Feb 16 2010
Ash River, Vancouver Island, B.C.
The Ash River on Vancouver Island is a hydro controlled river. It doesn’t usually release water in early February but that’s exactly what it was doing while we were there on a three-day boating tour for Curtis’ Birthday. We’re not sure why there was such good flow but we weren’t going to complain. The flows were so good actually that the reservoir was spilling over the top of the dam allowing us to run the big ramp out of the lake into a small pool and off a clean 15 footer. Shayne Vollmers and Joe Box ran this last year. At first glance the drop looked really big and intimidating, but the more I looked at it the cleaner it looked. After watching Shayne and Denny have really smooth and controlled lines Kevin and I headed up to the lake for our turn.
The drop was really fast and only took a couple seconds from top to bottom. The slide was quite shallow so it helped to slow us down and gave us good control for the ledge at the bottom of the ramp. The ledge dropped about 4 feet into a shallow pool and almost everyone pulled a large wheelie on impact before heading off the second drop. That rapid is easily my favorite for 2010 so far. There is also a lower put in below if you decide to opt out of this drop.
Kevin Henderson pulling a wheelie between the 2 drops. Photo by: Shayne Vollmers
The rest of the run starts out with some fun class 3+ bedrock ledges and rapids. After a short flat section it moves into a gorgeous canyon with some tight boulder gardens. There is one class 4+ rapid in the canyon that can be easily walked on river left. Other than the one 4+ there isn’t much harder than 3+. After the canyon the river widens back out and there are more bedrock ledges and some decent surf waves as well. The run ends with a super clean 6 foot ledge that’s probably close to 100 feet wide.
The Ash River is an ideal training ground for creeking on the island, it has a wide variety of whitewater and even the class 3 is fun with lots of places to practice the old boof stroke.
Shayne Vollmers probing out the ramp. Photo By:Carrie Smith
Denny Lunge above the 15 footer. Photo By: Kevin Henderson
Me trying to squeeze out some more boof juice before the plunge. Photo by: Cynthia McHale
Looking back up at the dam and falls. Picture by: Shayne Vollmers
Curtis McHale and Annie Laguex on the super wide ledge drop near the end of the run. Photo by: Kevin Henderson