Annual Halloween Paddle in the gorge

The ‘Halloween Paddle in the gorge’ has pretty much become an annual event. It started over 8 years ago with a fun idea of just getting a handful of friends together, dress up in costume and paddle the Green Truss section of the White Salmon River. Through the years, this “friend” paddle grew into more of a “community” paddle and doing multiple stretches of the White Salmon and picking up people as we floated downstream.

This year, 25 boaters made their way up the White Salmon to enjoy the Class IV-IV+ Farmlands section. This stretch contains 3 canyons, committing rapids and lots of boofs.

Following this stretch, we met another group of paddlers on the Middle White Salmon, a class III-III+ stretch. Bombing down with some pretty fun costumes, we met our last group for the Lower White Salmon, a class II-II+ stretch.

15 miles of whitewater paddled on our Halloween Paddle, with over 40 people participating in this event. Lots of laughs, a few swims and some great memories made.

A huge thanks to our local "social" supporter, Everybody's Brewing . . . if you're ever in the gorge . . . this is your place for good food and great beer.  And, many more thanks to Level Six and Kind Snacks for some yummy snacks and cool schwag.

Until next year . . . Happy Boofing!

PS - My costume of choice this year was "Bat Girl", mainly because it matched my Level Six drysuit really well.  Haha!

Photos courtesy of Sheer Madness Productions.

Heather Herbeck

Team Level Six