Skagit River: Birdview to Hamilton

We moved the second flatwater course field from the traditional Ben Howard - Monroe stretch of the Snohomish River because its flow was way too low. This stretch was great for the field trip and this trip report is mostly intended to report on its suitability for future field trips, since we hadn't held it here before.

The flow increased from 3800 to 4300 CFS over the course of the day, with rain overnight and in the morning and sun in the midday and afternoon. 

Hamilton take-out - toilet, room for about 20 cars so we didn't crowd it too badly once we shuttled away. 

Birdview put-in - no toilet, smaller lot but still decent, small beach that was barely big enough for group discussions before putting in. 

The river was consistently deep at this flow which was good for rescue practice. There were faster and slower sections - a little bit faster at the put-in, where we introduced ferrying, which made that a bit more strenuous. 

There were three class I rapid gravel bar drops:

48.51732, -121.88020 was too far from the big gravel bar on river right to be great swimming practice, but still fun to paddle. 

48.51339, -121.88877 would be perfect for swimming practice from either side of the river, probably better river right, unfortunately there was a person fishing almost right into it so we decided to paddle rather than swim.

48.51705, -121.92854 was kind of abrupt on river right, it would not be a great spot for swimming practice since it didn't flush out towards the gravel bar and instead would push people down river.

We did swim practice at 48.51638, -121.92307 in a side channel that was fast enough to push people but not as much of a rapid as those other three. You may be able to find other side channels for this at different flows - there are several big islands along the way. 

AW says this is a 3.5 mile stretch - my watch thought it was 7 miles, so even with the back and forth across the river that exaggerates the distance I think AW might be underrating it a bit. It was about 4.5 hours on the river including all the drills and skills. We didn't rush the paddling but we didn't entirely float either.

Plus sides of this run for the field trip: Great wilderness character with TONS of fish and birds, a few fun class 1 drops at this flow, plenty of gravel bars for lunch or rest or etc, super wide and safe, mix of slower and faster channels. 

Down sides for the field trip: tons of people fishing which we tried to stay away from, longer drive from Seattle, longer day on the river. 

I would seriously consider holding the field trip here in the future.