This year Middle Green River Coalition participated by doing public outreach to try and attract local community members, elected officials, and others to raft the Green River Gorge and attend post rafting festivities.  We had several people signup for rafting including Reagan Dunn’s staff liaison, Viet Nguyen.  Reagan Dunn has been a supporter of the Green River Gorge Mountains to Valley Greenway since we first met with him.

We had an incredible day rafting from Kanaskat State Park at the top of the 12 mile long Green River Gorge to Flaming Geyser State Park where the Green River Gorge opens up into the Green River Valley.  The water level was around 1400 c.f.s. this year.  This is the highest of any of the past cleanup events I’ve attended.  It made for a little extra push down the gorge.  Its amazing, as the water level gets higher the gorge seems wilder and less tamed.  Add to that, the cloud covered day and we felt like we were a million miles away from civilization.  Who could guess that less than 10 miles away is where the urban edge of south King County begins.

We spent 4 hours on the river and only had one swimmer (who?  We’ll never tell).  He was trying to snag a beer can left on a rock ledge along the river.  He reached out to grab one and saw six.  Before he could grab the other 5 the raft moved on leaving him falling into the river.  He did manage to throw one can in the boat.  We quickly rescued him and continued down the river.

This was not just a fun trip it was an opportunity to educate our elected officials about the beauty and uniqueness of the Green River Gorge as well its importance in cooling the temperature of the river as it twists through the gorge.  During the river’s trip through the gorge it adds to its flows the cold, cool, unpolluted springs from the south side of the gorge.  Icy creek alone contributes 40-60 c.f.s. of year round spring water.  We were also able to point out the growing trend of McMansions springing up along the unprotected rim of the gorge and the resulting clearing of trees for those spectacular views.  We pointed out the instability of many of the slopes.  Hopefully those houses won’t end up part of the river any time soon.   It does emphasize the need to work quickly to preserve the remaining uplands.

We were also able to show that recreation on the Green River Gorge is a recreational use that should be considered as part of the management of the in stream flows in the gorge. ( Participate in the Green River Flow Study) It offers the opportunity to raft some of the best white water in Washington State and one of the top 50 rivers in the U.S.  It is also a way to experience the beauty and isolation of the Green River Gorge.

It was cold and raining when we arrived at Flaming Geyser park.  We unloaded the boats and our gear.  Then we headed over to the newly remodeled Flaming Geyser Lodge to warm up near the fireplaces and have an great dinner of Southwest Chicken, red potatoes, corn bread, and salad by New York catering.  We also had hot coffee from Firehouse coffee out of Tacoma and Cider from Rock Ridge Orchards out of Enumclaw. 

Dinner was followed by a get together hosted by Washington Recreational River Runners, Middle Green River Coalition,  and Friends of the Green.  Lisa Parsons gave a presentation on the Green River Gorge Greenway and Northwest legend Wolf Bauer.  Jay Cohen talked about the history of the Green River Cleanup. This was followed by incredible live music by Casey Garland, Elaine Skeffington, and Lee Silberkleit.

Special thanks to:

Cascade Land Conservancy, Covington Rotary, Jennifer Everhard, and Sylvia Feder for their cash donations.

A special thanks to Jean Hoilland of Intent Yoga Studio for helping publicize the event and recruit volunteers.

Thanks to Insititute for Community Leadership.  Nyla, along with her group of 10 students hiked down to Icy Creek to clean up garbage.  Apparently all the kids could talk about for the rest of the day was how beautiful it was.  One of the students even took his parents down the next day.  Thanks Nyla and her students!

Also thanks to New York Catering, Rock Ridge Orchards, and Firehouse Coffee for their donations and efforts to make this a great event.

Thank you to Casey Garland, owner of Downstream River Runners for providing the professional river guiding and the incredible music for the evening event.

Special Thanks to our VIPs for their support of our effort to protect the Green River Gorge Mountains to Valley Greenway.