High Water Kimshew

Ummm, I don't have any pics but I promise I ran it! The first day we a nice big group of 8 peeps. We started with a "healthy" flow but Nocetti, the best leader in the world, felt confident that we could still enjoy our day. We portaged LJ's because it looked terrifying and the last poor over hole that is usually backed up by a rock was actually spewing onto the rock. Yikes.
The next rapids were fun and padded out, the log that is usually sneeked under on the left made an excellent boof right off the center. Sweet! I guess.
A few hole surfs later we made it to Kimshew falls. Half the group ran it, half very regrettably portaged and swore to NEVER portage it again. By the way, the second drop of that gorge is one of the coolest drops ever. The next "S" turn drop hit me by surprise, b-slapped my ass and I took a few hits to the head and knuckles. Still an amazing set of drops though!
We made it to Tripler and I looked up at the previous drop that is typically a defined boof onto a bouncy slide. "Is this, like, a medium-ish flow?"
"No. High" replied Nocetti.
One by one we portaged Triple, which was more like one pounding rapid. That's when the water color started changing and the first log floated past. Only until I ran Kimshew at lower water did I understand the "Triple" part.
Frenchie's gorge was rather intimidating. Ligare and Zawaki ran the first two drops to scout the rest of the Gorge. Then I ran down to help route through and Ligare followed shouting beta. The exit drop almost flipped me a little and struggled to catch the last eddy... only to look up and see Ligare hammering his strokes at the top of Frenchie's, slowly fading in backwards.
"Come on buddy, paddle, paddle, you got it!"
Nope.
He turned and charged.
I jumped out of my boat and charged up around the cliff band, envisioning Ligare floating upside down.
The first thing I saw was an empty boat... perfectly placed on the rocks on the shore and Ligare was climbing up the rocks nonchalantly with his modest smile.
"How did it feel?"
He just shrugged his shoulders "Fine."
Ligare is a good kayaker.
The 8 person Frenchie portage took a while and the brown river continued to rise. Aside from a few more mandatory portages, I was surprised at how well the river bed held the water. We rode out the wave trains to the final boof. The "rock" that is supposed to have water pooring over half of it, was its own meaty little poor over. The 8 person, 8 hour epic was tiring but still super fun. Kimshew is a must see, 2 thumbs way up!