoid on the right side. Gordon's is just narrow, but not really alot of big hyrdaulics. Rattlesnake has a rocky hole on the bottom right, just go left.

I'd just stick close to the guy who has already gone and ask his advice. Have fun, its a great river.

I am going to float Macks to the mouth leaving this Wednesday. I have not floated that section with me rowing in over 12 years.

Where is Washout and the line? It is not in the Amato book.

Also line info on Gordon, Colorado, Rattlesnake would be great.

I have found that the Amato info is no longer valid for some of the rapids as the river changes over time.

We have two boats, the other guy has done this float several times.

Thanks for any advice.

[flopearedmule]

I always run washout river left. Seems to be the easiest and the main tounge is going that way.

Gordon ridge is around the bend on gordon ridge. Stay right. Not left on this and go down the wave train when you see it coming up. Stay pretty much right as you come around the bend and you will be set. There is also another rapid lower down close to gordon ridge and stay right of that one too. You can't see the rocks until you have passd the rapid. Stay in the main current and when you come to this rapid make sure you are right. Not left. Its a little downstream from Gordon around 1/8 mile or so if I remember correctly.

Colorado has a nasty curl. You can run it river right tight to the right hand side and miss the curl entirely.

On rattle snake you will see a rock 20-30yds in slack water before the meat of the rapid. Stay close to this rock on river right. After you pass the rock, pull a stroke or two behind it and then go down the wave train river left. You do not want river right on that one. There is a rock ledge on right.

For Moody stay left of the island and pretty much in the main rapid. Its the easiest of them all. This is a fun one.

--jeff

[TillamookChinook]

Have fun, Dave. Catch some fish and post a report !!

TC

[Mad Mikey]

Friend took these from the front of my boat a few years back. Washout can be done either side, left side just look for the tongue and follow it on through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_eZTPOSALs

Here's two friends of mine running Washout on the left. They like to give me grief for running the right side, all in good fun though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5SYaZMpHVc&feature=channel_page

Colorado, simple. Approach right center, look for the big nasty, slide by it on the right(at :03). Time your pushes through the wave train and enjoy the ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHwFxF1_Opk&feature=channel

Rattlesnake, right near the top, ID a pointy boulder to the left. Tuck behind it and ride the ribbon of current. It will want to suck you to the right. Just keep headed right at the sloppy waves at the bottom of the rapid next to the powerful back eddy. That back eddy is weird, somtimes it spits to out on the right, sometimes to the left. I'm usually prepared to(like in the video) put the bow right left and power out of the back eddy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY5DMryE3MY&feature=channel

No video of gordon Ridge.

Gordon Ridge is an easy read but can be a PITA if windy.

Hydraulics slopping you around etc.

The exit at the bottom you need to know where to be, it's do-able on the left but I prefer the right side.

You will bounce through about 5-6 medium waves and be looking for a good sized solitary grass tuft river right. You need to be LEFT of that tuft but must go a leetle bit more left of it than need be to avoid "aluminum rock",. As you pass this by you will see scrapes made from various boats throughout the seasons. It is about 6-10' up and slightly left of the grass tuft and barely under the surface, you may need to shuffle a bit to to the right after "AR".

When you get past THAT you are right on top of a 3-4 foot short drop in a narrow slot with a squarish rock on the left to keep off of. I usually keep the brakes on until aluminum rock, look for the first wave below the slot and then switch to PUSH mode to slam through the narrow spot and be done with it. Not a big deal but I sure would not want to drop over that thing sideways in a DB...

Hope this helps.

[daveg]

Friend took these from the front of my boat a few years back. Washout can be done either side, left side just look for the tongue and follow it on through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_eZTPOSALs

Here's two friends of mine running Washout on the left. They like to give me grief for running the right side, all in good fun though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5SYaZMpHVc&feature=channel_page

Colorado, simple. Approach right center, look for the big nasty, slide by it on the right(at :03). Time your pushes through the wave train and enjoy the ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHwFxF1_Opk&feature=channel

Rattlesnake, right near the top, ID a pointy boulder to the left. Tuck behind it and ride the ribbon of current. It will want to suck you to the right. Just keep headed right at the sloppy waves at the bottom of the rapid next to the powerful back eddy. That back eddy is weird, somtimes it spits to out on the right, sometimes to the left. I'm usually prepared to(like in the video) put the bow right left and power out of the back eddy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY5DMryE3MY&feature=channel

No video of gordon Ridge.

Gordon Ridge is an easy read but can be a PITA if windy.

Hydraulics slopping you around etc.

The exit at the bottom you need to know where to be, it's do-able on the left but I prefer the right side.

You will bounce through about 5-6 medium waves and be looking for a good sized solitary grass tuft river right. You need to be LEFT of that tuft but must go a leetle bit more left of it than need be to avoid "aluminum rock",. As you pass this by you will see scrapes made from various boats throughout the seasons. It is about 6-10' up and slightly left of the grass tuft and barely under the surface, you may need to shuffle a bit to to the right after "AR".

When you get past THAT you are right on top of a 3-4 foot short drop in a narrow slot with a squarish rock on the left to keep off of. I usually keep the brakes on until aluminum rock, look for the first wave below the slot and then switch to PUSH mode to slam through the narrow spot and be done with it. Not a big deal but I sure would not want to drop over that thing sideways in a DB...

Hope this helps.

I want to thank you all for your input. I will post some pictures if I can figure it out. We went left at Washout, Gary the guy that had ran it before several times always went right side before. It was a snap on the left side, of course I had printed out all the advice on this post.

Gordon was fun, the wind was not up yet.

Colorado had me puckered up a bit, just had to trust just right of the rollers past the Big Nasty.

Rattle Snake the hole was impressive, I just went left and pushed hard.

Did not hit a rock until Moody, this one the hydraulics did not concern me but boy there are a lot of rocks just subsurface. Probably ****** a guy on the left bank when I banged into a rock about 100 feet above him.

Saturday the 10th by the time we got to Moody the wind was pushing us up river, cold, glad I was on the oars for warmth.

We all lived to talk about it. The fishing was slow but all of us had one on, three were landed, all natives.

[Mad Mikey]

Did not hit a rock until Moody, this one the hydraulics did not concern me but boy there are a lot of rocks just subsurface. Probably ****** a guy on the left bank when I banged into a rock about 100 feet above him.


Hmmm, I'd be willing to bet that was at the very bottom end, last big boil, wave near the ledge where it's narrow? If you go through that you deffly will feel a bump. Just stay to the right of that and push straight towards the calm water.

Glad you had fun!

[Slow and Low]

sounds like knock knock to me. there are no rocks to hit in Moody just hydraulics that push you around.

[LunkerFish]

Lot of great info shared here from some solid oarsmen. When I ran this stretch for the first time last July the same info shared was invaluable. Surprisingly when we went the water was high.

I run a large cataraft so we were intentially hitting the big wave trains for fun. The look on my sons face when we dropped into Colorado and the big curl completely covered him was priceless.