III

Rapid Rating

5.13

River Mileage

About Troublemaker Rapid

Scout Left. When you shove off from the scout eddy take the river right channel of the tree island to follow the deepest flow. Just downstream of the tree island is a sieve pile in the center of the flow. Make your way to the left of this feature, it is easy to avoid.

Trouble Maker has a mild lead-in where the river splits around a rock island. Take the right side of this island, then make your way back to the left of a second shallow rock island. There the river starts to lose gradient into an S bend. At the top of the S bend there is a small lateral wave coming off the right side, T this up to set up for the following hole. Clip this hole on the left side with a slight right angle. Allow the hole to turn your boat to the right to stay off the left wall known as the Peanut Gallery. Then straighten up for the next drop to the left of a large pyramid rock known as Snaggle Tooth. Below this last drop is a medium size eddy on river right you can catch to set safety.

At flows above 3500 CFS, you can enter to the left of the first rock island. To do this you will need to punch through two small stacked holes before entering into the S bend of the rapid. Another alternative line at higher flows is called Double Trouble. The Double Trouble line is hitting a large steep wave on the right side of the long hole created by a shallow rock island in the center of the river.

In the runout of Trouble Maker at the very bottom in the center of the flow is a rock pile that is a known sieve. Make sure to pick up swimmers before this feature, or have them actively swim to river left if they fall out in Trouble Maker to avoid this hazard.