2011 Wind River Festival

This past weekend was the 4th Annual Upper Wind Whiteware Festival, a two day event for Northwest rafters and kayakers.
For more information, visit: http://upperwindfestival.blogspot.com/

The Upper Wind is a Class IV section of the Wind River, located near Carson, Washington, featuring everything from boulder gardens to ledge drops, and big water: http://www.oregonkayaking.net/riverframe.html (Upper Wind IV+)

Saturday's events included long boat races, along with Raft R2 races. Drew Eastman won men's long boat, while Susan Hollingsworth crossed the finish line first in women's long boat.

Racer's Meeting on Sunday (Photo by: Jesse Becker)

Sunday's events included short boat races, along with Raft R6 races. Due to high water levels and cold temperatures, the turn out was significantly less than last year. On Sunday, there were three of us total, 2 men and myself, who showed up to race the short boat race.

Stoked for the race! (Photo by: Jesse Becker)

Regardless, we paddled hard and paddled the 3 mile section in about 20 minutes. Greg Mallory made it across the finish line first for the win, while Ryan Young and I fought it out for a photo finish at the line.

Short Boat Race Start (Myself, Greg and Ryan) Photo by: Jesse Becker

R6 Raft Race Start (Photo by: Jesse Becker)

Some video from the weekend:

Hope to see more of you Northwest paddlers out there next year!

Kim Russell