Beyond H2O: A Journey of the Midwest and Beyond

Weekend Huckfest

2009-01-13T11:34:00.016-06:00

Heavy rains pounded the northwest and after flooding subsided a posse of waterfall enthusiasts was assembled.

First stop was 70 foot Outlet Falls

Luke Spencer contemplating life in the pool above the falls.

Luke at the lip.

Entrance to the class V rapid above the falls.

Mini gorge crux.

Next up was Bridal Veil Falls - photos courtesy of Ben Hawthorne.

Scott Baker.

Me.

Last time I ran Money Drop it was 35 feet, it's grown since then due to the changing geology. Photo courtesy of Keel Brightman

Running Money Drop last year

Photos and time lapses of the changing geology on Rock Creek can be found at Rock Creek Slide

Videos and trip reports will be brought to you by:
CRG Productions, Liquid Kayak, and Huckin Huge

Summer 08: Gorge Games, Spirit Freewheel, and Waterfalls

2008-10-16T14:55:00.021-05:00

After having plenty of beatdowns and even more good times all across the Midwest and Colorado, I made a last attempt to catch some good summer boating in the Northwest. Kicked it off with the Gorge Games and L-Dub, then up to the Ohanapecosh and the Lewis River waterfalls. Good times.

Gorge Games Creek Race:

Heather.

Greg.

Me.

Sam.

Little White:

Jamie Wright ladies and gentlemen.

The proof is in the pudding.

Paul Gamache.

Mount St. Helens.

Ohanapecosh:

The main event - no takers today.

There is some interesting whitewater upstream.

A difficult entrance, the lip is just out of the frame (bottom-right).

It has been run by only a handful of stout chargers.

Click HERE to see some tasty treats laid upon the beast.

Jamie sampling some local fare.

Getting fired up.

Lewis River Waterfalls:

Should we do it?

A fun 60ish foot cliff jump throw and go.

Jumping is the safer line at this level.

Second twenty footer of the day.

This river goes off in huge dome strewn broken ledges making for epic scenery. It would be a good section to inner tube on a warm sunny day with low water - just jump the big ones.

Jamie in the entrance to the forty footer.

Jamie.

Trying something different.

Sam Sutton.

Another Kiwi killing it.

Click images for hi-res.

SW Colorado Classics Part 2: Los Pinos

2008-08-12T12:25:00.010-05:00

On June 20th, 2008, Mr. Eli Loper and I met up with Will Rawstron, Rolf Kelly, and Tim Kenton for a 3 day expedition into Los Pinos. We hiked our fully packed boats 8.5 miles over Weminuche Pass and paddled the 20 or so miles out with a few major portages. Good times.

Weminuche Wilderness.

Working our way to the headwaters.

Will unphased by the hike. Photo by Rolf Kelly

Sweatin' at the getin. Photo by Rolf Kelly

Tim's first stroke on the Pinos. Photo by Rolf Kelly

Chillin' at camp one.Photo by Rolf Kelly

Dinner time.

A fire was nice to keep warm at this high elevation.

This big rock made a good campsite.Photo by Rolf Kelly

Rolf probing a waterfall.Photo by Tim Kenton

Tim.Photo by Rolf Kelly

Will. Photo by Rolf Kelly

Big waterfall pouring down some granite.Photo by Rolf Kelly

Will, the ever-steady portageur.

Rolf getting caveman during some very fun portaging. Photo by Tim Kenton

Camp deuce.Photo by Rolf Kelly

Southwestern Colorado Classics Part 1

2008-06-25T01:44:00.014-05:00

Box canyons, granite gorges, and huge boulders characterize the rivers of southwest Colorado, making for some great whitewater. Click for hi-res images.

Scouting a steep box canyon on the way to Durango. It contained tight steepness with a couple impressive falls and at least one hideous rapid. Is it runnable?

Watching a rainbow hang over a roadside hundred foot slide that drops off the face.

I spent some time in the Vail area during the Teva games, the highlite of which was running Gore Canyon at just under 3 grand. Big water fun. Click HERE to see a vid of Gore being ran even higher.

Then I hopped down to meet up with Scotty Baker and some other Durango boys and started on the 1st Gorge of Lime Creek - epicness was sure to ensue. This is an awesome run through slot canyons and granite gorges with class IV boogy and 3 class Vs. The crew lived up to their name as "The Clown Posse"... First, the posse was a couple hours late because their buddy got arrested for an old warrant. Then on the way to the put-in Dan got a flat tire on this super rocky old road... Luckily after a couple miles on this heinous road riding on a rim, we made it to a putin. First up was Adrenaline falls - pretty much a crap shoot. Boof or plug a six foot ledge and try to keep a little left angle down a 2 foot wide slot almost 20 ft. tall. Out of 4 of us 2 skirts blew so me and Dan swam. 50/50 is pretty standard on this one. Next major rapid was S-Turn. Dan surfed a hole just above the rapid and rolled up just in time to plug the right side - not where you want to be! After a valiant surf with several window shades he swam S-Turn, a gorged up powerful steep rapid. His boat was long gone. Dragon's Back is the last major drop and went well, and luckily Dan's boat was breached by the takeout. Dan was bruised and battered from having to climb/jump/scramble/swim out of the canyon, but luckily back at his house there was a keg, beer pong, and ladies waiting.

Our next (mis)adventure lay just over an hour south of Durango - the West Fork San Juan. A 3 mile hike in rewards kayakers with a paddle through a thousand+ foot granite gorge down some steep and clean class V. Baker, Steaves, and I hiked in the three miles hoping to be rewarded for our efforts. Upon arriving at the first rapid, Triple Boof Shuffle, we found it to be juicing and rising fast as the afternoon was progressing. A maximum recommended flow is around 500cfs and we were looking at the 800-1000 range with a deep brown water. The river was bankful and flushing very fast. The scarce eddies were lined with willows and any mistake was sure to result in a bad time. We decided our chances weren't very good for keeping our boats if we proceeded so we bushwacked upstream, ferried across, and hiked out the 3 miles. Darn! A wasted day of paddling and over 6 miles of hiking with a 50 pound boat. Good practice for the Los Pinos hiking trip though - more on that later.

With Scotty headed to Cali, I cruised up to Rockwood to meet back up with partner in crime Eli Loper and his friend, another CO native son, Sean Vierling. We set the shuttle in Rockwood and cruised up to Silverton to crash out and put on the next day for our marathon of paddling on the Upper Animas. The Upper A is 25 miles of class IV-IV+ with a couple Vs and is one of the funnest runs I've ever done. Awesome scenery and big water with no flatwater - just big wave trains and hole dodging for miles and miles. Stupid, silly fun. Futalafeu style wave trains for miles - and you can bite off as much of big holes as you want. 6-12 foot waves and holes are commonplace, stupid fun. Pretty much hole/wave dodging and punching for miles and miles. The amazing scenery and snowcapped peaks around every bend in the river made it that much sweeter.

The combination of bedrock and big boulders in the area make for high quality rapids.

Eli doing some bouldering during a safety break.

Eli dwarfed by No Name Rapid, a maw of big water features.

Good scenery abounds at every turn.

Walking the plank.

A fine gentleman named John Ickes gave us a ride in a train car back to our car, saving us over a mile of hiking - nice!

Checking out the Rockwood Box from the train car.

Sean earning our keep and switching the tracks over.

"Dude, we didn't have to hike... High-five!"

Typical SW Colorado scenery.

Ickes is a part-owner of the Olde Schoolhouse which is the best pizza and beer joint in SW Colorado. It's also on the way back to Silverton from Rockwood, so make sure to stop there and check it out.

Full moon risin'.

This is why I love SW Colorado.

While in Silverton, South Mineral Creek is a must hit for any class V creeker. Rumors of crystal clear water, a few slides and drops, and a clean 20 foot waterfall turned out to be all true.

Up around 10,000 ft. there's still quite a bit of snow on the ground.

Dog-friendly park and huck. Look closely for the boater in the picture to see the absolute magnitude of the area.

Scouting the gorge with a big waterfall up the hill.

The boys scouting the exit of the gorge - a twisting drop into a cauldron.

Eli on the 20 footer.

Sean dropping the 20.

Baker with the 20 footer in the background.

Eli slidin' his way down the gorge.

Scotty catchin' some boof after the gorge.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Southwestern Colorado Classics

Colorado Photos: Homestake Creek Race and Glenwood Springs Play Spot

2008-06-07T23:07:00.012-05:00

I rolled into the Vail area in time to get a couple practice runs in the day before the Homestake Creek race - the kickoff event for the Vail Teva Mountain Games. This event is touted as one of the premier grade V creek races in the country and draws some of kayakings best professional athletes.

Homestake Creek.

Pre-race boat lineup.

Christie Glissmeyer coming through the top of the course.

John Grace setup for a dynamic camera angle.

Eric Jackson working his way down the course.

Tao focused.

Tao keeping momentum through a pourover working his way to 1st.

Todd Anderson came in second.

Andrew Holcombe pulled in a close 3rd place.

Eli Loper on Piece of Shit - can you see why it's called that?

P.O.S. is just below the finish line of the race course.

GLENWOOD SPRINGS

recently made a play park on the Colorado River. There are a variety of waves with potential for almost any move.

There's room for lots of boats here.

Me catching some air time.

Hoping for some raft carnage.

River surfing attempt #1.

River 1. Surfer 0.

More Minnesota photos

2008-06-02T09:24:00.013-05:00

Here's some random shots from paddling around Minnesota.
Click photos for hi-res.

Superior Panorama.

Kiffy runs the first falls on the East Fork Beaver with Loren Moulten filming.

Andy hits the boof trigger on waterfall #2 EF Beaver.

The boys below the first two falls on the EF Beaver.

Unrun slide on the Cross River.

Trespassing to scout some drops.

30'er on the Manitou.

Looking down the superior coast from a prime camping spot.

Dogs on Carlton peak.

Looking up the Superior coastline from Palisade Head.

Andy looking very small in the Devil Track canyon with Lake Superior on the horizon.

Kiffy dwarfed by the Devil Track canyon.

Minnesota wolf.

Kiffy on the Two Island.

Nate Herbeck on the same drop.

Cascade classics at high water.

The last one on the Cascade with some serious juice.

The gorge on the Temperance river.

More Temperance.

St. Louis river dam at high water.

Me on Manabezo.

Zimny took a shot to the elbow on the Split Rock.

Me getting ready to take a shot to the shoulder and thereby giving this rapid a name: "Touch Down ToneBone".

A couple days on the South Shore of Lake Superior

2008-05-19T11:05:00.016-05:00

After getting some high water action on the North Shore some of the crew headed over to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on the South Shore of Lake Superior for the annual Jim Rada Memorial Race on the Presque Isle. We ran the final mile of the Presque which has a few nice waterfalls and finishes with a big water rush called the Zoom Flume.

Kiffy giving Manabezo the elbow flick for a little extra air time.

Johnny "Utah" McConville styling it before taking 1st place in the race.

Me on the Red Dangler - a river right channel that opens up at higher levels.

It's always fun to have some lake surf at the takeout.

The day after the race we did the full run on the Presque Isle which is about 15 miles. This run has some really cool drops separated by a flat water stretches, giving it a kind of Boundary Waters feel. Photos by John McConville.

Kiffy and Max ready to roll.

Me subbing out in a sliding falls.

Max watching Kiffy disappear in Nokomis.

Max on Nokomis.

The next day we headed over to the Black River which was about double the "maximum" runnable flow. We sat around and talked about putting on, but we were all pretty beat so after a couple beers we lost motivation and pretty much just hung out and talked about lines and chilled out.

Gorge Falls is happy to give you some serious downtime at this level.

The namesake of Rainbow Falls.

John scouting Rainbow.

Is there a line in there somewhere?

Rainbow is very burly at this level - from 60mph to 0mph in less than a second.

A photo of a photo brought to you by Pam, Big Sky Brewery, and of course PBR.

Loren Moulton is working on a film highlighting the whitewater of Lake Superior. See a preview by following his link > Videos > Kayaking Superior's North Shore.

Utah taking a nap in the sun.

Jedi in his element on the shores of Lake Superior.

Andy in his element burning ants.

Cascade River, MN: The L-Dub of the midwest

2008-05-11T20:09:00.008-05:00

The Cascade is one of my favorite rivers and I was stoked to get on it at a very juicy flow. Kiffy, Maximus, and I put on at about +3" which provided a lot of excitement. The first drop is a huge slide that is pretty much a roll of the dice at this level. I lost a lot of skin, but managed to surf out of the hole. My companions weren't so lucky and both swam.

Hidden Falls is the first drop.

I recommend staying upright when possible.

The entrance to the Moose was pretty busy at this level. The horizon line is a slide with a huge pillowy airplane turn that dumps into a small pool that continues down another slide into a big hole.

Maximus pondering the Moose Cock.

Long John Silver Rapid, "Boing!"

Me and Andy warming up with a nice fire at Long John.

Long John has a long fun entrance with some big waves and holes, here Andy is nearing the end.

He's stoked to be upright and on line in this one. The pillow off of the river right wall swallows you and spits you out.

An "Oh Shit" moment for Andy on Screaming Stingl Falls.

I plugged the left side of Screaming Stingl giving our group a 100% swim rate!

After the takeout for the upper section, the Cascade falls over a series of 5 stout waterfalls. They are usually only ran when the upper section is too low or at a bare minimum. There's lots of wood in there right now so hopefully it cleans up a bit by the time they are safely runnable.

High Water in Minnesota: Spring Creekin'

2008-05-02T21:36:00.019-05:00

Here's a few of the runs we've hit up here on the north shore of Lake Superior over the past week. There's been plenty of water and lots of drops got fired up.

THE MANITOU
is a class IV run with some portages.

The first drop hasn't been run, but definitely goes at this level.

Johnny "Utah" McConville.

The final portage - Rain Falling Up Falls.

You can see why it gets its name - it's incredibly powerful.

The Manitou channelizes and goes over this final drop into the lake. Props to the boys who fired it up and watch for it in the next LVM.

Next up was a northshore secret gem.

The first major rapid is a boof through a hole into this slide with the lip of a 30 footer at the end of the pool.

Chad "The Chizzler" Thurow dropping this perfect 30 footer.

Lake Superior has a rugged coastline with small islands, inlets, and even sea caves.

THE SPLIT ROCK
is one of the best creeks on the north shore and with the highest water level ever attempted it was really fast and sometimes furious.

Lots of big fast slides.

Typical Splitty.

Under the Log is the final rapid and it packs a punch.

This Burn was ghost ridin' and got destroyed.

Almost Always
used to almost always be portaged.

Nate Heydt dropping in to Almost Always on an urban creek run in Duluth.

Paddling to Lake Superior and doing a ceremonial roll is a tradition here.

ILGEN FALLS

A perfect 30 footer.

Andy "Maximus" McMurray setting up a zip line for a dynamic camera angle.

Kiffy hanging out at the lip.

This is a great drop on a sunny day.

THE BRULE
is a larger river with steady gradient and a few huge drops that are rarely to never run, definitely a must see.

Chizzler in front of the unrun entrance to Canyon Falls.

This massive curler is only a small piece of the puzzle.

The right side of Canyon is a sweet slide.

The left side is a full on big water slide, but it's hard to get over there at this level.

The Devil's Kettle was very full on at this level. Half of the river disappears into the huge kettle/vertical shaft on river right.

Reflecting on this magnificent drop.

Upper Falls lies right below Devil's Kettle and has never been run. Can you see why?

THE DEVIL TRACK
is an elusive north shore creek that meanders through a deep canyon as it roars down slides. There are two portages so you need to know where you're going because this thing moves fast when it's high.

The first portage is The Admiral, and has only been run twice. Two big slides are above it, but at a high level we were forced to portage all three.

Nate Herbeck catching a nice boof on Portage Down the Middle.

Trying to catch a glimpse of Pitchfork Falls, an unrun 40 footer with a shallowish landing. A pretty big portage to get around this canyon, and if you miss the eddy your stuck at the lip.

More photo dumping to come.

Canyon Creek Race Weekend: IV-IV+

2008-04-15T00:01:00.003-05:00

After a week or two of camping up by Hood River and rallying the Truss and the L-Dub it was time for the much anticipated Canyon Creek race. This is one of the premier race courses in the country with a nice amount of gradient, but not too burly for the weekend warriors and newer creekers out there. With over 80 competitors and dozens of spectators it was a cool scene. Congrats to Brian Little for taking 1st in the advanced division and to Geoff Calhoun who swept the expert. Thanks to all the organizers for working hard to make this a great event and especially to Oly for having an awesome party at his riverside compound. The party featured lots of good food, an endless supply of beer, a live band - need I say more?

The crowd enjoying the sunshine at the finish line.

Boofing to the finish.

Paddling the flatwater to the takeout.

After a night of partying there was a waterfall huck contest off of Sunset Falls.

Nick keeping it real and repping the midwest in an OC1.

They had it all - hand paddles, OC1, Mike Olsen in a sea kayak, and rafts.

Todd Anderson wheeling his way to #1.

Todd showing off one of the less common lines.

Geoff Calhoun airing out the nomad.

Devin Morton full of water and ready to get some downtime.

Every man for himself!

Triple Threat.

Wind River Race '08: III-IV+

2008-03-24T13:00:00.003-06:00

Long boats, playboats, cats, and rafts all came out to race the upper Wind River on Easter Sunday.

Joe Stumpfel warms up his Wavehopper while Rob Virostek looks on.
Joe easily took 1st place with a time under 20 minutes.

Austin Rathman keepin' it real in a sea kayak while Nate Bell is rolling the Corsica.

3, 2, 1, GO!

The long boaters fightin for an early lead.

ORT coming in hot to the finish line.

All these rafts and no carnage?

Style points for pointing at the crowd while crossing the finish line.

Shootin' the shit after a fun race.

RACE RESULTS:

Long Boat Kayak
1st Joe Stumpfel 19:17
2nd Austin Rathman 20:04
3rd Nate Bell 22:06
4th Christie Glissmeyer 22:48

Kayak (Under 9 feet)---Times “rained out”
1st Greg Mallory
2nd Tony Skrivanek
3rd Rob Virostek
4th Jim Kennedy
5th Roberta Grant
6th Luke Spencer

Cataraft---Times “rained out”
1st Dave Hagmeir
2nd Zachary Collier
3rd Val Shaull

Paddle Raft
1st Oregon Rafting Team (ORT) 22:44
2nd California Women 23:17
3rd Bigfoot (R2) 27:09
4th ORT Rookies (R2) 28:55

Happy Easter... The PBR egg is crucial!

The Northshore Project: Video by Fluid Groove Productions

2008-03-12T20:05:00.004-06:00

Thanks to Cliff Langley and Joel Decker of Fluid Groove Productions for providing this glimpse into the whitewater of Minnesota and the Lake Superior region. This film features Devil's Kettle, Rainbow Falls, the Cascades of the Cascade, and much more. Spring is almost here!

Rock Creek, WA: Video and pics

2008-03-03T09:47:00.010-06:00

Rock Creek, WA is a classic grade IV creek with a couple Vs and a couple optional portages. Sunday March 2nd we had an estimated 400-600cfs, slightly above the minimum. We were able to drive about a mile or two through the snow before we started hiking the rest of the 5 mile road to the get-in.

I'll kick it off with the vid.

Chris Arnold, Allen Satcher, and Eli Loper pondering the road after part of Chris's undercarriage ripped off.

Left, Left, Left Right Left. Eli braves his second hike-in of the weekend.

Runnable 35 footer - a little low for my taste.

The first major rapid - an 8 foot boof into a canyon.

Looking up at Heaven while standing at the gates of Hell. This series of ledges is a ramping 10footer(Heaven) and a sliding 25footer(Hell).

Eli and Chris scouting Hell.

An aquamarine colored hole blocks the entrance - at high flows it has a 5 foot face!

We all aimed for the kicker, but only Chris nailed it.

Paddling up to this waterfall is really cool when it's high.

The scenery is great, lots of waterfalls and moss-covered canyon walls.

3 Swims Falls, we portaged. This falls drops into a very tight slot.

Panther Creek into the Lower Wind, WA: IV-V

2008-03-03T09:30:00.016-06:00

In its last mile before it meets the Wind River, Panther Creek is a steep boulder garden that has some serious gradient. It's compared to Gettin' Busy on the Little White and to a cleaner Trout Creek. The level was between 21-24" on the stick gauge which seemed like an optimal flow - some pretty chunky holes, but still plenty of eddies. Mostly boat scoutable with the exception of 2 or 3 rapids. Eddy hoppin', boulder garden steepness - it was really fun. Eli Loper and I put on just in time to catch up with Ryan Cole, Chris Arnold, Garry Truyens, and Eric Arlington - a good crew!!

Scouting the entrance to one of the steepest sections. Avoid small F-U logs, rockslide the tight slot of your choice, punch the big hole, repeat.

The second part of this section.

Chris catching his breath after some steepness.

Ryan boogying and enjoying the amazing scenery. Moss-covered trees, rocks, and mini-gorges characterize this section.

Garry enjoying some more good clean boulder bed.

Ryan snarling and looking hard with a bloody face. It's not all fun and games here!

Gary and Eli polish off some steepness before Panther meets the Wind.

Once we hit the confluence and got onto the Lower Wind there was some serious volume. None of us had ever seen the Lower Wind with this much flow before. The flume became a big water rapid with some huge breaking wave-holes. Beyond Limits was awesome - ride the tongue into a huge thrasher, then hold on for the next big one. Eli and I were the only ones who ran it and we both cleaned it. Shipherd's Falls looked insane.

Chris probes the Flume.

Beyond Limits with a fish ladder "sneak" on the left.

The entrance to the fish ladder was sketchy at best.

Eli probes Beyond Limits, rated V+ in the guidebook. Kind of like a juicy BZ Falls.

Keeping it together through the last hole.

The first falls at Shipherds is unrecognizable compared to summer flows.

The second falls is super burly at this flow.

If you survive this set of drops there is still a lowhead dam to contend with.

Garry probing the mandatory cliff jump on the portage.

Eric was happy that hotsprings were waiting just downstream of this swim.

Eagle Creek, OR: Metlako Falls Descent - 90 feet

2008-02-19T19:24:00.009-06:00

After knocking off my first runs of Eagle Creek and the L-Dub I guess I didn't torture myself enough for one weekend because I did the 4-5 mile hike into Eagle Creek again on Monday. The highlite of the run was definitely seeing Jamie Wright fire up Metlako Falls with a sick line. He stuck it without swimming or popping his skirt and came out unscathed. The only collateral damage was a strap on his helmet that broke from the impact of a 90 foot waterfall.

Jamie contemplates Metlako from a distance.

Don't slip here.

Jamie starting to get warm on the put-in falls.

Punchbowl is good practice for Metlako, but is still only one-third the size.

Getting psyched up and pondering a very intimidating horizon line.

Comitted.

Still a long way to go.

Focused and on line for about 60 feet of freefall from this point.

Checking out the collateral damage. Jamie said the landing was pretty soft, but it still was able to break a strap on his helmet.

It's interesting being in a beautiful remote place only accessible by kayak, only to hit the reality of rush hour moments later. Mt. Hood is in the background as we continue back to the grind of the city.

L-Dub

2008-02-18T08:49:00.014-06:00

I finally got on the infamous Little White Salmon and it was a great trip. The L-Dub is touted as one of the best single day class V runs in the country. There's a lot of hype about this river and I think it pretty much lives up to it. This weekend was one of the warmest and sunniest we've had in the gorge all winter and there was a huge posse of boaters out there - easily 20 people!

Catching our breath after another steep boulder garden.

One of the countless waterfalls.

Joe at the lip of Stovepipe.

The boys contemplating life at the lip of Spirit Falls.

A seriously boiling pool can make the landing interesting.

Joe getting ready to take flight.

Jamie having a spiritual moment after a sick line.

This Little White regular was one of about 8 of us who crushed the line.

Here's a short vid of Jamie Wright, Joe Stumpfel, and me hucking Spirit.
Thanks to Eli Loper for getting the footage.

The granddaddy of Little White Salmon drops.

Stay tuned for a report on the UK's Jamie Wright going out with a bang on his last day in town and descending 90 foot Metlako Falls.

Eagle Creek, OR: Hike and Huck

2008-02-16T00:42:00.007-06:00

Eagle Creek, OR is a classic for waterfall enthusiasts. After about 4 to 5 miles of hiking up the creek, Eli Loper and I reached the optional put-in falls - 40ft right into a 10. Several IV-V rapids including a 30+ foot falls drop through a gorge with sheer 100-200foot moss covered canyon walls - whitewater paradise.

Eli hiking through some typical Eagle Creek scenery.

The trail has been blown out of the side of the cliff with dynamite.

Metlako Falls - 90 feet - on the hike up. We saved this one for another day.

Punchbowl Falls on the hike up.

A sweet ten foot rainbow waterfall.

A nice class IV leading into a steep slot canyon.

An unrunnable tributary.

Launching the warmup rapid.
As always, images are clickable

Stoked to be on line in the second part of this committing drop.

Our first portage.

Portage #2.

Eli scouting Punchbowl. Once your in this pool there's no going back.

Eli at the lip, preparing to melt it.

A short video of me dropping Punchbowl from the top taken by Eli Loper.

After Punchbowl we ran a 10 foot ledge and carried up the cliff to avoid 90 foot Metlako Falls waiting downstream. It took us about a mile of hiking before we found a way to scramble back down to the river and avoid hiking the last mile or so out of the canyon. The final section was bumpy class III at this level.

Washougal River, WA - the waterfall run

2008-02-10T11:20:00.001-06:00

Watching the gauges before the weekend the Washougal drainage looked like the place to be. Besides our group of seven, we saw at least 3 other big groups paddling in the area on Saturday. Our mission was to hit the waterfall section and after about a mile hike in through the snow we were successful.

As always, all images are clickable

Ken probing the road - can we make it?

No go, about a mile hike in.

Looking up from the trail at the bottom of one of the drops.

Dave in the first waterfall - a sliding lead-in to the falls.

Jamie stomping it.

The left side of the second falls.

Pat flying off the right side.

Louis on the right side of the final falls - a fast sliding entry.

Jamie opted for the middle boof onto rock line.

Blue skies, clear water, and snowy peaks.

If you plan on doing this run be aware that there is lots of fish habitat restoration on this stretch. There are logs chained into the river in several places and often create strange and sketchy features. We also had a note on our car saying that there are going to be some log dams installed summer 2008.

Lake Creek TR and Sweet Creek photos

2008-02-04T12:08:00.000-06:00

Lake Creek (Oregon) is a playboating run about 45 minutes outside of Eugene in a coastal mountain range and temperate rain forest. The level was between 13 and 14 feet and the play was awesome. Big wave trains and huge holes characterize this river with some epic downriver play, tons of catch on the fly waves, and even a few sweet spots with eddy service. We spent most of our time at grassy lawn and mill wave. Grassy has a nice retentive pile and was giving up some big air to the locals. Mill wave had a huge, fast green face and was super fun with some good bounce when I was able to make the tricky ferry to get on it. After making it all the way to the put-in Luke realized he forgot his gear bag in Portland so he snapped some photos from shore.

Dozens of waves like this.

Wheelin'.

Typical Lake Creek.

32 degrees and raining - standard NW winter boating.

Sweet Creek is a steep gem just down the road from Lake Creek so we went to check it out. It's a short, steep section with some seriously classic whitewater on it. It was running high and you better be on your A game at this level. I can't wait to get on this creek at a more sane level.

Every drop was solid class V with no pools and tricky lead-ins.

Boiling 10ish foot ledge.

10 foot ledge with some serious recirculation.

Sweet whitewater, sweet moss-covered forest - Sweet Creek!!

Minnesota Creekin' Video

2008-01-28T21:00:00.000-06:00

Here's some footage Andy shot in Fall 2007 on the North Shore of Superior. Urban creek boatin', a first descent, and some carnage.

Hagen Creek Video: 12/6/07

2007-12-13T02:59:00.000-06:00

Hagen Creek is a tributary of the North/West Fork of the Washougal just outside of Washougal, WA - not far from Portland. It was first ran within the last two years and it's a wonder that it went undiscovered for so long. It contains some nice bedrock rapids and a couple clean waterfalls. Once it meets the NWF Washougal there are 2 fun class V drops followed by some good class IV boogy and some amazing scenery. We didn't get too many photos, but we did get some footage.

Uldis in the entrance to the second falls on Hagen.

Uldis continuing on down this broken up 30 footer.

Joe buried in the second falls after the confluence with the NWF Washougal.

Uldis droppin' in.

Video: Panama Creeking 2007

2007-12-11T23:04:00.000-06:00

Here's the video I put together from my recent trip to Panama. Enjoy!!!

Landslide on Money Drop: Rock Creek, WA

2007-11-26T17:17:00.000-06:00

Money Drop was an 80 foot falls before a huge ever-changing landslide filled in the creek and the base of the waterfall. Right now it's around 40 feet and it's definitely still changing. Jim Busse, Luke Spencer, Chuck Taylor, Johnnie Ott and I witnessed, and a few of us narrowly escaped, part of the landslide falling into the river.

Notice the huge landslide that's taken out a bunch of trees.

Jim Busse stomping it!

Johnnie Ott's sequence.

This drop has a fast slide leading into it and it launches you with some good speed - so fun! After the falls you paddle through a tight canyon for a couple hundred yards at the end of which were eddies on both sides. The takeout was on the right and missing this eddy meant making a move boofing a log and then going into some log-choked sketchy stuff. One of our party missed the eddy and wedged his paddle across the log-move drop and I ran like hell along the shore catching the bow of his boat before he went paddle-less into the log mank.

The landslide on the left with the manky log-choked washout on the right.

Luke getting ready to go deep.

Me enjoying weightlessness.

Seconds after my second lap of the falls, the whole side of the river started sliding in. I was in the left eddy and noticed that the eddies had changed. Johnnie was running safety on a rock in the takeout eddy on the right and yelled to me to get over - at this point I had no idea what was going on. The takeout eddy became moving water so Johnnie and Chuck helped grab my boat while I got out. They passed the boat up the cliff and we scrambled up as fast as we could away from the landslide and the rising water. We watched the whole wall of clay-mud slowly slide into the river and into the eddy where I had been sitting seconds before. The rock Johnnie was standing on was submerged and Luke's throw rope got eaten by the rising water.

The dirt on the left is where the left eddy was.
The submerged rock on the right is where Johnnie was standing.

That's a lot of mud!!

Watch for signs of landslides including but not limited to:

Looming walls of loose sliding mud with downed trees packed in it.
Burned down houses.
Caution tape.

Snow Day!!! Trout Creek, WA - another fun day in the CRG

2007-11-18T21:45:00.000-06:00

Trout Creek is a steep continuous creek about an hour and a half outside of Portland. We were lucky to catch it before it got snowed in, and I don't think access will be easy for much longer. After recovering from the previous day's festivities(check previous post), Joe Stumpfel, Uldis, and I decided to knock another CRG classic off the list. With over 300 feet per mile in the steepest part and no waterfalls this thing drops fast. It has a good warmup, then it's basically one continuous class IV-V rapid. Joe, the crazy C-1er, boat scouted almost the whole thing for us - we only got out to scout a couple times. Just eddyhopping steepness with some big rapids, and big holes - so fun!

A nice camping spot at the take-out across this bridge. Notice the weather.

Rocking Chacos, Uldis was surprised to see snow at the get-in.

Now this reminds me of Minnesota - a fun day in the snow!!!

Joe dropping in as it starts to pick up.

Uldis and Joe havin' a good ol' time in the snow.

Joe enjoying one of the many rapids like this.

Yeah, the line was under that tree - nice!

Snowmen like to paddle too.

A blurry shot of the gauge rock.
A good flow for a first time down - known to locals as the minimum.

An epic adventure on Canyon Creek, WA

2007-11-17T22:34:00.000-06:00

2 broken boats, 3 walk-offs and 4 swims later,
we finally reached the takeout in the dark....

Uldis, Joe Stumpfel, Joe's girlfriend Rachel, and I put on above Fly Creek at around 2 in the afternoon. None of us had run Canyon Creek before, but we had all heard that this was a IV to IV+ run, and we thought we were in for a pretty mellow day.

Uldis breaking his boat at the get-in.

Right at the get-in Uldis was doing the seal launch and his boat hit some of the sharp volcanic rock, putting a nasty crack in his Rocker. "No worries," I said, "just go grab my All-Star and playboat this one." After some deliberation he decided to go for it and we were off. 195 pounds is pretty heavy for the All-Star so we figured he would be in for a pretty exciting day. The run starts off as an awesome play run - great surfing waves everywhere with some perfect kickflip and wavewheelin' waves. Just watch out for random pick-up trucks in the river.

Good scenery as we start our (mis)adventure.

After the first few rapids we ran into a couple boaters putting on at a different get-in. Mark from Idaho and Tyson from Eugene hooked up with our group. Shortly after this, Joe noticed Uldis stern stalling down the river and they came to find out that my All-Star had a huge crack in the bottom and was funneling in water fast. Boat number 2 down. Luckily this happened before the canyon because Uldis was able to hike out.

Cracked All-Star - not my baby!!

Working our way into the canyon.

After entering the canyon, things were going good - it was pretty juicy in there, but we were making good downstream progress. We came to a rapid and Mark gave us the line, "Ride up on the left and punch the seam." Mark and Tyson made it through fine then I was up. I punched through upright but didn't have enough momentum to the right so I was getting sucked back in from the left wall. "Oh, that's what he meant by ride up left!" I threw a couple ends in the Mega Rocker and it flushed me out. Rachel was approaching the drop while I was getting rodeo'd, Joe yells to her "Catch an eddy!" But it was too late - I flushed and rolled up in time to see her come through. It was a pretty sticky hole and it took her for a good ride before she popped out. Now we're in a mini canyon so trying to get the equipment together and back to its occupant was a challenge. The only way for Rachel to get down to her boat was to swim, so she held a rope while Joe belayed her around the corner into an eddy with a nasty undercut. She basically slingshotted around slamming into the wall. After some more swimming she was finally reunited with her boat and paddle.

One of the mini canyons that Rachel had to swim through.

Shortly after this, Tyson swam out of a sticky ledge and his boat went for a long ride in another sticky pourover while we all watched and hoped it would come out. After a few minutes we all cheered when it finally was free. We gathered his gear and headed downstream, quickly coming upon a stomping rapid. It was a long rapid with huge waves and holes ending in a sticky pourover. As the group pondered the pourover, I decided to fire it up. I made it through the big stuff fine, but was coming towards the pourover backwards. I had time to get a couple quick strokes off and tried to push my bow up, and I was through! But wait a second, my skirt imploded and I was squirting down river into some continuous class III leading into the 17 footer. So I punched out and made it to shore with my boat floating downstream. After watching this, Rachel and Tyson decided to hike out there - hike-outs 2 and 3. Joe's boat was at the top of the rapid and Rachel's Solo was the only boat at the bottom. With some fast thinking Joe tells Rachel to hike out with his boat and he'll take the Solo. Joe ripped out the bulkhead of the Solo so he could fit, switching from C-1 to two blades, and went paddling after my boat.

Watching Tyson's boat take a ride in a sticky hole.

I thought for sure my boat was going over the waterfall, but luckily it was breached on one of the only exposed rocks about a hundred yards above the falls. Joe ferried out and clipped the boat in as Mark and I held a rope on shore. Okay, I got my boat back, let's go check out the falls. At this level the falls was pretty burly. It requires a delayed boof and if you miss it you're gonna go deep, maybe coming out, maybe taking a serious thrashing, and maybe going into one of the undercut walls. We all ran it with good lines and were off. After the falls is a stomping section with HUGE holes all over the place. I got stopped and went for a long sidesurf - it's really hard to surf the 93 gallon Mega Rocker out of holes. Finally got out of that one, made it downstream a ways and took another long surf. This time I had to just rest in a sidesurf for a minute before I built the energy to work my way out. These holes were massive! After this I was pretty tired. I took a break in an eddy for about 60 seconds before continuing.

Joe buried in the falls.

Looking back up at the falls - it was getting dark fast at this point.

Next up was the double drop - a pair of 6-10 foot ledges about 10 yards apart. I scouted it and it had some nasty recirculation, but it looked good to go. Joe and Mark ran the first drop and then I was up. I guess I was just really tired after all of our (mis)adventures up to this point and was a couple feet too far right. I dropped off the right side of a finger rock right into a nasty seam. I held on for a while trying to keep my head up which was hard in the extremely aerated water. After surfing for a while I realized there was no way I was getting out of there so I pulled. "Wait a second," I thought, "I'm not surfacing!" I was getting recirculated in the base of the falls. Flailing and trying to get out wasn't doing anything and I was down for a while, so finally I curled into a ball and went so deep that all I could see was darkness. I wasn't getting chundered anymore so I hoped I was free, and as I came towards the light at the surface I rejoiced. Sweet, sweet, air!!! As I collected myself on shore I saw my paddle float into the eddy that I swam into - hooray! The second drop is all cliffed out so I watched from the cliff as Joe was trying to unpin my boat from under a log in a pourover. Luckily Rachel had a pin kit in her boat and Joe set up a pulley system to get my boat out. From the cliff there was no way down except to jump into the dark water of unknown depth. Luckily I was able to lower myself down the cliff to a point where it wouldn't have been too bad if it was shallow when I jumped.

By now it was getting really dark. Joe had my boat free and ferried it across the river right above a rapid where someone died. Mark and I both walked this one and Joe decided to run it in the dark after he got the line from Mark.
Mark: "Boof the left side of that rock"
Joe: "Is that the line where the guy died?"
Mark: "Nope"
And Joe was off - having an awesome line in the dark on the death rapid. "Best boof of the day," he later recalled.

Then a short spurt of class II and a 1.5 mile paddle out of the reservoir by moonlight. We were all powering ahead and there's a sign spanning the reservoir. "I wonder what that sign says?" says Joe. "I dunno, but I hear running water up there," I say back. Then we realized we were about to go right into the dam... that would have been a fitting ending to our day! "Oh yeah, we're supposed to go left here," Mark chimes in. We finally made it to the takeout 2 broken boats, 3 hike-offs and 4 swims later. Definitely an epic day.

Paddle safe,
Tony

Park and Huck Video

2007-11-11T05:51:00.000-06:00

Lower Falls on the East Fork of the Lewis is a 45 footer located north of Portland in Washington state. This video documents Luke Spencer, Chuck Taylor, and Uldis Jaunarajs on a sweet park and huck. The footage of me and Johnnie Ott was corrupted, but this should provide some entertainment. 11/6/07

A Week in Panama

2007-11-02T12:03:00.000-06:00

First, let's set the stage with the theme song of our trip:

"Panama" by Van Halen

Crank the volume and play this video while you browse this post for the full experience.

Dave D. (a friend from NC), Maximus (MN), and I headed south for some warm water Panamanian paddling. We based out of a town called Boquete in the Chiriqui province. This is a sweet area up in the mountains that's surrounded by looming volcanoes. There is whitewater everywhere. Most of what we paddled was steep boulderbed with the occasional bedrock rapids. This was a guided trip so all transportation and logistics were taken care of. The downside was that we didn't get to do much of the full-on class V stuff that I would have liked to. We did a lot of real continuous IV and IV+ with the occasional V and it was really fun, the scenery is amazing, and booze is cheap! Travelling in Panama is super easy. Due to our country's influence and presence down there, english is spoken by most people. The infrastructure is among the best in Central America with a good system of roads, lots of which are paved. There is super easy access to lots of the whitewater, but there is plenty with harder access waiting to be explored!

The rivers we paddled were: Caldera, Cochea, Chiriquicito, Frijoles section of the Chiriqui, Caldera town section, and the Los Vios(will be referred to as LV).

One of the volcanoes.

Our shuttle vehicle.

Some boulder boogy in the jungle.

Coming around a bend to a huge waterfall.

Big awesome waterfall - you can see the top in the previous picture.

Andy gettin' some boof on.

Panamanian chess, or as they call it down there... "Drinking Game"

Boulder-filled riverbed on the Frijoles (Bean) section.

All rapids on the Frijoles are named after beans... Here's Finger Bean.

Go Left Go Right Bean.

Making our way down to the LV.

A fun warmup rapid on the LV called Quiet Time.

Andy at some hot springs that are along the river - that's a good feeling after 6 days of paddling.

Like God, we took our 7th day off to rest. We were all beat and had a good time checking out what we referred to as the monkey farm. It was actually an amazing animal sanctuary called Paradise Gardens. It was started by a british couple who house many rare birds, as well as monkeys, wild cats and other animals. They work with the ANAM, the National Authority for the Environment, by housing and caring for animals, some of which have come from a rough background. It's a truly amazing place!

An awesome jungle cat that has a really loud purr that sounds like a growl. Not your typical house cat, but it does interact with people.

Monkeys are my friends!

Monkey hat - I'm not afraid to use a monkey as a fashion accessory.

6 month old Howler.

This monkey is super friendly.

I did have a chance to make it to the canal after a fun night in Panama City.

A truly remarkable feat of engineering.

A ship in the Mira Flores Locks.

Waterfall Huck: Lower Falls, Lewis River

2007-10-06T22:20:00.000-05:00

The mission: run unrun creek

The crew: me, Johnny O., Luke S., Chuck T., and Uldis

The result: find creek to be too low, run big waterfall

The Lower Lewis Falls is a fun huck, especially when everything else is dry. It's a small ledge into a clean 45 footer. All five of us ran it, and we all styled it. Uldis and I broke our paddles, but besides that all was good. We got some good footage and some real money shots - click the images for hi-res. I'll try and get the video put together soon here. Enjoy.

Clean unrun 100 footer - needs more water though. Any takers?

Scouting the lip.

Me probing it for the boys.

Johnny.

Luke.

Chuck.

Uldis.

Uldis was a natural at the oregon tuck.

Now sporting a broken paddle to go with my welded up boat.

North Shore Huckfest

2007-09-17T14:48:00.000-05:00

Click the images for hi-res photos.

and for those of you that want to get straight to the action -
here's the video footage.

DAY 1

It was me, Cliff, Tom, and Joel. Our mission was to get a log out of 'The Cascades' of the Cascade River that was preventing a run of Chastity and everything above it. This is a section of 5 waterfalls in a canyon and this log is in the entrance to the 3rd falls. Joel Decker rappelled down to the log and got some webbing around it. We used a come-a-long trying to free the log to no avail. This thing is in there good. Someone will need to use a chainsaw at low water.

About the worst place the log can be - no way around it.

Joel getting ready to loop the log.

Gettin' friendly with it.

DAY 2

We used all of our daylight on Friday trying to get that log out of there, knowing that the last 2 falls would still be runnable the next day. Saturday morning we teamed up with Alt and headed over to the Brule. It was at 1 foot and this is still a really fun level. I would be impressed to see someone run the left side of Canyon and/or Lower Falls at this level - not to mention Devil's Kettle! Cliff and I ran the right side of Canyon which was a fun slide. I've heard quite a bit about the Devil's Kettle and with all the mystery that surrounds it, it makes it a very magical place. For those that don't know the Devil's Kettle is where half of the river disappears into a vertical shaft and nobody knows where it ends up. The other half cascades over an amazing 40 foot falls - I was stoked to get the second descent of this beautiful mystery.

Cliff on the right side of Canyon.

The rarely run left side of Canyon.

The Devil's Kettle. The vertical shaft is on river right with half the river disappearing into it. This is a big boy rapid.

Unrun 'Lower Falls' on the Brule. Still some stomping holes at this level.

After the Brule, we had just enought light to hit the last 2 waterfalls on the Cascade. Cliff and I fired off 4 and 5 with style. We used a rarely used technique called the skirt implosion on Lover's Leap. Cliff was able to paddle away stern squirting down the river while I joined the Cascade Swim Team without even pulling my skirt.

Pretty much only one way to get this photo.... #4 on the Cascade.

At the lip of #5, Lover's Leap.

A parting image of Hidden Falls on the Cascade River a few days earlier.
By Tom M.

Paddle safe out there,
T-Storm

DIY: Fixing A Broken Boat

2007-09-13T19:21:00.000-05:00

Here's the damage - 3 slices clear through the bottom.

First, gather the tools you'll need: torch, silicone, knife, lighter, rag, screwdriver, drill.

Take out the seat if necessary - most boats break under the seat.

Drill holes at each side of the crack to prevent it from spreading. I used an 1/8" drill bit.

Shave plastic from the cockpit rim to use to melt and fill the crack.

Use the torch to heat up the plastic around the crack. Apply shavings to warm plastic and they will stick. Keep applying as needed using the torch to weld the crack closed. Don't let it get too hot or it can make it worse and/or weaken the plastic. Start on the outside of the boat and you may need to do a little melting on the inside. Pushing the area with the crack in will prevent it from bubbling out like it wants to. Let it cool, then put more plastic in weaker areas. Repeat until you're satisfied.

Almost done.

Now patch the hole on the inside with a watertight sealer - I chose silicone.

I wouldn't trust this patch job for any remote runs, or any shallow runs (that's how it broke in the first place). I'm planning on giving my boat one final hoorah over the Cascades of the Cascade, hopefully it holds up!!

Paddle Safe,
Tony

Late Summer Creekin' on the North Shore

2007-09-13T00:05:00.000-05:00

I got the info Saturday that the Cascade was running so I packed up my boat and my dogs and headed north.

Don't forget you can see the hi-res photos by clicking the images.

DAY 1

On Sunday a good group of us hit the upper section of the Cascade at about -3", a really fun level. Jeorg, Kiffy, John Alt, Joel Decker, and Nate Heydt made a solid crew of boaters. The rapids clean up a lot at these flows - it's amazing how much of a difference a couple inches on the gauge can make. At -3" eddies were small and scarce, the holes were juicy, and Hidden Falls was really fast! I only got out to take pictures once on this run - we were moving along pretty fast.

Nate clears 8 Foot Falls and prepares for more action downstream.

DAY 2

Me and Joe K. hit the upper section of the Cascade again at -9". At this level there is still some push in most of the rapids with a little boatscraping, and some scraping in most of the boulder bed between rapids. Hidden Falls is still fast and fun.

Hidden Falls.

DAY 3

Swails, Mac, and I started our day on the Brule somewhere over 2'. First we hiked around in the woods with our boats for a few miles to warm up for this run - and before we found the right trail. Sauna Bath was stomping at this level - we all opted out of carrying up through crappy brush to potentially get pounded in some really big holes, and instead chose to put in at the base and marvel at this powerful rapid. There was a couple miles of class 3/4 boogie with big waves all over and barely any eddies. As we approached Canyon we missed our portage eddy on the right, but luckily found somewhere to stop on the left. This portage was a beast... Straight up the canyon through crappy brush, then through more thick brush and back down to the river. The entrance to Canyon is a massive hole, then after that lies a half mile of water pounding through big holes, banking off the canyon wall, then around the corner into some more holes. I'd like to hit this one at a lower level for the first time.

Putting in below Canyon with the bottom of the rapid barely visible.

Next was a few more miles of practically eddyless water leading up to the Devil's Kettle - a beautiful mystery. Half of this falls goes into a vertical shaft of which the exit is yet to be located.... The other half cascades about 40 feet into some of the biggest boils I've ever seen.

Devil's Kettle - any takers?

Shortly after Devil's Kettle is Lower Falls - a huge, stomping, clusterf*ck of holes. At the base of the falls was a hole with a 10 foot face! The spray that this falls creates is intense. Putting in at the base of Lower Falls, we encountered more boogie, a drop called Sewer Pipe, and a cool rapid under the footbridge. This is a big water run and would be a blast in a playboat - there's 5 miles of boogie with waves and holes everywhere.

Most sane people continue to portage around the stomping Lower Falls.

Mac styles his way through a monster hole.

Next we headed to the Cascade to check out the falls. A log in Chastity prevented us from running them so Mac and I did a quick run of the Upper at -12". At this level the major rapids still have enough water but without much push. The boulder gardens between the rapids can be painful. Hidden Falls is still fast and fun.

Classic whitewater on the north shore with Chastity in the foreground.

A log preventing a run of Chastity.

DAY 4

Today I started off with a solo descent of the upper Cascade at -14". I broke my boat and was taking on quite a bit of water. I made it to the takeout without getting out of my boat and by then it was quite full. I was planning on playboating the Brule after that, but I ran into Cliff and Tom who wanted to get in a run on the upper - I decided to go for it broken boat and all. I sliced a new huge gash in my boat and a smaller one to go with it - 3 total. I was taking on a lot of water and that sure didn't help in the shallows. Cliff and I were talking about running the last two falls of the cascades, but my boat was broken and we were both freezing cold so we decided to call it. The plan is to go back and pull that log out on Friday to run all of the cascades - stay tuned for that trip report.

The grand finale of the Cascade is this sweet 25+ footer.
I can't wait to float to Superior after hitting this falls!

Blunts at the Verm

2007-08-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

Finally some rain in good ol' Minnesota - could of used those floods on the north shore though! The Verm came up and was dishin' out nice blunts today. Hopefully I'll have some pics of some waterfalls that are up with the flood waters here in the next couple days. Railroad, S-Turn, and Donut were occasionally givin' out some low-angle wheels, while S-Turn and Donut were handing out some blunts. The climax of this post is definitely the big clean blunt sequence from Donut - thanks Nora! As always all images are clickable. Enjoy!

Big clean blunt.

Gettin' the stern out.

Mackin' the back surf.

Trying not to ingest the toxic Verm water.

Upper Upper Cispus - Washington.

2007-07-25T02:59:00.000-05:00

The upper upper or the upper upper upper? This is a pretty awesome river even by the standards of the northwest. I think it's akin to the Cascade (upper) of Minnesota on steroids. The level was a pushy estimated 600+. The highlite of the run is a steep boulder garden that leads into a 30 footer followed by a meaty hole and some more steep class V boulder gardens. The first rapid is a class III ledge lead-in to 15-20 footer, after which you must make a move to duck a log - a good way to wake up! We had a great group of guys that made making downriver progress a snap. Thanks for letting me tag along.
Thanks and credit go to Luke for most of these photos - thanks man. Check out his blog, PDX River Explorers

The first falls.

Dave G. mackin' the log duck.

Drops like these were dispersed throughout the boulder gardens.

Ken coming through one of the numerous boulder gardens.

Watch out for wood!

Johnny watchin' Ken take a wall ride.

Me taking the sweet rockslide line at Island.

Coming through a hole before Behemouth - don't mess up here!

Me, Dave, Johnny, and Ken throwing up gang signs and trying to look hard above Behemouth - the 30 footer.

Ken styling Behemouth.

So this is where things got a little interesting for me... The boys all had ran Behemouth and I was last to go. I landed to far left and got sucked behind the falls. After several failed attempts at paddling out of this thing and sitting behind the veil for a bit I came out of my boat. I clinged to the wall for a little while, then decided it was time to get out of there and pushed myself out under the veil. Luckily Dave was sitting on shore in the right eddy to pull me and my boat and paddle out - what a relief to be out of there! The boys were getting kinda nervous seeing as I was behind the falls for around 4 or 5 minutes. It turned out all good, but I need to go back and get a better line on this sucker.

Behemouth.

Reflecting on the walled in Behemouth.

Boulder gardens below Behemouth.

Random eye candy from the Truss.

2007-07-24T03:44:00.000-05:00

Watch out for my post on the Upper Upper Cispus - coming soon!

Double Drop.

South African dude hitting Double Drop.

Corey's paddle sticking out from Double Drop.

Devin, the 12 yr. old "Wonder Midget" getting in his second "youngest descent" of the Truss.

Nate filming Devin.

Bob's Falls.

BZ Falls.

Nate in BZ Falls.

Green Truss - White Salmon

2007-06-24T22:01:00.000-05:00

Saturday and Sunday I got to hit another sweet river in the Columbia River drainage. The Green Truss section of the White Salmon is one of the few runnable creeks in the area this time of year and it's a blast. I got 2 runs in Saturday and one Sunday - everything went except Lower Zigzag which is unrunnable right now due to a log in the rapid, bummer! It was cool to meet back up with Nate and Heather, a couple Minnesota natives who live out here, thanks for hookin' a brother up! We had a solid crew of around 10 people for all 3 runs. This run is nonstop action with lots of really fun drops - including Big Brother, BZ Falls, and many other classics.

Me At the Lip of Big Brother.

Dave Hittin' the Boof on Big Brother.

Little Brother.

Little Brother Pt. 2.

BZ Falls.

Nate @ BZ.

The Lower Wind, Washington

2007-06-20T12:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my first taste of the Columbia River drainage. Less than an hour from Portland, the Lower Wind consists of class III boulder gardens with some IVs mixed in. It finishes off with a sweet waterfall sequence.

The first major rapid.

The northwest's glacial meltwater is a little more clear than the brownish snowmelt in the midwest.

The second waterfall.

The finale.

The typical end of the day when paddling in the Portland area.

Another run on the Cascade River. Get some more.

2007-06-14T01:52:00.001-05:00

Ran the Cascade again at a much lower level. Everything was runnable, but the river had a lot less push. This would have been the day to do the (first?) top to bottom descent of this river in one day because it's close to the lowest runnable level for the upper, but the cascades were still manageable. The cascades are a series of about 6 or so waterfalls and drops in a canyon with a few 10-15 foot waterfalls and a couple pourovers, some with meaty holes, and very little opportunity to set safety without climbing ropes and harnesses. Once you're in you pretty much have to run everything culminating in a sweet 25+ foot waterfall with a very precise line to hit. I can't wait to make it back up there and run these amazing falls! I wish there was more than just 2 of us for setting safety and whatnot - I'm now so regretting not running the falls! Hopefully we'll get some more rain up there.

I just got a few stills of 8 foot falls again and put together a short video.

Click here to check out the video

Better light today.

Concentration.

Commando Style.

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

2007-06-11T21:27:00.001-05:00

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.

Stoney River

2007-05-24T13:00:00.001-05:00

Wednesday May 23rd Scott, Roger, Andy, Dave and I headed up to northern Minnesota by Ely to the Stoney River. The level was at 1'4" on the gauge on the river-right, downstream side of the bridge at the get-in. I don't think that you'd want to run it much lower, the boulder gardens were a pain to pick through, but the 3 major rapids were still fun. There was also some good surf waves, one of which we got all 5 boaters in! The Stoney has a big watershed and stays up longer than most north shore rivers. It has a lot of flatwater, but it's very scenic. The flat water sections open up into big lake-like resevoirs, reminiscent of the boundary waters. It's very remote with lots of exposed lichen covered rock and vast forests. More beta for this run in Northwoods Whitewater.

Andy hits his boof on the first major drop.

Roger probes the box.

Andy styles a falls, the last major drop on the run.

The shuttle.

The Black, Upper Silver, Falls, Lower Silver, and Yellow Dog

2007-04-26T18:16:00.000-05:00

This was an action packed three days. I drove back up to the south shore of Superior for the third time in a span of about a week or two, hungry for some more action - and I wasn't dissapointed! I showed up a little late, so I missed quite a wild night of partying out on the town with some of the crew, but I probably needed the sleep.

THE BLACK RIVER - Michigan

Started out on the Black with a huge crew of great paddlers - you guys sure know how to have fun on and off the river! A bunch of cats fired up Potowatomi and Gorge Falls, but I saved it for next time.

The hero(?) line on Potowotami.

Boomer somehow emerges from the womb of "the birth canal" - a very rarely run pourover with recirc 20-40+ feet back.

The standard line on Gorge, with Birth Canal right above it.

I left my house with the intention of running Rainbow Falls, but once I arrived at the falls and scouted it the line looked marginal so I carried my boat around. When I reached the front of the falls I saw my line. After watching some good runs of it, I decided to fire it up.

Where's Waldo? I'm in there somewhere.

A hard hit at the bottom!

THE SILVER - a L'anse, Michigan area classic

Me, Zoolander, John, and Chad headed over to L'anse to hit the Upper Silver, and it was at a good flow of about 8.3'. This river has some serious gradient change for the midwest, and is a blast the whole way through!

The steepest part is called "the cabin section."

John powering through a chunky hole.

THE FALLS - an in-town L'anse run

This is another L'anse classic. Less gradient then the Silver, but still fun. Good luck catching this one when it's running - it doesn't happen too often. John and Zoolander had to head home, so me and Chad decided to hit this one before returning to do the Lower Silver. The Falls starts of with an awesome rapid followed by Powerhouse Falls.

Chad nails his boof on Powerhouse.

The rest of this run is mostly boat scoutable class III - III+ ledges and boogie with a couple IVs mixed in - pay attention! The action doesn't subside until you hit the takeout at Lake Superior.

LOWER SILVER

This is another kick-ass L'anse run. This section doesn't drop quite as much as the Upper Silver but it definitely has some gradient, dropping towards the lake with lots of fun slides and continuous rapids. A person doesn't ever get bored on these L'anse runs! I don't have pics of this one... Chad and I were trying to make it through before we ran out of light. Combining the Upper and Lower Silver with the Falls makes for one long day! Especially since neither of us had run it before. It sure helped save time to have Zoolander leading us down the Upper Silver - thanks dude!
By the time we got to the last drop on this run it was getting quite dark, but I felt pretty good about Lower Silver Falls. It's a constriction that drops about 30 feet in a hundred foot constriction with a meaty hole at the bottom. This water was moving fast! By the time I finished scouting my line and got in my boat it was dark. I hit my line through the meat of it, but went sideways into the hole at the bottom.

By the time I fought my way out I looked up and saw the moon shining bright - what a long day!

THE YELLOW DOG - Eastern Upper Peninsula, Michigan

So the next day, me and Chad headed a few hours further from home to hit the Yellow Dog, our 5th section in 3 days. The Yellow Dog can have quite a bite, and she's a b@tch. Think lots of portaging downed trees in the flat water. Downed trees lining most eddies and the sides of almost the entire river. I got pinned under a tree near shore in some swiftwater, had to come out of my boat and lost my shoe while Chaz was upstream stuck in an eddy where to come out meant going into a strainer - this dog is a biatch. By this time we were pretty tired, but we definitely enjoyed the rapids. If you do this run you'll probably meet "The River Walker," a man who watches the Yellow Dog and helps with conservation in the area. He also makes sure to keep the rapids wood free - thanks man!

Despite some of the undesirable parts of this river, the rapids are friggin awesome. There are about 7 class IV-V sweet rapids - all runnable, all fun.

We decided not to run Barking Bitch Falls. At this level the right side lands on rock, and the left side is okay, but has a manky washout into a beefy hole.

Lots of rapids looked similar to this, if not longer and/or better.

More South Shore Creeking

2007-04-20T16:20:00.000-05:00

Me, Chad, and Paul headed back up to the south shore of Lake Superior to do some more boating. We started on the Baltimore.

DAY 1 - THE BALTIMORE

The level of this one is determined by measuring down from the downstream river-left side of the bridge at the get-in. It was at 11ft. down when we ran it and I'd say this is the bare minimum. I would want it much higher the next time I do it. This run starts out with about 2 miles of flatwater and ends with two miles of flatwater and has one mandatory portage. Though this falls may be runnable, most will choose to walk.

After the first two miles the first rapid is a 10 foot riverwide falls with a deceptively sticky hole. Not too bad though.

Paul plays around under an unnamed falls.

Chaz smooths out the bottom of his boat on the sandstone.

This shot reminds me of a California creek.

All the rock in this riverbed is sandstone, so where one would normally be cruising on granite the sandstone can stop your boat. The more water the better. There is some real quality whitewater in this section, but at low levels like this there's lots of grinding out.

DAY 2 - STURGEON CANYON

This is another L'anse, Michigan area run. It's about a mile of continuous whitewater in a sweet gorge - awesome! We ran this at about 600cfs - the AW suggested max. I think it could be paddled higher, but the holes would be pretty meaty!

The run starts out with a nice 10 footer.

After the falls is a wild ride of fast moving water through a canyon with 20+ foot walls, Wa-Hoo!
Didn't have time to get many photos though.

Here's the last rapid of the canyon.

DAY 2 (cont.) - PRESQUE ISLE

We were hungry for some more whitewater and levels were dropping around L'anse, so we decided to hit the final mile of the Presque on the way home. Always a good time, with the highlite being Manabezho Falls.

Hitting my boof and bracing for impact.

Chaz shows us how to catch air!

After Manabezho, Zoom Flume is an awesome end to the run, bringing you to the mouth of the river and onto Lake Superior.
There is an awesome rodeo hole at the end of the run, and maybe even some waves to catch on Superior.

Presque Isle Jim Rada Memorial Race Weekend

2007-04-16T15:53:00.000-05:00

Midwest spring creeking kicked off this year for me with the first annual Presque Isle Jim Rada Memorial Race. Thanks to Kiffy for organizing it and everyone who showed up for making it an awesome weekend! The race was on the final mile of the Presque Isle in the upper peninsula of Michigan, which consists of three sets of falls seperated by some flatwater. There were 12 participants and a handful of other paddlers and spectators.

I believe the level was between 6.5 and 7 feet

The First - Nawadaha Falls

The Second - Manido Falls

The Grand Finale - Manabezho Falls

The race times were recorded when you landed Manabezho - a good riverwide 20 footer. Taylor AKA Hansel (he's so hot right now) took home an awesome hockey trophy, trophies with kayaks are hard to come by, and Rada loved hockey so it was quite fitting actually. The race went well except for two pitons off of manabezho. Jesse AKA Zoolander crushed the front of his solo with no major injuries. Brian wasn't so lucky... he lost momentum at the lip of the drop causing him to pencil sharply down. Although some other people had taken this same line and seemed to go in at pretty steep angles, he wasn't so lucky and ended up pitoning and breaking his leg and ankle. This necessitated a difficult extrication up and out of a steep gorge. We all are hoping for a speedy and full recovery for ya' Brian!

DAY 2

The next day quite a few people headed over to the Black River also in the U.P. This is a real gem with lots of good falls and some fun rapids. The river was high - somewhere around 650 cfs.

A few of the boys ponder Birth Canal and a meaty Gorge Falls

At this level most people shyed away from Gorge Falls but one brave boater gave it a go and was successful.

I didn't have my camera in my boat this day so I didn't get many other pictures, but had a good time watching a few runs of Rainbow Falls with mixed results. Here a couple paddlers ponder it at a more moderate level.

North Cacalacky Creekin'

2007-03-18T20:30:00.000-06:00

Went to NC for some creekin' and ran some stuff at really low levels, but still had a blast. Started out on Wilson Creek, the highlites of which were "10 foot falls" and a sweet rock slide.

10 Foot Falls.

John makes a huge splash.

Chatooga Section IV was also a good time. Having watched Deliverance two nights prior, I definitely wasn't getting out of my boat more then I needed to. I was just waiting to paddle under a bridge and see that kid with creepy eyes holding a banjo.

Paddle faster, I hear banjo music!

Next up was the Watauga a southeast class IV classic. We ran it low, but it was still a good time - good boof practice.

The Highlite of this run is Interstate Falls - watch out for the ankle breaker on the left at this level!

After that I went down to Charlotte to hang with my little sister who took me to the shooting range - we had a blast!

Then I made my way back up to the Cheoah and caught releases two days in a row, that river is great. 9 miles of roadside continuous class IV read and run. Good times. I don't have any pictures as of yet, but I hope to post some.
The first day Jeff, Dave, and I ran it at around 1450, and it was a land of big flushy holes - sweet! The next day Dave and I caught it at a lower level of about 800+ and it was still a great time... I can't wait to get back and do it again.

Chile Creeking - Upper Palguin

2007-02-26T16:49:00.000-06:00

This was a great way to get introduced to creeking, what a beautiful setting with clean drops, clean water, and good company. If you ever want to kayak in Chile, check out kayakpucon.net and "Run the Shit" with Rodrigo. Rodrigo, Tom from Shred Ready, another cat from Colorado, and a dude from Cali, let me tag along with them on this gem just a few minutes outside of Pucon, Chile. After 3 weeks of paddling big water, I was ready to hit some waterfalls!

Not much warmup on this run - these three photos are a sequence of the first rapid right at the get-in.

No scouting possible here, just a blind corner with a waterfall.

A perfect shot of a perfect 20 footer.

Watch the elbows!

Thanks to Rodrigo for taking such sick photos!

November and December is the best time for creeking around Pucon, and I can't wait to go back and RUN THE SHIT!

Expeciones Chile - Kayak Safari

2007-02-25T12:18:00.000-06:00

This winter was super cold - a great time to escape to the southern hemisphere where it's summer. I planned a two week guided safari, paddling different rivers throughout Chile and Argentina the first week, with the second week all on the mighty Futalafu... After that I decided to spend an extra week at the Futa, then up to Pucon.

We started out on the Rio San Pedro, a class III/IV big water run.

The get-in.

A good wave.

Next we drove down to Shoshuenco where we stayed at a nice spot located on a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains, volcanoes, and rivers. We spent a few days paddling the Fuy.

Some gradient nestled right under a volcanoe.

Surfin.

I got some sunburn the first day - nice tan lines!

Next up was a class III section of the Manso.
Nothing Wrong with this scenery.

Switching cars on the way to the Futa.

Terminator.

Coming head-on into Mundaca - a Futa right of passage.

A cave upstream of Zeta.

Making our way down the Rio Azul to our camp at the confluence with the Futa, looking up at the Tres Monjas.

After leaving the Futa, I traveled for 24 hours by bus to get to Pucon, Chile.

Here I am at the top of Mt. Villarrica outside of Pucon.