CHECK OUT ICICLE CREEK VIDEO!

Icicle Creek Photo by Nate Herbeck

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In early June my wife and I headed up to Washington's Wenatchee River. She talked about river's epic play and huge waves when she had paddled it four weeks earlier. The Wenatchee was now running at 3,500 cfs, about 8,000 less then the last time she was there. We had expected the run not to be action packed, but it was still fun. Knowing that the Wenatchee wasn't running high I was hoping to find a creek to run. I had loaded up my creek boat just in case.

After two days of running the Wenatchee and playing at about every spot possible at this low level, I was getting anxious to run something bigger, faster and steeper. On Sunday morning we were driving through Leavenworth past a Starbucks and spotted a van with creek boats on top! I immediately pulled over to see if we could find out whose van it was, so we went in, got our coffee and came back outside to stand by our vehicle, acting like we were just relaxing. Finally someone walked up to the van, put some stuff inside and as we were walking over to him he saw us and came towards us. We talked a little bit about what we were doing and where we were from and I asked him if he had ever run Icicle Creek. "Sure, every day," he said to my surprise. He said he got off work at 4:30 and we could hook up at the put in. So, me being nervous for the rest of the day, I took my Wavesport Y down the Wenatchee and was catching eddies and blasting through every hole I could find. After the Wenatchee we headed up to take a look at what I was about to run.

"I tried to roll but my boat hit a small hole and I had to tuck back under and endure another round of rock bashing..."

After waiting for an hour John showed up and asked if I was ready. "Ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Heather (my wife) said she would take the camcorder along the road and walk down to the river whenever she could to video us. She left us to get set up and John and I put on.

The creek had a class II-III warm up, until we got to an eddy and pulled out. "Let's scout this one, it's called Ricochet and is the hardest rapid on the creek." We hopped out of our boats and John showed me the line, which seemed to go on forever. "Go just right of this boulder, then cut sharp left over these rocks then charge hard right, boofing the hole right below it and hit that eddy." I started thinking to myself "what if" and you always have second thoughts going through your head. Finally, I looked at it and was determined to hit my line, and sure enough I did.

From that eddy he said, "Ok, now were about a quarter of the way through the hardest rapid." With my blood pumping and a good line behind me I thought, "Ok, lets go."

I followed John through all of the rapids, eddy hopping and listening to directions on where to go. Finally we came up to a horizon line (one of about a thousand on this run) and John said, "Go down the slot on river right and then go down the left center slot, the current will try to push you right or center but don't go there, and don't go too far left."

I looked at him puzzled, like are you kidding? I just asked, "What if I don't, what if I go too far right?" (where all of the current was pushing you) and he replied, "Don't go there." "Well what if I do?" "Well just don't go there." Finally, after realizing that I was not going to get any more information I gave up and said, "Ok, lets go."

Scared out of my mind, I made sure I was where I needed to be. As I went down my slot I looked all around me and saw sieves, piton spots, and holes. We passed drop after drop after drop, and I started getting worn down from too much non-stop action. Then we came to another horizon line.

John told me where to run it and mentioned to be careful as there is a weird little wave hole that screws up a lot of boaters. Sure enough, not paying attention to the wave hole, it flipped me. All I could feel were rocks hitting my head. I tried to roll but my boat hit a small hole and I had to tuck back under and endure another round of rock bashing. Finally, I got into a somewhat calm spot and rolled up. Sure enough, my calm spot was in a hole! So I did a little rodeo creeking and got out with no problems.

After that I was exhausted. Luckily we were near the end of the run. We ran a few more horizon lines and took out to scout the last falls, also at the takeout. I looked at it and said no thanks, "I'm too tired to run that." John smiled, and said, "Okay," hopped in his boat, and just styled the drop. Walking back up he said, "It's not so bad." Me, being so exhausted, I just couldn't get myself to hop back in my boat and do it.

Over all it was an awesome run and my second creek I ever ran, so I was stoked. I will go back there this spring and run it again. I have never seen such an action packed run. The longest flatwater stretch was about 200 feet long and it was above the last big waterfall. I was lucky to find such a great guide for that creek, and if anyone plans on running it without an experienced person that has been there before, all I can say is plan on taking a while and scout everything.

Editor's Note: Check out Nate Herbeck's www.liquidkayak.com