The three of us got on the Farmlands at a higher flow around 6pm.  This was a bit late to be putting on, but it all worked out okay and we were off before 8pm.  The river is a ton of fun at this level, but is very fast and continuous.  There aren’t many technical moves on it like there are at lower flows, but it is more powerful and will get your adreneline going for sure.

The first rapid, Sidewinder, is much easier and less consequential.  The undercut on the left isn’t even a problem and there isn’t really a hole at the top that will stop you.  Dan ran so far to the right that he got spun around and ran the top backwards after crashing into the wall across from the mushroom rock that is exposed at lower water.

Below this there are a number of fun rapids as it gorges up and goes into the canyon.  There are lots of big holes and big waves, but they are almost all run right down the middle.  The one exception to this is the ledge where there is a log on the left side.  On this rapid you want to boof hard center left.  Both Dan and I got sucked back into this one and I took a pretty good working here.

There are a number of rapids below this that have narrow chutes with powerful hydraulics and whitewater.  In general, running to the right was better than the left.  Running at the higher flow makes it nearly impossible to scout things and made it pretty continuous.  It would also be hard to portage any of the rapids down in the canyon because most of the banks are covered in water.  That all said, it was super fun down in there.

Lava Dam, which was a portage for me, seemed to be a go for Genee.  He ran the far right side down over the rock slide/ flake.  The normal line over the flake in the middle was going into a terminal hole.  It was super gnarly looking.  They say that boats come out days later from the cave/ hole behind this falls.  Be VERY careful with the hole above lava dam, and catching the eddy.  It would be easy to accidentally go over it and that could be disastrous.

The rapid directly below Lava Dam had a HUGE hole in the middle of it.  It was river wide and was an enormous hole.  It got hold of Dan for a second before he got sucked out the bottom.  It was SO BIG.  Super fun rapid though. 

A ways down from this is the last rapid of note, Off Ramp.  I had never seen it at this high a level and it was so different.  All of the rocks at the bottom are covered and most of the flow goes over them creating a huge, cascading dome falls into a big hole.  Genee and Dan totally stuck the line, boofing off the the left over the dome.  I got spun in the wave coming off the right side at the top and it dropped me into the hole sideways.  I was lucky to not have gone in backwards.  It was pretty ugly, but after a brief recirculation, I got spat out by the hole. It was a close one and they thought I was going to swim.

The rest of the run is fun and is all boat scoutable. The last hole as the Green Truss bridge comes into view is a big one. The far right side is the easiest, but you can run the gut of this one right down the middle.

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