Northwest Dive Club

Hey gang,
Just thought I would drop by a post up my latest river snorkeling video.
The record low temps have kept our local rivers full of run off and the kayakers are loving it.
Unfortunately these conditions are bad for skulking but my pal Matt and I traveled to the headwaters of the Wenatchee river in search of clear water high country swimming. Our trip was just under 5 miles and took us through rare stands of eastern washington old growth timber and past wildlife unacustomed to our presence. The water was moving very, very fast and we swam 5 miles in 90 minutes.
This river has streches of class V whitewater, but we chose the lower river below the rapids. This section has no real public access and finishes its course when it flows into Lake Wenatchee, so the takeout was based on a combination of map reading, a google earth image and dead reconing local landmarks. Bottom line: don't miss the takeout or you will be swimming at least a mile across the lake to hitchhike back to your car in a wetsuit!
River hazards were present in the form of huge log jams, strainer logs, fast water and shallow rapids but careful scouting and a pre swim plan to swim the consertave line kept things safe. Matt and swim together reguarly, so we have established safety protocols so we swim and communicate much like whitewater kayakers when swimming dodgy sections.
I know that this site is dedicated to diving, but if you are getting bored with it I reccomend you check out your local river!

Link to the video of the trip:
http://youtu.be/kH8ADw8PJqI

That's awesome!

I do wonder that you guys didn't have fins on. Not necessary with all the current?

riversnorkel wrote:Hey gang,
Just thought I would drop by a post up my latest river snorkeling video.
The record low temps have kept our local rivers full of run off and the kayakers are loving it.
Unfortunately these conditions are bad for skulking but my pal Matt and I traveled to the headwaters of the Wenatchee river in search of clear water high country swimming. Our trip was just under 5 miles and took us through rare stands of eastern washington old growth timber and past wildlife unacustomed to our presence. The water was moving very, very fast and we swam 5 miles in 90 minutes.
This river has streches of class V whitewater, but we chose the lower river below the rapids. This section has no real public access and finishes its course when it flows into Lake Wenatchee, so the takeout was based on a combination of map reading, a google earth image and dead reconing local landmarks. Bottom line: don't miss the takeout or you will be swimming at least a mile across the lake to hitchhike back to your car in a wetsuit!
River hazards were present in the form of huge log jams, strainer logs, fast water and shallow rapids but careful scouting and a pre swim plan to swim the consertave line kept things safe. Matt and swim together reguarly, so we have established safety protocols so we swim and communicate much like whitewater kayakers when swimming dodgy sections.
I know that this site is dedicated to diving, but if you are getting bored with it I reccomend you check out your local river!

Link to the video of the trip:
http://youtu.be/kH8ADw8PJqI

Personally I enjoy reading these. I would really like to see some video though. Maybe I might even try it, I have lots of rivers near me, one of which I usually float on top of with beerz and a tube. We have a big group that does this annually and I always bring a snorkel and mask so when laying on your stomach you can just plant your face in the water and watch the fishes swim by. At the deeper pools I tend to freedive down and grab things to hang on to (limbs and rocks). I have seen some creatures as well. I didnt know they had some of the intersting fish I have seen in the rivers. Pretty cool!

Wow, that is way cool... I bet if you had wetsuit gloves with webbing between the fingers it would make for great directional control... Looked like you were doing some serious flying along there!

Jim

sorry that seemed silly I meant to say MORE video...lol. also I wonder if like belly boarding fins would be a benefit?

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the kind words. I was wearing fins and also use webbed gloves from NRS. Great for digging deep in fast water.
I keep the vids as short as possible as attention spans are pretty short these days. Norris you may want to investigate the south fork of the Stilly up at the bottom of Canyon creek. The water was still pretty murky when I drove over the bridge the other day but it will get better as the summer rolls on. I'm working on a river specific instructional video next and it should be ready to go before summer wraps up. A little off topic, but the best water conditions are usually in september or october. Last october I swam 25 days with the migrating salmon.

Icicle creek drains the north slopes of the Enchantment range. We rode our mountain bikes up past the devistation caused by the 2008 landslide that diverted the river onto the road to an amazing drift that flowed over bedrock and through the trees.
This drift ended in a rapid that dead ended in a frightful log jam, but the swimming above was perfect, but quite cold. I forgot my fins so I had to swim without them, a real challenge. My swim buddy never uses them and I gained new respect for his swimming abilities!
I'm working in Alaska this month but will be swimming several of the creeks and rivers on the west side this august so if you want to come out and wash that salt water off your gear drop me a line here or over on the facebook river snorkeling page.
Enjoy, and thanks for watching.

SNORKELING THE ICICLE CREEK:
http://youtu.be/knmM-pl1Ex4

FB RIVER SNORKELING GROUP:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/River-Sno ... 2343334649