2016 Tieton River, Class II/III+
Tieton River, Class Ii/III+ - Rimrock, WA
Date: September 17-18, 2016
River: Tieton River, Class III+
Contact: David Elliott,
Trip information: This is a joint trip with OWA and WRRR, with a potluck Saturday night. Continuous Class II/III+ day run.
Description: The Tieton River is dam controlled, the Bureau of Reclamation opens the spillgates at Rimrock Dam and turns up the water volume to a September blast. At this time of the year this is the only rafting in Washington, so everybody's here - private boaters and commercial outfitters alike - which results in lots of river traffic and congestion at the put-in and take-out.
Running the Tieton will be fast and steep (45' per mile) without much chance to stop. 11 miles of continuous II+ - III whitewater (and paddling) all in less than 2 hours. There are very few eddies and there is a lo-head dam at the mid-point of the run that is generally runnable left-of-center. Below the dam is High Noon (or Pinball), a tough class III right maneuver, followed by Waffle Wall, a narrow chute above a concrete wall grid, that has 2 holes at the bottom that must be avoided!
Saturday WRRR camp to TIM's Pond (This is another 1-2 hours of running and recommended on Saturday's. Much better parking and less congestion.) http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/2250/Shuttle from the Main Camp area to Tim's pond @ 9:45 (Cars will line up on the 2nd access road starting at 9:40 and leave at 9:45)Lunch at Waffle Wall Eddy (Also good spot to set safety on Saturday)Back to camp.Sunday WRRRcamp to WINDY pointShuttle from the Main Camp at 10:15am (Cars will line up on the 2nd access road in dustbowlat 10:10 and leave at 10:15)Takeout at Windy point.