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This weekend I played whitewater cowboy on an 8-mile stretch of the Snake River south of Jackson, Wyoming. Normally around 6,000 cfs, this weekend the flowrate was a whopping 4 times greater than normal: peaking out around 24,500 cfs.  Between our first and second trips, the flowrate increased 500 cfs: freezing snow melt from the upstream Jackson dam, let off in an effort to reduce the risk of flooding. The river was chocolate milk in an icy blender, with specks of wood and celluotic material mixed in.  In rafting lingo- you're in for unexpected blurps and recirculations that have never surfaced before.

Setting out at West Table Creek and putting in at Sheep Gulch, the normally 2.25 hour trip was reduced to 1 hour.  While not paddling, we tried holding our oars in the air to act as a sail, and counteract the fierce current and its torpedo speed.  The doosies were the Lunch Counter rapids, and, ironically, the Wyoming stretch after Champagne.  Champagne is generally a mild stretch with lucent bubbles popping up on to the surface, like the breath of some giant trapped underneath the riverbed. It is a kiddie pool compared to the upstream rapids.  However, at this high flow, it turned into a bucking bronco of white tips that compare with Lunch Counter and the Big Kahuna.

We were some of the first to try out the new rapids created by the May 2011 mudslide.  Tentatively termed the Double Dip by locals, the fresh rapids were suprisingly fun.  More interesting was the consideration of how the events of one mud slide could alter a rive that thousands trek on an annual basis.  Mother Nature has no equal.

The most memorable part of the trip was jumping into the freezing river to the sounds of, "Hurry, next stretch of rapids coming up quick!," and swimming upstream to shouts of "Heave, ho- grab the throw bag!"  The initial adrenaline rush of shock-and-scream-cold-water! made the balance of the trip unequalled.  I do believe it's time to take up kayaking.