Trip Report: Sandy Gorge of the Sandy River

--When, Where, Conditions--
When: the wee hours before work
Location: Sandy Gorge of the Sandy River
Conditions: low water, cool temps
Duration: 1 hour

--Helpful Info--
Difficulty: Waking up at 5:00am to go paddle Class IV then beating traffic back to work.

The beautiful Sandy River

The Report: Since its rainy season now that means it's time to paddle. Every. single. day. How do you accomplish that with a full time job? By joining the dawn patrol. Nothing beats waking up to whitewater. It smells like victory. Granted getting the kinks out of your off season body by paddling class IV before work has its own intricacies. No leisurely paddling, no swimming and little to no scouting. A major consideration is sunrise. Starting 15-30 minutes before full daylight is ideal but also means you run some rapids in those dusky pre-dawn minutes. The spice of life.

One of my favorite pre-work runs is the Sandy Gorge. It's relatively close to Portland, the rapids are challenging but manageable at most flows and you can bang out a lap in an hour with relatively little effort. You can go faster if you really want to drop the hammer. Andrew, Jordan and I went out for a little pre dawn rip and found the low water Sandy Gorge still delivers the goods. "it channels up nicely."

See you on the river.

Staffers Jordan & Andrew exploring the Sandy