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Showing posts from May, 2010

Memories of St. Helens --- Thirty Years Later

Like Mike M, I was on the Wenatchee River the day St. Helens unleashed a cloud of ash that blanketed much of the western half of Washington. Orion River Rafting http://orionexp.com was busy with two large commercial rafting trips headed down the river. In the morning, as we were prepping rafts at our launch site off U.S. 2, we heard what we assumed was a detonation by a highway crew doing road work, or avalanche control, or a peal of thunder from high in the Stuart Range. The day was cloudless, sunny and warm, and with everything else going on, we thought nothing of the one-shot rumble. I led the first wave of rafts because I was scheduled to appear on a KIRO radio show that evening in Seattle and needed to get off the river as early as possible. As the rafts approached our take-out in Cashmere, I recall noting thunderclouds massing to the east and seemingly headed up the Valley. I remember thinking how odd that weather was approaching us from the east. I also remember thinking ho

Orion River Rafting's Guide's Backeddy

END-OF-GUIDE-TRAINING PARTY Chumstick Country Club the evening of May 15th. Group Dinner planned. Slideshow from stand-in photographers --- hopefully. Keg. Non-Guidelings (aka Orion Guides) please contact the office if you are planning on attending. THE MORE THINGS CHANGE... Many launch times will be later this season in order to cater to the Seattle metropolitan crowd that party's hardy on Friday night and wants to dodge the traffic headed east out of town. What does that mean to you --- our fearful guides? Well, our Noon and 1pm Meeting Times on the Wenatchee do NOT include a meal which means you will need to eat a humongous breakfast or come prepared with a carbohydrate rich snack to get you through to 6pm. FEAST OR FAMINE You might have heard that I gave away the farm to this Groupon thing. Maybe so, but the Good News to you is that we are bursting at the seams with guide days on the Wenatchee and some of it is spilling over onto other rivers. Starting after th