I hope the drowning report is not true. As a guy who has run most of the big water of the Northwest (Salmon, Middle Fork, Lower Salmon, Owyhee, Deschutes, etc) in a driftboat, I'm still apprehensive of our "easy" rivers in the winter. Rocks can ruin your day, but logjams can kill you real easy. My worst day floating, EVER, was on the upper Kalama from the Fly fishing area down to the upper hatchery. Had to swim for it when a big cedar stretched across the river. The Satsop is an easy float, but not if you float up against a log. Certain disaster. I hope the best for this sad report.