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Choosing
to run around the left of the island will lead you down into a rapid
called Iron Ring, so named for the heavy iron ring set into the rock on the
right hand shore. This rapid, which at higher levels can form an extremely
dangerous keeper hole, is at summer lows a short drop into a trashy-looking
hole, followed by a chunky series of standing waves with eddies on either side.
Note - do not try to grab the eddy on the right, beside the hole. This is the
infamous "Room of Doom" - it's a keeper eddy of sorts, where the eddy
fence is
high and difficult to break through and the rock walls which encircle the eddy
on all three sides are completely vertical. A boater isn't likely to paddle
out,
and a swimmer will not be able to get out without a rope from shore. Instead,
there is a deep, boily eddy on the right past the meat of the wavetrain where
some large and unpredictable whirlpools form periodically and offer decent
downtime to the squirtist who is willing to wait and explore.
Shortly below, the river swings left into what could be considered the "second
half" of Iron Ring, a winding class two rapid known as S-Bend. By staying
left,
you will come to a small hole on the outside of the bend which is an excellent
blasting spot and has a seam extending downstream on the midstream side which
offers easy, quality downtime. It is accessed either by dropping into the hole,
subbing out and slipping into the seam as you pass under the pile, or by
augering down into it the more traditional way just behind the foam pile. Beyond
the bottom of S-Bend, there is a short section of class-one swifts until one
reaches the lip of the next drop - Butterfly.
Butterfly is a short, multi-channel rapid that is run down the left-most
chute.
The water forms an almost tube-shaped breaking wave/hole that is eminently
surfable but shallow to one side. One runs by riding a very narrow ridge of
green water down the right side of the chute and into the wave train beyond.
The
right side of the train has an eddyline which offers some good cartwheel
potential but has some ill-placed rocks at the bottom which can bring an
energetic paddler to a boat-breaking halt. Play tentatively here.
The two routes come together again at the bottom of Butterfly, and feed into
a
very long, wide pool (lake?) above the river-wide waterfall called Garvin's
Chute. This
is not a rapid to attempt in a squirt boat, though folks in surface boats
have
run all four routes down it. The prudent squirtist will take the route to
the
left of river left, and carry along a wooded trail down to the rocks at the
bottom - a good place to grab a snack, allow circulation back into cramped
feet,
marvel at the sheer enormity of the spot and contemplate the next set of rapids. |
