Jory Kahn Paddling above the Elwha River Mouth, 2010

More Notches Cut in the Gliles Canyon Dam, getting there..

Link:
http://www.video-monitoring.com/construction/olympic/s6latest.jpg

Seagulls at the mouth of the Elwha, Oct 2011

Elwha River Mouth at Dusk, 10/9/11

Lower Elwha Tribe Member After Fishing the River Mouth

Elwha River Mouth Surf, Oct 9, 2011

Back at it

I've been revising a NW paddling guide for Mountaineers Books the past few months so have been behind on posts. The book, "60 Trips, Kayaking Puget Sound, the San Juans and Gulf Islands" will be released summer 2012. We added 15 new trips, including the Elwha for advanced paddlers. Cheers.

Useful Elwha Dam Removal Info Links -

There's quite a few links on the Elwha dam removal project. I found the following to be most useful in describing the project, and in posting updated info:

- Coastal Watershed Institute
- Elwha Watershed Information Resource
- Return of the River, Elwha Dam Removal Documentary
- Elwha River Restoration, Facebook Page, (most current info on the project).
- Olympic National Park, Elwha River Restoration page.
- Peninsula Daily News. Posts regular updates on the project.

Mouth of Elwha, early December

The Elwha motion blurred....

Driftwood Beach Shack

September at the Elwha River mouth

Tree Branch off the mouth of the Elwha

Jory surfing the class 2 rapid above the Elwha River mouth

I love this little wave train just above the river mouth. On small surf days, I'll paddle up there to play in the current. Or enter above the rapid on my waveski, run it, and surf the mouth. Few places offer so much variety in water features.

Garbage Collected on Strait of Juan de Fuca 10/29/10

This batch is from a popular sea kayak paddle we did along the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Freshwater Bay to Salt Creek Rec Area. Vertical cliffs, sea caves, aches, and abundent sea life are part of the trip. Wind and swell can make it an advanced skills paddle, but fun if you know what you're doing. In a few pocket beaches I found large chunks of foam and the normal plastic bottles and other items that had floated in. The kelp beds were saturated in tiny pieces of foam, plastic, and nylon rope, pretty sad, as removing those items would be impossible. I carried these larger pieces back in my kayak, a great way to haul trash out. There were some very large plastic and foam chunks I couldn't fit in and an industrial looking 6 foot wide tire on the first pocket beach north of Observatory Point. Anyone have a helicopter?

Garbage Collected on the Elwha River Mouth 10/30/10

Garbage Collected on the Elwha River Mouth 9/16/10

Garbage Collected on Freshwater Bay 9/14/10

Elwha River Dike near Place Road, Before and After

The dike along the south side of the river has been improved to allow for better flow below the dams upon removal. This side is accessed via the public parking lot via Place Road. The wooded view with the path is before the new dike.

Da Fuca Blog

Here's a great blog called Da Fuca with incredible witty drawings of waves, surf, surfing, and such around the Juan de Fuca area.

Da Fuca