Good Times floating down the Cedar River; but use care and good sense

Here is a picture of the rest of my party, right before our recent adventure down the river. We managed to pop the raft on the right on a rock, and then a mile further downstream capsize the inflatable kayak in a tight river bend after three of us had crammed into it; We laughed so hard it made our ribs hurt, but that was thanks to some preparation.

A few days ago I led some of my family and a visiting friend on a float trip down our beautiful Cedar River. I’ve been doing this trip for twenty-five years, and it’s always a fun adventure. And it’s never quite the same from one trip to the other.

My favorite place to put into the water is Jones Road, just east of our city and the new 152nd Ave SE bridge that connects Maple Valley Highway to Renton Highlands. (There is great parking and a great launching beach right along Jones road, about a quarter-mile east of the bridge.)

The trip then takes you past Ron Regis Park, the golf course, under Maple Valley Highway, and finally along to a couple of great parks for exiting the river– one at the rail trestle, and another at Carco Theater. The total float time is between two and three hours, depending on the level of the river. When the river is low, as it is now, you’ll hit more rocks and slow sections, and it will take longer.

But there are many things to be wary of on a trip like this, and I don’t recommend that kids do it by themselves. While hopping on floating toys in twelve inches of water seems perfectly safe at the start, there are obstacles and hazards during the entire four-mile voyage, and the water gets pretty deep in some places. Furthermore, even shallow water can drown you quickly if it is moving fast and rams you into a log-jam, so you need to recognize these jams as the life-threatening hazard they are, and either competently steer clear or simply get out of the water and walk around them.

Furthermore, like nearly everyone else on the river, I’ve always used these hardware store type inflatables, never shelling out the $1000 needed for a real whitewater raft. About one out of every three or four trips we’ll damage a raft so badly that it is no longer usable without repair, so I have learned to always have more floating capacity than we have people. Have a way that people can double-up if one of the boats springs a leak.

Everyone that gets on the river simply must be able to swim. Anyone who can’t is going to be at far more risk, and may be terrified in some sections of the trip (which will put them at further risk).

In addition, we often use life jackets, which help reduce risk of drowning in flat calm sections of water, but can carry snagging risks when it comes to log jams. The trick here is to recognize the risks of life jackets, loose clothing, necklaces, etc when it comes to log jams, and to steer clear of the logs!

When I did this float trip in 1985, there were virtually no log hazards along the way. Now there are such hazards around every bend. This is primarily because of environmental and fisheries interests; the logs provide natural fish egg laying and resting zones. Hence, logs have been purposefully installed in many cases.

Another reason for the hazards is the 2001 earthquake and landslide, which swept many trees across the river near Ron Regis Park. In some cases these logs are simply impassable on the river, and boaters must disembark and carry the boat around the obstruction.

And do not tie the rafts together. This is never a good idea, and will only make it easy for them to become entangled or flip over on the fast moving sections of the river.

One last precaution for kids is that certain areas along the banks attract a lot of drinking and partying on the warm summer days. While I’ve never been bothered by the friendly, if inebriated, greetings from people on shore, I would not necessarily want my middle school kids floating past all these parties unescorted.

While this is an article mostly about precautions, I have to say I’ve had some great times floating on our own Cedar River, and while I’ve heard of people having close calls, I’ve never seen any bad injuries first hand.

Use good sense if you try it, and recognize that you are doing it entirely at your own risk. You alone are responsible for your own safety, and the safety of your children.

This picture is straight from a fisheries website, and shows the work done to create fish habitat using logs.

This is another picture from fisheries, showing a log that has been chained to the shore to keep it from floating away in high water.

This picture shows one of many logs spanning the river at the site of the 2001 landslide near Ron Regis Park. (Photo owned and hosted in this article here in the Renton Reporter)