Boeing Employees Whitewater & Touring Club - BEWET

One more month!

2010-08-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

I shed a tear yesterday. Out on a bike ride, I spotted the first tree that was starting to change color.

But that doesn't mean we are at the end of the rafting season! There are three scheduled trips left: A Labor Day trip back to the incredible Thompson, and two weekends on the Tieton on 9/11-12 and 9/18-19. The Tieton is really cool because it's a dam-release river, so the water is slightly warmer than other Washington rivers from baking in Rimrock Lake all summer. Dropping nearly 50 feet per mile, it's fast, continuous fun and one of my favorite rivers as a passenger. (But if you want the warmest water, the Thompson was a lovely 65 degrees.)

Then to wrap up the season, join us for the BEWET BBQ, on the afternoon of Saturday, September 25 at Lake Sammamish State Park. Please RSVP ASAP so we can plan food and fun accordingly. (And actually, we'd even like you to let us know if you can't make it, so we know you won't be a last minute RSVP. Please and thank you!) The deadline for registering is Friday, September 17. Come share the rafting stories and see what everyone looks like without wet hair! :)

Hope to see you on the river and at the BBQ!
- Melissa

Guest blogger: Stephan's flip on the Thompson

2010-08-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

Guest Blogger Name: Stephan Selase Avorkliya
School: Rochester Institute of Technology
Job: Intern- Student Engineer (payloads, interiors, insulation systems)
Rafting trips: 2

The river started really calm. We were just talking and only had a few "all forwards" from time to time. Our guide Gary told us what we had ahead of us - a class 3 and then a class 4 rapid. At this point we were still 10 or 15 minutes from the class 3. I had no clue how far away the first one was nor how close the class 4 was from the class 3.

As we approached the class 3 rapid, Gary pointed it out to us and we tried to figure out why it was named Frog. We made it through Frog with the only problem being the screaming from the girls in the raft. We were all pretty excited and took our focus off the river to discuss our most recent accomplishment. As far as I knew and could tell all we had immediately ahead of use were some big waves and probably more easy rapids for a few minutes. I just assumed there has to be a calm before the storm that is the class 4.

We approached the big waves still saturated in pride and excitement from Frog. The waves were big enough that I did paddle air a couple times. We went up and down and up and... flipped! We just flipped and I had/have no Idea what happened between the time that I was paddling and the time I realized I was under the flipped raft. For the next five minutes my thoughts were not what they should have been if I had known that the class 4 was just a few hundred feet away.

The first thing I remember going through my mind when we flipped is "OMG did we really just flip? So this is what it’s like to be under a raft." After that second or two of being amazed, I figured it would probably be a good Idea to get out from under the boat and get some air. I can't say that I was calm and relaxed the whole time, but I certainly wasn't panicked or even scared really. When I got to the outside of the raft I grab the nose handle at the front of the raft and looked around. I could see Ashley, Kat, and the guide’s fiancé holding on the side of the raft. Alex was floating away about 15ft from the raft, and Will (Ashley's friend from home) was just a hand’s reach away from the raft trying to get back. I reached out and pulled him towards the raft. At this time I realized the current was trying to take my shorts from me, so I looked over to Ashley and said "I think I need to re-tie my shorts, they’re about to float away!"

By this time Gary was on top of the flipped raft and about to try and flip it back. He handed me his guide paddle and started doing his thing. By the time I secured his paddle and my paddle with my free hand, everyone was being pulled in other rafts. I could hear the screams from the other boats and Gary, but I wasn't in the position to easily make to one of those rafts. After the second attempt, Gary was about to flip the raft back over and we both started to try to get back in the raft. I was in no major hurry, because I still didn't know that a huge rock in the middle of the river had plans for us. Gary, however seemed to be in a hurry (not a panic but urgent), but I figured it was just because we just flipped. Once we both got in, we both got locked in in the middle of the raft, paddled twice and then Gary just told me to hold on and stay in the raft!. By now I knew this was the big one.

We both made it through the rapid in the boat and started trying to get out of the main current to pull off to the side. This is where the strength people assume I possess was put to the test. We tried and failed to get out of the flow for about 10 minutes. In this time I also managed to fall out again. At some point Alex was transferred to our boat and Gary went back to the guide position. A few minutes later another raft told us that our 5 gallon bucket (brought along for water fights) was in the water working against us; it was an anchor! Alex went up and pulled it out, and we both just paddled as hard as we could until we were able to make it out of the current and parked by the rock people jump off. This is where we had lunch.

The rest of the trip was as planned, but we did do a better job as paddling over waves. Overall I think it was a good experience. I can now say that I've had the full rafting experience. I even got to go with two people without paying extra. I would go again if I had the chance, but my summer will be over in less than a week, and I'll be headed back to school. I think it’s an event that bring people closer, and gave me a good story the Monday after.

Swiftwater Rescue Training

2010-08-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

The guides of BEWET take passenger safety very seriously. We are acutely aware that the folks in the boats are our members, their families, and friends.

With that in mind, this year's guide trainees and any existing guides that want a refresher will be heading off this fall for a extended weekend swiftwater rescue training class. The SRT class will help us deal with life-threatening situations in a manner which minimizes danger to our own lives, and enable rescuers to assess and respond to emergencies quickly and professionally.

We'll learn:

Rescuer safety training and equipment
Swiftwater dynamics and hazards
Medical problems and considerations
Cold water near drowning.
Swiftwater safety and signals
Swimming safely in rapids with control
Floods and shallow water crossings, controlled log swim, combat swims, foot entrapment, and live bait
Introductions to ropes, knots, and technical gear
Mechanical advantage rope systems, two and four point boat tether systems
Cervical immobilization
Boat handling and boogie boards
Dealing with family and bystanders
Cross river communications
Tension diagonals and line crossings
Boat wrapping
Team organization and pre-planning
Highline on boat on tether, debriefing, and critique

For pictures of BEWET members doing the rescue training back in 1997, see this link.

A big thank you to Nate, Bill, Phill, Eric, and Mike for their help and advice in getting the class set up!

June Wenatchee Trips

2010-07-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

Wenatchee (WA): 17 miles, Class III-III+, 6670-10100 CFS

The Wenatchee is THE river to be on in Washington during the month of June. Only a few hours from Seattle and nice big water waves. The club had trips on three of the weekends; I made it to two of them (stupid work trips getting in the way of my fun...!). The first weekend was for REACH (that's the one I missed), second for any club members, and third sponsored by SPEEA.

Noteworthy stories from these weekends:

One of the days, the guide trainee boat with Aaron, Josh, and Vinny was attempted to surf rodeo hole, and had water pouring in the nose of the boat such that it actually pushed the nose back and the back end up (as in straight up!). Yep, the boat completely stood up then managed to spin around without flipping. Would have been fun to be in the boat, but I do have to say that it was almost as much fun watching this happen!

On another day, the guide trainee boat decided (with his buy-in) that we'd try to "launch" Levi from the guide position as we went over Drunkards rapid. We didn't quite have enough speed, went only mostly up the Drunkards wall wave, slid back down, got speed again, slid back down again, and then unfortunately went sideways and flipped. Yay for everyone swimming the rest of the rapid! :) We clawed our ways out of the water on to the flipped raft. This was when I realized that the bottom of the raft is exactly like a slip and slide... we weren't quite finished in the rapid and had a wave take 2.5 of us off (I say 2.5, because I was mostly off, but managed to Go-Go-Gadget-Arm and grab a hold of Vinny's foot at the last minute... nyet nyet nyet!)

So then Vinny and I helped Levi and Vijay back on top of the raft. In our pool session, we had each taken a turn flipping a raft back over, so I knew we could all do it... but I wasn't entirely certain whether there was anything you do differently when there's several of you there to turn it over. I asked Vinny, who said to paddle over to one of the other boats, so we did... he then jumped over on to their boat, and wished us luck! HA! Alright... hmmm... Levi and I grabbed on to the flip line and started tugging... but we neglected to clue Vijay in on this plan... so when the boat flipped, it sent him sailing! (yes, sailing while rafting, I'm so punny)

On the last Sunday, we had virtually no "excitement" until the last rapid, when somehow Nate in the oar boat with his girlfriend Tracy, the cooler, and the deflated inflatable kayak, managed to flip over. Tracy was an absolutely trooper... she just floated down the rapid, grinning ear to ear... however, Nate had to do some real grunting to get that heavy oar boat turned over. We are still mourning the loss of the sombrero he was wearing. It was sacrificed to the river.

In my opinion, the best thing about the Wenatchee is the place we camp. It's a private residence's field that's surrounded on three sides by Icicle Creek. We launch directly from the campsite and float down to the Wenatchee River. The field is big enough that everyone can stretch out and put their tents where you don't hear anyone else snoring. Plus we can set up volleyball, which actually was my favorite part about the weekends. I'm generally afraid of things flying at my face, but volleyball was quite fun, probably because I feel somewhat competent as a server, and can at least make everyone laugh for the rest of the time.

Future posts, I should have some pictures and even movies to include, with my new waterproof camera. Woot!

- Melissa

A Guide Trainee’s Point of View

2010-05-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hello Bewet Blog Readers! My name’s Melissa, and I’m a new guide trainee with Bewet. Given that, I’m going to share a different perspective; perhaps using wrong terminology, commenting on things that more experienced guides would say “Duh!” to, or otherwise relaying exciting or embarrassing stories as they come up. But that’s the danger of them giving me posting rights!

Here’s a recap of the 70 or so river miles that I’ve logged so far this season:

Pool Session (WA): 0 miles, Class I, 0 CFS
My first official club event was the Pool Training session. (Okay, so it's not a river.) This is for both guide hopefuls such as me and those that just want to be “informed passengers”. We learned the basics of paddling, self-rescue (where you haul yourself in the raft from the water), how to right an upside-down raft using a “flip line”, and just a smidgen of kayak paddling. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon in March, and I’d highly recommend going to next year’s session. I also met a few dozen people whose names and faces quickly blurred together.

Now, on to the rivers:

Clackamas (OR): 13 miles, Class IV, 2090 CFS
My first club trip was a Sunday on the Clackamas river. I got to the put-in about ten minutes before everyone else (which made me nervous I was at the wrong spot, and it’s not like I could call anyone because we were about 15 miles out of cell phone range). Most of the crew went straight to inflating and rigging the boats, and I tried to watch, help occasionally when I could without getting in the way, and just learn all I can. Although this was about a month ago now, I remember feeling like I would never remember all the details – what way to loop the straps, which knots to use when, what equipment is required for which type of craft – so complicated it all seemed!

At the start, one of the more experienced guides was behind the stick, but eventually he gave me and Vijay (another new trainee) chances. We didn’t do any crazy rapids, but it was good to just feel what it was like to guide. Vijay and I also purposely swam down a rapid just to feel what it was like. Given that I pretty much grew up in a swimming pool, and voluntarily swam the “Roadside” section of the Tieton a couple times last year, this was no big deal to me, but it was fun seeing it through Vijay’s eyes. Let’s just say his eyes were a little… bigger.

Fortunately, for this trip, one of the fellow guides was able to borrow a dry suit on my behalf from another unknown-to-me guide, so I stayed dry and toasty warm. Given that these suits can cost upwards of a grand, I’m very appreciative of the unknown benefactor.

Cispus (WA), 8 miles, Class IV, 1400 CFS
The Cispus river was my first time camping. (Okay, I had been twice before in recent years, but this was the first time where I was really responsible for my gear, packing, food, etc.) I didn’t own any camping gear, so I harnessed the power of Facebook to humbly ask to borrow some, and immediately had several offers from friends. (I’m a big fan of borrowing/loaning where possible – there’s so much gear sitting in people’s closets on any given weekend, and as long as you treat it gently, it’s not like it necessarily incurs any significant wear, plus it saves money and reduces eventual landfill J.) I was really surprised: between a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, extra blanket, food stuff, water and beverages, rafting clothing, etc., I pretty much filled my little Corolla’s entire trunk. And that was just me!

Upon arriving at the Bewet camping site, which wasn’t much more than a pull-off from the road (very primitive, no running water or any other services), I was greeted by Bewet President Mike Berlin. I may have met him at the pool session, but like I mentioned before, there were so many new faces there that they all blurred together. I got my choice of camping sites and made myself busy getting the tent and everything set up. It was a fairly wet and cold weekend. If nothing else, it made every camping experience since then seem like a Hilton! Folks trickled in over the course of the Friday night, and by the end of the weekend, I felt like I was camping with about seven older brothers. Good times. If you get a chance, I highly recommend trying Kevin’s pork roast on the BBQ. It was absolutely delish (and given that I’m from Iowa, I have high standards!).

Here are some of the fun stories from the Cispus river:

Fellow new guide trainee Erik fell out of the raft in relatively calm waters and lost a shoe. I’m pretty sure he’s gotten a lot better at locking his legs and feet in, and if not, hopefully he at least ties his shoelaces tighter!
Mike, Erik, and I were in one of the bigger boats and managed to get it stuck in a hole. This means that the raft was rotating 90 degrees sideways on the river, and water was flowing over the upstream side such that it was pinned there. Here’s where my newbieness will show through. At first, I remember being quite scared (or was it scarred?) that the raft was going to flip, and quite frankly, although I can swim, I prefer not to unless it’s at a time of my choosing. The force of the water pushing down the raft on one side is kinda intimidating. But after a few minutes, Erik and I could see that the raft was relatively stable in that position. Oh, and for the record, there were three other Bewet guys on the cat rafts just milling around in the eddy below us, so even if we flipped, they’d be there to scoop us out. As Mike, Erik, and I started trying to unstick the boat, they got to laugh at us and take pictures. I’m sure the pictures show Erik and I being really wide-eyed about the whole experience, but I later found out that Mike and the other guides quickly assessed that the consequences of this were rather low, and they actually left us in the hole to gain the experience. Eventually, Mike, Erik and I were all piled on the downstream “high” tube, trying to lean over, bounce up and down, even hung off of it with our feet in the water hoping the current would help yank us free. This is where I ended up going for an unwanted (but somewhat anticipated?) swim, as I didn’t have the upper body strength to hold on for long. I need to work on that.
The other somewhat adrenaline-producing moment was when Erik was guiding (although it may not have been his fault – this was a fairly large raft to have only two paddlers in, and Mike and I had to work our butts off to move it… and remember my comment above about needing to work on upper body strength?). There was a tree going at an angle in to the water and we didn’t get the raft backed away from it in time. We hit it sideways, and I first I just thought we were going to be pinned, but then the current dipped us down just enough to pull underneath with the trunk grazing the top of the raft. Mike’s side was the first to go under, and he was able to drop in on to the floor of the boat. I left my legs anchored in the raft but did a complete limbo down in to the water with my upper half (yay for Vinny’s dry top that I had borrowed!). Erik did mostly the same thing, but since he was in the back, he was a little higher and got tapped on the helmet by it. That was enough to make me try extra hard to steer clear of the logs – we lucked out that there was a clear passage under it, but it just as easily could have been a bunch of branches under like a strainer.

This trip, I tried to piece together my own rafting clothing. I wore neoprene shorts, fleece pants, splash pants, neoprene socks over wool socks, sandals, and borrowed a splash jacket from Vinny. Result: really, really cold feet. And it was a pain trying to dry the socks and fleece by the fire to wear for Sunday (although it was cool to watch the steam coming off them!). This is when I resolved to myself that I would have two days of base layers, and the future dry suit would definitely have Gore-Tex or latex socks and not just latex seals with separate footwear.. but learning this stuff is part of the process, right?

Klickitat, 18 miles, Class III, 1840 CFS
This weekend was supposed to be one day on the Klickitat and one on the White Salmon, but due to low river level, we did both days on the Klickitat. After the previous rivers, this one seemed fairly tame, but it was a good one to practice guiding techniques like “parking” in an eddy and keeping your passengers “entertained” by singing “Don’t Stop Believing” to them until they cry for mercy.

Commercial outfitters have an advantage that they run the same river or just a few rivers over and over, which means they know them well. And by know them well, we mean they can memorize them. Bewet runs a huge variety of rivers, so our guides actually learn how to look ahead, read the river, scout when needed, etc. I think that’s darn cool.

So with that in mind... a couple Bewet guides had ran in to a few commercial guides at breakfast, and although we were worried about all the logs we had heard about, they said that the logs had been mostly cleaned out. They did offer the advice to “just stay to the right and you’ll be fine” which by the end of the weekend, we decided was completely bunk. There were times when the left or center channels of the river were just as good or better.

As far as the camping goes, this time just seemed like a dream. It was DRY, and a little bit warmer. (At least for me – fellow trainee Josh had managed to forget his sleeping bag, but thankfully we had El Tigre blanket there as a spare for the first night, and another guide Evan joining the group on Saturday brought him a spare sleeping bag.) It felt really luxurious having bathroom facilities (although I totally have the peeing in the woods thing down… for me, leaning way back with an arm bracing against a tree is an improvement over just squatting, and I highly recommend tucking the T.P. roll down inside your fleece. It stays drier and cleaner than if you put it on the ground or a log. But I digress.) We also went in to town to the restaurant at a little B&B, because after 18 miles on the river, we were hungry and tired. In theory, this was supposed to be faster than grilling ourselves… but we forgot it was a small town restaurant, and they don’t exactly move super-fast. However, they did have a Beatles cover band to entertain us while we waited, so really, what more could you want in life?

Meeting new peeps has been the best part of my Bewet experience so far! I had tons of fun riding down with another trainee on a sunny day in his awesome Jeep with the top panels removed. We gabbed the whole way. I learned quite a bit about the diamond business, for instance... and just where would I have gotten that experience if it weren't for Bewet? Then I rode back with another guide who I had gone through MBA school with, so again great conversation!

Next Post: Really kicking off the rafting season on the Methow, with passengers!

Want to learn more about rafting with Bewet? Check out our site at www.bewet.org. The schedule of upcoming trips is here - the Wenatchee in June will be good fun!

June '07 Wenatchee Trips

2007-06-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

BEWETer's

If you haven't found them yet "SnowDragon" takes photos on the Wenatchee!

9/16-17 Tieton Photos

2006-09-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

BEWETers,

For those of you who were on the Tieton the past weekend, photos are available for viewing (or purchase) at:
TIETON RIVER 9-16-06 BEWET09/16/2006
TIETON RIVER 9-17-06 BEWET09/17/2006

Tieton Photos 9/9,10

2006-09-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

BEWETers,

For those of you who were on the Tieton the past weekend, photos are available for viewing (or purchase) at:
TIETON RIVER 9-9-06 BEWET09/09/2006
TIETON RIVER 9-10-06 BEWET 09/10/2006

Rafting, Wenatchee River, June 24, 25, 2006

2006-07-14T19:10:00.000-07:00

Rafting, Wenatchee River, June 24, 25, 2006

1 of 10: Kara Ahlers & her brother, \Rafting, Wenatchee River, June 24, 2006\25230008.JPG

2 of 10: Rick Trenchick & his crew\Rafting, Wenatchee River, June 24, 2006\25230007.JPG

3 of 10: \Rafting, Wenatchee River, June 24, 2006\25230006.JPG

4 of 10: Thomas Lee & his daughters, along with Murat Saylik & Nathan Confer\Rafting, Wenatchee River, June 24, 2006\25230005.JPG

5 of 10: Campfire at Icicle Creek campsite, June 24, 2006\IMG_0229.JPG

6 of 10: Josh Burch at campfire at Icicle Creek campsite, June 24, 2006\IMG_0230.JPG

7 of 10: Rick Gimlin at campfire at Icicle Creek campsite, June 24, 2006\IMG_0232.JPG

8 of 10: Water war on the Wenatchee River, June 25, 2006\25230004.JPG

9 of 10: Water war on the Wenatchee River, June 25, 2006\25230003.JPG

10 of 10: Water war on the Wenatchee River, June 25, 2006\25230002.JPG

Pictures taken by Bucky Walter

TRIP REPORT: WENATCHEE JUNE 3rd & 4th

2006-06-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

With river flows at 13,000 cfs, Saturday June 3rd and Sunday June 4th were both exceptional days on the Wenatchee River. The joint BEWET/REACH trip was a huge success with 67 people (12 boats) rafting on Saturday and 27 people (6 boats) on Sunday. Many of these people were first time rafters and a lot of new interest in the club was generated. Thanks to all the guides who came out and supported this weekend – it wouldn’t have been possible without your help. With everyone’s effort, we generated $2400 for the club this weekend!!! A big thanks to Phil Fisher and Jeff Cline for all of their input and help (even when I didn’t ask for itJ) – they made the organizational portion of this trip very easy for me. A personal thanks to Kevin Held and Vinny Spencer for their exceptional tutorship on the river; Kevin for his continuing efforts to teach all of us new, “wet behind the ears,” guide trainees, and Vinny for not letting me kill myself on Sunday. I learned an enormous amount this weekend. Finally, thanks to everyone for coming out! SEE YOU ON THE RIVER!!! ~Rick

Skykomish River 11-Jun-06

2006-06-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

Skykomish 6/11 photos even though they were mislabelled as being on the Wenatchee.

Why a BEWET Blog?

2006-06-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

The BEWET newsletter Currents&Tides over the last few years, has languished because members haven't taken the time to submit much in the way of trip reports or pictures.

The blog approach will allow members to post whatever they feel is appropriate in a more spontaneous manner.

This Blog is NOT replacing the YahooGroups mailing list.

Comments on this approach and other suggestions are welcome.

What can you do with a Blog?

You can add comments to an existing blog.
If you already have a blog with photos and/or text, add the link to your blog.
If you want your own blog, get the username and link from http://www.blogger.com/ (note all blogging requires a username)
If you want to publish directly to this blog, I can add your Username as a Team Member
Did I mention it's all free?????

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