It was a crystal clear day in the skykomish drainage.  I met the other two Eric's and Gabe at the split rock takeout around 10am.  We changed and threw my boat on their car to head up to the cable drop puttin.

The river was cold, but at a good level, 3800 cfs.  There wasn't much play at cable drop, so we headed down river.  At the Highway 2 bridge there was actually a nice wave, the best I've seen it.  However it was hard to get on because it had strong shoulders, but if you were able to, then you could get a couple spins in before getting kicked.

We continued down stream at a leisurely pace.  Eric and I decided to run boulder drop, while the other Eric and Gabe decided to portage it. Bolder Drop was really fun, we decided to run the center entrance slot and Ned's Needle.  It was actually a really level, a little pushy, but quite managable.

After meeting the portagers on the other side, we eddied out at the next rapid.  The center wave there was pretty nice.  It was a little narrow, but quite a good pile.  I paddled up and hit it a couple times before getting tired and cold.

We continued down river, passing by Lunch Hole without any mishaps.  I had heard that the way at the end of Aquagasm, the next rapid, was amazing the day before.  I hoped that it would be in today.  When we got to it, there were about 10 boaters in the eddy.  Fortunately for us, about half were not surfing the wave.  Usually I go for the first wave because it's so fast and bouncy, but the sive on river right below it always freaks me out a bit.  This time the second wave was in and very nice.  It flushed a bit in the center, but if you could control yourself on it, it was actually pretty reliable.  I was the last to leave it as some got cold and some helped out a swimmer from another group.

On the way back up to the takeout, I took this picture.  You can see how clear a day it was.