The Nisqually River is fed from the slopes of the Nisqually Glacier on Mt Rainier.  The river is regulated by the two dams upstream, the first being the Alder dam and the lower one being the La Grande dam, however, sometimes when there's too much water or not enough, the dams can control the flow allowing boating most of the year throughout this river reach.

 

We had a crew of 17 turn-out for a low water run on the Nisqually and our first "7 River Challenge".  A total of 13 club members and another 4 non-club members.  We also had along 3 inflatable kayakers (IK), one of those being Ethan, age 16, who learned how to maneuver his IK amongst many rocks.

 

We launched at the town of McKenna, and slowly meandered our way downstream, finding fun little play spots, short rapids with lots of rocks to play and dart in between, and during the flat water stretches it was nice getting to know one another, as we don't often get a chance to do a lot of talking until once off the river.  I was reminded of how beautiful this river is as we passed waterfalls coming from the cliff sides as we cruised downriver.  We saw lots of ducks and even an eagle or two.  The lower levels and several boulder gardens also gave us lots of opportunities to work on boat scouting, eddy turns, rock splats, boofing, and surfing waves.

 

Afterwards a few of us rallied for some Mexican food in the nearby town of Yelm.  A fun day had by all, and our first 7 River Challenge.  I can't wait to see our special sticker that Kanako created for the Nisqually 7RC!