Virginia Outdoor Center should be applauded for their patience, common sense and white water safety first attitude. They should be rewarded for their attention to public safety and their willingness to "Just Say No" to those who are hankering to get out on the high water and are no doubt needling them to break their own good sense.
High, cold, flooding rivers are not to be taken lightly. Only the best-equipped professionals or professional paddlers should contemplate heading out in those types of conditions. News reports are coming in from various parts of the country where novice boaters are risking their lives --- and the lives of rescuers --- by venturing out onto swollen rivers that are beyond their capabilities.
VOC's reward should be an even more loyal customer base. http://orionexp.com
Rivers are cold in the state of Washington. Gushing down the slopes of the North Cascade mountain range, westbound toward the Salish Sea and eastbound toward the Columbia, Washington rivers are the result of melting snowfields, diminishing glaciers, brisk Pacific Northwest rainfall and subterranean cold water springs. Meanwhile the Skagit River has all of those factors plus it is water spilled through turbines released from the depths of a very deep and very cold Ross Lake. For those specific reasons, it is not unusual to be wearing neoprene throughout the white water season in the grey and mossy Pacific Northwest. Even on the Skagit in August. And when the river is running high in the spring from snow melt, not only is the temperature of the water frigid (prolonged exposure to 70 degree water induces hypothermia - as I can attest to on a pleasant afternoon without a splash jacket on the Pucon River in Chile) it is moving rather fast. 'Swimmers', as we call persons over...
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