Paddle Hard

Weeks

2011-07-19T07:45:00.001+12:00

Two weeks ago I got out for my first run on the Dumont/Lawson stretch of Clear Creek. We had good flows, somewhere around 1200 cfs in Golden. The run was fun, small-riverbed big-water sorts of feel in most of it, with a lot of ledges with standing wave-holes at the bottom. I was a little nervous, having never done the run, but things went fine. Outer Limits had more waves than holes, and went smoothly. No carnage to report either.

On Thursday I got out on Black Rock at 1200 or so with Ian and a couple of others. Ian and I walked Black Rock, the Narrows, and Rigor, though I probably should have run Black Rock in hindsight. The run was a lot of fun, with a lot of big waves and holes. I was spun around in the run-out of the Narrows which was a little more exciting than I would have liked, but it went smoothly after that. I was a little nervous about Elbow and Screaming Quarter Mile since I run them so frequently, but both of them went well, and Screaming Quarter Mile was a blast. There is still a boat pinned in the runout, which is boof-able at these flows.

Last weekend A and I went out to the Arkansas valley with the Hartmans and some friends. On Saturday we ran the Fractions, and then Numbers, at around 2150. The Fractions were all right, with some splashy-splash waves and a few good play spots, but there was enough raft traffic that it was dangerous to hang out and play for very long. The Numbers were a lot of fun, and A was even able to get some rafting in, which made things even better. No big carnage on either run.

Sunday brought an early-morning run of Clear Creek of the Ark at about 300 cfs. Fair bit of carnage there. Preston was a bit gripped, and swam out of the first big ledge hole we came across. We fetched his gear, and he decided to hike out. Then Dan swam out of the hole in the cauldron in the first gorge. He self-rescued and carried on, only to get flipped coming into an eddy between the gorges and swimming again. He walked out as well. Big Mike and I carried on into the second gorge, where he got surfed in a hole for a while but eventually made it out, and we were able to make it to the take-out in our boats. The run was more fun that I had remembered at this level, and despite the bony in-between parts, the goods were still good. A and I decided to head home instead of running Brown's in a raft. On the way home, I broke down and bought a new dry suit. The Stholquist that I've had for the last 4 years or so has turned into a bag of water in the last year, despite regular maintenance by the Stholquist factory. I was going to try and hold off a bit longer before buying a new suit, but I was wringing cups and cups of water out of my gear over the weekend, and was generally wet and not very happy. Given the amount of time I spend in cold water, I figured it was worth the investment.

Hoosier Boating

2011-06-21T03:06:00.001+12:00

Zach, Jeff, and Elise were in town this weekend. We got on high water black rock and lower CC on Friday night with flows at about 1,000. Things were busy, but everything was pretty managable. We walked Rigo and the narrows, though Alex, who tagged along with us, ran them both. Mr. Bill has quite a bit of stopping power, but it looks like a strong move through the right-hand lateral brings you through pretty well. It's a riverwide hole at this point though.

Black rock boated very smoothly, though the runout becomes long and busy. Lower was fun, though Elbow got huge and managed to flip me and shove me into a wall. Rolled up fine though. Jeff got spit into the same wall.

Saturday and Sunday were spent up on the Poudre. On Saturday Jeff, Zach, Roy and I all ran the Little South Fork of the Poudre at about 2' on the gauge. The run was beautiful, and somewhat wilderness-ey. The beta we had was that there were two gorges that rated about V- at these flows. We went through one gorge early that was solid class IV, and was a good step up from what we had run so far. We figured that was the first gorge, since it was noticeably narrower than the run so far, though it was somewhat overrated. What we thought was the second gorge was busy and pushy, with a big hole that surfed Roy and caused Zach to flip. It stopped me as well, though I was able to keep moving. It would have been nice to have gotten a look at everything, but by the time we realized it was getting steep we were out of eddies. It went well though, and the gorge let up just about where we needed it to.

Things opened up after that, and I figured we were heading for the confluence. Nope. Things narrowed down again, and before we knew it we were in another V- gorge, with a few big-ish moves and big holes. It had a couple of convenient eddies about halfway down on both sides of an intimidating log drop. Everything went smoothly though. Overall, it was a fun run and a nice change of pace from the roadside stuff I've been doing lately.

Sunday was Stevens Down on the Poudre in playboats, at about 5' on the gauge rock. It was my first time in the kingpin in big water for a long time. I got pushed around quite a bit, and spent most of the run trying to stay balanced over my boat and avoid the biggest of the holes. We walked Pineview Falls, which had a pair of big laterals in the middle of it guarding a big hole. I was flipped in cardiac corner, but rolled up in the boily business at the bottom. It was a run that was very good for my boating, but I think I would have had more fun (and definitely been more relaxed) in a creekboat.

Black Rock, Big Day on the Big T

2011-06-06T03:37:00.001+12:00

Made it out to Black Rock on Friday, flows were in the low 600s. Everything was fun, and starting to get a little pushy. The laterals and boils are starting to show up at these flows. Lines went pretty well, though I ran too close to center on Mr. Bill and plugged it pretty hard. I was able to paddle away, but next time I'll be further right. I was used to worrying about getting deflected from the rock shelf on the right, but at these flows and up it's really not an issue. I walked Rigo, though it looked like it was fairly forgiving. Nevertheless, I may be done with Rigo for the next month or so as flows continue to rise.

Yesterday (Saturday) Roy, Bridger and I went to go check out SSV. It was runnable, but awfully bony. After some debate, we decided to head to the Big Thompson instead, which had healthy flows of about 650 coming out of Lake Estes, with some additional feeders. It was getting pretty pushy, with big waves and holes in a fairly small riverbed. We got to the big drop in the middle of the run, usually class IV+ at regular flows but it was pushing V- or V at these flows. I had a good line through the entrance and the meat of the rapid, but near the end of the first pitch the nose of my boat was deflected by a lateral and caught on a rock. I was hoping that it would just spin me backwards, but the rock was too close to shore and as I started to spin, my stern was caught by another rock and the force of the water pinned me horizontally. My head was underwater, and I felt the boat lock down onto the rocks, so I didn't waste much time waiting for it to dislodge. I swam, and fast, for shore. Roy was in the process of getting out of his boat since he saw me pin. I managed to self-rescue, getting a little banged up on the rocks and swallowing some water, but was otherwise all right. My boat pined a little ways downstream, and Bridger was able to fish my paddle out of the water.

The excitement wasn't over yet; below the dam Roy misread a set of holes and got flipped, and then was shoved up against the bank. He swam, and Bridger and I chased his boat for a looong ways. About halfway through the chase I realized that I had forgot to put in my drain plug after we portaged the dam, so it was a bit of a race against the clock to try and retrieve his boat before mine filled up with water. We managed to get it done though. In all, the casualties for the day were Roy's sponge and my throw rope.

Black Rock, Big T

2011-06-01T00:39:00.001+12:00

Got out on Black Rock at 350 on Sunday, Big T at 500 or so on Monday. Black Rock went pretty smoothly; the extra 100 cfs smoothed everything out, and everyone had pretty good lines. Rigo even went smoothly for me, which was nice. The Big T was a lot of fun, as usual. It was well-padded, and while there were some big stompy holes hiding here and there, you could skirt or punch everything. Kevin had a bit of roll practice, and Roy's boat was stuck under a rock for a little bit, but everything ended well. The wind in the canyon was near biblical; at some points the spray that was blowing off of the tops of the waves made it tough to see downstream. Fortunately, the wind was with us and not against us.

Black Rock 2x

2011-05-29T09:19:00.001+12:00

Made it out to black rock last Wednesday and again today, Saturday. Flows are coming up, and should be going like gangbusters next weekend. Wednesday was pretty uneventful, though we had a pretty huge flotilla on the water. Today we had a swimmer just before Mr. Bill in the narrows. He got out all right and we collected his gear. I went too far left in rigo, trying to avoid what flipped me last weekend. I was caught by a boil and surfed in a hole for a bit. I ran a bit of the rapid backwards, but managed to steer things around for the bottom drop. All's well that ends well.

Black Rock

2011-05-24T00:46:00.001+12:00

Got out for a couple of early season runs on Black Rock at low flows, around 220 cfs. Things were smoother than I would have expected at those flows, even in the in-between stuff. The second time around I wasn't paying enough attention in Rigor Mortis, and got flipped by one of the entrance holes. I took two big shots to the head, then rolled up before the bottom section of the drop. I was happy to have the full-face, but even then the shot was big enough to split my head open by about 2". My neck is a little sore this morning, but otherwise I'm no worse for wear.

escalante photos

2011-05-22T08:07:00.001+12:00

Bailey

2011-05-20T00:51:00.001+12:00

Made it out to Bailey last weekend with some buzzards at around 300cfs. It was cold and cloudy, but the flows were good and everything boated pretty well. I was fairly lazy, not really taking anything as seriously as I should, which can get dangerous. Things went fine though, even though I had some marginal lines.

Escalante

2011-05-10T02:17:00.001+12:00

Got out to Escalante this weekend. We were greeted with strong medium flows on Saturday, and medium-high flows on Sunday. We had our fair share of excitement; Roy swam at waterslide on the first day, as did Bridger. A group in front of us all swam at waterslide; one boofed onto another, resulting in a concussion and a broken orbital bone. I swam about 5 strokes out of the scout eddy above the inner gorge; an irregular ledge flipped me and I took a couple shots when I was setting up to roll that pulled me out of my thigh braces. I ditched my gear and swam to shore, since I didn't have much time left before I was locked into the gorge. My boat stayed in a recirculating eddy above the falls for a couple of hours, inaccessable from shore or from below. I hunted downstream for my paddle, since someone had seen it hurtling through the gorge. I hiked all the way down to the cabin, thinking that my odds of finding it weren't very good past the first 1000 yards or so, but lo and behold I found it pushed up against the outside of the bend. It was a lot of hiking, but it was worth it. In the meantime, another crew had pushed my boat out of the eddy, and it ran the falls on the right side by itself. It apparently stayed in there for a while, but eventually worked its way out, and by the time I made it to the take out it was sitting on shore, intact. I'm impressed with the Prijon plastic again; it had a couple of scrapes but no dents and no cracks.

Sunday had pretty big med-high flows; our crew walked waterslide after the group in front of us had to extract a guy from the sieve on the left. His crumpled Nomad was up on shore. The in between bits were a lot of fun at those levels though, and we managed to make it through without any additional drama.

Waterton

2011-05-02T14:18:00.001+12:00

Made it out to Waterton canyon for some spring training since the cold weather shut down Escalante. Preston and I did a few laps and tried to catch as many eddies as we could. It was more fun than I had expected, especially trying to catch as many mid-rapid eddies as possible. Hopefully Escalante will kick back up for next weekend.

Byers Canyon

2011-04-29T15:33:00.001+12:00

Made it out to Byers Canyon last weekend. The run was short, and cold, and maybe not worth the trip to do again, but I'm glad we got out there to see it.

First day of the season

2011-04-11T12:13:00.001+12:00

Got out for the first day of boating in 2011. Preston and I headed out to the confluence for a bit of a warmup. It was good to get back in the water, but I'll be ready for some real boating next weekend.

2010-08-30T12:09:00.005+12:00

Got out to the first annual Bailey Fest the other week. The faucet at Bailey is controlled by Denver Water, and it usually runs irregularly. Ian did the entire boating community a solid and finally got us a scheduled release. We probably had 100 or so boaters on the water, with some good lines, some not so good. I had a lousy line on my first ever run of supermax, pulling a weak ferry, pausing for a moment to figure out what I was going to do, and getting washed into the left side. The stern of my boat managed to sub out under the undercut, but I stayed upright. The rest of the run went a little smoother.

2010-08-30T12:09:00.002+12:00

I spectated the gore race this past weekend. I had a good run, with surprisingly good lines. One guy didn't, and had to be evacuated from the canyon. Here's the story from my perspective:

I was spectating the race from river right at Gore rapid. A shredder that was in the race dumped at Gore rapid. One of the paddlers ("Paddler") was rescued on river right by a rope. The other swimmer ("Swimmer") continued downstream, and I could see that he swam through Scissors. A rope or two were tossed his way, and the last I saw him he was near a guy in a green boat ("Savior") above Pyrite. Another spectator had mentioned that safety had been set all through Pyrite, so aside from thinking that it wouldn't be a very fun swim, I didn't think much of it. 5 or 10 minutes later our group (Myself, Ian, and Pete) hopped in our boats and eddy-hopped through Scissors and Pyrite. In the eddy below Pyrite, we heard some whistle blasts and headed downstream.

Maybe 50 yards past the Pyrite pool, we saw Savior trying to pull Swimmer onto shore. We jumped out of our boats. Swimmer had his head and shoulders out of the water, but Savior couldn't get him completely onto shore by himself. We weren't sure if Swimmer had a head or neck injury, but we knew we had to get him out of the water, since he was wearing only a short sleeved polypro and swim trunks. We tried to stabilize his head and neck, and we pulled him out of the water.

Savior said that Swimmer came all the way through Pyrite, and was conscious when he was in the pool, but beat up. He grabbed Savior's boat, but then let go and semi-lost consciousness. No other boaters or shore safety was in the area. Savior managed to get Swimmer to shore, though I'm not sure how.

Swimmer was breathing, and semi-coherant. We flagged down a raft that was on its way through, and a few more kayakers. Someone managed to flag down one of the BNSF trucks that was up on the tracks, and told them to get the EMTs from Gore rapid. Meanwhile, Swimmer knew where he was, who he was, and who the president was, but it was taking all he had to answer our questions. I had an emergency blanket in my 1st aid kit; we got that around him, and eventually got his vest and wet polypro off, and replaced them with dry clothes from one of the rafts. Swimmer reported no head injury and no distracting injuries.

Maybe another 10 minutes later, the shore safety members from Gore arrived. We filled them in on what was going on. They took over, went through a series of questions, and confirmed that there wasn't a head/spine injury, which was good, since nobody could track down a backboard.

More people arrived; we probably had 30 or so at this point. Another raft guide (Guide) confirmed no c-spine injuries, and marshaled everyone together to build a litter out of oars, paddles, and cam straps. We got Swimmer onto the litter, and then slowly passed the litter up the scree slope, with a rope attached at the top. When the litter had passed each person, they reset at the top of the line to pass Swimmer up.

Swimmer was loaded into the backseat of one of the BNSF trucks, and driven into Kremmling. After speaking with someone who rode along, it sounds like he was still somewhat out of it for most of the ride, but came around when they got near the ambulance enough to argue against getting in the ambulance. That decision was left to the medics, and it sounds like they took him in to check him out.

My thoughts:

1. I didn't use the pseudonym "savior" for nothing. He saved a life on Saturday.

2. It was a mistake not to have safety set at the pool below Pyrite. I think it's commonly accepted that if you swim at Gore, it's very possible to get washed all the way down into Pyrite and, if you do swim that far, you're going to be pretty beaten up by the time you make it to that pool. Also, as for the fixed safety, someone near the bottom of that rapid should know that they're the last line of defense, to avoid the mentality that there's always someone further downstream to help on race day.

3. I think everyone who arrived on-scene did a commendable job. Things that needed to get done -- get Swimmer out of the water, assess his condition, get him warmed up, and get him out of the canyon -- were accomplished quickly and efficiently, without anyone getting in the way, causing additional problems, or freezing up.

4. Swimmer was not dressed adequately for the run. While a polypro and shorts is nice for the long paddle in to Gore, and while it's tempting to dress lightly on a hot day, everyone should be dressed for a swim. While you would still be plenty beat up after taking the same swim in a drysuit, taking hypothermia out of the equation leaves you with quite a bit more energy.

5. Wilderness EMT training is invaluable. While the first 4 of us on scene knew enough to get Swimmer out of the water, get him warm, and keep him conscious, none of us knew enough to clear him for a c-spine injury.

6. If not for the railroad access, this would have been a much different rescue. Instead of building the litter, we would have had to build a fire, get Swimmer warmed up, and probably get him some food and water. A space blanket and the means to start a fire in wet conditions should be in everyone's first aid kit.

Big South

2010-07-18T05:03:00.001+12:00

Snuck in a couple of more trips in the past few weeks. Bridger and I got onto Joe Wright Creek and Spencer Heights up on the Poudre. Joe Wright was really low, though Carnito Canyon was fun. Spencer was a blast. We hiked Rocket Launcher (which, as it turns out, lots of the locals walk as well, which made me feel a bit better about the decision). The main canyon was a lot of fun; I wish it was 5 miles or so longer. Then things got a little interesting that night; I managed to shear off my car key in my lock cylinder. I tried to fish it out that night, and settled for drinking beer instead. In the morning I managed to pull out the key fragment with the scissors of a swiss army knife. Then I plugged that into the ignition and managed to start the car, which was a blessing since I was about 2.5 hours (one way) from my spare set of keys. When I called AAA from my house to get the key fragment extracted from the ignition, the locksmith couldn't quite figure out how I had sheared off the key so deep in the cylinder. I just shrugged.

Last weekend I finally got out to the Big South (the big south fork of the poudre). It's 13 or so miles of wilderness boating, with plenty of class V thrown in for good measure. It's a run I had been hearing about since I first got to Colorado. I missed it one or two years because I wasn't sure if I was up to it, and last year because the season ran right up against the bar exam. But this year was the year.

We had a solid medium flow, and things went fast from the Weird Creek put-in. A bit scrapey, but very very fast. Starter Fluid was a lot of fun, as was Barroom Brawl. We portaged bouncing betty out of respect (it took the life of a fellow boater last year) and fantasty flight and meltdown due to wood. We all walked the big 3 (meltdown, cool world, and double trouble). I walked Slideways as well, which tore at me a bit, but I was cold at that point (my drysuit needs to be repaired) and not feeling up to the long, complicated rapid. I was dreading it somewhat when scouting, and when I realized that I may just walk it, I started feeling a lot happier. Seemed like a sign. After watching some of the marginal lines our crew had on the rapid, I didn't regret the decision too much.

Overall, Big South was gorgeous, but I think I had my hopes for it set a little high. It's a quality run for sure, but over the years I had it built up in my mind as something that was different from anything I had ever boated.

High Water

2010-06-15T14:36:00.001+12:00

Another good high water weekend. Saturday we caught Bear Creek at around 175 cfs. It was my first time out there; classic Colorado micro-creek mank boating. We lapped No Fun Falls a few times and it looked like some press got some photos, so maybe I'll have pretty photos soon.

Sunday we got on big water Big Thompson, with 575 on the gauge, and about 800 coming through past Drake thanks to the water from the North Fork coming in. Big water and big holes all over the place. No carnage though, fortunately. At these levels, it might be one of my favorite runs. What is usually a IV+ is a solid V at those levels, and the area below the dam was clocking in at a V- or so. Good times.

Big Water Weekend

2010-06-08T16:31:00.002+12:00

Record high temperatures have kicked all of the levels up. Things have been busy.

On Saturday a group of five of us, Cliff, George, Ian, Gannon, and myself ran the Big Thompson at about 800. It was big. Lots of big holes and busy water. Gannon swam in the first 2 miles or so, though the boat and swimmer recovery was remarkably quick, given the fast water. The rapid that was usually a IV+ or so was a solid V. Nobody had real clean lines; I had a small side-surfing episode in the middle of it, but it was fine. I punched one of the biggest holes I've ever gone through. And then one huge hole sent me on the biggest stern squirt I've ever had. It felt like almost all of my boat was out of the water. I thought I was going to be able to ride it out, until I only saw sky behind my bow. I went all the way over backwards, but a quick roll got me upright again.

Sunday was Black Rock at 1000. I showed a couple of MN boaters, Burgess and John, the way down. They had big eyes. Both of them walked the narrows, and we all walked rigor mortis. Everything else went pretty cleanly; all of the lines are the same, the holes and waves are just quite a bit bigger. Wavetrains on the lower were tall, and scremaing quarter mile was pretty busy. Fortunately, we didn't have any carnage.

Today, Bridger and I were back on Black Rock at 1100 or so. Wood was moving around some, but wasn't in play yet. Things were busy again, but the lines stayed the same. We both had issues in the Narrows; Bridger was flipped by the big hole after Mr. Bill; I was stern-squirted a bit and then had a pair of rolls over the top of big holes. It was nerve-wracking; a swim there would have been terrible. Screaming quarter mile was busy again, but there wasn't much that couldn't be punched or anticipated. I'd say screaming quarter mile today was on par with black rock or the narrows at 400 or 500.

Be careful out there boys and girls. There have been more posts on Mountainbuzz for lost gear and boats in the past couple of days than I've seen since I've gotten out here.

Black Rock, Gilman

2010-05-25T09:33:00.001+12:00

Got some more boating in this weekend. Saturday was Black Rock again, at getting-to-be-respectable levels, around 375. All of the lines went pretty smoothly, including my second run of Rigo. The canyon was really busy, probably due to the sunny day and good flows.

Sunday was a run on Gilman Gorge on strong medium levels, in the 450 neighborhood. A few from our group ran Homestake Creek as a steep and somewhat manky start to the gorge. Preston continued to have a rough start of the season with a broken paddle early on. With only a somewhat flimsy breakdown, he ended up walking the best rapids of the run. The fall creek trio of drops was a lot of fun; I had a great line on the boof rapid (twice), and managed to get away with a somewhat marginal line on the biggest of the 3. Only Ian ran Slurry Pipe, which had a beefy guardian hole and a junky run out. Nice day all around. The in-between stuff on the run was a lot more fun that I had remembered, and everything turned out to be a little more forgiving than it looked.

Prijon Pure First Impressions

2010-05-22T03:57:00.001+12:00

I've spent a couple of days demoing a Prijon Pure, first at Confluence Park through some pushy eddylines, then on the Black Rock stretch of Clear Creek at low flows (275 cfs). As for background information, I weigh around 175 lbs, and past creekers include a Perception Phat, Dagger Nomad 8.1, and a Liquid Logic Jefe. Most of my comparisons will be relative to the Jefe especially, since it was my most recent creekboat. Note that the Pure is longer than the Jefe, but has a similar volume (assuming that the companies calculate their volume similarly, which is doubtful). My favorite style of boating is IV+ to V- boulder gardens, with the occasional big (to me) drop thrown in for good measure.

Performance: the Pure feels like a sports car. Between the Nomad and the Jefe, I always felt like the Nomad was better in a straight line but hard to turn, and the Jefe was turn-ey but didn't have the same ability to hold a line. The Pure is faster than the Nomad and turns quicker than the Jefe. I still need to get used to all of the speed it carries. The chines make eddy turns snappy, as long as you use your hips. The combination of nimbleness and speed rewards someone who is paddling hard, but I think you can run into trouble if you're not paying attention, needing to throw in a big draw or rudder in order to correct a bad line and work against all of the speed. Likewise, the edges can get caught in eddylines if you're not actively driving the boat. Because of the speed and agility, I don't know that I'd recommend the boat to a beginning creeker, since I think the boat will punish you if you enter rapids without driving the boat where you want it to go. If you decide where you want to go though, the boat GOES.

The boat boofs well, and the big upturned bow gets on top of the water quickly. Though I'm near the middle of the suggested paddler weight range, I had a fair bit of boat out of the water, and rode high for the most part. The boat seems to have more rocker in the water than it does on photos; on flat water the tip of my bow was probably 3 inches out of the water or so. A little bit of boof stroke goes a long ways.

The bow and stern are both slightly peaked, which makes resurfacing and rolls easy, though I haven't rolled it in heavy whitewater yet.

Design/Build: One of the big reasons I was interested in the Pure was the plastic. Blow-molding makes a much more durable boat than rotomolding, but the molds are expensive and it takes the blow-molding companies (Prijon, Eskimo) a long time to recoup their costs on a boat. As a result, most blow-molded boats on the market are a few years behind the design curve; take a look at the Prijon Hercules as compared to the Nomad. The Pure is the most modern blow-molded design. It has no pillars, which makes it comfortable and easy to load for overnighters. The plastic is tough, and warrantied for 5 years.

Outfitting: Prijon took pains to make the outfitting easy to adjust, and used a lot of moving parts to do so. The backband is the standard snowboard-ratchet setup found in many modern boats, and works fine. Hip pads are held in place by a ratchet system as well, which seems overly complicated, and which I'll probably replace with foam and duct tape. Knee/thigh braces are comfortable and adjustable.

The footbrace system is particularly complicated: the brace slides forward and back on metal railings that move freely and are attached to the sides of the boat. It's held in place by a 2" piece of webbing on each side, which is slack when you're out of the boat, and tightens against the pressure of your feet. You can easily adjust the position of the footbrace by tightening or loosening the webbing straps. The downside is that the whole system feels loose in the boat, is overly complicated, and is topped off with an aluminum footbrace, which feels heavy (though tough). I'll likely try replacing the system with the guts of a Nomad, ad I don't need to adjust it once I have the footbrace where I want it.

Overall: At my weight and ability level, the Pure is the sportiest boat I've ever paddled, and I think it will perform well if you tell it where you want it to go. It's my new creekboat, so look for another review down the road after I get a better feel for its performance.

Esca

2010-05-18T05:58:00.000+12:00

Loading up for the drive to the west slope

Escalante Again

2010-05-18T05:54:00.000+12:00

Got another weekend in at Escalante. This time around we had a little less water, but we were still on the good side of low. I got one lap in on Saturday, and two in on Sunday, hitting the inner gorge (minus the falls) all three times. The inner gorge was quite a bit easier than I had expected, though I think the lower flows were somewhat responsible. We had a couple of swims at waterslide again, which seems to be racking up some victims.

There were probably 20-30 boaters on the water over the course of the weekend. We camped with about 15 of them at a big campsite, which was a lot of fun. It seemed like one person from each small group knew someone else in another, and so on. Rainy weather on Saturday, but a 75 degree bluebird day on Sunday. Aaaand I'm sunburned.

Esca

2010-05-13T11:49:00.000+12:00

More Escalante

Esca

2010-05-13T09:27:00.001+12:00

Rib Ripper on escalante.

Escalante

2010-05-12T04:50:00.001+12:00

Had a really fun weekend out at Escalante last weekend. Escalante is really the beginning of the colorado boating season. It's a desert run out by Grand Junction in a beautiful sandstone canyon, which contains a more intimate granite (I think) canyon. The upper canyon is full of class IV, with a couple of V- drops to keep things interesting. Then, if you're feeling saucy, you can run the inner gorge, which contains a couple of unportageable, soft-ish Vs and Escalante Falls. I didn't fire up the gorge last weekend, but if I go back this weekend it'll be on my list if I'm feeling good.

The camping and weather were both beautiful. We had a couple of swims in our group the first day, but nothing too major. I felt good on the first day, and great on the second day; on day 2 I was right where I wanted to be in all of the major rapids. The water was medium on Saturday, and medium-high on Sunday. Lots of plastic in the canyon, but we managed to get on the water early on Sunday, so we were even home with daylight left. Hope to get back this coming weekend. Photos coming soon.

More Spring Training

2010-05-04T08:44:00.001+12:00

Got in a little more spring training, this time in the playboat. The playpark at the confluence is only about 4 minutes from my house, handy since I forgot my drytop when I headed over there on Sunday. The park was at a decent level, with a couple of fun, bouncy waves to be found. I could use a little more roll practice, but I kept a dry head both days due to the lousy water quality. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the creekboat next weekend.

Gore Spring Training Continued

2010-04-27T10:49:00.001+12:00

We got out for another weekend at Gore, adding another 100 cfs while we were at it (the past three weekends, the flows have been 380, 500, and 600, respectively). The change was noticeable. Everything was just a little pushier and more padded. The weather didn't cooperate quite as much this time around, with rain/snow here and there, but a few peaks of sun evened things out a little. Gore rapid was quite a bit pushier, and at 600 you're still committed to running the meat. The seam I had subbed out in a couple of weeks ago was getting rowdier, but still flushed. That's where I ended up again. We probed most of the line options, and everything went fine; the secret turned out to be a very well-timed stroke in the first tongue of the rapid to keep you away from my seam.

The rest of the run went equally well, though I managed to get away with a couple of other marginal lines. I went left a pyrite when I intended to go right, and I didn't get enough of a boof at tunnel and managed to flip in the aerated water below. When I was setting up to roll, I kept expecting to feel the chaos of the curtain hitting me in the side, but it never came. I rolled up with my bow against the big rock splitting the flow at the lip, and frantically back-paddled. Ian joined the swim team. Kirchbaum's was a blast, more water made it more fun, and I finally ran it without trying to pin myself midway through.

Another Gore Weekend

2010-04-21T11:59:00.001+12:00

We got up to gore canyon again this past weekend. I ran it both Saturday and Sunday, at about 500 cfs both days. The lines were all about the same as at 400 cfs; the main difference was that gore rapid was a little pushier, and that Kirchbaum's was quite a bit pushier and busier.

We had somewhat rainy weather that cleared up as we got on the water on Saturday. Everyone had somewhat junky lines at gore. Kevin started things off, getting a good boof over the ledge that creates Ginger, but landing somewhat on his edge and flipping in front of Gilligan's Island. John went next, floating into the first seam and getting flipped, then basically floating through the rest of the rapid. I was pulled faster than I expected toward the river-right seam, which stern-squirted me but left me upright. Preston had a good boof but a bad landing, and was shoved hard into a rock (probably indecision, but I was downstream at the time). Kevin hiked back up and ran the rapid again, finally running it cleanly.

Our lines were fine on the rest of the river; Tunnel at 500 cfs is a lot of fun, with a big boof over a 10 foot or so falls (though john proved that you could plug the falls and still be all right).

We camped at pumphouse overnight (beef tenderloin for dinner = great camp food). The next morning dawned foggy, but the fog quickly burned off into a beautiful day. Preston opted not to run on Sunday, feeling somewhat disoriented after the shot to the head the day before. Apparently he started feeling really out of it on the drive home, and a trip to the doctor confirmed that he had a concussion.

We had a big group on the water on Sunday; 9 boaters in all. I stuck my line at gore, and finally ran Scissors without getting flipped, which was a good feeling. Anna had a really junky line in tunnel, ending up exactly where you didn't want to be, but things turned out fine (after a few moments of horror). We had one swimmer for the day, not too bad considering the odds.

2010-04-21T11:58:00.001+12:00

Gore trip gone wrong

Early Season Gore

2010-04-16T05:29:00.001+12:00

We got out to Gore this weekend, and didn't even crash any vehicles! Flows were pretty low, around 380, but the flat water paddle into the canyon wasn't too terrible; we were only hung up a couple of times. The drops in the canyon itself were all really creeky. It was interesting, you could see where all of the gradient comes from when things are running at regular flows. The line at Gore was over a tongue, with a nice 4-5 ft boof onto a boil line. One of our group was pushed off line and subbed out into a seam, but resurfaced fine. I hit my line well on Gore, and then quit paying attention in Scissors. I was flipped by an entry tongue, tucked up, took a hit off of the bottom, and rolled up at the bottom of the drop. I smacked my thumb on a rock, but was otherwise fine.

Tunnel remained tricky, with a few laterals and holes guarding the approach to a deep 10 ft. falls. I misjudged the distance between the last hole and the lip of the drop, so I didn't get in as good of a stroke as I was hoping for. I hit the bottom boil/hole with a little too much angle and flipped, though when I rolled up I was clear of the falls. Kirchbaum's was full of eddy moves and little drops, just what the doctor ordered for spring training.

On Friday we got down to Confluence to work on some swiftwater rescue techniques. Good to get some rope-throws in, as well as remember what it's like to be a swimmer and have a rope thrown to you well. Great feeling.

2010-03-23T15:01:00.003+13:00

Well, the season has begun. I managed to get out to the confluence whitewater course both last weekend and this weekend in the playboat. It was nice to get back in the boat again, and remember how to balance in a boat and do things like eddy turns. Beautiful days, and boating down at the confluence, right in front of REI, makes you feel like you're a kayak ambassador. Bring on the water.

2009-09-05T05:57:00.001+12:00

Made it out to Gore last weekend at pretty juicy flows. I was more nervous than the run really warranted since I hadn't been in a boat for almost two months, but things went well. I had a bit of an ugly line at Gore Rapid; I didn't make a decision fast enough at Decision Rock and ended up getting pushed up onto that rock and the one below it, but I managed to stay upright and both of them had generous enough pillows that I was able to regain control and get out of there. The rest of the run went really well; Scissors was really clean and Kirchbaum's was a ton of fun. I might be able to get back there this weekend; we'll see.

2009-07-10T13:11:00.000+12:00

Last weekend Pete, Preston and I headed out to the Upper Animas to run a multi-day trip. We had originally planned to try and sneak in a run on South Mineral, but Pete had some sort of work/investment emergency and we didn't roll out of Golden until noon. We camped off of Lime Creek after talking to the good people at Four Corners and getting our camping situation setup.

The next morning we drove into Silverton and put in fairly late. The first few miles of river was beautiful, though pretty mellow. Flows were pretty low, around 850 cfs, so the boating was a little more technical and not the quintessential big-wave, big-hole Upper A experience. Regardless, it was a gorgeous canyon. We caught up with the commercial trip at Tenmile Rapid, where they were scouting and grabbing lunch. It was pretty mellow too; we could have soldiered through and boat-scouted it if we had wanted. We let them get ahead again so we would know where to socut No-Name Rapid, the biggest drop on the run (including Rockwood). As we boated down, we saw a few trains on the way up on the Durango-Silverton Railroad. I've been on the train before; my parents and I rode it in the winter up to Cascade.

No-Name was quite a bit more technical, with an S-move between holes above a sieve, and then a steep, just off-vertical slide. Everyone boated it cleanly, including the rafts. I was stuck in a little hole after the meat of the drop, but eventually surfed my way out of it. Things picked up a bit below No-Name; fun, technical, III+ creeking for the most part. Eventually we made it to Needleton, dropped off the commercial customers, and then boated with Dana, the head guide, down to 4 Corners' campsite below Needleton. We had kicked 4 Corners some cash, and we were able to use their tents, stoves, water purifiers, etc. We packed in some of our food and our clothes, and they were nice enough to pack in the rest of our food and, more importantly, our beer.

Camp was great; between the food that we and Dana had, we had a huge dinner. Noodles, corn on the cob, chicken breasts, baked beans, boiled potatoes with peppers and grilled shallots, and beef stew. Dessert was chocolate chips and burbon. Tough to go wrong. We all rolled to bed after a good game of Hot Dice.

The next morning, Dana hung back to wait for the next commercial trip, and we headed down towards the Rockwood Box. Broken Bridge Rapid was really straightforward, though it looked like things would pick up quite a bit at higher water. Then it was more III-III+ boogie on the way down to Rockwood, where we met up with some of Pete's friends who would lead us through Rockwood. We scouted Mandatory Thrashing, the first and probably biggest rapid in Rockwood, from the train tracks, though we couldn't see the line we would end up running. We had a pretty big crew, 7 altogether, but things boated pretty easily. Mandatory Thrashing was a little tricky, but the rest of the rapids in the run were really straightforward, mostly IV-IV+. I think the rating gets bumped up a little bit due to the confinements of the canyon; in a number of places the walls were probably 150 feet tall and 20 feet apart. It was probably the coolest canyon I've ever been in; made even better since I had seen it from the train on the canyon rim a couple of years ago. Fun, beautiful boating, without too much stress.

The take-out came too soon, followed by the steep but not too tough hike out to the railyard. We packed things up and drove up to South Mineral, where we scouted the short run which was really low. We could have geared up and dropped the 20-footer, Huck The System, but we were tired, the hike was meh, and dinner was calling, so we drove back down the canyon to look at Ice Lakes Creek. On the way, we managed to rocket-launch 2 creekboats off of the front of the car, since Pete's knots were sub-optimal.

That night we camped on a gravel bar with a group of other boaters inside Silverton. Camping was fun; we hiked up to just under where the firefighters were shooting off the fireworks, allegedly the best in Western Colorado. They were great; the echos bounced off of the mountains around the town and scared the hell out of the dogs.

The next morning we started the drive back to Denver, which turned out to be a lot longer than expected. Monarch Pass, between Gunnison and Salida, was closed due a big highway smashumup. We ended up driving down a dirt road through another pass stuck behind a host of RVs and boat trailers that were taking a beating on the rough road, and it added about 2 hours to the drive time. We had originally planned to run the Numbers, but after grabbing food in Buena Vista the boys decided to head home, and I stayed out in BV for an extra day to boat with Jeff and company, who had driven out from Indiana.

We camped up in Cottonwood Pass, and the next day got onto the Numbers bright and early. I put on just below Pine Creek and met up with the boys below #1. The run went smootly, though Kyle had a bit of a swim. The level was good, 2300-ish, and everything boated smoothly. After the run, I headed home.

Yesterday, Jeff, Preston, Kyle and I got onto Black Rock at around 500 cfs, medium levels. Things were pretty mellow, especially in the in-between bits, though the entrance to the Narrows was a lot trickier and narrower; I ended up getting typewritered quite a bit to the right and almost ended up in the rocks. That rapid is such a blast though; I always come out of it with a smile on my face once I get through the run-out. Preston and I took a hard look at Rigor Mortis, but when we looked at it from upstream it looked a fair bit worse than it did when we looked at it before putting on. Funny how that works.

2009-06-22T08:38:00.002+12:00

Got out on Black Rock and Upper Clear Creek the other night, and another Black Rock run a few days before that. BR is a really fun run; the Narrows is always a blast. I tore up my thumb a bit during our mid-week run; got caught on a funny rock in the Narrows that flipped me, but I recovered in plenty of time for the main event. On Friday I was turned around a bit in the bottom drop of the Black Rock rapid, but things worked out all right. I'd like to get out next weekend, but we have a simulated practice exam that is going to keep me around Denver. After that, hopefully a 2 day trip on the Animas if we have enough water for it.

2009-06-16T11:52:00.000+12:00

Upper Death. Real real scary.

Free campsite with a view of the Maroon Bells. Nice.

2009-06-15T13:03:00.002+12:00

Hopped on some good rivers this weekend. On Saturday, Bridger and I headed for Aspen to run Castle Creek and the Slaughterhouse stretch of the Roaring Fork. Castle Creek was fun, though far too short. Narrow slots through big boulders was the theme of the run. We ran into wood in a couple of spots, including in the crux drop, which required us to sneak around it in a bony channel. The level was fairly low, but the rocks were smooth and so were the lines.

Slaughterhouse was a lot of fun; it reminded me quite a bit of the Upper Yough. Big boulders in a fairly wide riverbed, with a fun falls in the middle of the run. The drops were all fairly easy and straightforward, but you could slice-and-dice the rapids into some fun moves if you were looking for them. While the boys ran shuttle I tried to catch some dinner, without any luck.

We camped up near Glenwood Springs at a nice little campsite in some BLM land. We heard more coyotes than cars, and I thrashed Bridger at Scrabble. The next morning we headed toward Vail, and scouted Upper Death of Barrel Springs on the Colorado. It was probably the most intimidating rapid I've seen; 6600 cfs dropping a ton of gradient into a huge, scary hole. We passed on Upper Death, and headed to Gilman Gorge, which was running high. The lead-in was a lot more interesting than usual, and the main drops were beefy. We walked the crux of fall creek, which dropped into a very ugly looking hole. The rest of the run ran clean, though I had a few issues with Boof Rapid. We walked Slurry Pipe as well, which looked passable but with a lot of room for screw-ups. It was a good run, but we'll have to get back there again once the flows drop a little bit so we can run the rest of it.

2009-06-08T11:57:00.003+12:00

Stepped things down a little bit this weekend. Yesterday I met up with a couple of guys from mountainbuzz and got on the Proving Grounds section of the North Saint Vrain. It was gorgeous, non-threatening class V-. I had a bit of an ugly line of the first major rapid and didn't make it to the section of it I wanted to (it was channelized, and I ended up in the right channel instead of the center one). The other drops went smootly. The canyon was really pretty; it was a nice break from paddling the blast rock of clear creek.

Speaking of blast rock, today we got on Lower Boulder Canyon, just above Boulder. We did the entire stretch, down from Blue Bridge. It was a fun run, and though Elephant Buttress was a lot of fun, it didn't really have any other "classic" rapids. Everything sort of blended together as the river kept cruising downhill. The playpark holes were surprisingly sticky, and at one point we saw three kids mucking about in a big, tow-behind-a-boat sort of an inner tube. I hung out to make sure they finally got themselves to shore, and managed to nose them into an eddy a bit. It was cold and hailing on us for a while, and I didn't want anybody to take a bad swim or go hypothermic. Though I liked the run, I'm not sure that I'll go out of my way for it all of that often; it seems like Black Rock or other front range runs give you more bang for your buck when it comes to class IV boating.

2009-06-02T17:22:00.003+12:00

Had a good batch of boating this past weekend. On Thursday, Zach and Joann were in from Indiana on their way out to Washington. We got on Lower Clear Creek and ran it to the dam with some new boating friends. It was fun; lots of bouncy wave trains and a few holes to watch out for. Then most of us saddled up for a run of Black Rock, which went almost without incident, though Zach was starting to look pretty beat after getting just a couple of hours of sleep and then some class V.

On Friday we got up to the Poudre drainage, and got on the Middle Narrows. It was my first time back there since my swim below the first IV+ on the run. The first rapid was busy, and Joann had a couple of rolls. After a little more boogie she decided that she was out; the outfitting in her new boat had shifted around some and she wasn't feeling comfortable in the big water. She walked the 20 or so yards up to the road. Zach and I continued on, dodging big holes and finishing the 2 mile or so run all too quickly. Then we all headed up to Spencer Heights, a class V stretch that is a significant step up from the middle narrows. We put in below Poudre Falls, and had a good time in the tight canyon below the put-in, though Zach pitoned once. Things opened up a little in Cyclotron, and we both had good lines through both that and Boneyard, though the hole at the bottom of Boneyard caused a bit of a problem. Then it was into another small canyon, with a group of fun, pushy, channelized drops between us and daylight. The class II section lulled us to sleep a bit, and we were woken up by the class IV boogie before the take out. It was a great run, and great to run with the Indiana crew again.

On Saturday, Bridger and I scouted The Source of Boulder Creek, an ultra low-water mank fest high above Boulder. We dropped our boats at the put-in and drove down, then hiked and scouted on the way back up. The level was low, even for that stretch of river, with tons of pin potential all over the place. There were a lot of rapids with terrible spots in them, and as we got higher and higher into the canyon it became impossible to remember them all. That, combined with an ugly, bony crux drop, finally convinced us to leave it for another day.

Finally, on Sunday we met up with a couple of guides and ran the South Saint Vrain, probably the hardest run I've ever completed. I've definitely ran more intimidating and more difficult rapids, but never have I had to deal with so much run-on-the-fly class V water. After scouting the river on the way up, I took solace in the fact that the road was a mere 20 yards away. The opening rapid went surprisingly smoothly, and gave me a needed boost of confidence. Though the level was low, things went pretty smoothly for me on the whole, and I was pretty happy with my lines through most of the junk. I had a couple of moments where holes or eddy lines threw me up on my edge, and I had to make a focused effort to not flip and bash my face into rocks. Fortunately, I succeeded.

I did run into problems above the last big ledge hole above the narrows. We boated down a slot that was only a bit wider than a creekboat, and as I was reaching for another paddle stroke, my paddle stuck in the slot and I cruised past it. I grabbed onto a tree on a small island in the center of the current, and watched my paddle get loose and float past me. Then I started slipping from the tree and the eddy. I floated along, trying to claw my way over to the paddle before I reached the 4 foot drop. I didn't make it. I dropped into the hole at an angle and got flipped. Then I took what was perhaps the least consequential swim on the SSV. I swam directly into an eddy, my boat pinned about 10 yards downstream, and I chased my paddle for 40 yards or so until it was caught in a hole and eventually resurfaced in an eddy, where I snatched it. Lucky.

Only one person from our group ran the Big Narrows, a string of 4 or so big drops with little chance to reset. Then we finished some very busy class V or so boogie until we got to 1 in 5, a small, funky waterfall in a tight slot. The name refers to your swim odds. I dropped in as the last of 5 paddlers, all of whom before me had ran it without mishap. I managed to get through as well, flipping in the runout and scuffing a few knuckles, but escaping relatively unscathed.

2009-05-26T16:44:00.004+12:00

The goods, 1st gorge of Clear Creek of the Ark.

Scouting Clear Creek.

The BV Rodeo.

BV Scenery.

Had a good string of 3 days of boating, though it should have been 4. On Friday Bridger and I got on Black Rock at a pretty high level. Bridger was in a brand new Nomad after realizing his Habitat was cracked on the way to my apartment, so we had to swing by Confluence Kayaks to get a new rig. The flow was juiced, but manageable. Bridger had a roll in some of the in-between stuff, and I flipped in the run-out of the big hole in the narrows, but I managed to get myself upright before the third drop of the series. In the runout of the narrows, I tried to boof a fan rock that I got pushed into, hung up on it, then dropped into a hole, stern-squirted, and flipped. I got half a roll and a good breath, and then flipped again. I felt myself sliding down a drop, and then stopped. I rolled up, side-surfing, in a huge hole. I managed to pull myself out into the corner of the hole and around the corner. Good thing too; I was pretty winded by that point. The rest of the run was uneventful.

The next day we headed out to Buena Vista for Paddlefest. We got on the Numbers at about 2200 cfs, a healthy flow. It was a fun run, with a lot of big hole dodging and tall wave trains. No real big excitement, aside from the occasional roll in squirreley water. We had planned to camp, but with the incoming rain and a friend of a friend of a friend who owned a house in town, we opted for a roof. We grabbed some food and beer, and then watched the finals of the pro rodeo at the BV play park. Then the rain set in, and we missed getting a table at the new brewpub. We managed to get K's takeout instead, and tag along to a brownie sundae party next door. Not too shabby.

The next morning we got onto the Clear Creek of the Arkansas, a fast-and-not-quite-furious V- that trundles down the mountains of Independence Pass. We blue-angelled the whole thing, dodging some holes (a few of which were a little stickier than expected) and only getting a chance to rest in a couple of eddies. It was a really busy little creek, fun but boat abusive. Afterwards, instead of getting in another lap on the dropping creek and beating up boats and paddles more, we went back to the Numbers and routed it in less than an hour, and then headed home.

Today we had planned to get on the Big Thompson, one of our favorite runs. But for some reason, the gauge reading didn't match up with what was actually happening on the river. The gauge read over 300 cfs; a decent medium level, but the creek could have had more than 150 in it, making it pretty much unboatable, or maaaaybe float-able with massive amounts of boat abuse. What should have been a fun, short run of a great creek turned into a drive to Loveland. Oh well.

2009-04-29T13:49:00.002+12:00

Video from Swallow Falls

2009-04-29T10:09:00.002+12:00

Photos from the Top Yough.

Me on Swallow Tail
Swallow falls. That little bit in the middle is me.

Zach, Swallow Tail

Zach, Swallow Falls. I'm sitting in the eddy.

Boogie.

2009-04-29T02:16:00.002+12:00

Had a great weekend of paddling. Headed out with Zach, Jeff, and Joanne to the east coast. We crashed at Joanne's friend's house in Pittsburgh on Thursday night, which was a welcome change from sleeping on the ground. Then we headed to the Upper Yough in Maryland. The level was padded but not crazy, and we had a good run. Joanne was in a Diesel, while the three of us were in creekboats. She got pushed around a little more than we did and had a few rolls, and I think was pretty gripped when we were in the steep stuff. She did well though. We routed everything pretty quickly, since a release was scheduled for later in the afternoon and it would have made things pretty high. We got off before the bubble though, and headed up to the Top Yough.

The Top Yough was steeper and lower-volume than the Upper. Jo decided to run shuttle, and Zach, Jeff, and I put on. After just a hundred yards or so of warm-up rapids, we got to Swallow Falls, which dropped 30 feet or so, starting as a slide that steepened into what approached vertical. We scouted, Jeff decided to walk it, and Zach and I fired it up. Jo took footage; it should be posted sometime soon. We both had pretty clean lines, with hardly any impact in the run-out. Then we scouted Swallow Tail, a 4-5 foot ledge with a stick hole at the bottom. It looked a little intimidating, but it was pretty automatic.

The three of us routed the next couple of rapids with Zach in the lead, though not too far down Jeff got pushed the wrong way above a drop and ended up getting pulled into the backwash of a hole. He rolled a few times, got windowshaded, and swam. Zach picked him up, while I ran after his gear. We eventually got all of the bits reunited, and Jeff decided to walk off the river. Zach and I routed the rest of it on our own, with him in the lead. The rapids were great; plenty of padding, and everything comfortably boat-scoutable. We walked Suck Hole, which has a pillow that feeds a sieve about half-way through a complicated rapid. When we got back to the cars, I had a message from my realtor that my house had sold. Good day.

We camped at Riversport, a local kayaking school and gear shop, grilled out, and had a few drinks. The next morning we headed back to the Top Yough, and Zach and I put in another lap. My lines on Swallow and Swallow Tail weren't quite as clean; I was put up on my edge on Swallow and had a little too much of an angle on Swallow Tail. The rest of the run went smoothly.

We ran the Loop on the Lower Yough, a class III playboat run with some decent play on it. Then it was back to the cars to the site of the Stony Creek Rendezvous, a paddling festival that was quite a bit bigger than I expected it to be. We got a late-afternoon run in on Stony Creek, which felt low, and definitely wasn't worth the long, long flat water paddle out. The festival grounds were fun though, we cooked out again and had a drink or two. They had live music, gear vendors, lights on the play hole at night; it was a pretty fun scene. Zach got housed and booted out the tent door, but was ready to rally in the morning.

We decided to take the hit and do the driving to get to the Middle Fork of the Tygart, which we ran into the Tygart Gorge. I had done the run a couple of years ago, but the water level this past weekend was quite a bit lower. The rapids were fun though, and everything had enough water so that we weren't grinding on anything. I was on the sharp end, eddy hopping downstream and showing lines with hand gestures and whistles. The whole crew worked well together, and lines were generally clean. That changed a bit on the last rapid before the confluence, a tricky boof above a piton rock. Joanne ran the meat of the rapid fine, but relaxed a bit too much in front of an undercut wall. She took a bit of a beating through the rest of the rapid, getting half-rolls in between getting hammered by rocks. She eventually stuck her roll though, and came out of it all right.

The main gorge of the Tygart had 3-4x the volume of the Middle Fork, so the character changed from low-water creeking to big-water hole-dodging. We scouted a couple of rapids, and caught up to a larger group for a little bit. Everything else was pretty read-and-run, just watch out for the horizon lines. We got into a little more trouble at Hook, a rapid that is tough to read from the top, and has a few tricky holes above a big S-Turn that doges two BIG holes. Zach and I ran through it, but Joanne got caught on a hole on the top, surfed and tossed around for a while, and then swam. At one point when she was swimming through the rapid, all we could see was her hand sticking out of the water, and then it disappeared. Kinda scary. After a two-count, she reappeared. Zach and I were there, and she managed to grab Zach's boat while Jeff and I went after her boat. We got the two reunited, but not until after she saw a black bear during the hike. Exciting day.

That was it for the meat of the rapids; after some smaller stuff we were at the take-out railroad tracks, which we had to hike for half a mile or so, only to find out that Jeff and Joanne had parked the take-out vehicle at the wrong bridge. Fortunately, the other group of kayakers caught up to us, and we were able to hitch a ride with them before the long drive back to South Bend.

2009-04-01T11:15:00.001+13:00

Some photos of the Elbow on the Little, taken by a friendly bystander (big audience for that run).

2009-03-31T08:24:00.002+13:00

Got some good Tennessee boating in this weekend. Ran Cain Creek into the North Chick on Friday. It was a full-on run, starting with the micro creek of Cain, and flowing into some bigger water creeking on the North Chick. Walked Vortex on Cain, which looked big and scary, and cracked my boat just below the seat on Big Splat, which necessitated some patch work on the side of the river. We worked our way onto the Chick through some pretty intense boulder gardens, and some blind drops on the bottom of Cain. It turned into a 12 or 13 mile day; we were probably on the river for a little over 6 hours. I swam once after getting my paddle stuck between two rocks on a somewhat manky drop. All of my gear was recovered, save one of my gloves. I was fine too; the swim was pretty easy, though I almost leaked out of an eddy and into a rock.

We had 5 swims throughout the group of 12. Everyone was pretty tired by the end, and my boat was sloshing with water from my somewhat-patched crack. It was a great run overall; the gradient just never really stopped. I don't think we ever had an eddy or slack water larger than an average living room. I've ran harder and longer runs, but never a run near this length with this sort of sustained difficulty.

We grabbed a hotel room that night so we could dry out my boat and slap on a heat-enforced duct tape weld, which held up for the rest of the weekend. The next morning, after calling around for gauge readings and visuals, we headed to the Sinks of the Little, up in the Smoky Mountains. It was a gorgeous run. Unfortunately, the biggest drop of the sinks, an 11' or so falls, had a log in it that prevented us from running it safely. We portaged, and ran the rest of the run. Some good, mellow boulder gardens, and a couple almost-blind drops that we boat scouted. It was a good day, and a nice reprive from the intensity of Friday.

We camped outside of Wartburg, TN, played some dice, and slept through a short thunderstorm. The next morning we got up early, did a quick canvassing of the campground, and headed to the Lower Crooked. We had considered doing the upper, but it was running high and there was a 20' falls that we didn't really want to deal with on the upper. Add that to the upper's short length, and we were in for a high-water run on the lower. We ran into a couple of guys from Knoxville and ran down with them. The run was all right, with some interesting boulder gardens and ledge drops at the beginning and end, though they were separated by a few miles of class II. All of the drops were pretty straight-forward as well; I don't think I'd get back on it unless some of the other runs in the area like the Little Clear or Island were dry.

2009-03-17T08:45:00.002+13:00

Kevin, Zach and I got in another weekend of paddling this past weekend. Kev picked me up at O'Hare, we fetched Zach in South Bend, and then rolled all the way down to the Russel Fork, pulling in around 3am. We woke up and grabbed breakfast, and the Russel Fork was on the rise, quickly heading to the bad in-between levels that looked a little scary for us. We headed to the Guest River Gorge in Virginia, which was at minimum flows. We put on around noon, figuring we would hitch hike back up when we got to the bottom.

The run was a lot of fun; plenty of gradient that just wouldn't quit. It was a little low, but still boatable (though bumpy). We walked a couple of drops that needed a little more water to run safely, and a number of times one of us would hop out to scout a horizon line, then give verbal directions to the other two. Other times, we just boat-scouted.

No real carnage to speak of; the river was a lot of fun, with a lot of rapids and a lot of moves that flowed smoothly into each other. We were all pretty tired when we got to the confluence of the Clinch; the take-out was supposed to be nearby. We apparently missed it; floating down miles of the Clinch until it started to get dark. We eventually took out in somebody's back yard and asked for directions, and a very nice coal mine inspector gave us a lift back to the car.

The Tennessee Plateau was getting hammered with rain, so we started driving again. It was a tough drive; we were all exhausted from the little bit of sleep the night before and the long day on the river. We had to stop and nap for a while, but eventually rolled into Wartburg around 2am.

The next morning we tied in with a group of Nashville boaters and headed to Island Creek. Island was packed with people; I counted at least 30 boats on this tiny creek that day. It's a gem that rarely runs, and when it goes a lot of people try and catch it. Our local guides were fantastic, and we were treated with a gorgeous micro-canyon, with lots of little slides, one complicated, manky drop, and another surf wave that was in a cave. It was a great run, and over too soon. While the locals headed to Little Clear Creek, we were forced to head for home, since it was already 2:30 and we had a long drive to get back home. All in all, it was a great trip, with a lot of really fun, class IV boating that was exciting but non life-threatening.

A shot from Island Creek:

2009-03-17T08:44:00.000+13:00

Rolling back to Indiana in the Saturn.

2009-02-24T09:11:00.001+13:00

Headed down to Kentucky and Tennessee this past weekend with Jeff and Zach. Camped at the Rockcastle Friday night, and had a chilly night. In the morning we got in an early run (post-coffee, of course). It was pretty, with a fun class IV at the start, a bit of flat water, then some fun class III boogie. Then it was down to Tennessee for Clear Creek with some more HCC members. Clear Creek was pretty fun; slalom-style class III ish boulder gardens that allowed for a lot of different moves. Zach joined the swim team after he couldn’t get out of a hole on the Obed (which clear creek fed into), and we muscled through the flat water to the takeout. It was beautiful all day, 45 or 50 and bright blue skies.

We got a hotel room in Oenida and ate some tasty bbq, then dried out our gear and watched the snow start to fall. The next morning it was cold; we grabbed breakfast at the Huddle House (think Waffle House). In the parking lot, some lady was taking photos of the police cars parked outside, and the cops questioned us on whether we saw where her car went. Odd. We ran the Big South Fork of the Cumberland. It was really, really cold. The river was fine; a little underwhelming. Sharon joined Zach on the swim team roster; we were lucky she was wearing a dry suit. We were off the river early, and managed to get home at a somewhat reasonable hour, which was a nice change of pace. I think I’m starting to come down with a touch of a cold; cold weather camping probably didn’t help much. Anyway, it was a pretty good warm-up trip, but we hope to get on some steeper stuff soon.

2008-10-03T06:12:00.003+13:00

Went out to surf 10 footers on Lake Michigan with Jeff and Zach. Caught some good ones, and was closed out by one wave that sent me deep; I heard my ears pop while I was still in my boat. The waves were pretty irregular, some dumping, some mushy, others were just strange and irregular. I was catching some good waves, though a few were closing out on me. I got onto one that ramped up huge. I couldn't get down the face of the wave fast enough, and it ended up carrying me up to the peak. "Oh fuck," I says to myself, and go over the falls hard. I was stretched out on my back deck, trying not to pitch-pole, but it was of no use. I landed on my face, and my cockpit rim was smashed into the small of my back. I rolled up in pain, and then had to get out of the way of the next wave that was right behind it.

I managed to surf into shore, wincing in pain. I pulled myself out of my boat and watched my buddies surf for a little longer. When they came in I was still in some pain, but it wasn't too bad. Got worse when I had to walk to the car and change out of my clothes. I hung out on the beach for a while while they surfed and the back felt all right, but when I had to get back to the car I was in a lot of pain. The ride back to South Bend put me in a lot of pain; I had to keep shifting my center of gravity which made it a ride full of pain.

The boys dropped me off at home, and I tried to self-medicate with a couch, beer, and alleve, but it wasn't enough. The spasams were still terrible, and A. took me to the doctor, and then to a hospital. After an X-Ray and a CT, we found out that I hadn't broken a vertebra, but a disk was slightly displaced, and I had heavy straining. Now I'm fairly doped up and putting in some heavy couch time. Might make the Russel Fork in a week and a half, but it's looking a little doubtful.

2008-09-24T01:33:00.002+12:00

Got out to Gauley fest this weekend; probably the biggest paddling festival in the country. I'd say there were 1000+ people there, setup in a big tent city at what looked to be a county fairgrounds. We rolled in early friday morning, and ran the lower on Friday, which was a bit of a let-down. The friday release was a little lower than usual, and the river wasn't all that playful. We ran the upper on both Saturday and Sunday, which was a lot more fun, though I was wishing I had brought my creekboat instead of my playboat. There wasn't all that much play, and it would have been nice to be a little more comfortable. I almost didn't paddle on Sunday; after we had shuttle set one of my buddies realized that he had forgot his helmet in the car, which was now at the bottom of the run. I volunteered to be shuttle bunny, but we eventually tracked down another helmet. Pretty clean runs both days, and weather that looked like it was ordered from a catalog.

The rest of the festival was fun; lots of vendors selling gear I don't really need, and some good videos shown on big screens around the fields. Managed to get home around 1:30, after getting a ticket from one of South Bend's Finest.

2008-09-12T02:58:00.000+12:00

Got out on Lake Michigan the other day for a little bit of surfing, and have been getting on the east race a couple times a week since I've been back in school. Starting to cool off; almost dry top weather now.

2008-08-11T12:36:00.000+12:00

A full quiver.

2008-08-10T05:04:00.002+12:00

The boating season is about over. After I got back from MN, I got another run in on Bailey to wind things down. I almost swam after getting pulled under a rock at one point, but managed to finally stick my roll. We had a swimmer from our group in one of the steeps, and Bridger and I chased the guy's boat down to just above Deer Creek. It was a bit of a day, but all in all a pretty good way to close out the season.

Before that I got in a run on the Golden whitewater park, which was fine but full of tubers (the people in the rubber rings, not the potato family).

2008-07-07T04:15:00.002+12:00

Had a good run on black rock on Wednesday; lots of water and a good crew.

Bridger and I ran Bailey on Friday and had some issues. It was just the two of us with pretty high flows and clear skies. Bridger had a roll on the second of five falls; he jacked his shoulder once but was otherwise ok. We had clean lines through most of the steeps, and then both walked Supermax.

Not too far after, I was slowed down by a hole and instead of being separated, we were just about on top of each other. On the next little drop, Bridger followed the current down a smooth line to the right, while I boofed a bit of a ledge hole into a boiling eddy. As it turned out, the eddy was much more boil than eddy. I started digging when I realized I was getting pulled back, and then I was in the pourover. I carped for air once, but didn't get much. As I tried to roll, I was spun around and thrown between the boil and the hole. I ended up swimming.

The swim sucked. It was fast-moving class IV, and nearly eddyless. My legs were smashed among rocks as I tried to swim for shore, then around bigger rocks that also tried to kick the crap out of me. Bridger jumped out of his boat and tried to get a rope to me, but I was well past him by the time he was in position. I finally drug myself out of the water about 300 yards downstream, in a significant amount of pain. Fortunately, my paddle floated leisurely by, and we were able to retrieve it before Bridger ran downstream after my boat, which was eventually recovered. The only thing missing was the bootie with the broken zipper that had been sucked off of my foot.

We reassembled ourselves and finished the run, walking the Deer Creek rapid, since I wasn't paddling very well (exhausted, hurt, a little shaken). The rest of the run finished out fine, though I've been limping around for the past couple of days. I might make it out to the Confluence to roll a bit, but I won't be creeking until my legs heal up.

2008-07-02T14:18:00.000+12:00

Some photos from CB; all of Daisy and OBJ

2008-06-25T11:14:00.002+12:00

CB Campsite

Storms

6/13

Another black rock run. Smooth sailing, despite the date.

6/14

Got up to the Narrows of the Poudre to meet up with a guy I hadn't boated with before. We had high water, and should have been in for a good time. Things being as they were, I swam at the run-out of the first rapid, Sports Car Corner. I had relaxed after the rapid and was flipped by a lateral wave. As I was setting up to roll, my paddle hit a rock and was pulled out of my hands. I was screwed. I pulled out of my boat, considered hanging onto it for a second, then gave it up and started heading for shore. The swim sucked; I sucked in a lot of water and was happy to pull myself into an eddy, despite being sans paddle and boat and left shoe. I climbed out, and our shuttle bunny picked me up and we drove down to where the other boater had corralled my boat. The paddle never showed up. I was eventually driven back to my car and I changed clothes (the drysuit kept me dry throughout the ordeal) and started hiking the river to find the paddle.

The paddle never showed up, though I did find the Nalgene bottle that came out of my boat. The paddle is still unreturned. Weak. A 10 second mistake and a $300 paddle down the drain.

I ended up killing some time in Ft. Collins waiting to hang out with a buddy of mine, but when he was late I headed for Denver. I made a bit of a half-hearted attempt to paddle the next day, but we couldn't find a guide, so I ended up hanging around town.

6/17

Another Black Rock run, this one with a ton of people. I think we had 10 boaters or so on the run at the same time. Bridger and I ran together as usual, and cleaned everything. We saw a couple somewhat sketchy runs of Rigor Mortis, the V at the bottom of the run, and I packed up to go catch my softball game.

6/21

Bridger, A. and I headed out to Crested Butte to do some creeking. Though there was a race on Oh be Joyful, we figured we should be able to avoid some of the crowds and get some boating in. We rolled in pretty late and set up camp in the dark. After a pretty chilly night, we awoke to clear skies.

We hiked the Slate River, since the put-in was right at our campsite. Unfortunately, we found a pile of wood in the middle with a narrow line around it and a bit of an ugly portage. That, combined with mediocre drops, lead us to opt out of the run. A. came along for the scout, which was too bad, since it was a bit of a sloppy, bushwhacking mess.

We headed up to Daisy Creek, which involved a river ford that the FJ handled with abandon, and some 4-wheeling to get to the put-in. We tied in with another group and walked the whole thing, scouting for rapids and wood. One of our crew decided to walk, and the remaining 4 fired everything up. Things went smoothly to start; everything boated a little easier than it looked. Then Mike broke his boat on a fan-tail rapid and we had to patch it while scouting Big Wood Falls, which everyone paddled cleanly. We boated down to Rip Your Head Off, which only I ran. It was a fun rapid, boating fairly easily, though I lost a contact in the last part of the drop when I was keeping my eyes wide open to make sure I wasn't off-line and headed for the head-ripping rock.

We went over to Oh Be Joyful (OBJ) to scout it and catch the tail end of the race that was going on. Then we headed over to the East with a new guy we had met up with. We dropped our boats at the top and our car at the bottom, then hiked the 3/4 mile shuttle. We had good flows, and it was a roller-coaster of fun slides and surprisingly big holes for the size of the riverbed. We took out above Stupid Falls 10 or 15 minutes after we had put on.

We headed into CB for dinner and supplies, though I was battling a headache that was either from dehydration or from borrowing one of A.'s contacts to make it through the weekend. We probably headed for the tents around 9 after a long day of hiking and boating.

6/22

After waking up early and breaking camp, we headed for OBJ. It would be my second time on the run (after breaking a paddle on the 25 footer the first time out) and Bridger's virgin run. We hiked our boats up the whole thing, memorizing the order of the drops.

The put-in is on a pile of rocks about 4 paddle strokes from the first drop, a falls of around 15'. We fired things up after resting at the tail end of the hike and getting into the right headspace to run the river. Though a lot of people talk about OBJ as a low-skill plop-and-drop, they're usually class V boaters that have lapped the run dozens of times. As a first or second timer, it's still very steep.

The first drop went smoothly for both of us, and we headed downstream through some small slides. The second falls of any significance is preceded by a tricky lead-in. I penciled more than I would have liked, but ran it clean. Bridger came in at an angle and was rolled at the hole at the bottom, but hit his roll.

Then came a slide with nasty rock on the left-hand side and a hole at the bottom. I had a fairly clean run and continued on towards the big falls, catching the bathtub-sized setup eddy before it and resting for a bit. Bridger was a long time coming. He had gotten stuck at the hole at the bottom of the slide and almost didn't make it out. When he finally did, he was tired and a bit rattled, and rested before meeting me in the setup eddy. It was around then that I started to have second thoughts about running another lap.

The 25 footer (or 30 footer, depending on who you ask) could have gone better; I didn't charge left hard enough and almost smashed my bow on a rock shelf in the right side of the LZ. I bumped it a bit with my bow, and surfaced somewhat sideways and was flipped by the curtain. I fought back to the surface and away from the wall and into the clear. Bridger had a pretty clean line.

The real tough stuff was over, though we both got caught in surprisingly large holes in the bottom slide.

As we were taking out, Bridger mentioned that he thought one lap for the day might be enough. I couldn't agree more. At those flows, it was just a little too sketchy for us to really be having fun on the water. Happy we had ran it, we were equally happy to head back to the truck and home.

2008-06-10T17:01:00.002+12:00

6/7

Got out onto Alto-Alto with Bridger. We had good flows (900 or so), and had A. as our shuttle bunny, and even a sunny day. Unfortunately, the run itself didn't quite measure up to the rest of the circumstances. Billed as a great class IV run, it had a single class IV rapid, which boated pretty easily. It was a pretty run, and it was good to jump on a new river, but I wouldn't get in line to do it again.

6/8

Since we couldn't find a guide to take us on some of the local Vs, Bridger and I headed back to the Big Thompson, which was a blast. We both fired up Cannon Shot, and had a great run of the rest of the river. It was good to get some of my confidence back after stomping some of the lines, and it took all of four minutes to hitch a ride back to the top. We even found some orphaned gear; a paddle in an eddy and a boat pinned up against a logjam. We had some rescue practice with the boat, and managed to get both the boat and the paddle out of the river and into the car. It isn't very often that we come back with more gear than we left with. I put up a post on mountainbuzz and learned that 2 boats and paddles had been abandoned when a boater swam and dislocated his elbow, and his buddy ditched his boat to follow. The rightful owners are coming for the gear later this week. If they're nice, they'll bring scotch. Fun day altogether; it's hard to not have a good time in continuous class IV.

2008-06-05T14:51:00.002+12:00

5/30

Got another run in on Black Rock. Everything went really smoothly, and I made a new paddling friend. Can't complain much.

5/31

Headed out to the Big Thompson, which had water. Neither Bridger nor I had run it before, but it looked like lots of read and run III+ to IV+; challenging stuff but nothing life threatening. We looked at the Sluff Section, which contained lots of gradient, two ugly drops and one pretty one. I ended up running the pretty one, Cannon Shot, which lead us into what was essentially one big 4 mile rapid. Things went really well; we even handled the surprise IV+ section well, and blew through the whole thing in about an hour. Then we hitched back to the top of the run, where two other groups were putting on, and we let ourselves get talked into a second run. This time around we both fired up Cannon Shot, and headed downstream with the group. When we got to the class IV+ stuff above Drake, one of our members portaged, while I lead the group into the rapid again, eddying out behind a big rock about half way through. I was feeling good, especially since I had a clean run on it last time, and I dropped in. Things went well until the end, when I started feeling tired after a series of boofs and holes.

A hole near the bottom of the rapid tried to flip me, and I half-assed my brace and was flipped. I floated into a hole upside down, which surfed me for a bit before it let me go and I could roll up. As I was rolling up I saw a 3 ft wide slot that I was headed toward, and I tried to put in one more paddle stroke to straighten out, but it was too late. My bow caught on one rock and the force of the current jammed my stern against the other and pinned me solidly. I could reach the bottom of the river with my vertical paddle, which I leaned on, and assessed my situation. Water was pouring over my boat and my body, covering me to mid-chest. I could breathe, and I was stable. Things could have been worse. I blew my whistle three times hard, and prepared myself for waiting things out until my buddies could eddy out below me, get out of their boats, and come to help me.

Moments later I felt a tap on my helmet and someone grabbed both straps of my PFD. The boater who portaged the rapid, Frenchie, had heard my whistle and was standing on the rock behind me. "What do you want to do?" he asked. I replied "I'm stable, and I can breathe, and I can reach my sprayskirt. I'll count to three, pull my skirt, and try to step out of the boat. Pull me out." I counted down, pulled, and he extracted me and dropped me into three inches of water next to the rock he was standing on. I didn't even have to take a swim. As I was getting out of my boat, one of the other boaters in our crew got into trouble in the same spot and almost ended up pinning as well; we grabbed the bow of his boat and pulled it over the top of mine so he wouldn't get stuck. That dislodged my boat and we chased it downstream, where a couple of the other boaters eventually pinned it again near shore where I could get to it. All of my gear was still there. I was ok, the boat was ok. Not too shabby.

We ran the rest of the river down to the park and headed home. Aside from the sketchy bit, the Big T has made it onto my list of favorite rivers. Really busy, not too tough but not too easy either.

2008-05-27T11:37:00.002+12:00

5/23

Got in another after-work run of the Black Rock section of Clear Creek. It has more water, and was a lot more fun. Could even do with a bit more. Was out there with another new boating friend, and we both took a look at Rigor Mortis, the class V that ends the run. After a bit of consideration, we decided to run it. He ran first, and I set safety with a rope. We needed it. He folded into the very seam that we told each other you didn't want to go deep in, and he flipped into the big hole and swam. He got into an eddy quickly and safely, but his gear didn't. I chased his boat for over half a mile in all of my gear. I'm not much of a runner. His paddle eventually pinned vertically where he could get it, and I kept racing after his boat, which eventually pinned on a rock where I could get to it. I was exhausted. The rescue took way too much time, and I was eventually late for the dinner reservations A. and I had made. She took it well.

5/24

Headed out to Boulder to run the lower stretch of Boulder Creek. It didn't have close to enough water. Most of the run was sliding over rocks, aside from one channelized narrows section, which was a lot of fun. It was interesting to get on a run and paddle with new partners, but I won't be dropping everything to get out to the run again anytime soon, unless it's running with 4x the water.

5/25

Got out on Lower South Boulder with another new group, which I managed to be sort of the organizer for, even though I hadn't met any of them. Flows were good, and we had plenty of sun as we put on in the afternoon. We portaged the 3 big rapids, all except for Mariah, who ran Bridge Falls, a complicated, somewhat manky drop. She styled it, and showed up all of the boys. The bulk of the run was really fun, boat-scoutable class IV, my favorite style of boating. We also got to drop off a 30 foot dam drop, which gave everybody some major butterflies but boated easily. The crack in Craig's boat finally let go in the last mile or so, and he tried not to pull a Captain Nemo as we slid over the last few rocks to our take out.

5/26

Finally got out to Bailey, with another crew pulled together off of mountainbuzz. Put on under overcast skies onto a good level. Our whole crew walked the first of the Four Falls, which was a not-terrible line with terrible consequences. We styled the other 3 of the falls, and then Will managed to get flipped and snap his paddle on a rock in a class IV below the falls. He was ushered to shore quickly, and we had a pretty efficient boat rescue, and eventually boat and paddler were re-united, and the split was pulled out. We had smooth sailing down to Supermax, where we all portaged the first drop and I ran the second half, usually called Tampax. We were leap-frogging another group, and I didn't see anyone run the first, trickier part of Supermax. Then it was more fun, channelized class IV read-and-run until Deer Creek Rapid, where we scouted again and all generally had good lines through the pushy but fairly friendly rapid. Then it was just more class III surrounded by beautiful granite domes until things settled out to a few class II riffles to the takeout.

2008-05-22T11:19:00.000+12:00

The runs last weekend were fun; Waterton and Foxton weren’t real intense, but offered some nice scenery and a chance to get my bearings again. Gilman Gorge was up in Vail, and was a lot of fun. Good, technical creekboating, without anything of huge consequence. Dowd Chute was just short and sweet.

I was able to get in my first after-work paddling run last night. I got out to the Black Rock section of Clear Creek and managed to catch up to another boater who was on his way to the put-in. He hadn’t done the run in 2 years since he had been recovering from a shoulder injury, and I had obviously never run it. We managed to take everything on without major incident though, and had a good evening of creekboating. I had considered trying to get back out there tonight, but it doesn’t look like there will be quite as many people out there, and I’d kind of like the level to come up a bit before I head out there again. I’ll likely get out there on Friday. Then it’s a long weekend, which will hopefully be full of boating.

2008-05-19T08:41:00.003+12:00

My new drytop kept me warm while swimming in Mille Lacs Lake. Classy.

Got out and paddled Foxton, Waterton, Gilman Gorge, and Dowd Chute this past weekend. Good introduction to the CO creeking season, and hopefully I'll be able to get the boat a little wetter next weekend as things warm up.

2008-05-06T02:02:00.001+12:00

I'm now the proud owner of a drysuit. I finally broke down and picked one up, and it should serve me well in Colorado. I would have liked to get on the east race before I left South Bend, but apparantly the insurance paperwork has taken a long time, so I probably won't get a boat wet until I get to Colorado. Hopefully things will heat up out there; so far all of the snowpack is still locked up and not yet running down the rivers.

2008-04-28T13:06:00.002+12:00

I just wanted to put in a bit of a plug for REI. I bought a drysuit from them, and it showed up in record time, and fit me perfectly. The only problem was that it didn't have an overtunnel for a sprayskirt like it was supposed to. It took me about 10 minutes on REI's live help chat, and they're sending me a replacement and they're pre-paying the shipping back for the wrong one. Thanks guys.

2008-04-23T00:35:00.001+12:00

I wrote the following for an installation of the local club newsletter, available here. I'll reprint it here, since I think it's an important thing for new boaters (and clubs) to consider:

Bobbing Down New Rivers

There has been a significant amount of discussion in the club, both online and in the real world, about how fast paddlers in the HCC should advance and who should decide how fast club member should advance. To ease the semantics of the debate, we’ll call this hypothetical, fairly novice, paddler Bob (since if he gets in over his head he may be swimming). Allocating this decision—whether Bob should run a certain river—is a bit of a high-wire act.

Generally speaking, there are two ways to do it. The first is to adopt a sort of control system, where a trip leader, generally an experienced boater, decides if Bob can go on a certain trip. The second option is to adopt a relatively laissez-faire approach, allowing individual paddlers to decide whether they’re ready for a particular river, and leaving the decision to Bob. On one hand, we have safety as a consideration. If boaters get in over their heads, they become a danger to themselves and to the group. On the other hand, paddling is a fairly individualistic sport, and many of us are uncomfortable with the idea of giving one person veto power over our decisions to run a particular river.

Once all of the dust settles, the control system looks like an untenable option. Placing the bulk of the responsibility of the safety of a trip on one leader puts a heavy burden on that person’s shoulders, and could result in depleting an already small group of trip leaders. Moreover, adopting a control system approach undermines the all-for-one, one-for-all approach cohesive teams use when approaching paddling safety.

We need to leave the decision of whether Bob runs a certain river with that paddler. However, we still need to keep safety in mind when putting together paddling trips, and safety must always, always take priority over the worry that we might step on someone’s toes. If anyone, trip leader or otherwise, familiar with Bob’s abilities doesn’t think he’s ready for a river, that concern should be voiced.

In the end, it is the responsibility of each paddler to appraise their skills and decide whether they are ready for a new run. It may be difficult for some new boaters to know if they have the skills for a certain run, and if that’s the case, they need to start asking questions. What is the character of the run? Big water? Creeky and technical? Are there a few big drops that garner a Class IV rating, or is the entire run made up of continuous Class IV maneuvering? What is the hardest move on the run? Answers to these questions should give Bob an idea of whether he has the skills to approach a particular run, and should allow him to improve his skills at his own pace while paddling new rivers.

None of this is to say that groups as a whole don’t retain a sort of veto power. If Bob is paddling with six people, four of whom don’t think he should run the Upper Gauley, he should probably rethink his decision to run the river.

I would suggest that, generally speaking, the following skills are requires for safely paddling the following classes:

Class I-II

Wet exit
Forward stroke
Sweep stroke

Class III

Reliable eddy turns
Reliable roll
Decent draw strokes
Rope use
Ability to boat-scout Class II
Proficiency in basic hand and whistle signals

Class IV

Bombproof roll
Boof
Accomplished boat handling, including compound strokes and ability to catch small eddies
Rescue skills

Throw rope
Pin extraction
Basic CPR
Boat-based rescues

Ability to read water
Ability to boat-scout Class III

Class V

Ability to run continuous, demanding rapids
Significant physical endurance
Expert level boat-handling skills

Ability to catch micro-eddies
Ability to maintain control in steep, confused water

Expert water-reading skills
Expert rescue skills
Ability to work as a cohesive, interdependent team

2008-04-22T02:34:00.004+12:00

South Shore Steep Creeking

I managed to get up to the South Shore of Lake Superior for some spring runoff creeking. I drove up with Zach, Kev, and Jeff, though we didn't roll out of South Bend until 8pm due to Zach working and some jerk forgetting his paddle at his house. It was a long drive, and we finally rolled into L'Anse at about 5 in the morning. After trying (and failing) to find an open campground, we ended up rolling out our bags and sleeping pads in a pavilion in a city park. We slept 'til 8:30 and then headed to the Hilltop for breakfast and to rally with the other boaters in the area.

At breakfast, we tied in with Brock, Brian, and a substantial group of other boaters. We got on the Falls since it doesn't run very often and serves as a good introduction to the creek runs on the South Shore. Things started out with Powerhouse Falls, a 10 footer or so with a somewhat complicated move to setup, and then off of a sweet spout. It's a full-on start to the run, and a few of us fired it up, while the rest of the crew put in below. It was followed by a number of fun little ledges/slides, none of them carrying any big consequences.

Everyone in the group had a full-on creekboat, aside from Jeff, who was trying to be a hero in his Big EZ. It was not to be. After smashing through some rapids on his head and pitoning a somewhat significant ledge, putting a baseball sized dent in the nose of his boat, he walked out.

Then there was asshole, an out-of-character drop compared to the other ledges, where the whole river is funneled into a narrow, steep slot, partially blocked by the "hemorrhoid" rock which tossed lots of the outflow into the air. Many carried, and a few of us ran it (my run was fine, but a little shaky). Then there was a fun 6-8 ft ledge, followed by a mandatory portage around a tree. Back in the water, we hit another 8ft ledge, and after a slight respite we ran a series of small, close ledges, all fun little boofs. Zach joined the swim team there, getting caught in the hole at the bottom, but he was fine after an easy rescue. Two more significant ledges remained, the last which was a fun slide into a boofable 4 footer or so. Lots of fun. After a fast run through a dam and past the fishermen near the river mouth we were done.

It was so much fun we decided to do it again. I half expected the second run to be somewhat uneventful, since we knew the lines. It was not to be. I had a marginal run of Powerhouse, getting knocked off line at the lip by a little flake. I hit the pool at the bottom with too much angle and fell into a hole created by the falls. It flipped me, and I rolled up under it. Then one of our crew swam at asshole after getting flipped in the bottom hole and getting pushed into some rocks; I bagged him out and it wasn't a terrible swim, but it could have been a lot worse. Then Steve ran the wrong side of one of the multiple ledges and got his boat pinned under a birch tree that hit him at about the waist. He managed to walk out of it, but it was scary. Then Zach got thrown into a wall at the dam; he broke his paddle and cut up his hand through to the fatty tissue.

While the rest of the Indiana boys were done for the day, I was still up for more boating. I went off with Brock, Tenzin, and Steve to do the Upper Silver at pretty high water. I walked the first major rapid, Hail Mary, a 3-parter that looked do-able, but it was the 3rd run of the day on 3 hours of sleep, and I didn't really want to take any big chances. The boys ran it smoothly though. Brock told me "things pick up after Hail Mary." He was right. We dropped into about a mile or mile and a half of continuous class IVs, each stacked on top of the next with few eddies in between. Lots of slides, and a few clean ledges, all of it pumping. Things went well, but if they would have started to go wrong, they would have probably gone wrong for a long time. We then all took out at the Cabin Section, usually class V, which was in the high reaches of V+ with all of the water. Everybody took out, though Tenzin and Brock looked at it for a lot longer than I did.

After driving around and looking at some waterfalls, we had drinks and dinner at the Canteen and headed back to the hotel. Duffy and the Arkansans (ar-can-sans, mind) partied pretty hard, while the Indiana boys crashed out, needing more than 3 hours of sleep this time around. Apparantly they had a fun (albeit loud) time, and the birthday boy managed to sweet talk the poor desk clerk a bit.

On Saturday we headed to the Lower Silver, which Brock described as a lot of fun, mostly boat-scoutable class IV. It was fun, but he was wrong about the IV bit. With the water level high, things got busier. We had a swimmer after the first drop, and after we managed to fish him out and look at the next major drop, three of our group of seven walked off of the river. The remaining five of us ran a complex set of ledges, and then took out again in a small eddy, tying our boats to trees so they'd stay in the eddy, to scout a three-tiered class V drop. The line was there, though complicated, and 2 of our group decided to portage. Tenzin, Brock and I ran it, with clean lines all around. 100 yards down, we scouted another pretty big triple drop, this one with a more straightforward line, which was run by everyone. After some flatwater, we scouted the Railroad Rapid, a confused flume that pushed toward a large, jumbled, river-wide ledge that contained a tree, which most of the current wanted to push you at. 3 of us ran that one, with good lines again. After one last class IV flume, we were done. Or, I was anyway.

Brock and Tenzin went on to run Silver Falls, a V+ jumbled waterfall with a tricky lead in and a huge hole at the bottom, which was just below the take-out. Tenzin had a clean line, and Brock had a great start, until he wedged his paddle blade in a crack about halfway down the drop and snapped the right blade. He remained upright, but hit the hole at the bottom like a ton of bricks. He was flushed out, and then it took him a while to roll on his 1/4 of a paddle blade. Tenzin eventually had to ferry my paddle across to Brock so he could make it back to our side of the river. It was a full day.

On Sunday, we did an early morning lap of the Falls in order to get the boys on something steep (they had done the Rock the day before, which was apparently a little underwhelming). Tommy was with us, a friend of Kev's who hadn't really done any creeking before. It was interesting for me, since it was just the four of us and I was leading a river I had run twice, but things went well. I was the only one to run Powerhouse (I had the same line I had the second run on Friday) and we had clean lines all around.

On our way back home, we hit the Peshtigo at high water, which was pretty fun. Fun, big-water lines abounded, and Zach even did a few unintentional creekboat rodeo moves in a big hole. We ran into some of the other HCC members on the way down, and paddled out in sunshine and 75 degree weather.

This is the last trip before Colorado, since a funeral and finals fill up the rest of the weekends. It was a fun trip though, and the new helmet held up well.

SYOTR

2008-04-18T03:19:00.003+12:00

After the face-smashing a couple of weeks ago, I ordered a new helmet. Its a WRSI Current with a FPS (face protection system), basically a removable chinguard. My old helmet, a Shred Ready, didn't fit me real well, and if it took a big hit it could slide back on my head a bit. Made me nervous. That's the big selling point of the WRSI; the design is completely geared toward keeping it on your head and especially on your forehead.

It also fits the bill since I can use it without the mask for playboating and with the mask for creeking (like this weekend, woot). Seems like a solid lid, and it fits well. It's a little tough to slide over my gourd with the mask on, but once on it's comfy and spacious. We'll see how it goes this weekend.

2008-04-08T07:25:00.002+12:00

Had a good paddling trip this weekend out to West Virginia. I headed out with Zach, Kev, Big Drop, and The Orange Crush. I didn't make up the nicknames. Crush actually introduces himself with the article, "The" Orange Crush, in case you might get him mixed up with somebody else. All of his gear is orange. The inside of the van looked like this:

So we drove out to Webster Springs and got in around 1am. The drive wasn't too terrible, though a little sketchy due to Crush's driving. We crashed in the bunkhouse, and rolled up around 8am and went to a little cafe to grab breakfast (mmmm... biscuits and gravy). Then we headed to the Upper Meadow with some other HCC paddlers to do a little baby creeking. The run was good, and padded out a little as the day went on. The shuttle was pretty rough though; we did some plowing with the trailer hitch on Crush's trailer. I lead a lot of the run, even though I hadn't run it before, since it was fun class III-ish boulder gardens and since I just like leading that kind of stuff.

After resetting the trailer's leaf springs, which sucked, we headed back to Webster for dinner at the cafe, and ran into some other paddlers from our group. Then we headed back to the campground/bunkhouse. We caught some local musicians jamming on a little stage, chatted with some people about levels, and crashed. I ended up pitching a tent outside since the bunkhouse was pretty hot and crowded. We caught some rain throughout the night, but not too much.

The local talent:

The next morning there was all kinds of debate at breakfast over what there was enough water to run. After an hour or so of kicking out a couple ideas and then rehashing them ad nauseum (a problem when you're rolling with a group of 20 paddlers of mixed abilities), we decided to go down to the racecourse to see what the locals had to say. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, so I spent most of the hour gritting my teeth and trying not to take anybody by the shoulders and shake them until they agreed with me. Once we conferred with the locals, it became clear that we were running the middle Cranberry.

When we arrived at the Cranberry, our hearts dropped. It looked really low. After some protracted shuttling, a group of us were standing around waiting for the shuttle vehicles to come back, and Zach, Kev, Scarecrow and I decided to start out early and break the group up a little bit, since we couldn't easily run with 15 people in the group. We started down, boat-scouting everything as we went. The run was great; full of technical rapids that I would probe, grab a setup eddy, see the line, and we'd all run down. Nothing too scary, but plenty of stuff to keep us busy. We had a bit of a worry that we had missed the take-out, but finally came upon the cars.

Since we figured the main group was going slowly, we loaded up our boats and drove to the put-in. We found Fufu walking out, and she hopped in with us to run shuttle. We started a second run, and caught up with the group maybe halfway through the run and lapped them.

Once everyone was packed up it was back to the campground for dinner and a shindig. A bluegrass band was playing, there was beer on tap, and pizza next to the beer. And fraternizing paddlers. It was fantastic. I did a bit of dancing, hung out with the Marshall Whitewater Team, and got to bed at about 2am in the midst of a healthy rain.

I awoke the next morning to another debate over what river we should run. The rain fell on saturated ground, and all of the rivers were up. After more debate and teeth-gritting, we decided to run the Back Fork of the Elk.

Though we had originally planned to split the group up, we ended up gelling together when we came to the three big drops. Armed with the idea that these were just plop-and-drops, I let Zach scout and tell me the line. He said that I had a big hole in the center, and that I wanted to go left over two boofable ledges. I lined up middle left, and as I came over the lip I saw a big hole feeding a nasty seam. I looked to the left and saw the line he had described all the way on the left bank. "This is bad," I thought, and tried to boof the hole. I got my bow up, but didn't have the speed I needed, and was typewritered into the seam. I braced right and left, and thought I had gone under, when I realized that I had been shoved through the hole and into a cave. I was upright and dry and behind the curtain. "Bad," I thought. I tried to paddle out and got flipped by the curtain; when I rolled up I was in the clear.

Just about everybody else rand the drop on the right, aside from Zach, who ran our intended hero line.

The second and third drops were both run clean (though I looked at the big one this time around, not trusting second hand beta).

The problems started on a river-wide, irregular ledge further down. Most of the group ran a long rock finger with a few inches of water running over it; Zach and I ran a hero line on the river-left over a large-ish hole.

Then the debacle started. I outlined the entire story and safety issues HERE, but the cliffs notes version is that we had a swimmer, people tried to rescue both boat and swimmer, failed at both, and then people followed the swimmer through a small ledge drop and plopped sideways into the hole themselves, on top of said swimmer. Then we had 3 people in the water, and since only two of us were still in our boats, we had a hell of a time pulling everyone out. At one point I thought I might be pulling out a body. At the end, everyone was ok, but shaken.

Then, on the last drop, Sharron flipped and caught a rock with her face and almost blacked out. She was rescued, but had her two front teeth slammed backwards to the point that she couldn't close her mouth. She had a trip to the emergency room in her future.

We finally headed home at about 4:30, and rolled into South Bend around 2:30am. It was a good trip, though it brought up some concerns about the safety consciousness of the club. Hopefully we'll be able to get on some more good water this spring.

2008-03-18T03:21:00.002+13:00

Got out for come TN creeking this weekend.

Drove south on Friday afternoon with Kev and Zach after we packed everything into my little Saturn (32 mpg with 3 boats on the roof!). We camped next to Baby Falls on the Tellico, and then got on the river bright and early on Saturday morning. The Tellico hosts a number of 5-6 ft ledges, some rocky boulder gardens, and Baby Falls, a 14 footer. The run is pretty short and entirely roadside, and we were able to get 2 runs in before lunch. Around noon we headed into town in the rain, grabbed some lunch, and checked levels of other area rivers. I wanted to run something new, but was outvoted, and we decided to give Kev and Zach some more creeking practice with 2 more laps on the Tellico.

After getting dinner with the whole HCC crowd, and after much debate, we decided to get on Daddy's Creek on Sunday. The drive from the put-in to the take-out that we had to use was about 50 minutes, so there was lots of talk as to how to keep the shuttle to a minimum. We decided to camp at the take-out, which meant driving around on TN backroads at 10pm, getting a bit lost, but eventually finding our campsite.

I woke up early the next morning and started kicking people out of their tents. There was more debate about shuttles as other boaters were a little slow getting up and even slower deciding what river they wanted to run. After racking boats, unracking and reshuffling boats, and re-racking boats, we finally had teams and shuttles worked out. Jordan, Kev, Zach and I headed to the Daddy's put-in and got on the water, 2' of it on the bridge gauge. After a few miles of riffles, we got some run-and-gun class IIIs, and then we got to the canyon. It was fun boating in big boulders; I'd peer over the top of the rapid, see an eddy, hit the eddy, and relay beta to the rest of the team before running the rest. Interesting rapids, but nothing too taxing. Kev and Zach both got stuck in a hole early on and played bumper boats for a while; Zach paddled out and Kev swam, but the rescue was easy. We picked our way through the canyon until we got to Rattlesnake, the main event, which we scouted and found a pretty easy line. We had a few more III+/IV- rapids after that, one which Kev ran semi-unintentionally after missing an eddy, but he ran it well.

We had a bit of a paddle-out to the alternate take-out, but the water was moving and the scenery was pretty. After a bit of a hike-out, we were back at the car and soon on our way back to Indiana.

Hopefully I'll have photos soon.

River List

2008-02-13T07:36:00.008+13:00

Since I'm sitting about, thinking about paddling instead of reading, I thought I'd put up a lifetime rivers-run list. Here's what I can come up with:

~Eagle, AK
~Matanuska, AK
~Willow Creek, AK
~Upper and Lower St. Louis, MN
~Cascade, MN
~Baptism, MN
~Kettle, MN
~Beaver, MN
~Manitou, MN
~Mississippi (Sauk Rapids), MN
~Buckhannon, WV
~Tallulah, GA
~Mangaho, NZ
~Clear Creek, CO
~Oh Be Joyful, CO
~Slate, CO
~East, CO
~Henson Creek, CO
~Palmy Play Park, NZ
~Pohangina, NZ
~Karawaru, NZ
~Rangitiki, NZ
~Tongariro, NZ
~Kaituna, NZ
~Lime Creek, CO
~ Uncompahgre, CO
~Cimmaron, CO
~Tawarau, NZ
~Mokau, NZ
~Peshtigo, WI
~Wolf, WI (Section IV)
~Green Narrows, NC
~Poplar, N.Shore, MN
~Upper and Lower Gauley, WV
~Vermillion River, MN
~Sturgeon Falls, Manitoba
~Arkansas River (Granite, Numbers, Royal Gorge, Salida), CO
~Cache LaPoudre (Spencer Heights, upper/lower Mishiwaka, rustic, narrows sections), CO
~Middle Fork of the Buckhannon, WV
~Tygart, WV

~Wausau WW Park, WI

~South Bend WW Park, IN
~Whitemud, Manitoba
~Tellico, TN
~Daddy's Creek, TN
~Upper Meadow, WV
~Middle Cranberry, WV
~Back Fork of the Elk, WV
~Falls, MI
~Upper Silver, MI
~Lower Silver, MI

~Bailey (S. Platte), CO

~Foxton (S. Platte), CO

~Waterton (S. Platte), CO

~Lower South Boulder Creek, CO

~Lower Boulder Creek, CO

~Big Thompson, CO

~Alto-Alto (Boulder Creek), CO

~Black Rock (Clear Creek), CO
~Daisy Creek, CO
~N. Chickamunga, TN
~Cain Creek, TN
~South Saint Vrain, CO
~Proving Grounds (NSV), CO
~Upper Yough, MD
~Top Yough, MD
~Lower Yough, PA
~Stony Creek, PA
~Guest, VA
~Crooked Fork, TN
~Island Creek, TN
~Castle Creek, CO
~Slaughterhouse (Roaring Fork), CO
~Gore Canyon, Colorado, CO
~Upper Animas, CO

2008-02-13T07:29:00.001+13:00

I'll hopefully be able to get out on the water in the next couple of weeks. I started looking at some photos of Colorado kayaking, and I'm getting pumped to get the boat wet. Pray for rain in West Virginia.

2007-09-08T05:12:00.001+12:00

I was accosted by a drunk, creepy townie at the take out of the east race last night. She tried to kiss me. It was weird.

2007-07-10T04:34:00.000+12:00

Made it out to Salida and the Numbers of the Ark this weekend. Another rafter died on the Ark; I think that makes 4 or 5 deaths on the river this summer. On Friday I played in Salida, and then some boaters from MN were in town, so we all camped in BV and then a few of us ran the Numbers on Saturday. The numbers was running at about 2,500 cfs the last time I ran it; this time around it was at 1,000 or so. It was a fun run, with some good moves in the rapids. I'd definately do it again at this level, but I did find myself yearing a bit for something steeper. Maybe I'll hit some creeks next week, and hopefully I'll have some photos.

2007-06-20T03:47:00.000+12:00

Had a good weekend up at Fibark, though I didn't get a ton of paddling in. The festival was fun though, and we saw some of the junior freestyle rodeo (crazygonuts), met some cool people, and got in another run up on Clear Creek of the Ark. No photos though; I've been pretty lazy on the camera lately.

2007-06-16T02:49:00.000+12:00

The roomie and I went to kayak the Royal Gorge last night as an after-work run. It was a lot of fun; the gorge is beautiful (and boasts the tallest suspension bridge in the (world? northern hemisphere? whatever). The river had some good flow in it, and since the whole canyon constricts it, we blasted through a ton of really big standing waves, some of which were definately over my head. It was fun, with nothing really scary, and the extra flow made the flatwater go by quickly. Capped off with a beautiful evening, and it was an A+ after-work run.

2007-06-01T02:26:00.001+12:00

Had another big 4 day weekend. I headed out to Salida with Jason on Thursday night, and then on Friday picked up a new paddle ($300, ug, but at least it's a solid stick) and we headed over to run the Lower Cimmaron, a roadside canyon that's only about a mile long, with a fun, technical V at the top and then a quick IV-ish drop at the end. We did 3 laps on the first rapid, and then headed on our way.

In Ouray we checked out the box canyon in town that sets the stage for the town's artificial ice climbing wall. The gorge itself looked impressive, but we couldn't get down into it. We ended up putting in just below the second scary portagey rapid and boated the rest of the run, some real intimate V- stuff, with a dash of boat scoutable IV in the run out through town.

We then headed over the pass and into Durango. On Saturday, the boys ran Vallecito, a river that ostensibly boasts some of the best expert creeking in the state, but I wasn't feeling up to walled-in class V with no escape options whatsoever. I hiked around instead.

We had plans to run the Upper Animas, but it was somewhat low and some of the crew were feelig somewhat lukewarm about it, probably because if we did it in a day as originally planned, it would be a long, cold day. Hopefully I can get back there sometime and run it as a 2 day, train-supported trip.

Sunday we ran the first gorge of Lime Creek, which boasts the 25 foot tall, 3 foot wide Adrenaline Falls. Josh and I hiked it, since it's a mite bit scary and it'll be there next year. Below the falls, the river walls in. We hopped out to scout a rapid called S-Turn, which had a big hole in the middle of it. Josh and Tom ran first, then I was up. I screwed up my entrance and got flipped in the hole, spun around a few times, then jammed into an undercut wall while still upside down. Not having any of that, I swam. I reached the surface right next to a rock ledge, which I scrambled up onto, watching my gear whirl downstream. I found myself on a 2 foot by 5 foot ledge in the middle of a box canyon with no escape options. Shit.

Goody and Jason ran the drop and set up safety below, and then I had to jump back into the rapid to get to the opposite shore. I walked along the side of the river, found my paddle on the way, and scoped out where the walls closed in again, this time on a 14 foot falls called Dragon's Back. Josh was around the bend, standing on shore. At first I thought he had my boat, but he just stood there, looking sheepish. Then I looked down into the falls.

Josh's boat was getting worked in the bottom of the falls, recirculating over and over again into the froth. I signaled to Jason and Goody that they would want to see it.

I signaled them through, telling them to paddle when the boat was on the left; they ran the falls on the right, and Josh's boat eventually worked its way loose. I still had to get downstream though. I clambered along the rock wall, about 20 or 25 feet off of the water. The rock was chossy, and at one point a TV sized block almost let loose. Once I had the boys check the depth of the pool, I jumped for it, jumping out as far as I could to avoid getting pulled back into the falls.

Eventually everyone was reunited with their gear, and we all paddled out safely.

Monday, we headed to Henson Creek in Lake City, which was encased in a 100 foot box canyon. We scouted as much as we could from the canyon walls, and then jumped in. The first major rapid crept up on us, but everyone had good lines to start the day. Then we entered the canyon, paddling through a holl in the base of an old dam and past some mining debris. I walked one jumbley, ugly rapid, but after watching the boys run it and after hiking the steep portage, I realized it probably would have been easier (and maybe safer) to just run the rapid. The gorges were beautiful, and the boating was adventurous, since though we did scout, there were still some blind corners. Thankfully, the river was clear of wood.

As I walked a big stompy rapid near the end of the run, I talked to an older man who owned property along the stretch and was interested in what we were up to. It was a nice boater PR experience, and he wished us luck.

After a few more rapids, we were back to the cars and ready for the long drive home.

2007-05-23T03:23:00.000+12:00

Video

Here's a link to youtube

BV and CB

2007-05-22T10:45:00.000+12:00

Avalanche Falls. Notice the giant logjam at the bottom, and the people in the right hand side of the frame.

I had a hell of a 4 day weekend.

Things started when I headed out to Buena Vista on Thursday to meet Justin to paddle the Numbers. The Ark was running near 2k, and the numbers turned into a fun roller-coaster ride of big holes and waves. We had a fast, clean run, and I only got slapped around once when I quit paying attention.

That night we camped near Elephant Rock, where Keith, his wife, and daughter were also camping. We watched paddling videos in the RV while we ate dinner, and then hung out around the campfire, where I, the bleeding heart liberal, managed to get into a political discussion with an ex-Marine and a Navy pilot.

Friday, Justin and I decided to go check out Clear Creek, after I picked up a new drytop at CKS. As we were scouting, we ran into Jason and Josh, who knew Justin. We scouted the gorges together and then got on the river, which was somewhat low but running fast. We boat scouted just about everything, careening around rocks and skipping eddies. We scouted one drop in the second canyon, but read-and-ran everything else, for a quick trip. Then we hit up the Numbers again.

Justin had to head home for a family deal, and Jason and Josh invited me to head out to Crested Butte with them. A bunch of runs I was eying in the guidebooks were out there, and I had pretty much run everything that interested me in the Ark drainage (Lake Creek was cranking) so I headed to CB with them. We met their buddy Goody, who lived in town, and did an early evening run of the East, which was an espresso shot of a run that jumped down some steep slides and some boogie water. I helped run shuttle down a rough road with my car, and managed to remove an extranious piece of plastic from under the front air dam.

We grabbed dinner in a bar, where I ran into Link, a kid who lived below me when I was studying abroad in NZ. Crazy. Then Goody and Jason ran off to the bars to cause trouble, and Josh and I went to bed.

The next morning we fired up the East again, then ran the Slate, which was another V- creek with some fun drops. Josh and Jason ran Wicked Wanda, the V+ at the end of the run, the latter running clean and the former joining the swim team. Then we went to head to Oh Be Joyful.

Crossing the Slate

We had to ford the Slate to get to OBJ; Goody's old chevy made it, but Josh punched the Nissan a bit too hard and flooded it. We pulled it out and let it dry, then went up to look at OBJ. This run drops out of the sky at around 400 feet per mile. I walked up it and scouted the string of big waterfalls and slides. About halfway up I realized that I was too tired and too unfocused to run the entire thing cleanly, so I decided to walk it. Jason, Goody, and Greg, who tied in with us that day, ran it, and all had pretty clean lines. That night we crashed pretty early, tired from the day. I woke up in the middle of the night, had trouble falling asleep, and spent the next couple hours visualizing the drops.

Sunday dawned, and we got a (relatively) early start, getting on the river by noon or so to run the Slate again. Then we headed to OBJ. I walked up it again, memorizing the order of the drops, and decided to fire it up. I was feeling good. The first drop, a 15 foot waterfall, is about 4 paddle strokes past the put-in, leaving no room for a warm up. I hit it with a clean boof, let out a woop, and was on my way. The next few drops went cleanly, and then Mike C, who joined us for Sunday, flipped below an 8 foot falls and had trouble rolling up. He eventually made it, but was shaken and elected not to finish the run. Jason and I went on, hitting a chain of ledges before the big one, a 30 foot falls with a rock shelf in the right side LZ.

Jason running the 30 footer. Goody missed my shot. Boo.

I came through the shelves clean, but was angled wrong at the bottom, and instead of heading into the setup eddy, I was headed for the drop. I committed, lined up, and hit the falls with a pretty good line, over-rotating a bit and coming forward onto my head when I hit the pool at the bottom. I rolled up quick, and realized that I was missing a paddle blade; I had forgotten to tuck when I was paddling away from the rock shelf. I C1'ed it over to the side, where Goody pulled me up. I borrowed Mike C's paddle and finished the run, which ended in a sweet boof fallowed by a fun slide to cap things off. Goody and Jason decided to run the lower, bigger slides, and though I was feeling good I didn't want to press my luck with a borrowed paddle. After they ran those, we loaded up and headed out.

The last slide on the main run.

2007-04-30T08:08:00.000+12:00

Made it out to the east race a couple of days this week, which is finally open for business. Things are good, especially today, where we had 30+ boaters on the race. It was a beautiful day too. I would have liked to stay out all afternoon, but I've got to sit down and get some work done first. Bleh for finals.

On the bright side, in 2 weeks I'll be in MN, and in 3 I'll be creeking in Colorado.

2007-04-13T03:49:00.000+12:00

Well, the trusty Nomad has been repaired. I drilled out the ends first to keep the crack from spreading any more. Then I shaved some plastic off of the cockpit rim and used it to weld the outside of the crack (which was in a shallow valley in the boat, a water-shedding line of some sort) and to fill the holes I'd drilled. After getting things tight on the outside, I then Whaley Welded the inside with duct tape and heat. It's the same process I used on my Phat and it looks like it should be bomber, especially on the Nomad where the crack is still full-thickness. The fact that the crack is high and away from heavy stress areas and the waterline is also a benefit.

I also noticed that the ass dimple that the boat got from Gorilla has popped out, just due to the effects of some warmth and the memory in the plastic. Looks like the Nomad should be ready for the Colorado steeps.

The Thing

2007-04-10T07:51:00.000+12:00

Me, about to hit the thing.

NC and GA

2007-04-10T04:51:00.000+12:00

Well, we survived the Green Narrows and the Tallulah Gorge. Things started out on Thursday night when I met up with the Matt (Thomas and Mattus) in Kokomo. As we were loading the vehicles (my little saturn and Thomas' van) we were trying to decide what to do with the paddles, and then my stomach sank. What had I done with my paddle? Ah yes... it was in my garage.

After borrowing a paddle from Thomas' dad (which I couldn't afford to replace, therefore couldn't afford to lose) we picked up Ryan in Indy and Chris and Shelbyville, and then we started driving. Or we would have, if we hadn't stopped in for a sit-down at Bob Evans. Finally on the road at 9pm or so, we made it to Knoxville where we grabbed a hotel room and crashed.

We hit the Green River Narrows on Friday after some phone calls to locals we knew, we convinced a friend of Thomas' to take us down. She did a run in the morning and we met her at the takeout at 11 or so, ran shuttle, and put on to the Green. After some boogie water we got to the Bride of Frankenstein and the start of the narrows. We had a group of five, plus a handfull of locals, and altogether too many people in the group for the 3 boat eddies of the narrows proper. Mark, one of the locals, pointed at me and said "All right man, you're my buddy. You're gonna follow me and just do what I do." I nodded, and we were off. While others in our group scouted drops like Frankenstein and Go Left, Mark and I would take a look from the eddies above the drops, he would feed me some beta, and always follow it with "stay on my ass," and we'd be off.

Dropping over 300 ft/mile

The narrows are STEEP, with only small eddies in between major class IV and V drops. We had clean lines up to Zwick's Backender, which we scouted. As Mark put it, "the less you think about this rapid the easier it is." Zwick's is a big stompy hole (one of the largest on the river) that you have to punch, followed shortly by a 7 or so foot, U-shaped falls. Below the rapid was a decent sized pool, followed by Chief, a big, ugly, jumbley, sieved-out waterfall. I followed Mark down, but didn't have enough speed going into the top hole, and my stomach sank as I felt it stop me dead and side surf me.

I found myself in a not altogether uncomfortable side-surf, and supported myself with a low brace. I couldn't go forward or backward since the slot was only about 9 feet wide. I tried to muscle over the pile, but the hole was too deep. I tried getting my nose into the green water, which only managed to windowshade me. I rolled up again, and as I struggled to pull over the pile my knee came out of my thigh brace, punched out of my sprayskirt, and I was swimming. Making sure to hold onto the paddle I couldn't replace, I was hit by a rope on my way down to the waterfall but couldn't hang on. I slid over the falls and out the whitewash below, swimming hard into the eddy to avoid sliding into Chief, when I was hit by Mattus' rope. My boat floated into an eddy, where it hung out for a moment, but before anyone could get a hand on it, it slid down the river. I had to jump across the river and hike downstream, hoping that my boat was still in one piece.

My Nomad's new dimple

Though my nomad did a water-filled, unpiloted decent of Gorilla, the largest drop on the river, all was not lost. I had a new dent in the stern and a crack from where my paddle had tried to punch through the side of the boat, but the crack was above the waterline and the dent wasn't all bad. The only losses were the crunched paddle shaft of my split, and my skullcap, which I had in my boat somewhere and which was claimed by the Green. Somewhat shaken, I fetched my paddle and followed Mark down the next rapids, Powerslide and Rapid Transit, two big slides which reminded me of the North Shore. After portaging nutcracker and Sunshine (Sunshine was way scary) we were into boogie water and I was starting to hit my stride again. The rest of the crew was still upstream, taking their time, and I bombed the rest of the run with the locals, skipping past eddies and blasting through the last major rapids. I found myself in a horizontal pin above a small slot for about 5 gut-wrenching seconds, but I scooted back enough to let my bow clear and I was downstream. Our group managed the rest of the run without any carnage, and we were off to Tallulah.

On the way, we grabbed some tasty BBQ by the Narrows and did laundry so that we wouldn't have to slide into wet paddling gear the following morning. We stayed the night off of a forest service road (free, yippee!) and stoked up a fire, since it was starting to snow. Jordan rolled in late (or early, depending on how you look at it) after a 10 hour drive.

After a chilly night, we grabbed breakfast at Nanny's (grits, biscuits and gravy, and other assorted wonderfulness for less than $5), set up a shuttle, and started down the 600 or so steps that lead to the Tallulah Gorge. The Tallulah only runs a few weekends a year when Georgia power schedules releases, and it's a southern classic. Wes, Mattus' friend from CO (who looked a bit like a skinny Mel Gibson; the Patriot Mel Gibson with the sideburns and long hair) lead us down. The first rapid was 20 feet from the putin, and after one more sweet boof over a 6 or 7 foot falls, we were at Oceana.

Oceana, Top

The bottom of Oceana and the Thing

I head heard of and seen photos of Oceana for years, and it was as impressive as I had imagined. A 60 foot slide which accelerated boaters to about Mach 1, with a ledge about 40 feet down which housed a lateral hole that fed The Thing, a big exploding hole that rocketed off a flake that wanted to break your ankles if you hit it wrong. After lots of consideration, we all fired up Oceana, most of us taking the left line while a few went center, sliding into the lateral hole sideways and surfing around the thing before punching the hole below. After that, we ran some boogie to Bridal Veil, a slide that wasn't as tall or as steep but which housed a nasty hole at the bottom. We all ran that fine, then went down Zoom Flume, a narrow 5 foot slot that boated like a waterpark ride. Then it was on to more boat-scoutable boogie, with Wes leading the way and feeding us some beta along the way. The lines were good and we made it to the lake for the last flat-water paddle.

We loaded up boats in a hurry, since if we wanted to make a second run we had to be at the top of the stairs by 3. We made it, but not by much. Our second run was a little more exciting, since Jordan smashed his hand up on the first rapid, I hit the center line on Oceana without scouting (sooooo much fun) and then Jordan swam above Bridal Veil (skeerey) which necessitated some tricky rescue techniques and then again in some of the boogie above Lynch's Wrench. We made it out though, tailed by the sweep boaters who were there to make sure nobody was left in the canyon. After an amazing dinner at a Chinese buffet (sushi, Mongolian grill, crab wontons, and all sorts of other wonderfulness) we dried our gear, bought some beer, and headed to the campground for a warm fire and video footage of the day.

Sunday we rolled out a bit later than expected, dusted the frost off our gear, and after breakfast fired up another run of the Gorge. Ryan bowed out this time, and the rest of us hiked down the steps and put on to a higher river (700cfs instead of the 500 the day before). Chris swam on the entry rapid (which he deemed "crapid") and after Tanner's Boof we scouted Oceana again, which was thrumming with more water. We all hit the left line this time around (aside from Jordan, who took the dry line). A few of us were slowed up some in the hole at the bottom, which was pushier this time around, and Thomas was flipped by the pulsating thing and skidded into the bottom hole, getting pushed against the side of the river and eventually swimming. His paddle hung out in the hole for a long time, but eventually washed out. The rest of the run was cake; everything was much smoother and more padded, but nothing was too big and thrashy. At the takeout, I ran Wes to the top so he could get another run in, and then we all saddled up and headed home. The drive was a haul, and I had to pull the last 5 hours on my own, but passed the time by calling up some friends and listening to a Harry Potter book on the iPod, finally rolling in at 2:15 in the morning after a great weekend of boating.

Mattus' line on Oceana (my camera battery died shortly thereafter)

2007-03-27T03:23:00.000+12:00

Had a great weekend of paddling. I tied in with Chris, Matt, Sharon, and Jordan of the Hoosier Canoe Club and headed out to West Virginia to do some creekboating. Sharron, Jordan and I actually had an early start (even loaded the boats in daylight, Amazing!) and drove out, rolling into the campground around 2. The next morning we looked at running the Upper or Middle Meadow, but it was low. After grabbing breakfast in a great little cafe in Fredricksburg we checked levels and noticed the Buckhannon was running. We drove a couple hours north, figured out the put-in and take out (in Seago, where they had that mining disaster a year or so ago) and paddled the river. The run was full of nice class III boulder beds (photos below) with maybe a couple that pushed into the IV- range. Sharon had a couple little swims, but it was a pleasant day and a nice little run, and was a good way to break in my new creeker.

After dinner and a somewhat frantic search for a campground, we found safe harbor at the Stonewall Jackson state park, where we were treated to a wonderful little tent site with a wodden platform for tents and a nice little fire pit down by the lake. We called our web bunnies to feed us level and run information from AW over the phone, had a cheery little fire, and then crashed.

Sunday brought on the Middle Fork of the Tygart and a section of the Tygart Gorge. The Middle Fork had a lot of water in it, and after a quick shuttle we were into it. Sharon had a swim on the first rapid we scouted and didn't feel like her head was in the game. She considered walking out, but was talked out of it. As we dropped further into the run things became steeper and more continuious. It was by far my favorite type of boating, class III+/IV boat-scoutable boulder gardens. We scouted a few drops, but for the most part I stayed in my boat, caught eddies on the way down and probed the rapids. The rapids were wonderful, tight, technical, but not real scary (aside from one house-sized undercut at the bottom of a rapid). If there would have been a couple walkable big V-ish drops it would have been my ideal river. Sharon had a bit of a tough time, taking a few swims and getting knocked around some.

We eventually got to the mouth of the river where it fed into the Tygart, which was running with big, muddy water. Some big water class III followed until we got to S turn, which we scouted. Sharon hiked it and Shoulder Snapper, just downstream, since she was a bit shaken. The rest of us ran 'em both, punching through holes and big haystack waves. The smaller creekboats got slapped around by waves some, but I had finally dialed in the Nomad and once I put it onto a line I was able to stick to it. I was real happy with the boat. Sharon had another swim after following Jordan right into the largest hole on the river (though she surfed it for just long enough to realize it wasn't going to be fun to get out of). A little further downstream we noticed a couple by the side of the river. Our conversation went something like this:

me: "I wonder if we're interrupting an intimate moment"
matt: "nah"
*we get closer*
me: "Uh... they're definately making out." *beat* "And she's not wearing any pants"

Matt, Chris, and I floated by without the couple noticing us, almost dropping into a pourover unawares as a result. Jordan, the last boater in our group, shouted "yoo hoo!" Then a scramble to pull on clothes ensued.

I love good river scenery.

After one more dip in the water to cool off and a few more big rapids, we made it to the take-out and hiked the tracks to the cars. It was a long river day; we probably spent 6 or 6.5 hours on the water, but it was a great day on a great river. I didn't get home until 3:30 on monday morning, but it was definately worth every lost hour of sleep.

Chris on the Buckhannon

Jordan

Matt

2007-03-01T10:46:00.000+13:00

Just a couple photos from the BSF; hopefully some of the river will be coming soon

The Yard Sale at the takeout.

Loading boats. The green one was a bit precarious.

Buy my old creekboat! Cheap!

2007-02-27T04:37:00.000+13:00

Paddled the Big South Fork of the Cumberland this weekend with the HCC. It was a good trip, though the drive was tough; I rode with a couple from Indy and we didn't leave until midnight; rolled into Oneida at 6:30 or so in the morning.

The run was good; hopefully I'll have some photos up soon, but it was a river full of big (car-to-house-sized) boulders, real pretty. Lots of class III, with a few III+ drops. I would have liked something a little meatier, but I had a good time trying to take tough lines through the easier drops. We had planned to go to the National Paddling Film Festival, but getting 11 people down the river took a long time, and people were pokey once we got off, so we stayed in Oneida. In the morning I made some phone calls to check flows (thanks A.) but we were too far away from all of the rivers that were up. I felt refreshed though, after sleeping in the van for 10 hours (there was a nice bed setup) and we ended up running the BSF again. It warmed up some, and it was a nice run, but then it was followed by an 8 hour haul back home. It was a good weekend, but I don't think I'll be making the drive out there again for class III business unless there's some better play. We shot some video and such; hopefully it'll show up on youtube soon.

2007-02-24T03:33:00.000+13:00

Bought a new creekboat today; a Dagger Nomad. I love the Phat (which is for sale now, by the way) but I can't completely trust the patched hull to hold up in Class IV-V water. I'm real excited for the new boat.

May be heading down to the National Paddling Film Festival in Lexington, KY, if I can snag a carpool. There would be boating too; I'll bring my camera if I can go.

2007-01-04T09:22:00.000+13:00

Paddling Blog

The first day of ’07 kicked off with some paddling; D-Rad and Brian Z talked me into boating with a full kit of borrowed gear. I headed down to the Verm and was met with some odd stares at the parking lot; I showed up with a haircut and in my overcoat (Scottish Wool, $15 from Savers) and without a boat. “You don’t look like a paddler” they said. Fair enough. Eventually D and Brian showed with the gear, and I was somewhat decked out in a wetsuit and a semi-dry top. No helmet liner, and no neck gasket. It was not a good time to flip.

The Verm treated us well; the level was up a bit with the rain/slush and Railroad was nice and playful. Doughnut was even a little more dynamic than expected, and everyone seemed to have a good time. Though changing out of the wet gear was no fun (I envied the dry suit brigade) it was a good day of paddling, especially since the little canyon was gorgeous (heh, pun); no sun had hit the south side and all of the snow was still on the trees. Hopefully I’ll beg/borrow/steal some photos and get ‘em up.

2006-11-11T04:24:00.000+13:00

I got out to the east race last night. It was fun, but it was odd to be putting on to a river in the dark. We had street lights along the paths on both sides, so we could see, but it was still strange.

2006-11-10T11:26:00.000+13:00

No paddling this weekend; the other guys on the trip bailed and I'm too busy to try and scratch something else together. I think the 'ol season may be tapering down until after finals.

2006-10-21T09:04:00.000+13:00

Looks like I've been stood up on paddling this weekend; pretty much everybody bailed. Boo for hanging around South Bend.

On the bright side, it sounds like there may be a trip being put together for Thanksgiving, and if I really work at it I may be able to sneak away for a regular weekend. Stay tuned.

2006-10-20T08:37:00.000+13:00

Zach and I headed south for an hour or so to go catch Pipe Creek, a little II+ stream so we could get on some new water. It was a decent run, and when I was taking some photos I thought I'd do a photo dump. Here ya go:

My new Shuttle.

The big waves on Lake Michigan. Windy as all hell.

D-Rad's still life from our Canada trip.

Me on the big-ish wave on Pipe Creek.

Zach on the pipe creek wave.

Zach sticking his roll. Woot.

This is a dam/ledge combo that we looked at for awhile. There was a line down the right hand side of the double-drop, but it required some cross-current speed and a boof at the end. I would have given it a run if I had my creeker with, but I didn't trust the Kingpin's speed or ability to get out of the significant hole at the bottom. Next time.

The weir half of the drop, along with a pensive Zach. Fortunately, he is using proper scouting posture, with the hands tugging down on the PFD. Well done.

2006-10-18T04:51:00.000+13:00

Some shots from the gualey.

2006-10-17T13:28:00.000+13:00

I'm just back from my trip to West Virginia to paddle the Gauley River. It was a good trip. We got a late start, not leaving South Bend until about 6:30 and not rolling out of Indy until 10, which got us at the take-out of the lower at about 5:30am. I went from sleeping crumped up on the front seat of the van to sleeping on the ground under the stars. Hoffman was supposed to hook up with us at the Gualey but bailed, leaving him without a weekend of paddling and me without a place to sleep. Fortunately, my sleeping bag was warm and I was tired.

Saturday morning we paddled the Lower Gualey, a Class III big water run where a good time was had by all. The weather was cool but clear, though a little windy. It was a good run, though I was excited to hit up something a little more challenging the following day.

That night my sleeping situation improved, and I managed to snag a spot on the floor of a hotel room. Much warmer.

Sunday morning brought on the Upper Gualey. The Upper is a legendary run and a Southeast classic, with five big, pushy rapids, Insignificant, Pillow Rock, Lost Paddle, Iron Ring, and Sweet's Falls. I was a little nervous about the run, since I had heard lots of talk about it, but in the end it wasn't nearly as challenging as I was expecting. I had good lines on all of the major rapids, and only flipped on Pillow Rock. Some of the smaller unnamed rapids in between the big guys still had some bite to them, but our team managed all of them without too much trouble. Al swam below Sweet's Falls when his backband slipped on him, but fortunately he wasn't pushed into the surging, rocky slot benieth the falls.

Hopefully some photos and video will be forthcoming. As for now, it's time to blow the dust off of the old creekboat, as next weekend it looks like I'll be off to the Green Narrows.

2006-10-14T04:49:00.000+13:00

Lake Michigan was windy as all hell; I only got 2 rides in before the 40kt winds stopped me in my tracks and I was too tired to paddle out anymore. I could hardly move. I also got trashed by a 15 footer, and since the few boardies who were out surfing were headed in, I realized that I didn't want to be paddling 50 degree water on a freezing day in 15 foot waves by myself. On the bright side, tonight it's off to the Gualey

2006-10-13T06:08:00.001+13:00

I've been hitting the East Race pretty hard lately, and this weekend I'm headed to the Gauley, and next week I'm off to the Green. Should be a good break. This afternoon I'm off to Lake Michigan to hit up the 10-15 footers which should be hitting the beach about now. Woot.

2006-09-21T11:48:00.000+12:00

Gah, I was under-dressed for the east race today. It's gotten markedly cooler in the past couple days, and I was downright cold today in a dry top, 2 layers of polypro and swim trunks. Time for a hot shower.

2006-08-21T14:48:00.000+12:00

Paddling at the East Race has been good; I've had a couple really good rides (I linked two loops; woot). I tweaked my left elbow last week but I paddled again today and it's healed up pretty well. The trailer is working really well; I bike down to the course every time I head down there.

2006-08-13T09:43:00.000+12:00

The East Race: How I Learned To Stop Worrying About Law School and Love the V-Wave

I took my first tour of the East Race Whitewater Course in South Bend last Wednesday, and I loved it. I'll be headed back tomorrow. The course looks like a cement ditch, which I suppose it is, but the features, especially the V-Wave, are great, especially considering the lack of gradient. The main features have push and size that I didn't expect after paddling at Wausau, and it's amazing to have something like that 12 blocks or so from my house. I'll definately be becoming a regular in the very near future.

2006-07-18T07:40:00.000+12:00

Went up to the St. Louis this weekend for what amounted to be the only water in the state. They released 350cfs and not the 600 that was expected due to the recent lack of rain, but it was still a good time. I got in a few runs on the Lower, including running Octopus (probably a IV at these flows) in my Kingpin. They were running slalom races on Sunday, which I didn’t compete in, but there was a big crowd around and lots of people to hang out with (and good food to mooch), so it was an enjoyable weekend only slightly hampered by some difficulties sleeping at night due to heat and mosquitoes.

I may have to try slalom paddling once I’m in South Bend; it looks like fun and a good way to become a better paddler.

2006-07-12T03:23:00.000+12:00

Had another good trip, this time out to Jim's Falls and Wausau with D-Rad and K$. Jim's falls was pretty tame, but Wausau was a blast (threw some loops and wheels, woot), and the atmosphere at both events was a lot of fun. Hopefully pictures will be coming soon, when I get less lazy.

2006-06-01T08:20:00.000+12:00

Had a good weekend on the Wolf and Peshtigo over labor day; the weather was in the 90s and we were able to man-boat (shirtless, rar) both Section IV of the Wolf and the Roaring Rapids section of the Peshtigo. Both were beautiful Class III rivers; nothing too terrible, but enjoyable for river play. We had to pay for Section IV as it was on the Menomine Indian Reservation, but it was probably worth it. We even roped some rafters out of the falls at the end of the run (we were doing laps on them at the time and a kid, maybe 9 or so, started to get recirced back into the falls. Dennis pulled him out and I roped out his would-be rescuers).

I hadn't done river runs in awhile; it's been mainly play or creeking for me lately, so it was a nice change, with some good river play features on the way, including a nice loop spot on the upper dells on the Wolf. I ran Horserace on the Pesh 3 times; the first 2 with enders and rolls near the bottom (once doing a crazy kickflip thing just over one rock that would have tried to crush in my skull). The 3rd time was a charm though.

All in all, a good weekend of solid warm weather boating. Hopefully there's more to come.

2006-05-03T07:33:00.000+12:00

Another exciting weekend

Paul, John, Chad, Erik and I headed up to the Cascade this weekend. It was running at -12, a good level for us since none of our group had run it before. When we setup our shuttle we ran into John Alt, Jason, and Cliff, and we paddled the river with them. Good thing too, as there would have been a lot more scouting without them. I ran Hidden Falls, which was great; big fast line, and I ran the whole thing cleanly. I think it put a hole in the bottom of my boat though, as things got pretty wet in the usually-dry Phat, and when we took out at the end of the day I noticed a 1/4" crack under the seat where the plastic was wearing thin. Boo.

I screwed up the next drop, Discretion, flipping about halfway down the slide onto my back deck. Since the jagged slide only had a little bit of water flowing over it I had to protect my face with my paddle and my hands; breaking the paddle but fortunatenly not my fingers. As I lost one of my gloves a couple weeks ago my hands took a beating. I brought my split paddle, but as I was digging for it the inside of my boat got covered with blood from my torn hands.

Back on the water, a little shaken, I followed the rest of the crew down the Cascade. It was a great run; lots of fast, curvey slides and fun Class IV-V drops. Everything was pretty bony; good for a first run. We took out above the Cascades of the Cascade, and then John and Jason ran some of the entry drops through Chastity. Hell of a run.

We drove back to Jay Cooke to camp. It was raining and apparntly my tent was no longer waterproof; when I woke up in the morning my feet were in a pool of water. We grabbed breakfast at a cafe near Carlton and then ran the Lower St. Louis. It was a good run; everyone had clean lines through Octopus, and Fin Falls was a blast. We then decided to run The Wall, which was a mistake. The long, technical, bizarre rapid which spread out over 100 yards from bank to bank, was extremely shallow, resulting in hang-ups and pins at every turn. We had to scout often, knowing that there were a couple bony 15 foot falls that wouldn't be any fun to go over blind. Eventually we made it out though, and shouldered our boats for the long hike up Oldenburg Point.

It was a solid weekend overall, giving me a good taste of Class V paddling. Too bad it was so hard on gear though.

Ilgen

2006-04-26T09:20:00.000+12:00

An attempt at photo editing: