Tumwater canyon is some spooky water. I ran the top three rapids at a flow of 2200cfs. The guys in the creature crafts were running it over 10,000 cfs. At 2200cfs we decided Exit was a death trap so we pulled off the river before POW.
I had a couple friends run it in a creature craft about a month ago. They got sucked into a strainer log and their boat got pinned. They spent several hours standing on the log trying to figure a way out without swimming. It was pretty safe to say a swim away from your boat in that water isn't survivable.
I think creature craft were originally designed as a rescue craft that could go in and get people stuck in a low head dam. They are pretty amazing. I've shared the river with them several times. It's not something I would ever own.
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John
Gnarvan 1992 E350 Clubwagon
Advanced 4WD Systems Conversion
Sotar Legend 12.5' X 22" Cataraft
2003 BMW R1150GS-Adventure
2013 BMW R1200GS-Adventure
Here is another You Tube of the Creature Crafts doing a first descent of Sunset Falls on the South Fork of the Snohomish in Washington. This is a real "crap your pants" run. Notice the line the blue boat takes. It's a little to the left of the other boat and he pays the price. You can see a broken oar when he pops back of a hole that would suck full grown birds out of the air.
The amount of control these guys have over where their boat goes is similar to a barrel dropping over Niagara Falls. They wear velcro seatbelts to keep them in the craft.
That's wild. On the one hand I'd want more that velcro strapping me in, on the other I wouldn't want that. Either way, it doesn't look like something you would walk away from. Thanks for the video.
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Harold Grissom - 2005 Quigley Ford E-350, 6.0 Turbo Diesel.