The Little White Salmon is a river I'd heard of, but didn't think I'd get to run this trip – it's got a reputation of being a fairly hard class 5 run, but Simon had run it before and said we had to paddle it. A friend of his who I'd paddled with in Vermont, Rick, joined us, as did Russell, who we'd met in the car park at the White Salmon – both had run it recently, so it was a good group to head downstream with.

The locals had said the water level was too low, but it wasn't. The river starts off with some boulder gardens, building up in difficulty before getting to the waterfall section. The low water made the top very technical, eddies were small and routes weren't easy to see down – it would have taken ages had I not been with people who knew the run.

It was late in the day and light was low, so photos and video weren't coming out, which is a shame since it's an awesome run – the highlights for me were the 10ft left boof move on S-Turn and plugging Wishbone – a super clean 20 footer. The guide book says you will arrive at the take out with “a sweet smile on your face” I did.

The following day, the plan was to hit the Greentruss section of the White Salmon – above the run with Husum falls on – it was another of Simon's recommendations, but Rick and Russell both had other things to be doing, so it'd just be the two of us. I'd not heard of this section before, but I'm not sure why – the run is as good as the Little White, but requires less rock bouncing at this level. Upper zigzag – a twisty rapid with several stoppers to punch – and little brother – another clean waterfall we the highlights on this run.

Both sections were great class 5 runs, in beautiful scenic gorges.

We spent the 4th on the Wind river, with it's waterfalls and hotsprings – we'll upload a blog entry along with photos shortly, but in the mean time, check out the videos link for some of the action.