Monday, June 11, 2007

June run on the Poplar and the Cascade. Get some.

We were blessed with some rain in Cook County, bringing up the levels of some prime whitewater. AndyMac and I headed up on Sunday morning and started with a quick run on the Poplar. It was pretty low, but everything was runnable. This is a 2 mile run with a lot of boogie water and two major drops. The first one is a big slide, and the second one is a technical ledge sequence that could get hairy at high water. Below these drops lies the Lower Poplar - I can't wait to go back and hit this solid V. It looked pretty high for the lower section with a hole at the bottom recircing into a cauldron.

Andy polishes off the slide.


The author bumps his way down.


Fore!


The Cascade is a northshore classic with nonstop IV-V action. From the standard get-in this run starts with a bang! Hidden Falls, the first rapid, is a massive slide with water just cookin' down it. The Cascade was at a manageable -7" this day.

It can be hard to capture the size of drops on film, but I think this pic does Hidden Falls justice.


Click here to see video of Hidden Falls.

Hidden Falls is followed by 3 miles of continuous IV-V and it is awesome. Drop after drop after drop, this river has some serious gradient and just keeps going and going - never slowing down. There are tons of drops, most of which I don't know the names. If not my favorite, this river is definitely in the top 2 or 3.

With only 2 guys and the continuous nature of the river we didn't get too many pics, but I'll post what I've got.

8 foot falls.


Andy rides the pillow at the bottom of Long John Silver.


Get some.


Taking out at the top of the cascades.

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