More sunny days on the Illinois! In what continues to be a great Illinois year, the weather, water, and people all came together for another great trip.

The first night we stayed at Pine Flat after launching from Miami Bar at a leisurely pace (3:30 pm). With so much daylight, we made it to Pine Flat with plenty of time to spare. The next day we floated below the waterfall camp and stayed on river left about 1.5 miles further downstream. A great camp with lots of firewood.

At the flows we saw, the hole at the bottom of Green Wall was practically nothing compared to what it has become at slightly higher flows. It was easily avoided to the right, which was a good thing because the left side would have required scraping over some nasty rocks that became exposed. Slightly higher water and the hole closes this line off and makes a left side run ideal.

This trip really started back on January 6th at 2AM at the Beau Club in Ashland, Oregon. Dan Thurber and I had just driven a heinous twelve hours straight from Hoover Dam, having completed a 24-day Grand Canyon trip. We arrived in Ashland tired, dirty, and looking like, well, we had just gotten off a 24-day trip without showering. On a greater level, I had set a new personal record: I had only worn three shirts the entire trip.

We pulled into the Beau Club with a truck full of river mank. A parking spot was in the front, so we had a good view of all our crap from the bar. It was at the bar that we ran into Alissa Sampson and Chris Conrad. Seeing us, they looked horrified but approached with caution. We had done some boating with them the previous year on the North Umpqua. When they asked where we’d been we gave the run-down. Someone mentioned something about “winter boating” and Conrad suggested that it would make a good story. So, I opened my big mouth and said, “Let’s do an Illinois February 22nd.” They said “yes” and I said “ok” and that was the plan. Turns out the water looked good and the people fell in place. We had the river and all was lovely again.

So, the trip…. Some of us stayed in Selma Thursday night and packed while the rest planned to meet at the Rogue River Journeys guide house at 8:30. Scott Fine brought a van and trailer down so we piled all of our stuff and bodies into it and took off around 9:30 AM Friday morning. We had with us: two avon adventurers (Will Volpert and Scott Rion), one Sotar (Scott Fine), one NRS cat (Pete Wallstrom), and three kayaks (Dan Thurber, Ryan Morgan, and Alan Douglas). In total, twelve people, maximum permit size.

Our first day gave no problems. At the flow we were dealing with, most everything is class III with maybe some IV- stuff thrown in. We stopped a lot for photos and video before finding ourselves at Pine Flat for the night. A few took turns running Pine Flat Rapid through the “Boat Eater” while the rest of us took in the beautiful canyon. The night cooled down quickly but a fog enveloped the canyon and prevented temperatures from dropping below freezing. We awoke in the morning to a light layer of fog and some clouds above and got on the water around 10:30ish after a relaxing breakfast.

We stopped above the pink rock beach (a.k.a. “Last Chance”) for lunch and to soak in some sun before hitting the lower gorge. Prelude was fun as always. Next was Green Wall, which at this level I was not expecting to be very large. Everyone caught the eddy just above the first drop and we set up for video and photos. I don’t think I’ve seen Green Wall at a nastier level for rafts. At high flows, the cheat on the left develops. At lower flows, the center slot is easy and the upper hole underdeveloped. At this flow, however, the cheat was closed off just barely for rafts and the hole looked stompy and sticky.

Scott Rion ran first and started the carnage off with a spectacular surf that lasted about two minutes. Leland Fulton, a bow paddler for Scott, got dumped out about half-way through the surf but made a great recovery by grabbing the back of the raft after popping up. Unfortunately for Leland, the raft spun so that he got to enjoy the fruits of the powerful hole all the while being pressed further against the ledge by the boat. Scott pulled him in fairly quickly, a nice rescue mid-surf, and shortly after they were able to muscle out of the hole.

Next up was Pete and he had a great line at the top but ended up a little sideways for the bottom hole. Flushed through fine, however. Scott Fine had the best line of the day at Green Wall. Nevertheless, he still ended up on the floor of his boat when the bottom hole slammed him hard. Last was me. Our photographers jumped in for some paddle-assist action and we pushed off. I thought to myself “let’s just be a little further right than ol’ Scotty Rion.” Well, we definitely ended up too far right and my method of correction failed miserably as the boat dropped perfectly sideways into the steepest part of the upper hole. We surfed for awhile. My left oar popped out so I had to get the spare. Reaching the spare while in the midst of a violent surf wasn’t going as badly as I would have thought… until my head got pinned between the other oar which was still in the lock and the frame of my boat. At this point I began thinking that being a little further left would have been a grand idea and probably well worth the effort. However, with a few twists of my head and an eager desire to free myself, I found the spare, unstuck my head, and was able to pull backwards out of the hole. And then we slammed into the bottom hole which was quite large and moved us to the right where we promptly got slapped by the massive wall. Certainly not what one would call a “clean run” at Green Wall. I could hear the circus music begin to play as I eddied out to fix my rig job and take a breather.

Pushing off, we got to Pimp-Slap (also referred to as “Little Green Wall” or “Big-Mac”). Both Scotts got Pimp-Slapped on the right wall at the bottom. Pete and I avoided the Pimp-Slap by moving left in front of the boulder. Everything else was fun. At this level, not continuous or fast, just fun read and run III+ish until Collier Creek. We camped at the waterfall place. I don’t know what it’s called, I’m sure someone has a name for it but I don’t care. It is at mile or so below Collier Creek Camp. No kegs on this trip, just material for White Russians, which Dan found a liking too and mixed up for people. The next day we were on the water at 10:00 and got to Oak Flat at 11:45. The shuttle took awhile back to Selma but gave us a chance to smell the river stank that echoed off each other’s clothing.

This trip report was written by John Meier.

Dave Hagmeier, Philip (my son) and I launched on the Illinois at 1330 Friday 1-18-08 Blue skies and good times down to Klondike Creek for a nippy, no campfire camp. I have no idea what the temperature was but by the time we crawled into the tents around 2000 any water droplets still on the boats had frozen solid.

This is the first time I’ve checked my boat in the morning to find it covered with frost, ice and a little soft due to the cold. Once we put them back in the water they warmed up and expanded back up to pressure. Dave heated some hot water in the morning so I could have a mug of tea. I passed on the tea and put the hot water in my frozen solid river boots. Ahhhhh…..there’s nothing like the smell of steaming river boots in the morning. Oregon river camping in January at it’s finest.

The Green Wall………Yep, it’s still there but according to Dave the “Illinois King” the hole at the bottom has changed. At 1400cfs the hole was deeper, meaner. and a lot nastier than he’s ever seen it. In my book that’s saying a lot since he let it slip to Philip that this run was probably his 40th trip down. Dave ran it first and powered through the hole with a right to left move. I ran it second but wasn’t quite as graceful as Dave. I almost made it out the downriver side of the hole but it grabbed me and sucked me back in. It was the sweetest and deepest auto surf I’ve ever experienced. When I hit the bottom it spun me sideways and spit me back out right into the protruding edge at the bottom of the Green wall. I gracefully fell back into the boat after bouncing on the left tube and eddied out.

Philip ran it next. He had a flawless run through the technical left line at the top. When he hit the hole at the bottom it jerked his right oar out of his hand and spit him sideways into the wall where he promptly did a right tube over the left, side flip. Using the skills he acquired when he earned the nickname Flip back in his IK days he quickly swam back to his upside down cat, got it into an eddy with a little help from Dave and got it re-flipped. No carnage, no yardsale items floating, just a quick flip, swim, re-flip, a few laughs and we were back on the river.

A word to the wise. If you run the Illinois you may want to hike down a little past the normal scout rock and check out the hole at the bottom. I took a picture of Philip as he was lining up for his flip. He was at the bottom of the hole and all you can see in the picture of him and his 12.5′ X 22.5″ Sotar cat is the very tip of his black helmet. No kidding, he is completely gone in the picture except for the top of his helmet. The hole
completely swallowed him, cat and all.

The weather was excellent. Blue skies and no wind. The temps could have been a little higher but I’m not complaining. Two out of three ain’t bad for January boating.

Good times were had by all.

John Meier
Washougal, Wa

Ran a 2-day trip on the Illinois this last weekend. Launched on Saturday morning after a cold night, got off the river sunday around 12ish. Beautiful weather, easy but fun flows, and lots of wildlife. The scoreboard: one bear, three otters, one bald eagle… There were three of us in two rafts. HAD A BLAST. The flow was around 1300 at Kerby when we launched, which seems to be a super mellow boogie-water flow. Nothing much to really look out for. Stopped to look at Green Wall and then we were on our way again. Didn’t catch up with the 3 and 4 dayers until we were below Submarine Hole. No trouble finding a camp for three people.

This trip report was written by Alan Jones. The river peaked at just over 1400 on this trip.

Our much anticipated Illinois trip finally arrived. Five of us met at the Timber Tavern about 6 miles NE of Selma for a little dinner and drinks. Kate, our waitress was a real hoot, the beer cold and the food surprisingly good. It made for a great start for the trip. With rain in the forecast, we decided to spend the night at the new Forest Service covered shelters located about 6 miles up the Illinois River Road. The other 5 that formed our group joined us there after dark. It was a good call as it dumped all night.

We had our first rescue of the trip before we made it to Miami Bar. It seems that three of our out of state boaters (who will remain nameless) in two vehicles decided to take the greasy, slimy, steep road at mile 9 thinking it was the way to the put-in! They didn’t get too far before realizing the error of their ways. The 4-wheel drive with the trailer was able to back up just fine, but not the van. Seems the clay was a tad bit to slippery for him to negotiate the grade without the possibility of plunging off the road and down a very steep cliff to the river! A tow from the 4-wheel drive was in order.

We unloaded four cats and six kayaks at Miami Bar and finished rigging. Just prior to departing another group from Ashland showed up. This was our only encounter with other humans until the take-out at Oak Flat on Sunday.It rained off and on (mostly on) all day Saturday. But, the river is so spectacular it doesn’t matter. Once past Panther Creek the rapid frequency and intensity build. The drops on the Illinois are truly amazing. Steep, frothy drops with large boulders that require precise maneuvering to avoid. Our crew, who are all very experienced boaters enjoyed every minute of every rapid.

We had four Illinois virgins on the trip, three cat boaters and one kayaker. And it was my first time rowing a cat. I just picked up a SOTAR from Ted and Ron at Payette. A couple of the people on the trip were amazed I’d take my first strokes on a new boat, let alone a new type of boat on a river like the Illinois, but as an eternal optimist I figured that if I was proficient at rowing a heavily load 16′ Avon, rowing a lightly loaded 14′ cat would be a piece of cake! It was. I must be one of the last round boat hold-outs. I’ve been running Avon’s for 25 years and never considered or recommended a cat to anyone. I was truly amazed at the easy of maneuvering and nimbleness of the cat. Plus I really liked the forward rowing placement. Being a kayaker also, it was great to be in a position to actually drop down in the holes.

The entire group made clean runs at all the rapids on day 1. I even put the SOTAR smack dab in the middle of the Boat Eater. My first experience at surfing a cat (not deliberate), also my first experience with using pins and clips and the ability to let go of the oars and jump to the high side knowing the oars would still be usable when I got out of the hole! Worked great!We camped at South Bend and had a great spaghetti dinner. The weather cleared about dark, and by midnight the sky was white with stars.

Sunday dawned clear and beautiful. After a brief breakfast, packing and rigging, we were on the river by 9:30. One mile until the Green Wall. All the cats ran left at Prelude with one of the Kayakers volunteering to hike up for the traditional photo shoot from behind as you make the drop. Steve, one of the kayakers liked Prelude so much he did it twice. We all ran the upper section of the Green Wall and eddied out behind the big boulders just above the Wall.

After a brief scout, one of the kayaks ran first, took the left sneak at the top and then set up the photo shoot. Greg, in his 12′ cat went next. He had a text book run, except the big hole at the bottom caught him by surprise, no carnage. I ran next. Not exactly a text book run by any means. I was setting up for the first drop between rock # 2 (which was completely covered) and rock # 3 and miss read the cross current on top. I caught rock #3 with the tip of the left tube and got spun left. By the time I’d straightened up I missed the next slot also and was trying to take the kayak sneak on the far left with a loaded cat. Not a good choice. After lots of tugging and lifting, we got the cat through the rocks into a vicious little eddy with no good exit in sight. I had one chance to get out if we could get a rope upstream and out by the entrance rocks on the left. After numerous struggles we managed to get the cat facing the wall and far enough from the rocks to give me a chance to let go of the line and make the ferry of my life to avoid the ugly strainers below. Few, I was lucky enough to make the ferry and finished the run in good form.

A couple of the kayaks came through. They were all such solid boaters that the Green Wall presented little challenge to them. Tom in his cat came next. He managed to crab an oar on the top drop, got spun sideways over the drop, but recovered nicely. He just didn’t have enough speed to clear the big hole at the bottom. It was hungry and decided to keep him. Tom valiantly fought his way out of the hole, but was surfed too far to the right to miss the wall. He had a beautiful slow motion flip against the wall. Arthur made a text book rescue line toss and Tom was brought to safety next to my cat. Greg took off after Tom’s boat which was secure in the eddy below and on the right. Between Tom’s run and mine I don’t think we lowered Jeanne’s anxiety level much. She was the last cat to run, and run she did. Made us boys look really bad. A perfect run. The last of the kayaks came through with Arthur being last. I have to say I wish I was as proficient a kayaker as Art. It’s not everyone who does intentional tail stands in every hole going through the Green Wall! It’s amazing how much less foreboding the Green Wall looks when it is sunny and beautiful out.

The next four miles are some of my favorite. We finished the day out soaking up the scenery and the remaining rapids enjoying the sun. Sunday was Steve’s 32nd birthday. What a great way to spend your birthday. The flow when we put in was 1,200 cfs. It had risen to 1,360 by the time we took off Saturday afternoon and was 1,400 when we ran the Wall. It was my first time at this flow and I have to say I don’t think you could get a better level to run it than this.The Illinois is truly a gem. Fantastic rapids, lots of them, and a total wilderness. It still amazes me you can have a river this spectacular, and have it to yourself. I couldn’t have asked for a better crew to boat with. Hats off to all of you, and thanks for your help in my little section of the Green Wall!