The Next Horizon Line

Tis the Season

2011-11-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

Creeking season has arrived in the Southeast. Many years, there's a lull between the warm predictability of damn release season and the frenetic variety of creeking season. Fortunately this year they overlapped with the first good fall rain arriving before the final Tallulah release weekend. And, while the damn releases are great runs, the repetition just makes one yurn even that much more for some honest adventure.

It's the gorge that makes Tallulah Special (Photo: JJ)

The Amphitheater from Above (Photo: JJ)

And with short days and no shortage of water, the cup of adventure is easily filled and often overflows. The past few weeks have featured great quick runs of Hike Up Elkmont and Island Creek with darkness looming as well as a failed attempt at Sam's Creek (I never thought I'd see it too high, but it was a fun hike burdened by carrying a 40 lb piece of Tupperware) and a near epic on Wildcat Creek (We finished but it was too high, too full of wood, and too dark and a smarter man would and did hike back out).

Which brings us to this morning. Tight work schedules forced a quick mission and with extremely high water from a few days of rain we decided to give Bruce Creek a quick look at dawn. Even with all the rain, I fully expected Bruce to be too low. How does a creek with a 1.5 sq. mi. drainage hold when it hasn't rained a drop in the previous 12 hours. Still, it's less than 40 minutes from the house, so it was worth a look.

I arrived late, as usual, and ran up the flooded trail to have a look at the main event, a clean but stacked set of waterfalls going about 12', 16', 22', and 8'. Note that these waterfalls are not a geological wonder, but rather a gift from TDOT, who decided to blast clean lips and nice pools when rerouting Bruce Creek to make room for I-75's climb up Cumberland Mountain. Before I even got a good look I knew we were on from Ohman's excited whooping (folks don't whoop for nothing before sunrise). The level looked good. Maybe a little low but the lips were clean and pools aerated. After all, how much water do clean waterfalls require?

So back down the trail we go, quickly gearing up and returning. After a little discussion of the small tree we'd be boofing through on the biggest drop, we decide holding a right stroke should block the tree away from face contact, so I head up to drop in. A quick warm up and 4 boof strokes later and I'm at the bottom, having avoided potential tree to face contact and loving life. Now Ohman heads up and is quickly loving life too with 4 boofs and no tree action. The rest of the creek back to the car was a little scrapey except for the 12fter above the culvert (we didn't have time to mess with the culvert, but it looked good). After a quick departure, I rally to work on time with one hell of a way to wake up behind me.

A Boof I've been Thinking of for Years (Photo: Ohman)

Ohman had never heard of Bruce 12 hours earlier (Photo: JJ)

Dog Days to Another Missed Green Race

2011-11-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

After Quebec, things really wound down around K-town as the dog days of summer kicked in. We had a few good days here and there (Juicy Crooked Fork, Thunderhead into Tremont), but in general it was Ocoee and mountain biking time. I even had some time to sneak a few good hiking trips in there.

Acadia National Park from Schoodic Mountain.

The Smokies have some great creeks.

This unpaddled one has plenty of bedrock.

Smokin' Steve Rappin' through an Impressive Place.

Since I hadn't paddled with my brother in forever, I decided to kick off September with a quick hitter to Colorado. The 4 day trip yielded Gore, the Black Canton of the Gunnison, and Bailey before I had to hop right back on the plane. A few notes from the trip:

- Gore rocks and makes me wish the Pigeon Dries would run again.
- Whether or not you run the super gnar, the Black is good for the soul.
- The portaging and hike out of the black are much more enjoyable with fully functioning lower appendages.
- Coloradans carnie as much as southeasterners do on predictable damn releases close to town.
- While gear dries much faster out west, the gate area in the Denver airport is still suboptimal for rapid drying operations.

Trying to Avoid having my Balls Crushed (Photo: TJ)

Gettin' my stomp on before gettin' my portage on (Photo: TJ).

Rolf droppin' into next gen, which was sick above 1000, although it's sick under 1000 as well (Photo: TJ).

TJ styling the move that led to my torn MCL in 2009 (Photo: I don't know)

When I returned home it became evident that the dry southeast I has left had since been saturated. Unfortunately levels receded quickly as the parched earth soaked it up like a sponge, but CPac and I were able to sneak in an after work West Prong as flows dropped out. It was even better that both the upper and lower were portage free other than major wood residing in big tree. The rest of September on in to October continued to deliver with runs on the Blackwater, Gauley, Green, Gragg Prong, Wilson, Russell Fork, and Tellico (never even took the camera though).

Unfortunately the last Sunday in October I tweaked (tore some scar tissue?) in my surgically repaired left shoulder in Boof. I was still able to complete the run and another race pace run, but come Monday the pain and swelling kicked up. After a week of going easy on my shoulder rehab work, I got to test it the day before the race on an after work low water Lilly to Nemo run. The results were not promising and after waffling for too long I made the smart decision to miss my third straight green race with an injury. Demoralized by the decision and not being much of a spectator, I decided to push myself in a different way: by hiking from Sugarlands to snowy Mt. Leconte (about 22 miles round trip with 5200 ft. of gain). The views were spectacular from Myrtle Point and my only advice is wear good shoes or your feet will hate you.

Looking down into some of the best creeking on the east coast.

Gotta love those Smoky Mountain Vistas.

Quebec Day 8 - Adirondack Classics on the Way Home

2011-09-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

From the Rouge, we made a quick drive south into the northern Adirondacks, poaching a nights sleep near the Racquette shuttle road on some county forest land. The plan for the day was to hit the Racquette release early before heading down for a low water scrape down the Moose, which was running due to a power plant problem. I'll spare the details as these runs are well known but suffice it to say it was good to be back at the old stomping grounds. These runs are still great fun and the Racquette still makes me nervous in a few spots. One thing to note is that the entrance to Colton has changed and the runout of the boof was a little faster than I remember. We all had a great day in the Adirondack sunshine with all the Southerners getting to see two of the New York classics for the first time. From the Moose it was only a short 15 hour drive back to Knoxville and the daily grind.

Overall it was great trip. Water levels worked out pretty well and we were able to get a lot done. The runs we did were mostly top notch and the only complaint was the terrible bugs. I think the only thing we missed out on was the Malbaie, which was too high almost the whole time we were there.

The Fellas after a Nice Wake Up Call at Colton Falls (Photo: Jeff Moore).

JJ Flying Down the Right to Left Line at Fowlersville Falls (Photo: JM).

Tony Enjoying My Favorite Spot on the Moose River (Photo: JM).

JJ Routing Down the Only Low Water Line at Shurform (Photo: JM).

Stomping at My Old Stomping Grounds (Photo: JM).

AZ can Stomp Some Crystal as Well (Photo: JM).

Since We're Dorks, We Took a Team Photo. Notice the Contrast Between Bare Back and Drysuit (Photo: JM).

Big Thanks to Jeff Moore and Alex Zendel for all their photos. I reduced image size for faster loading, so if you're interested in additional and full res photos, check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffgmoore/collections/72157627049572633/.

Quebec Day 7 - Riviere Rouge

2011-09-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

The goal for Friday was to make ground back towards the states and do a little boating on the way at the Rouge River, which was running a little over 80 cms about an hour north of the NY border. After lots of driving from the Mattawin area, we made it to the Rouge in the early afternoon, paying to park at a little campground on river left where the Rouge meets the St. Lawrence. We headed upstream and found a rafting outfit where former guide Smokeless Steve schmoozed it up and got us a put in and a little beta.

After some continuous class II-III we reached the first rapid, Elizabeth's. We all grabbed a quick surf up top before dropping through a powerful but flushy hole, good stuff. A little more boogie water and the rapids were picking up to good big water class III-IV which was super fun and not very threatening. We rounded a corner and things steepened a bit. Some us stayed in a river left eddy while others scouted from river right. After getting a few signals, we surfed some nice waves (note to self: this is a great playboat run) before spinning and dropping into some pushy curlers as the river bounced off the right bank. After the left turn, thing went back downstream for a great big water hole punch. It was powerful and fluffy, but super fun and not too threatening. A little more class III with a nice wave or two brought us to the seven sisters.

Supposedly this stuff is good from 20-50 cms, but we all took a quick look anyways. 1 and 2 were big time, with life threatening holes but a definite line. 3 looked to be a great big water falls, but 4 into 5 looked to be the real terror (although it's probably survivable if you're into russian roulette style jedi-plugs). It didn't take long for the tales to be tucked and the portage to commence. We found a nice seal launch under the new highway bridge and headed down to check out the final sister. This one was top notch: a big chute into a powerful hole that wasn't too sticky. Just a great way to finish up a chill big water day. A couple hundred yards of moving water and we were walking up the hill at the campground to the truck.

Surprise, surprise. The Rouge also exceeded expectations and was a great big water day. It's not quite as classic as the Tewksberry, perhaps only due to the portage at the sisters, but the play was super fun even in creek boats and I wish I had been to this one long ago as it' not far from Western NY and runs all summer. One more note, when leaving the Rouge buy your beer in Quebec as you'll have a tough time finding any in Ontario.

Smokeless Steve at the First Nice Hole Bash of the Rouge (Photo: Jeff Moore).

After Some Nice Big Water Boogie You Come to this Beaut (Photo: JM).

Mr. Zendel Getting In Up to His Head in the Finish to the Previous Rapid (Photo: JM).

I Don't Think Anyone was Looking Too Seriously, But You Could (Photo: JM).

It Probably Does Suck Birds Out of the Sky (Photo: JM).

Quebec Day 6 - Riviere Mattawin

2011-09-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

After getting done with the Cachee there was quite a bit of discussion of where to head to next. The Malbaie was the one run that we all wanted to do that we hadn't hit yet, but it was a long drive out in the wrong direction for us and was really high as well. We talked some other options and finally settled on the Mattawin. The guide book mentioned some big rapids and it sounded like the 50 cms we were supposed to have would be okay. Instead of braving the bugs in the Jacque-Cartier Parc, we headed back down the hill to try to camp at one of the Tewksberry raft companies. We never found the company and poached a bug free night at the put in instead.

We woke fairly early and got packed up (in fact it was really early relatively) and hit the road for the long drive to the Mattawin. We made pretty poor time and were crossing the Batascin into the Reserve Faunique Mattawin around noon. We found out we had to pay a fee to both cross the bridge and enter the parc (Looking back, the Tewksberry is the only fee free Quebec river we did). After hammering a good dirt road for a while, we broke left down towards the take out for the upper. The road wasn't terrible but it was slow going and long and we finally found a trail that led to the river in about ¼ mile (I think the road hit the river about 1 mile from where we parked). As we got organized, it became quite obvious, the mosquitoes were brutal. We quickly donned the rain jackets and head nets to avoid choking from mosquito inhalation and were headed for the put in quickly.

After driving back out to the main road and heading upstream for a ways, we eventually started paralleling the river. We ended up putting in a few km downstream of the guidebook recommendation as it looked like that's where the decent rapids started. We geared up in slightly less mosquitoes than the take out and paddled across the first lake with head nets over helmets. We quickly bombed a few high volume ledges before another pool and a nice constricted lead in rapid. Around the next corner, we all quickly grabbed a fairly walled out eddy above a frothing horizon line. A quick scout revealed a massive hole that looked likely to beat you until long after the lights went out. There looked to be a fairly bold sneak down the left or a partial portage on the right to just below the nasty hole. We couldn't really get a good look at either option until we did a wading scout at the base of the river right cliff to see that the partial portage went. We all seal launched into the surging mess behind the hole before being shoved around the corner and spit out the bottom. Just downstream another big water rapid laced with fierce, although not terminal, holes. No one was feeling up the meat, but Brandon and I snuck the entrance to get to the great finish. What awaited us as we left the road was not what we were looking for, a lake. This was probably the largest natural lake I've ever paddled across (although I've never done the Magpie) and after about 45 minutes of cranking we reached the other end.

Upon a quick scout, our fears were confirmed, another massive rapid with ugly looking ledge holes. I was the only one feeling up to the first few tiers, which went smoother than anticipated but still had big time beat down potential. We worked our way down a few more tiers until we had to portage the nastiest 2 ft drop I've ever seen. It was pretty much a natural low head dam with about 50 ft of backwash, totally runnable but don't even think about bobbling it. A little more flat water brought us to another ledge with yet another man eating hole, but a decent little sneak down the left. After some more flatwater and some more moderate rapids we reached a pretty impressive feature: the whole river slid down a wide low angle 100 yard long slide. We all took slightly different lines and the big curlers at the bottom of the main chute were great fun.

At the bottom of the slide, this river's main theme continued, more flatwater. At this point, the sun was starting to go down and there was nothing to do but put our heads down and crank. Soon we were came to yet another large horizon line, which ended up being a 30ft relatively clean ledge, without a massive hole at the bottom. I quickly lined up a vert to reconnect line on the right which went super smooth. I was really surprised when Alex and Jeff followed me, as they aren't usually in to this kind of rapid, but they had smooth lines as well. In the waning light we paddled a little flat water, all secretly hoping the river would have no more big drops and suddenly turn to continuous class III. Well, we didn't get it, but we did get some long sections of class II to speed the process. About 30 minutes later, we came to a spot that the road came down to the river but unfortunately it wasn't our spot. Knowing we were close, we cranked out another 15 minutes before finding the trail up to the truck, where the mosquitoes were certainly waiting for us.

This was probably the only river of the trip that didn't exceed expectations, mainly due to the staggering amount of flatwater (not moving at all). I'm pretty sure the Alden never ran this before writing the guidebook or there would have been some mention. That said, there were a handful of super fun rapids, although less water would make them more user friendly, and the run had a seriously out there feel, but that came with a long confusing shuttle (make sure you have a good topo map). It's one I'm glad I've done, but won't be in a hurry to go back to.

The Hole That Nearly Ate All of Us (Photo: Jeff Moore).

Brandon Launching Just Downstream (Photo: JM).

JJ in the Mellow Set of a Long Series of Ledge Holes (Photo: JM).

Half Way Down the Big Slide (Photo: JM).

Crashing Through Some Curlers at the Bottom (Photo: JM)

Tony Taking the Lower Volume Side of the Slide (Photo: JM).

Waning Light Below the Big Falls (Photo: JM).

Quebec Day 5 - Taureau et Cachee

2011-09-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

This was the day I had been waiting for all trip. The Taureau had been one of my main motivations in coming to Quebec, and it was coming together. With the rain earlier in the week, it was higher than we had hoped as none of us had done it before. Unfortunately, that meant that only Brandon and I would be going the next morning, but it meant we had one essential for a Taureau trip, a shuttle driver. We woke early and ate a quick breakfast before hopping in the truck with Steve and heading out of the park for the epic shuttle (big thanks Steve). A long time later, we were along the upper Jacque-Cartier, pretty sure we were at the put in, but unsure where the gauge rock was. After some searching and comparing to photos, we found the spot and eventually concluded that the rock of interest was about 6” under water. A little more than we were hoping for, but not enough to have us thinking about backing out.

Again, we quickly geared up due to the savage black flies and mosquitoes and by 9 am we were cranking flatwater with head nets on to weather the swarms. Soon, the river started to pick up until we were bombing splashy class IV, forcing the head nets to come off. About 1 minute later we launched off a riverwide ledge above the first real rapid, double drop, confirmed by the remain of a wire bridge overhead. When we hopped out to scout, a pile of broken paddles greeted us, casting a bit of an ominous tone. A quick scout revealed a juicy lead in to a great boof followed by more juiciness. Shortly downstream we reached the first triple drop, consisting of a scarey planing boof followed by a juicy boof onto a nice slide. A theme for the day was building that would carry on for quite a while, nice juicy boofs everywhere.

We continued through more great rapids until portaging the waterfall slot, which didn't look at all appealing. Eventually we reached La Luniere confuence, bringing in a lot of extra water. The section below here had great scenery, with lots of big cliff walls. We kept making good time, knowing that we had most of the big stuff still to go. Another wire bridge signaled the sieve rapid, and while the sieve itself didn't look bad, it was shooting up a monster rooster tail and featured a terrible looking hole just downstream. After a quick lunch, we both portaged quickly, launching into the steepest and rowdiest part of the run. A huge big water slide shot us directly into a long class IV runout. Then hump and pump, a great s-turn into a rowdy hole. Next was logjam, which took us about 30 minute to get a good look at the bottom. It's amazing how close together the trees grow up there. Then razor rock, which features an extremely aesthetic drive away from the right cliff wall, which harbors a couple nasty holes, before continuing left for the final drop through a big hole. After that, things relatively chilled out, although we did nearly bomb into a disgusting ledge hole, until reaching the finale, Coming Home Muhammad. At this point the sky opened up and we took a look at Muhammad. This rapid looked huge and great, but the sneak looked worse the main line, which was big time with the extra flow, so we tucked our tales between our legs and hit the small portage trail. Below here things continued with plenty of great class IV as the river mellowed toward the confluence of the Jacque-Cartier Nord-Ouest and Nord-Est. From here out things moved quickly and the scenery was incredible with huge walls emerging everywhere. We pulled into camp 3 a little before 3:30 followed shortly thereafter by our shuttle driver Jeff, who decided to pick us up while everyone else repeated the Tewksberry (big thanks Jeff). Sorry no Taureau photos, we didn't even bring a camera.

People like to compare the Taureau to the Linville Gorge in North Carolina, and it's a pretty fair comparison. The lengths are similar and they are certainly the two most impressive gorges in Eastern North America. Linville has a lot more scarey rapids than the Taureau and probably more hard rapids overall (but I'm more comfy on big water than sievey stuff), as most of the in between on the Taureau is fun class IV. The other nice thing is most of the hard rapids on the Taureau occur just after wire bridges. The Taureau is definitely more committing, with a huge shuttle and no trails anywhere in the meat of the run (I imagine losing a boat would ensure at least a night spent in the woods), while Linville has many trails in and out as well as a trail along the river. Regardless, they are both two of the most classic runs in Eastern North America.

After driving out of the park, we met the Tewkberry crowd for some dinner. On the way out of the park, we had noted that the Cachee was brown and much higher than the last few days. After we enhaled some burgers, we decided to head back and take a quick look at the Cachee again. It had come up some more while we were at dinner, but still looked pretty low. Ah what the hell, I'll probably never be here again when it' running and the slides looked covered up enough.

After a quick gearing up in the twilight, Tony, Alex, and I headed down behind the guard shack to the put in. After some quick boulder mank and a few small slides we came to the big drop. After some brief scouting Alex and I both committed, finding it friendly despite the thin coverage. Another boof and a nice boulder drop and we were back into some fierce boulder mank, with more wood now. We just kept charging downhill despite the bumpiness until we hit the final slides above the take out bridge. Below here was a little more boulder garbage in the encroaching darkness before we hit the take out. Despite the extreme low flow, the bedrock sections of the creek were still high quality and super fun. I'd guess this run has a small window between when the boulder rapids fill in and when things get rowdy, although it probably gets rowdy in a good way.

Alex Blasting Through an Early Cachee Slide (Photo: Jeff Moore)

JJ Landing the Big One (Photo: JM)

JJ Boofing the Drop Below the Big One (Photo: JM)

Quebec Day 4 - Tewkesbury et St. Catherine

2011-08-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

After all the driving of the last few days, we decided to take an easy day and check out the Tewkesbury section of the Jacque-Cartier. We were yet again slow to motivate despite continual prodding from the 6 legged inhabitants of our campsite. After making the 30 minute drive down to the Tewkesbury area, we got some info from the local raft guides on where to put in and take out (both at raft company set ups) and checked the gauge (about 0.5 ft., nice medium). We waited in the sunshine while the short shuttle was being run, delighted with the lack of bugs attacking us.

We hopped on, without much expectations as the river slowly got going. Soon enough we were bombing into the first big water rapid along an angled wall on the right. It was great, big waves, big curlers, and big holes. Things continued this way for a while with several nice long rapids before getting to meatgrinder, the largest rapid on the run. It wasn't really any more difficult than the others, just longer with less direct routes. A few more big water rapids, including several with some nice little gorge walls, and things were opening up and flattening out on the way to the takeout. Again, I'd have to say the Tewkesbury really exceeded expectations, and although short, was pretty classic for being nestled about 30 minutes from Quebec City.

Smokeless Steve Oping not to Drop in for a Ride at the Top of a Long One (Photo: Jeff Moore)

And Steve Finishing the Same (Photo: JM)

The Fellas Chillin' Under some Nice Little Walls (Photo: JM)

Despite the late start, we still had plenty of time, so we decided to head down and check out the St. Catherine section of the Jacque-Cartier. We should have continued downstream on the Tewkesbury take out road, but our maps were incomplete so we headed back to the main highway and through some Quebec City suburbs before arriving at the St. Catherine section. After driving along the river running shuttle, we weren't expecting much as things looked wide and lake like.

Upon putting in at a little pull out on river left, about 3 miles upstream of the bridge, things were definitely lake like for awhile before reaching the first rapid. Just as the guidebook mentioned, when we got to the second drop there were islands and lots of choices. We started right, decided it looked scrapey and headed back to the left for some great big water curler moves. From the bottom, we saw a nice slide in a channel just to our right and wasted no time walking back up for a run. We then paddled over to the right channel and picked off a nice little boof at the end. After exploring all the channels, we booked it across the short lake to the next set. The right was supposedly the Bluet, a big time rapid named for a small tasty berry, so we checked out the left to find another high quality, steep rapid with few holes thrown before rounding to the right and crashing through more wave and holes. Good stuff. We were running out of light, so we didn't get to explore any of the right channel, although from downstream it appeared the lines ranged from a nice 10' waterfall to terminal hole bashing. Although nowhere near the classic the Tewkebury is, St. Catherine was an afternoon well spent. We grabbed some great pizza at Paquettes within a half mile of the take out before heading back to camp at the Sautauriski confluence.

Tony on the Slightly Scrapey Slide at the First Island Rapid (Photo: JM)

Tony Boofing the River Right Channel that we Walked Back Up (Photo: JM)

Alex Styling a Line that was In Between the Meat and the Sneak (Photo: JM)

The Bluet, Wish we had Time to Explore (Photo: JM)

Quebec Day 3 - La Riviere Sautauriski

2011-08-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

After more waffling and water level debates (part of the fun of going somewhere all the gauges are unfamiliar and descriptions are often in French), we decided on the Sautauriski, which was supposed to be low but runnable (good considering this is usually a late spring run). We paid more admissions fees (a theme is emerging) to get into the Parc Jacques-Cartier and set shuttle just upstream from where Sautauriski confluences into the main Jacques-Cartier. The river looked pretty low but passable in the dechannelized section upstream from the takeout, so we figured we'd be okay. Shuttle entailed leaving and reentering the Parc in a less developed area, where we drove to the blockade of the dirt road at the bridge across the Sautauriski.

As soon as we got out, we were massacred by black flies and mosquitoes, necessitating a less than leisurely rate of gearing up. The river started nicely with an easy narrow bedrock rapid right under the bridge before spreading out for a good distance of easy boulder rapids which could have used some additional flow. Soon enough we made the portage, getting out to take a look. The 1st and 3rd drops were good but the 2nd was too low to be enticing (although it may not be enticing at any levels). Fortunately eddies and seal launches were available to avoid the 2nd drop; however too much time was taken scouting and portaging, and the mosquitoes and black flies were again onto us. We took off from the bugs as soon as possible and soon found ourselves routing through many nice class IV boulder rapids. Unfortunately, they ended sooner than we would have liked, but at least the scenery was top notch for the paddle out.

While not nearly the classic the Neilson was, the Sautauriski delivered a nice mellow day in a beautiful canyon, and I'm sure it would get better with increased flows.

Trying to Boof the First Drop of the Portage (Photo: Jeff Moore)

Finishing Off the Third Drop of the Portage After Seal Launching the Second (Photo: JM)

Tony Boofing a Nice One Below the Portage (Photo: JM)

Boofing Downstream in the Nice Class IV Section (Photo: JM)

See, Jeff Does More than just Take Photos (Photo: Alex Zendel)

Not Chicken Pox, Just the Price for Scouting Too Long (Photo: AZ)

Mmm... Camp in Quebec (Photo: AZ)

Quebec Day 2 - The Neilson

2011-08-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

Camping in New York the previous night left us with a long drive up to the mountainous regions of Quebec. After some lengthy debates and lots of waffling, we decided that although the Neilson was low, it was supposed to be classic and it might be our only chance to hop on it. So, off we headed to Saint-Raymond and after plenty of delays and a modest fee at the access gate, the Neilson Valley. I think the first thing we all noticed was the towering granite walls of the Gros Bonnet, an unexpected surprise. The second thing we (at least those of us waiting for shuttle) noticed was the ferocious black flies. They look like gnats and don't hurt when they bite, but they pack a punch leaving welts and drawing blood. Little did we know, the Neilson would have the tamest bugs of any of our stops in Quebec.

Once the shuttlers returned, we quickly geared up and headed downstream, where our low flow was tolerable as the rapids built to long hard class IV boulder gardens which were mostly boat scoutable and super fun. Most of the run was just that: high quality class IV+ boulder rapids with enough pools to break the action but basically no flatwater. The scenery was better than expected with nice gorge walls but scouting was always possible (although not required except at Picard). Eventually the river opened up to some nice view of the cliffs and we came to the big rapid of the run: Island Falls. It was a little too low to run the left sneak, but the right side fall went nicely despite being a little tricky. A few bedrock drops and we arrived at the take out.

Alex Warming Up on an Early, Typical Neilson Rapid (Photo: Jeff Moore)

JJ digging while probing the top of Picard (Photo: JM)

Alex blasting through the entrance to Picard (Photo: JM)

After a lot of semi-continuous read and run in a narrow canyon, the river opens up and gives some great views of the Gros Bonnet (Photo: JM)

JJ taking off at Island Falls (Photo: JM)

Wanting more, a few of us headed downstream for the lower Neilson. The rapids got larger, although in general we thought the quality dropped. We all portaged the second rapid and the pothole drop. The pothole looked great, but my shoulder just wasn't ready for the beating that it was capable of dishing out. Soon enough, we were dodging rocks in the dusk as we rolled up to the take out bridge.

We had about 10 cms on the online gauge, which is about minimum. Still, this run is a classic, and was the first, but certainly not the last, Quebec river to exceed our expectations. This run would be phenomenal with a nice medium flow, but we weren't complaining about catching this gem in early July.

Quebec Day 1 - Ausable Pit Stop

2011-08-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

Despite living in New York for 4 years, I never made the pilgrimage north to Quebec. For a few of those years I was probably too green and to be honest I didn't even know there was any decent boating up there. Even though I know live 12 hours further South, recovering from the bum shoulder gave a good excuse to choose a destination that wasn't really hard core but I had been curious about for years. Plus, it's like a foreign country... they don't even speak English.

After a typically tardy departure on Friday night, we had a relatively smooth drive up to New York. Reaching the high peaks region several hours ahead of the other truck (delayed due to pink eye), we killed sometime that morning checking out the North Fork of the Boquet, East Branch of the Ausable, and lake Champlain before heading to our quick fix for breaking up the drive to Quebec: the Ausable Chasm.

I had run the Chasm a few years earlier during a flow study, but this trip was still a little unknown due to an I-Beam wedged in the Chasm (we had no idea if it was passable or portagable) and rumors of Chasm Company hostility. Our pink eye man was sitting this one out, but wanted to spectate and shoot photos, so he paid the access fee and scouted for us. When he returned, we were pumped to hear that sneaking under the I-Beam river right wasn't too sketchy (500cfs), so we geared up above the powerhouse and headed down the stairs.

Ausable Chasm Put In Scene (Photo: Jeff Moore).

After reaching the river, we were all pretty blown away by the put in setting: big gorge walls, a 35 ft waterfall, and warm up slides falling away downstream. We quickly headed down through the warm up slides taking out above the lead in to elephant rock. We hopped out and scouted the entire section down to the left hand turn. I was a bit nervous when a guided chasm tour showed up, but they were friendly and didn't bother us about being out to scout. Everyone ran right at elephant rock as the left looked sieved out and nasty. Not all lines were pure, but everyone cam through okay, and eddied out right before ferrying and entering the heart of the chasm above Mike's Hole. We took another scout river left before bombing through the slightly sticky cliffed out hole. At this point the whitewater was over, but we still had the I-Beam to deal with. Upon seeing it, we all quickly snuck right underneath it without issue thanks to the beta from our scouter. At this point we had a short while to revel in the cliff walls, which are pretty much without comparison on the East Coast. All too soon, the Chasm ends, leaving only a class II scrapey paddle out to the car. Despite only having about 6 rapids, the Chasm runs all summer and is totally unique for the East Coast, making it quite classic.

Steve's First Stroke After Too Many Hours in the Truck (Photo: JM).

Tony Cruising into the Walled Out Eddy Below Elephant Rock (Photo: JM).

Heading into the Walled Out Mike's Hole (Photo: JM).

JJ Clearing Mike's from Overhead (Photo: JM).

We Were All Relieved that it Wasn't an Issue. Hopefully the Chasm Company has Removed it by Now (Photo: JM).

What the Chasm's All About. Too Bad it's Not Longer (Photo: JM).

Life Back in the Kayaking Slow Lane

2011-08-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

So the last 11 months has been a serious struggle. I won't go too much into the details, but last September 11th I dislocated my shoulder in Kentucky of all places. It had rained over 4 inches around Cumberland Falls and there were a few tribs that had interesting looking waterfalls in their final descents to the Cumberland. Eagle Falls was a bust, but Dog Slaughter delivered, leaving only Bark Camp to check out. After a few short slides, the north cumberland gnar gnar showed up, but Kirk and I pressed on. I didn't give the final drop enough respect, and it flipped me on my head, leading to a dislocated shoulder in the slot immediately down stream. After doing my best one armed Mark Spitz, I waited in the eddy while the fellas pulled my boat out of a sieve before they came to quickly reduce the dislocation (much to my surprise, I'd never seen a first time dislocation dealt with so smoothly). Fortunately we were already at the hike out point and 1/2 mile later I was snarfing Jeff's chips ahoy and ODing on vitamin I.

Within a week I had an MRI and less than 3 weeks later I was under the knife to repair a torn labrum and bicep tendon. The recovery sucked. Once the local block wore off the pain went Richter (only surpassed by the life jacket removal at the original scene) for a few days where sleep was pretty scarce (it would be nice if I responded to narcotic painkillers). It was about a month before I could sleep in a bed and another few weeks before I could start moving my arm and starting rehab. I got in a kayak for the first time about 12 weeks after surgery (although I would call what I did floating). From then on the goal was simple: explore as much new (to me) whitewater as possible while my shoulder recovered and gained strength. I'll just let the photos tell the stories from what turned out to be a great spring in the Southeast.

JJ bombing down some slides on Upper Snowbird Creek. We put in just above this set after 4 miles of hiking. Beautiful creek, hopefully someday I'll see it with enough water to run it from the top (Photo: Alex Zendel)

D. White finishing the same set. This one might get rowdy if you ever caught the creek with some water. (Photo: AZ)

JJ boofing on Bald River. We did this as a hike up while the Tellico was running about 3 ft. to avoid a terrible shuttle. Pretty little section but it would be better with more water to clean things up. Watch out for this drop, it's right above suislide and dished out a few inverted landings. (Photo: Jeff Moore)

The crew routing down the low angle stuff early on Roaring Creek. This season was really about the plateau, and this is one of the best class IV creeks Walden Ridge has to offer. (Photo: JJ)

The slides start to steepen up as you get further along. (Photo: JM)

Sean Camp about to do a little hole bashing. (Photo: JM)

Sean finishing up the last slide on Roaring Creek, below which Brush Creek enters in mega-cascade fashion, signaling the start of the run out. (Photo: JM)

Jeff Moore boofing a little sneak slot in the sunshine early on Big Brush Creek in the Sequatchie Valley. This run was like a mix between Daddy's and Caney Fork but with bigger harder drops than both. (Photo: JJ)

JJ boofing the entrance to another nice boulder rapid. This run has more mid-size slot boofs than most. (Photo: JM)

Mr. Robert Keeble, now of Bozeman, greasing the longest rapid of the run. (Photo: JM)

Keeble airing it out over some plateau ugliness. (Photo: JM)

Although not a new run, the Chatooga, specifically in overnight format, is one of the finest boating experiences in the Southeast. Here is smokeless Steve contemplating the narrows of section III in the fading evening light of day 1. (Photo: JJ)

Those are just a few photos from a few days of a spring that saw us exploring a lot of the class II-IV runs that surround Knoxville (and yes, I need to bring the camera more often). The shoulder's continuing to improve and has done well on some high water days in the Southeast this summer (Big Creek, Thunderhead/Tremont, and Crooked Fork) as well as a road trip to Quebec (photos and words... someday). Hopefully next season will be a good one around Knoxville, because we've definitely got some things planned when the rain falls again.

Early Summer in CO

2011-06-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

This years snowpack in CO was one for the record books, we have had good water for a few weeks now and have been getting out pretty consistently hitting up gore at increasing water levels from 2000-8000, gilman gorge, north and south saint vrain, arkansas, clear creek, poudre. Here are some pics from the summer so far. Enjoy

Alex Clayden on gilman gorge

Cutch on homestake
Forrest Noble getting worked on Bailey
Jonny Meyers on gore at 2000
Gore rapid at 4400
scissors at 4400
pyrite at 4400, first swim of the year
Lyons outdoor games
Kurt buried in the race
NSV scouting
Gore at 8300, rolf is the small speck at the bottom of the pic
Kurt fighting off a huge boil on the upper narrows at high water

Upper NF little wind

2010-10-15T15:37:00.001-07:00

The upper north fork of the little wind was a great trip and a highlight of the rocky mountain season for sure. I picked up my brother Jim and Kirk at the airport, we headed up to fort collins to meet up with Wigston and Evan, Kirk explained the idea of the 1st D of the upper north fork and they were in, we left the fort around midnight. Not getting to lander until the next morning we got our Indian permits and some food and headed up to find the take-out. The road wasn’t to bad but a truck was need (this take out is only a 15 minute hike instead of an hour on the other side), the road to the putin is only about 30 minutes away (not to bad for a 3 day run! By the time we started hiking it was 1 in the afternoon and somehow we couldn’t find the trail so off we went for about an 1-2 thru the woods before we found the trail. Once on the trail it was another 3 hours of hiking, it was way harder than I thought it would be and again I got dehydrated. Once reaching the twin lakes I stepped in to soak my legs and cool of, the lakes were one of the coolest camp spots I’ve ever been.
That evening we headed up and scouted the raft lake gorge, there were mostly slides and slot drops, totally bedrock and it defiantly had us excited. The next morning we lounged around fishing and just soaking the spot in, around 10 we hiked up the raft lake gorge (1-2 miles). This was the highlight of the trip, probably 5 good drops down to the big slide wigston named wind scraper (after skyscraper in cali). I had a good look at this massive rapid before giving it a go; wigston, jim and I were just kinda looking at each other and one of has to go so I decided to go first, the drop is probably a few hundred yards of slides that drops around 100 feet, we all had great lines and made quick work of the rest of the low angle slides.
We paddled across the lake and portaged around a huge 200-300 foot cascade, I think the last 80-100 feet might be runable but that’s for next time. The next section was kinda crappy with our low water but fun drops kept our spirits up, after a few hours we pulled over and camped on a big bluff.
The next day we had a few hours down to the normal put-in for the lower run that me and Evan had done before, we blazed it pretty quick stopping only a few times to scout and about 4 hours later we were hiking up the hill back to our car.
This trip was sick and I will defiantly be back but with a bit more water next time.
Time for some pics!

Wigston, Stafford, and Kirk on the hike

The Janney Boys, you can see twin lakes behind us and the raft lake gorge above it

Our camp at twin lakes

Wigston on an early slot

Me on the last part of windscraper

Wigston on windscraper, look at that long ass lead in!

Wigston on the double drop

Kirk on the boofington hieghts drop

Jim on the 40 footer

sWigston dropping in

Wyoming 2010 Teaser from Jim Janney on Vimeo.

-Tom

Black Canyon

2010-10-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

Late season boating in Colorado means one thing to me, the black canyon! Gore runs satisfy us through august until it is a bit cooler and we turn our attention to a huge crack in the earth near montrose,co. I first did the black canyon 4 years ago during my first year of class 5 boating with a flow of 1300 and a sweet crew of local black canyon legend milo, christian, rolf kelly and tim kelton. That trip showed me how out of shape I was and inspired me watching Rolf paddle and seeing christian kayaking class 5 only a few months after breaking his back. This last year I felt that it was time for a return trip with only half the flow of my previous trips, me and christian made 3 trips that year and got to fire up some new stuff that was sweet, plus R. kelly fired up the great falls portage that I'm not sure will ever get run again.
This year I have been talking up the black canyon to anyone that would listen, and convinced enough people to organize a big group of 8 to drop in, with only Dan and I having previous experience we took a nice slow pace and enjoyed ourselves for a 2 day run. The first day was awesome with great rapids down to the infamous portage. I assured my buddy and recent Coloradoan Nick Abrams that we should just do the portage in shorts and lather ourselves in dish soap. Unfortunately I brought hand soap not dish soap and a week after the trip me and Nick are still itching!
That night at camp was one of my best nights of the year, great fishing, a few beers and ribs made for a great time. Waking the next morning I was pretty nervous about the drop just after the portage, named next generation that Christian 1st D last year and a spot that my brother had a nasty swim resulting in a torn MCL. We got down to the drop and Sean and me sized it up, the drop consists of a sweet 6-8foot boof then a 10 foot sliding shoulder boof into a tight slot then line up for the 15 foot boof with a tight landing and then you get the sweet few hundred yards of runout, after a while scouting I decided it was time to go. I went back up to my boat and got super focused, The next 30 seconds of rapid dropping 50-60 feet; was an awesome feeling with a styling line had by both sean and me. Dan and Marty ran the bottom half and had equally fun lines, our group was feeling great!
The last big drop of the run is the great falls portage, we just portaged quick due to time issues and decided to scout the bottom 20 footer. Sean and I stepped up to run it; Sean boofed but didn't clear out very far and hit a rock pretty hard. Before they could tell me, I was in my boat and luckily flying off the boof. I love that feeling of hitting a boof so well that you disconnect from the water, pull those legs up so your flying flat and then stomp in down at the last second; having control in the air is a difficult skill to master but so fun when you nail it.
The hike out at chukar was hot as usual, but only a half an hour so not to bad. On the long drive back to boulder I had time to think about this trip and how much fun it was but at the same time it just wasn't the same without Christian in there firing it off with us!
The season should still have another month left down there and I can't wait to get back in there and fire it up, I'll shut up now and post some pics.
-Tom

Sean lee, looking like wigston

Coming out of the narrowest part of the canyon, the narrows!

Nick Abrams on ball crusher (I wonder how it got that name?)

Marty on the 18 footer that is more like 10 feet

A little something to supplement Nick and my ribs

The canyon at night

Me boofing the second part of next generation

Sean, Dan, Marty dropping the second part of next generation

Sean Lee boofing the shallow 20 footer

Me about to go flying

Middle Fork Kings

2010-08-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

The middle fork of the kings river is known as one of the best multiday runs in the country if not the world, last year I missed out on a trip with some of my good friends. This year I was set that the kings was the one I wanted, originally we had a huge group of 8 from colorado. Due to some scheduling issues are group was cut in half, then half again a few days before the trip when will couldn't get out of work and Rolf jacked himself on the crystal gorge. So it was down to just Tyson and I driving from colorado to meet Jared Johnson and Lizzy English. We left right after my nursing school interview on friday morning and arrived at the south lake trailhead near bishop,ca at about 2am just in time to get some shut eye. We woke the next morning excited to begin the journey, JJ and Lizzy carried all of their gear but me and Tyson split donkeys with a few other people making the 12 mile hike-in easy. The hike-in was so beautiful and amazing I was just gazing around in amazement the whole time up and over the 12,000 foot bishop pass. Due to the others having loaded boats Tyson and I were able to take some long breaks and enjoy it. We got down to the leconte canyon ranger station at about the same time as the mules so we just hung out and talked with ranger rick until jj and lizzy arrived and we just set up camp excited about getting to paddle the next day. Ranger rick decided that he would join us for the first 2 days of our trip to learn more about the kayaker user group, he was a super cool guy.

Only a few miles into the hike

Tyson relaxing on the top of bishop pass

JJ and I hiking in the Dusy basin

Looking down into Leconte canyon (our-putin) a few thousand feet of pain below

The next day we got up and ate a slow breakfast, taking our time getting ready we didn't put on until 10am. The first few miles down to palisade creek are pretty manky but the scenery is amazing. After palisade the rapids start to get awesome with lots of great slides and falls. Near the end of day one is the river transitions into some sweet boulder gardens that is one of the best boulder garden sections I have ever paddled. We camped at the huge devil's washbowl slide that night, I decided to run the slide that night and had a sweet line but got a bit to far left at the bottom, dried out and skipped over the hole backwards.

Tyson on a sweet slot move to slide early day one

Tyson on the money drop day 1

Lizzy killing it

Typical scenery

JJ at the start of the sick boulder garden

Camp night 1

On day 2 we got up a bit earlier and we were on the water by 9 running the big camp slide and continuing down into the waterfall gorge. At this point ranger rick left us to fend for ourselves, and we continued at river level where most groups decided to walk on the trail. We made it a few drops before it really turned into a lot of work and I see why people walk this part. JJ and I fired off into the raw dawg gorge while lizzy and tyson walked on the trail, this was one of the highlights of the trip, it was like vallecito in colorado but with a super stout 30 footer. After the raw dawg gorge the river got into great rapids for the next few miles down into simpson meadow.

Tyson on a big slide for breakfast

Lizzy on the famous waterfall in bad lighting

Tyson firing into a big hole below the falls

JJ sliding

JJ on the entrance to the raw dawg gorge, there were huge boils pushing back from 10-15 feet downstream, spicy.

JJ fighting

JJ on the falls and exit

Me falling and trying to get tucked, it was a super soft hit

View from our camp in simpson meadow

The next day we got a slow start and had a few hours of easy whitewater before the boulder garden action started back up. I was told that this day would be shitty but I found it pretty quality and fun with lots of multi move rapids with sweet boofs and power moves just like a smaller version of the bottom 9. Somewhere in this section is the beaver slide, a drop that a fwe people have run over the years, I scouted it for a bit but ended up walking, this was the one drop I really want to go back and run it just looks so good to me for some reason. We got down into the tehipete dome area and it was like yosemite with no roads, we ended up camping early at the base of tehipete dome our mind thinking of the bottom 9.

the big bad beaver slide, this thing is sick!

Tehipete dome

The bottom 9 miles is one of my top 5 days of kayaking ever, it was 9 hours of sick kayaking, with huge moves, boofs, plugs and just overall sick rapids that leave you grinning from ear to ear. We were trying to make it out through garlic falls that day so no pics but there were more drops than I could count. The next day we got up early and put on a 8, it was already 90 degrees, I really enjoyed the garlic falls run a classic by any measure, with big pushy rapids. Tyson and I dropped lizzy off in fresno before starting our long drive home, elated to have just completed the trip of a lifetime.

JJ boofing a big hole in the morning light on the garlic falls run

Surfing the Flat Lands

2010-07-09T14:21:00.000-07:00

Jim Janney surfing Howell Island Wave in Missouri of all places (Photo Chris Janney)

Sometimes, life takes you away from the your normal whitewater stomping grounds in the mountains and sends you out to the wasteland that is the midwest (I grew up there, I know what it's all about). Fortunately, there are some huge rivers out there that don't require much gradient to have some fun.

The first stop on the tour happened way back in March on a business trip to Indianapolis. Fortunately, Louisville happens to be right on the way from Knoxville, and the Falls of the Ohio happens to be about 2 minutes off the highway. Even though I couldn't scare up any local paddling partners before my arrival, I figured I'd go have a look to break up the drive. Upon arrival, I quickly realized the magnitude of the river. The rapid didn't look that big, but then again the eddy was probably 1/4 mile wide and about 3/4 mile long. There was one decent looking but somewhat surgey wave out there and nothing that looked too dangerous below, although swimming would have been life threatening due to the distances involved.

Sun setting over Louisville and the Falls of the Ohio River. You can see some of the waves in the eddy in the foreground. (Photo JJ)

So, I hopped in the boat to paddle around the eddy and go take a look from a closer vantage point. One thing was certain, it was a huge wave, but still didn't look too threatening. So I paddled up a little ways to try to get out there and give it a try. Needless to say I underestimated the power of the water and didn't come close to making it. Next, I headed up near the top of the eddy and cranked out into the current as hard as I could. 100 yards downstream I had crossed the eddy line, but was still cranking out towards the wave. About 30 seconds after I had left the eddy I reached the wave, caught the huge bouncy beast (maybe 12' trough to crest?) for a brief second before surge threw me up and off. Short, but one hell of a ride. Another 1/4 mile downstream I had made it to the eddy and was heading back up through 5 ft. waves for another go. I was pretty conservative out there, but it was epic none the less, even though I only got about 6 rides in an hour. I snapped a few photos on the way out, but they don't do it much justice as I was probably over 1/2 mile away.

This big guy was one hell of a ride... (Photo JJ)

Looking upstream at the interstate bridge and the dam that forms the rapids. (Photo JJ)

Then last weekend, I headed back to St. Louis to see my parent for the 4th. I had heard that Howell Island, a playspot just off I-64 outside STL had been in a ton this year due to good snowpack and hot weather in Montana, so I brought the boat with me (Wish it had been the Molan, but I was selling the old ZG and only had room for 1 boat). Again, I couldn't drum up any locals to paddle with, but this time I at least had my Mom and girlfriend with me to snap a few photos. The level was 25 ft. at St. Charles, which was probably a little higher than optimal, but pretty nice to get a little surfing in. The access was a 10 ft. carry over a low water bridge for every ride, but eddy access might be possible to other features and at other water levels. Anyways, I'll let the photos do the talking about my lack of playboating ability.

Showing my lack of playboating prowess with the not-so-aerial roundhouse. (Photo CJ)

Getting frothy in one of the smaller secondary waves at Howell Island. (Photo CJ)

Landing my sweetest playboating move, the 180. (photo CJ)

Last week in cali

2010-06-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

After a sick day of boating on the south branch we rushed to the hospital to get glued shut, and I'm glad I did because it has healed nicely.

After the hospital visit we parted ways with Dustin and Nate. Me and Christian hung out at Daniel's house for the day and then Christian flew home to CO to relax before his job started. My crew was quickly reduced to one but I talked Tyson into coming down to the kaweah with me for a few days, he was able to do work in the morning and then we were able to get laps on hospital rock in the afternoon, can't ask for much more?

Me boofing a sick drop called little Niagara on hospital rock ( for more pics of this run see: Spring Break)

Me and Tyson had left my car at the Sac airport for Rolf and TK who were coming in the week, they got in on thursday night and we meet them for another south merced run.

The Team: TK, Tyson, Rolf, and Me (these guys are some of my favorite people to paddle with just so much fun on and off the water)

Rolf doing pushups for the ladies

Rolf on a sick drop at the beginning of the super slide section (I walked this drop on the higher water trip but ran it this time, super sick!)

Rolf heading into the slides

Tyson on Super slide

Tyson in the gorge below super slide

We camped just downstream of the gorge (the same place we camped earlier), I had brought in beers to enjoy and was glad when we got to camp that I could kick back drink a few cold ones and get caught up with some good friends. The next day we got up to warm temps and sunny weather, getting amped up for no portages on day 2!

Rolf, Tyson and TK on a sick triple drop that we walked with the higher water trip

Tyson on a very cool drop

After the drop pictured above there are only a few more big drops and tons of fun slides, on one of these bigger drops I had the worst swim I have had in a long time. I dropped into a huge hole that backendered me into a wicked pocket after about 30 seconds of trying to roll (the pocket was pushing me hard against a cliff) I swam, I didn't come up but could tell I was getting taken back into the hole, I went with it and went deep. After about 10 seconds I kinda thought 'hey I should be coming up soon' and started swiming (I think I kick off the bottom) a few more seconds and I was to the surface. I took a huge breath as it was probably 30-45 seconds without one and began swimming hard left dropping over a 10 ish foot drop. At the bottom of the drop there was quick moving water against a slab rock that I couldn't get out on, at this point rolf caught me and it was obvious that I was about to swim the next drop, all I remember is rolf Yelling 'grab my boat, you hold onto my boat'. I was able to get a good hold of his boat as we stated down a series of slides, I was getting dunked a few times but better than swimming. Then we stopped and got surfed in a hole, we were in there for 10-15 seconds with me holding on, I knew he was gonna swim if I held on. I pushed off his boat as hard as I could and felt myself getting suck back in, and going deep again. At this point I was very tired and remember thinking fuck just let me out. I got lucky and the river spit me out onto the rocks where I was able to crawl out of the river. I am so glad that Rolf was there to give me a few seconds to recover holding onto his boat while I was swimming,a nd very glad to get out of the river with no damage to myself. My boat got pinned on a log and the boys got it unpinned while I sat and regained my strength. We put back in and I was feeling like an idiot for bombing into a huge hole, then rolf paddles up to me and says, 'Don't let that shit bother you, run the meat of every hole you see, you'll get it back!' I love paddling with that guy. We had an uneventful paddle out and thanks to scotty baker had no shuttle to run!
We headed up to the upper middle consumes to meet up with jared johnson for my last day in Cali for the trip. The level was a nice medium 425cfs and the weather was typical sunny California (not typical for this trip). We had a great run with no swims and load of fun, with it being all those guys first time down.

Tyson 'suns out guns out' and maybe suns out short-shorts out?

Tyson on a fun double drop

Rolf boofing skatepark

Me boofing skatepark, I had to hike up and run it again it is so much fun!

That was my last day in cali and I can't wait to get bcak! Colorado was going off when I got home and I have just stayed on the front range and got some fun runs in while I work and go to school. Some CO highlights have been high water north saint vrain, high water south saint vrain race in which I got 6th place (pretty good amongst the pros).
Thanks to everyone who helped me out in cali, it was an awesome trip, I'll see you all in a month or two when the kings comes in!
-Tom

Week 2 in Cali

2010-06-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

Jim could only stay out in cali for a week this trip so I dropped him off at 5 in the morning to catch his plane, it sucked to see him go because I love paddling with my brother but he also works out the logistics and I drive where he tells me and he most of the time has the beta set. I was pretty tired that day so we got a slow start and just went and did 49 to bridgeport (which is a sick run, but kinda a bomb fest so no pics), it was great to meet up with Louis who I met in BC a few years back and to get to paddle with one of my real good friends Nick Abrams (moving to Boulder this summer, sweet!).
The next day we attempted the north fork of the middle american but it looked low at the takeout so we just went to upper middle consumes at about 500cfs (a sick level!). I ended up taking the first drop way to casual and getting caught in the hole which required a quick swim (the river always lets you know who is boss). The day was super sick with the added water but we didn't end up getting done until it was dark (in a hurry no pics agian); which sucked because we ended up heading to the south merced with warm weather on the horizon we were all a bit worried about the level coming up.
Waking up early we assembled the big crew of Me, Christian, Dustin, Louis, mike, and hard charging durango boy nate klema. Nate's car got broken into the night before by a bear and all his food was gone, so he got to stop in el portal gas station to fuel up. The first day was awesome with the added water we had two swims but no lost gear so that was good, the superslide section was sweet and we decided to push thru the gorge below to get a bit farther downstream before the water came up.
A few pics from day 1:

Nate Klema firing a huge hole at the top of the superslide section

Nate, Christian, Dustin getting some pushy slide action

Dustin in the first drop in the gorge below one in a million

Louis on a rowdy slide in the gorge

Louis on the slide above camp

That night we camped next to a huge crew of guys that were super cool to share to spot with us (thanks boys!), it rained a bit that evening but dusty was nice enough to cram both of us under his tarp so I didn't get wet. I was super excited and ended up getting up at 6am because I though it was 7 (due to my watch being CO time), and had a bunch of time to lounge around camp while others got up, one thing became clear; the river had come up almost a foot overnight and the south merced was now a full on river! I wasn't to concerned until Evan garcia said the water was HIGH (the wawona gauge peaked at 1600 that night). I got a bit nervous but our crew was solid and we took our time making only one or two portages the whole day, but there were plenty of juicy holes in there. The second day was one of the best days of kayaking I have ever had, there was some classic cali sun mixed with the best rapids on the planet!
Pics from day 2:

Dustin popping up from the first hole on a big slide

Christina charging

Dustin getting western

After running the 3 hour S Merced shuttle I was stoked that Dustin and Christian got drunk while I drove shuttle, this meant I had to drive to the yuba gap all by myself which sucked. The suck level was taken to the extreme when the yuba gap didn't run, more 49 to bridgeport a great plan B. Rolf and Tyson just got in so they joined us for an evening run, always love to boat with these two. The next day rolf wanted to check kimshew but we ended up settling for the secret stash due to gate closure (which also caused us to hike 4 miles in). This run was sick it had great drops that you had to run in several gorges, we ran everything besides a huge double drop that we thought would cause at least a 50% swim ratio and we had no idea how far it was to the getout and it was getting late (lame excuse I know, expesially because the takeout was 10 minutes downstream).
Secret stash pics:

Dustin probing the 1st drop

R kelly boofing

Tyson on a pushy one

After the secret stash we heading back to the south branch to get those boys on it. A fun day was had by all except my nose and eye that suffered a punch from myself of the final 50 footer and required a ER visit to get it glued shut.
SB pics:

Dustin at the start of the goods

Nate Klema throwing down

Tyson showing great form

Mr.Marquart showing us how to boof

Rolf showing his waterfall form (he has practice: http://vimeo.com/11410599)

What happens when you don't stay tucked

Wow that turned into a huge post, more to come from week 3!
-Tom

California 2010

2010-06-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

The plan for this year's Cali trip was a little different than last's. Tom and Christian weren't going to make it out until Monday, due to Christian's graduation, so the plan was to boat some slightly chiller stuff with my old buddy Daniel until the Colorado boys showed up and we really get into the flow.

We were split between going south for the Tule and Kaweah stuff or going north for Trinity tributaries, but in the end, the decision was made to go north. After a late night arrival into Sac, we got a little sleep before pulling many hours north to the Weaverville area.

The first day's plan was to do a quicky on Coffee creek. The first mile on one of the forks was pretty good and featured non-stop mini-gorge-ish boating. After the forks combined, the creek completely dechannelized from there to the take out. Honestly it was pretty low quality and dangerous for the difficulty due to a lack of eddies and lots of blind turns. I can't really recommend this run to anyone, but nonetheless it was great to be out on the water with my old Cali paddling buddies and a few new ones.

The next day we headed out to Lower Hayfork Creek, which while being kind of roadside, the road was 1000 ft. up and the river was way down in a deep gorge, looked enticing. So, with a crack of noon start, we put on at a flow of about 600, which was a little less than optimal. After a long warmup, the rapids started to build until we found ourselves in a pretty good stretch. Lots of class IV and maybe a little bit of class V. Then, after a short break, we were back into it, with more good rapids in a nice gorge setting. We eventually found the mandatory portage, which must have changed cause it is certainly no longer mandatory. At our flow, I wouldn't call it classic,but it might get significantly better with additional flow.

Unfortunately for our final day up north, Daniel's shoulder was feeling not up to snuff and Mike and Jonas had returned to Sac, so it was just Diane and I. After reviewing the options we settled on the New River Gorge. On the way there, the nerves definitely started as lots of heavy rain fell; however, they were somewhat relieved as we climbed to higher elevation and the snow set in, minimizing the chances for a fast rising river. We put on in the snow off the Denny road, hurrying to stay warm and ahead of the potential rising flows from the rain. After lots of warm up and one bear sighting, we arrived at the start of the gorge. There were maybe 10 big water creeky rapids before the portage, none of which were particularly locked in, but some of which featured some nasty pockets and undercuts. Somewhere in there we also had a playful encounter with a river otter. Always nice to see the real residents having fun on their home turf. The portage actually looked pretty good, but the risk, small group size, and inclement weather added up to a quick portage on the left. Once you portage, you arrive at the super walled in blind faith. It looked extremely difficult to portage and very difficult to scout, so we decided to just go for it. It turns out it's about a 15 ft. ramp down the left wall into a walled out and rowdy run out, probably the best rapid on the run. From there more walled in but more scoutable stuff took us through tombstone and final falls, and the one right above the confluence with the big hole, and down to the confluence with the Trinity, where we ran some great big water rapids on the run out of Burnt Ranch Gorge with about 8000 cfs in the river. This is definitely a regional classic, although too much paddle in detracts slightly, but the walled in scenery and rapids are top notch.

New River Gorge: Looking Into Blind Faith. Photo Diane Gaydos.

Diane Getting a little too Far Right at Tombstone. Photo JJ.

Beautiful Walls, Beautiful Whitewater. An Easy One on NRG. Photo Diane Gaydos.

From there, we said goodbye to the Trinity drainage and headed back to Sac, where Tom, Christian, and Dustin were supposed to converge that night. Unfortunately a late season snow storm closed I-80 so Tom and Christian spent the night in Truckee before arriving in Sac around noon. Options were discussed and we decided to rally to the South Branch for a quick afternoon lap.

We finally made it to the put in somewhere around 3:30 and quickly geared up so we could rally on down to the take out before dark. All I can say is that the South Branch delivers in a big way. We had just a hair of water going over the gauge rock just downstream of the put in which corresponds to a nice padded medium. From the put in, bedrock mini gorge rapids build slowly for a few miles. Even though it's super low volume and easy, the quality of the rapids are fantastic. I think the whole run has like two shitty rapids. Eventually, the verticality starts to pick up, and after bombing through one walled out mini gorge with a few big holes and some logs at the bottom, the run pretty much turns to 100% top quality waterfalls and slides. This run probably has as many clean 20ish ft. waterfalls as most people paddle in a season. It's just lots of relatively low stress fun.

Silly Waterfall Fun. Christian and Jim Paddling. All Photos TJ.

Then, as you get to the end of the run, the heat starts to pick up. A super shallow double drop which hurts when run properly and can certainly dish out injuries with unpure lines signals your arrival. From there, one double slide takes you to the lip of a autoboofing 20 fter towards a wall with one eddy between you and the ugly 40 fter known as 99 problems. Although all the lines I've seen off this beast have been smooth, I really don't have any interest in running anything with that kind of risk. Huge piton potential. A tight line. And, too top it off, a line ending in a blown skirt, broken paddle, or injury might well result in blowing the eddy below China and an inadvertent first d of the 80 fter downstream (at least it looks like you'd have a chance of surviving). For those portaging, you still end up running China, a slide right above the 80 fter with a hole that wants to take you to China. It doesn't look too bad, but on day 2 I was nonchalant and plugged, resulting in a huge back loop. I hit an immediate roll and still had to turn the burners on to catch the eddy. Definitely a high stress slide.

From there, a quick lowering of boats on river right brings you to the perfect waterfall. It weighs in there as the world's easiest 45ish ft waterfall, owing to a rolling lip and high angle reconnect just before landing. The downside is that the wide waterfall produces little aeration so hard hits and broken paddles are regular occurrences. Fortunately we had no broken paddles in our 3 laps, but we were all using Werner straight shafts. The AT crew didn't have as good of luck, with a 75% breakage rate. Still, I think next time I run the South Branch I'll probably bring hand paddles.

Below the waterfall you move to river right and catch an eddy on the edge of the world, as the river falls 500 ish ft. over many large waterfalls in the next quarter mile. Truly a breathtaking take out. From there, through the boat on your shoulder for about 30 minutes of grovelling with the mosquitoes giving the motivation to keep moving.

Now, I'm not usually one to just hang out and do the same run multiple times on a boating trip, there's just too many places I've never been, but the South Branch was good enough to warrant this treatment. So after a not so early start, we decided to bang out two laps of high quality waterfalls. We made it, with sore backs and necks and a broken ear drum from the 50 fter. It was a great day, with possibly more high quality paddling than I've ever done in a day, but I'm getting too old to hold up to the pounding of that many waterfalls.

With temperatures getting warmer, time getting limited, and the Kimshew gate still closed, we decided to limit our driving and head over to try to do the Little North Fork. We headed down the hill from the South Branch to discover lowish looking flows, but it was hard to tell with the flood blowout at the confluence. I decided to scale up the gorge a little ways to find the flows looked healthier in the more channelized riverbed. So we were on, and after a few hours of shuttling on decent roads, we made it to the bridge over the LNF. Again, flows looked low but adequate, so we put on planning on a leisurely two days back down to Milsap.

The river started off great. Beautiful water, California sun, and what turned out to be a pretty nice flow. Lots of bedrock class IV filled the first few miles, although the rock was much sharper than the South Branch. Eventually we came to the first gorge, which features a 20 fter with the narrowest of landings. Although runnable, none of us wanted anything to do with it, so we seal launched river right and immediately ferried across for another scout. Dusty was the only one who like the next double drop, although it was certainly much more reasonable than the first.

The Nasty Slot Drop... Tail Between Legs. Photo TJ.

Dustin Double Drop... Flying High. Photo TJ.

Soon after, the walls backed off and we were back into class IV boogie for a while. Probably 3 or 4 miles from the put in, we ran a 10 ft slide before eddying out above a huge horizonline at Jaroslav's Falls, a just slightly off vert 30 fter with a trick lead in and a bad pocket on the right. The problem with the lead in was that it narrowed and banked right before fanning out for the drop, where you wanted to head left to avoid the pocket. Somewhat successful lines were had by all, although I did a few inverted spins in the river left eddy. The rapid immediately following was the one thing we had been warned about in advance. At first glance it doesn't look bad, but closer inspection reveals two poorly placed sieves which have caused near disaster in the past. A small portage/sneak on the left was the easiest way to deal with the sieves.

Over the Lip at Jarislov's. Photo TJ.

Dustin Spawning at Jarislov's. Photo TJ.

Shortly after came a super sweet set of slides before the bed rock took an extended hiatus. I don't remember exact order from there, but there were lots of boulder gardens, ranging from easy to difficult and smooth to jumbled piles of shit. Somewhere we came to a lake, an odd sight on a small steep creek in the feather drainage that got us thinking one thing... landslide. Sure enough, it came, and was so close to being a sweet rapid, but the pinch was just too tight, so a 10 minute portage on landslide scree commenced. At this point, we were beginning to think about camp, both because we wanted to save some for the next day, and because the mank was beginning to wear on us.

Lead in to the slides. Photo TJ.

Last of the Stacked Slides. Photo TJ.

For about a mile below the landslide, we ran and portaged some super jumbled stuff. It was all runnable, but we were at the point where running dangerous stuff just because I can be done wasn't in the cards, so we spent a fair amount of time on the banks. Finally, we came to a more channelized looking horizon line. Tom hopped out for a quick scout and smiled sending the rest of us in. It was sweet. A couple juicy holes followed by a move to the left of a big boulder into a juicy slot boof to finish. Unfortunately, Tom ran the bottom slot backwards, breaking the backband of his Nomad. It just happened that when we pulled over to fix the backband, we were at the best camping site we had seen in miles, so a unanimous decision was made to call it a day.

The next morning we lazed around, hoping for the sun to come warm us up, but it took too long due to the narrow gorge. Once we finally got going, it was quite similar to the end of the previous day, although slightly more channelized and walled in. Everything was runnable, but we walked a few due to ill-placed sieves and severe mank. Nonetheless, the run was still pretty fun and the scenery was great with many sections of cliff walls, although nothing truly gorged in.

Somewhere in there, we ran a rapid that started wide and manky before narrowing and charging left through two juicy holes. The walls tightened up a bit and Tom got out to scout quickly, sending Dustin with limited hand signals besides two drops. Soon thereafter, he sent Christian, which is when things got interesting. After Tom started running towards the bottom of the rapid, I hopped out to see Christian throw and endless assortment of cartwheels and loops for 30 seconds without any semblance of control before swimming deep. Fortunately, this one ended in a large pool so we got most of Christian’s gear back.

After Christian stopped coughing up water and cussing at Tom for bombing him into the hole, Tom had to sack up and run it. Unfortunately, from Christian’s standpoint, Tom had a sweet line with a last second lift to plane over the hole and not get his head wet, which left only me. Since it ended in a pool and wasn’t too dangerous, I just had to give it a try. Unlike Tom, I did not get the last second lift and plopped right into the fold against the wall. I fought it for about 30 seconds with a little more control than Christian, but the same result. Best line of the trip captured on the video: Christian, “Oh I wish that was Tom!” It’ll be coming shortly.

From the swim spot on, we ran a little more of the full on boulder gardens before the bedrock started to appear again in the way of a few sweet slides and boofs. Then, all of the sudden we arrived at the horizon line we’d been waiting for: Final Falls, an slide to 25ish ft waterfall. It looked super soft although it was hard to scout the left for a pocket (it turned out to not be bad), so off we fired. Good lines ranging from huge boofs to silky plugs were had by all, truly beautiful spot as well.

Final Falls, JJ Plugging. Photo TJ.

From the falls we heard we were pretty much done, and we were. About a half mile of class IV returned us to Milsap Bar, and the disappoint that the stash of beer we had left the morning before had been raided. Overall, I would say the trip is certainly worth doing, and the large drops are sweet, although probably not every year as it’s just not as classic as a lot of the other stuff in the area. It’s a tough run, and the less than clean boulder rapids wore on us, but everything is portagable with some effort.

From there, we considered heading to the secret stash or Kimshew, but logistics were uncertain and I needed to be back in Sac the next night to make my flight home. We discussed all kinds of options, but ended up deciding on Upper Middle Cosumnes, only one problem; heavy use had shut down what had become the normal put in. So, rather than divert, we did some work on google maps and figured out a river right put in, although with only one shuttle vehicle, this was certainly a stretch. Fortunately, Christian agreed to run the 10 mile shuttle and the river right road was open far enough for us to get to an easy 4 minute walk to the river.

From the put in, we ran about a mile of progressively larger drops before arriving at a nasty sieved out slide just above the river left put in. After portaging, we ran some really sweet drops and portaged quite a bit of mank as well as the old Tony Hawk’s. It’s a shame that thing is gone, but skate park is still one of the best rapids around, burly and frothy but relatively low consequence. I’ll let the photo’s do the talking on this one.

Dustin Showing How it's Done at UMC on The Wall, Skate Park, and Brace for your Face.
Photos TJ.

Once we arrived at the take out, we decided that since Christian was running, the rest of us might as well get some exercise and hike boats up the hill so that he didn’t have to drive all the way around and come in from river left, as the river right take out road is super burly. It was about 3 miles, although the grade wasn’t too bad. We got a ride for the last half mile, although the whiplash from riding in the pick up probably wasn’t worth the walking we avoided. Eventually everyone finished up the hike, and Christian rolled back in with Tom’s truck calling the end to another great week in California.

Video to come... Someday.

Jim

Reflections from Cali May 2009

2010-06-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

Ed Gaker Dropping a Waterfall on Dinkey Day 1. Photo TJ

Thinking back on this trip swirls my brain through the oddest concoction of emotions of any trip I have ever been on. At first it was great memories for about a week. Then it was all shattered by news from Colorado that changed the flavor of the memories. To tell you the truth, after that initial onslaught, I haven't thought much about it. But now, as I sit on a plane heading back to the Sierra for another round of epic boating, I can't continue to ignore it.

The trip started perfectly. My brother Tom picked me up from the airport in Sac and, after a night in a friends house in Davis, we headed North to meet up with Ed for a three day trip down the Middle Feather from Nelson Point to Lake Oroville, deciding that the water would drop enough from the 1400 cfs we had to allow safe passage through Bald Rock. I had met Ed a few years back on Red Creek up in West Virginia, and had seen him randomly just a few weeks before on the Blackwater where plans to meet up in Cali were hatched. After a long morning and midday of gathering supplies and figuring out shuttle in Oroville, we left Ed's truck near where we thought the illegal hike out point was and made it up to the put in around 3.

It had been too long since I had been on an overnighter, and the Middle Feather is one of the finest out there. Great class IV-V for the first two days down to Milsap Bar were a fantastic warmup for a much spicier trip through Bald Rock. At Milsap, we met up with Kieth, who informed us that the flows had dropped to a still high, yet good, 1200 cfs, so we were on for the finale of the trip. Despite the high flow, we made good progress through fantastic granite boating and scenery to Atom Bomb Falls. Fortunately my internet scouting gave me a good idea of how to do the portage, but the ferry still was a whole lot boilier than any pictures I had seen. We all made it, and sighed a momentary breath of relief, knowing that things were just about to get kicking.

Ed Boofing into the Sunshine on the Portage on Devil's Canyon. Photo TJ

The pace picked up as we continued through granite boulder garden wonderland. Big waves, holes, and seems made for great big water creeking. At the first rapid we couldn't boat scout, we all hopped out for a quick look on the left. After a tricky lead in, a huge curler took the majority of the water to river right and through some exploding holes that we could only kind of see from river left. Tom decided to head across to river right for a better look, while Ed and I were fired up on the rapid. Ed ended up missing the curler and dropping through a nasty slot while I caught the curler as planned, typewritering me into the maw of big holes before being spit into an eddy on river right. Seeing our mixed success, Kieth snuck right early which shot him into the guts with no momentum towards the eddy. He rode it on through, but missed the eddy and dropped right into the meet of a nasty hole in the next rapid. After about a minute of rodeo, Kieth swam and Ed gave chase. I was torn, but decided to wait for Tom who was already in his boat and about to drop into the first rapid.

Tom Janney Blending Into Curtain Falls. Damn White Boat. Photo Keith Kugley

The second Tom made it through, I turned and gave chase to Keith and Ed. Finding Keith shortly downstream, he appeared severely beaten, but gave the okay sign, so I continued after the boat. Fortunately it had eddied out shortly above Curtain Falls. With some rope work we were able to get Keith across the river and down to his boat. He relayed the story of being recirced until he thought the lights were going out in the hole as he caught his breath. It was certainly a close call, and Keith played it safe the rest of day portaging judiciously were possible the rest of the way down.

Ed in the Lull in Three Doors, Huge Holes above and Below. Photo TJ.

We finally made it down to the lake with lots more fantastic boulder gardens. After 3 miles of lake paddling we made it to what we thought was our hike out point, and headed up the hill. We never found a trail (Is there one?), and finally made it up through the poison oak to an old road after about an hour of grunting up the loose dirt in the high 90's heat. After walking on the road for a while, we came to what is the sketchiest compound I have ever passed in my many days of trespassing. A series of connected trailers and airplane hangers comprised the beast, which we scurried by as quickly as possible to avoid detection. Fortunately we made it undetected, as I was sure we would be shot if discovered. Soon, enough we were at the gate and a quick jaunt to Ed's truck, which had obviously been scoped, but thankfully not broken into.

We loaded up and ran shuttle as quickly as possible, which wasn't quick enough. Kieth needed a break from boating, maybe we all did, but I was taking some of my priced vacation time, so a plan was hatched to push South. It was real late by the time we got the truck at the top, and despite wanting to get South for the next adventure, we didn't make it far at all and poached a night's sleep somewhere south of Quincy. Waking the next day, we drove by Love's Falls but couldn't rally the motivation and instead pushed on to a relaxing afternoon run down 49 to Bridgeport on the South Yuba, just what the doctor ordered.

From there, it was decision time. Messages on my cell told of a royal gorge trip starting the next
morning, but we never got phone connection with Dusty and Ryan to set up a plan, so we rallied with Ed South to the South Fork of the Merced. After sleeping in a pull out near the take out we met up with Nick and Oliver and found a raft guide to run our shuttle. The end of the shuttle was pretty entertaining as we were mostly on forest roads before popping out on the golf course in Wawona and finally finding the South Fork of the Merced.

The run was fantastic. It goes well as a two day run for those who don't know it and features lots of good rapids and very little bull shit. There's a great mix of boulder gardens and bed rock in there, and though there are gorges, you never feel locked in. There are no mandatory portages although most will portage a few times. No hike in or hike out and a relatively short shuttle make this run possibly the highest quality overnighter in Cali compared to the logistics. All in all just clean fun.

Ed Blasting out of a Hole on the South Merced. Photo TJ

After getting off, we made some frantic phone calls to try to decide what to do with our last two days in Cali. When we found out Dinkey was around 300, there was only one way to finish the trip... waterfalls. Having just Tom, Ed, and I having no previous waterfalls experience we took care of provisions and made it to the take out at Balch Camp that night, planning to get an early start the next morning.

Finishing the Triple Drop Switch, Resulting in a Good Ride. Photo TJ.

Our early start proved to be a bust as we wasted in trying to figure out a way through river left before retreating to the long way to Ross Crossing on river right. We ended up starting the hike at noon and making it to the river at one. After a short break, we started making slow progress down the 1.5 miles to the normal camping slab. Although the mileage is short, there are a ton of big, sometimes consequential drops during day 1 as well as one time consuming portage. Sitting at camp just chilling next to the good morning slide and looking up at the clean bedrock above is quite the experience.

Better Than Folgers... Photo TJ.

The Perfect 20fter. Photo TJ.

The next day is much longer although perhaps a little less locked in. More great clean drops, some of which are massive, like Nikki's Slide. This has to be up there as one of the best days of kayaking anywhere. Then, once you're tired and beat from running all kinds of sweet bedrock drops, the mank shows up and you run a mile of garbage to the take out, although paddling under the tube is certainly interesting.

Nikki's Slide is Big, Really Big. Photo TJ.

And like that, a week of great Cali kayaking is over. We return to Ross Crossing to grab the vehicle and make a bee line for Sac so I can make my flight back to the real world. After a couple hours in the car, I realize how truly broken my body is. There is no way I could have kayaked another day... what a satisfying feeling at the end of a trip.

The next week was a blur of getting caught up at work, repairs at my new house, and nursing my body back to life. And then it happened. I got a text from Tony, “Did you say the Ed you were boating with in Cali was headed towards Colorado? You need to read BT.” From that, I already knew something was wrong. It was just one of those bad feelings, shortly confirmed through my computer screen. One second he was there and the next he was gone.

I don't care to speculate on the what and the why. All I can hope is that Ed made an informed and commited decision on Sherman Falls. I'm not sure all the safety in the world could have helped given the situation. Sometimes that's just the way it is. You. The river. Everything else is extraneous to the outcome.

Regardless, Ed is and will be missed and remembered.

I talked to Keith shortly thereafter. I think he had heard at that point. He relayed me a story from Bald Rock that I missed. After completing the sketchy Atom Bomb ferry, Ed and Keith had started discussing why we, as class V boaters, put our selves in dangerous situations on a regular basis. The thing that struck Keith is he couldn't come up with a reason. This conversation, coupled with the swim later that day and the news of Ed's passing the following week, has kept Keith off the water since then.

Me, I'm not sure I can answer that question either. There are a lot of cliché answers, but I don't think any of them explains it. I know I feel completely focused and connected when I'm deep in a gorge. I'm not sure what it is. Thing is, the focus is strongest when the strokes are most crucial. Those times when no matter what your buddies do, they can't help. It's not that I like boating things that scare me. And it's not something I seek out every time I go paddling. But sometimes you just feel it. It all makes sense. And then you're in it. Just you. And the river.

Smokies Double Dip

2010-05-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

No time for many photos, just this one of the author finishing Big Tree on UWP.
Photo Kirk Eddlemon from http://gorgedout.blogspot.com/

I'm a little behind... this epic day only happened about 2 months ago.

After a slightly too late night with slightly too much shit talking, 5:30 am came a little too early, followed shortly by Caleb's truck pulling in. We rallied up to the West Prong to get to the first half of the day’s mission started. Leaving a truck at the first walkway above Sugarlands, we headed up to the loop with a nice low-medium 1.3 ish on the gauge. From there on it was classic West Prong in the early morning haze. Just good boofs and steepness.

At the halfway point, we traded out Todd, who had to go to his brother's live in ex-girlfriend's son's birthday party, and Kirk finished the rest of the run with us. The lower went quickly and we were at the take out at a little after 11 with relatively little carnage (normally on a top to bottom West Prong run, there will be some action) and plenty of time for round two. If you have the time and a decent water level, adding the last half of Walker Camp, from the loop to chimneys trailhead, and the mile below Campbell overlook to just above Sugarlands adds a few great rapids and makes for about 7 miles of continuous bolder boofing. Normally, this would be a pretty full day of boating, but not today.

Heading over the mountain on 441, we made a few calls and Bone and Mc'Lovin would round out the crew for round 2. A perfect 11ish inches greeted us for one of the greatest runs on the east coast. After a little bit of sunshine poked through as we were putting on above Lord of the Rings, the drizzle quickly kicked in to slicken up the already polished walls of the Raven Fork. I was nervous putting on, but the first few paddle strokes didn't feel too fatigued and my run was smooth the whole way through. It was sort of odd, but the Raven Fork felt so in control and smooth compared to the non-stop action dished out on the West Prong. The same can't be said for the rest of the boys, as there was certainly some undercut action at Headless and some creek boat rodeo at Jedi, but everything worked itself out and all too soon we were trading stories with Manuel and his buddies.

Fortunately Kirk and I didn't stick around too long, as we were the second to last car back over 441 before the park closed it due to the inches of snow our “drizzle” was dropping at Newfound Gap. After meandering our way through Floridians who ended up in the ditches on the side of the road, we were glad to make it back to K-Town with only a slight delay instead of hours finding a road back to Knoxville not blocked by a landslide. It was good to know that after a winter of bringing myself back into the swing of things from a torn MCL suffered in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, I could again push myself pretty hard out there, although next time I plan to actually back up the shit talking by following up a top to bottom West Prong, instead of putting in at Lord of the Rings, by hiking over the mountain.

Keep pushing...

Jim

Knoxville Low Water Staples

2010-04-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

Every year as the water of the spring time starts to run dry, we find ourselves returning to our staples in the sunshine and warm weather. Around Knoxville, we have three rivers which tend to hold water a little better than the rest: the Big South Fork of the Cumberland, the Little River, and the Tellico River. Fortunately for us, all happen to be beautiful and hold some satisfying whitewater, while being within close distance from town. Enough with the writing, here are some photos that should explain it better than I could ever hope to...

Karl Whipp from high up above. Photo JJ

Tom Rannells dwarfed by BSF canyon cliffs. Photo JJ

BSF Scale. Photo JJ

Smokin' Steve starting the day off right on the Little. Photo JJ.

Steve aka Charley groovin into silver diner. Photo JJ

Karl Whipp cleaning up eddy out. Photo JJ.

Tunnel in its pre-log state. Now much sketchier due to new wood. Photo JJ

The defining stroke of the Tellico. Photo JJ

Or plug if you prefer, like Jonathon Markham. Photo JJ

Smokin' Steve through the trees. Photo JJ

Springtime in the gorge below Bounce Off Boulder. Photo JJ

Spring Break Cali Style Part 2

2010-04-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

After park and hucking indian creek we departed on the long journey south to the Kaweah, only Matt had been there before so we were all excited to get on some new runs and enjoy the warmer temps down south.

Peter showing us how to beat up the beat while Brain and Christian shotgun some beers at a pullout overlooking lake oroville

We didn't end getting down to the Kaweah until late that night due to stoping at the In-and-Out (greatest fast food ever) and taking way to long to shop for supplies at the grocery store. When we got up it was apparent that Peter had a serious case of poison oak from feather country. So as he went into town to find a doctor the rest of us decided that Christian and I would go a check out hospital rock while Brian and Matt would do the park boundary run.

This is after a day of drugs and his face was still swollen the first day his eye was almost swollen shut.

Me and Christian had a great hospital rock run, getting to the takeout in a few hours and grinning from ear to ear, we waited for Matt to come and meet us for a second lap as Brian sat out do to a swim on the lower run. Once you know the run you can bomb it pretty quickly, and get lots of laps in, how much fun can you take?

We start puting in right above little niagara the first few days not realizing we could get another sweet drop right upstream. Little niagara is a sick drop with a squirly entrance that I missed up the first time and ended up rolling up at the lip and going super deep, I rolled up at the bottom glad to not be in the cave. After that i gave this drop way more focus and had fun lines every other time.

Me stomping little niagara

Christian boofing

After a few more fun slides there is a sick triple drop that offers a ton of different entry lines, i liked boofing the center and driving up over the huge boil, the second drop is just a small hole and the third drop a sweet little boof.

Christian dropping into the first ledge of a triple drop just downstream of the getin

And boofing the final ledge of the triple set

After some more sick read and run fun, you come to the 420 gorge that is worth a scout, the entrance to the gorge is a sick boulder garden affair with two stellar boofs. The crux of the short gorge is a drop in the middle that wants to push you into a pocket on the river right so a strong boof with downstream angle is ideal.

Peter about to find the deep water, he got pushed into the pocket but kept his shit together and made it out.

Christ-Ian showing the ideal line

Some more fun rapids lead lo a tight pinch drop that looks ugly but goes great, our first time down Christian routed me into in and boy was it an exciting ride.

Ginger Matt trying to wash the freckles off

N. Abrams bracing his way through the bottom

That drop leads into a short gorge with a fun 10-15 foot drop that was the sitye of a scary swim in our group when one of our party almost swam the drop but Christ-Ian used the grab that bitch technique to perfection to get Matt out of the water at the last second. Pretty soon your at one of the best boofs on the run, a straight 8-10 footer that is too much fun.

Matt about to air it out

After this there is a shitty dam drop and then you are at zero to sixty, the biggest drop on the normal hospital rock run. I had been walking it until nathan showed me how smooth the line was and it goes a lot better than it looks, but has a easy walk on the left.

Nathan showing us how it is done

Nick getting a good stroke in coming over the main drop

Me holding the left angle after plugging, glad to not be in the cave as Christian looks on

Over the next several days we stayed around hospital rock doing laps until out friends Nick Abrams and Nathan Hunkapiller showed up and Peter, brian and Matt had to take off due to other plans. We then decided to do the east fork of the Kaweah run since we had a great guide in Nathan to show us the lines, this run would take a long time to do without a guide, it took us hours with a great guide. I was a bit nervous going into the east fork not knowing what to expect but knowing it was locked in, but once getting in there most of the drops are tight bouldery affairs with some mank in between to keep us colorado boys happy. There were a few portages that having nathan along helped out a lot on, including the triple drop portage that nathan actually ran but helped us portage. I was close to running it but psyched myself out after looking at the lip for to long but as always the drop will be there another day.

Nathan Firing

After triple drop there was some more mank thrown in until we came to another portage that we ate lunch at the bottom of excited as nathan said we were getting to some fun ones.

A purty meadow during the portage, me being allergic to bees I was glad that it was early in the year and they weren't to many around

Nathan was right after lunch things started picking up with many fun drops and cool min gorges with every kind of drop imaginable from falls to sildes and even some boulder drops thrown in.

Christian on a fun one below lunch

Nathan said this is a fun one to just not look at lets just bomb and we did

Overall I thought the east Kaweah was a sick run with a lot of sweet drops and some good adventure thrown in , but I would not call it as classic as hospital rock because it have too much mank and bullshit thrown in. Some of that might be due to the fact that we had a med-low level (800 at 3 rivers), I would like to see it with more water which would make triple drop marginal at best and make some sticky holes in there but the mank would be reduced.

Happy to have completed the east fork we chilled out that evening in 3 rivers and had a feast at a local watering hole. We decided the do the upper hospital rock run the next day as our last run before heading back to CO (Me, Nathan, and nick had done the run on a day when christian was hungover). The upper part is a bit harder than the lower but just as classic and you get Chucks slide.

Nick finishing off the fun put-in drop

This upper section doesn't add much mileage but the section takes a while due to scouting more frequently, pretty soon after some in between boogie you come to a massive horizon line, get out and look at chuck kern's slide. Nick and Nathan ran it our first lap and I was itching to give it a go, it was sunny, warm and our last day in cali so we all fired it up.

Christian on line as usual

Me thinking "I wanna go fast"

Nick run #1 riding it out switch

Nick on run #2

Nathan, the calm before the storm

We were all fired up to have run such a beast of a rapid, I can't imagine running this thing in the boats they used in chucks day. After chucks drop there are a few in between rapids before your ate the china slide, nathan called it that because it takes you to china.

Christian dropping in

Nick plugging

After the china slide there is a few ledges, one of which dished out a minute and a half beat down to Christian and then recirced him twice out of his boat before he swam out of it. After we got all his stuff back minus an elbow pad, we continued down to a portage around a huge boulder sieve that used to have water flowing around it but the ever chancing riverbed changed again, stay on you toes out there. Next up was the V-slide a fun 20 foot wierd slding thing that all flushes at the bottom, after that your at the top of little niagara.

Nick on V-slide

Now to the most important part of the post, booty beers. Everyone swam on the trip except me and Nathan.

Matt swim on hospital rock, not sure which is dirtier the shoe or matt?

Nick little niagara

Christian hospital rock

Peter on giant gap and me taking mine from the Raven fork in North Carolina

Brian on the park boundary run

Thanks to Nathan and Nick for showing us the lines and for Brian, Peter, Christian and Matt for putting up with me, Cali is so good I can't wait until I go back.

Here is a Video nathan put together: http://vimeo.com/10602169

Spring Break Cali Style

2010-04-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

For the Last 2 years I have made California my spring break destination with other members of the CU kayak club, and this year was no different except for the fact that I am not a student and that I had to get time off work to go. This year I was joined by Christian (Christ-Ian as all the freshman ladies know him), Peter, Brian and Ginger Matt fresh off his win at NCAA for nordic skiing.
We started off with two days on the Giant gap section of the north American river, this stretch is ultra classic with amazing scenery and good 4+ whitewater. I didn't get any shots of the river because we didn't have to get out our boats.

We all jumped off this cliff at the putin to giant gap nothing like the feezing water to wake you up after the 1.5 mile hike to the river

Next up we rallied up to oroville to get supplies for a devil's canyon trip on the middle feather river, Christian and i decided we were going to have ribs for our night on the river while peter and Brian went for fajitas. This river is perfect to indulge in the luxuries because there is no hike in and no portages longer than 5 minutes. We didn't end up heading down to milsap bar (the get out) until 11pm and we planned on running shuttle that night. Well it ended up that on the way back out we needed gas and the only credit card we had got canceled when the wrong zip code was entered and no one had a cell phone to use because we left all our shit at the take out. So Ginger Matt was off to try and find a phone, eventually getting a night manager at a holiday in to let him use theirs , I guess the guy wasn't afraid of catching gingervitis. We ended up getting to the putin at about 4:30 am looking to get an early start for our 2 day trip.

We awoke at the early hour of 10:30 ate breakfast packed our shit (took some time with it being Brian and Peter's first overnighter) and we were off by 12. We paddled through the day getting through franklin canyon and found a camp at an old miner claim= shit everywhere. The first day has some good rapids but it was cold and we were trying to go fast so no pics except a bear on the paddle in shot from my kayak.

Christian and Brian Feasting

We woke early the next morning knowing we had a good 6+ hours of paddling to get to the takeout.

Sunrise over our camp

The Second day was awesome just so many rapids, Christian and I have done the devil's canyon so we were able to just bomb away I think we only scouted 4 or so time on the second day. This was a big test for Brian and Peter, and they ran and were able to get directions on way more rapids than I thought they would be able to, way to step it up guys.

Peter on an intimidating one that all flushes out at the bottom

We had lunch at this fun rapid (called eat the meat); me, christian and matt ran it, loads of fun.

Christian firing

The Ginger throwing ends in the hole, he eventually got out after we all had a good laugh at his expense

We made great time and we were down in the devil's canyon by early afternoon, most of the canyon is just good fun 4-4+ but there are 3 bigger drops in there that you want to look out for, the first 2 are portagable but you have to run the bottom of helicopter. Me and Christian ran the drop above "the portage" while the others made a quick portage.

Christian coming through the crux and getting left of the big hole.

Next up was "the portage", which me and Christian had been talking about running for weeks leading up to the trip, we took a good long look at it but only Christian stepped up to give it. He made it through the top part OK but halfway through (the crux drop) he got stuffed in a hole for a while, but was able to work his way out and finish the rapid off, a huge drop for sure.

Next up was helicopter which looks worse than it is an is basically just a big flush, everyone had great lines but the best was had by Christian and Brian who ran it VERY close to each other.

Brian and Christian blue angle, I was laughing my ass of at this point

It was a quick paddle to the takeout, where we were glad to see no cars were broken into and all enjoyed a beer while we looked at the low level on the South Branch. We rallied the shuttle that night and ended up camping up at the putin, deciding to take a slow day on indian creek falls park and huck and spend some time driving down to the kaweah (about a 7 hour drive).

Christian, Matt and Brian hucking their meat

Peter with a sick paddle guitar

Me about to practice my handle roll

Coming up....The Kaweah
-Tom

2010 Large Burn Review

2010-04-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

So far, I’ve taken the boat down the Tellico Ledges @ 1.7 , Little (Metcalf to Y) @ 2.7, Linville from Cabin to Conley @ 2.0, and Upper West Prong @1.55. My most recent frequent creek boat was a gus with significant time in a Jefe, Everest, and a little time in and old L burn. I'm 6' with super long legs and weigh in at 180ish. The boat is about the perfect size for me, although I had to add a little foam to the seat to deal with the high cockpit / short torso combination. I don’t think I would want to paddle the large if I weighed much less, but you could certainly be quite a bit heavier and I’m sure it would perform well. I would say it definitely felt bigger than the old L burn while still feeling substantially smaller than the Everest.

Curtis Elwood boofing in the 2010 Burn L on the Tellico. Photo: JJ

At first, I had some serious trouble adjusting to the boat. I was used to the tracking of the gus, which meant a small correction stroke in the gus was resulting in a huge turn in the burn. However, by the end of the first day, I had adjusted to the snappy feeling and was making super tight moves with relatively little effort. I think this is probably the snappiest creek boat I've paddled. Just super reactive to slight edging and small strokes. I'm excited to get more and more used to it.

As far as speed, I would say it is slower than the everest or the gus, but significantly faster than the Jefe.

Even though Linville was pretty low, there were a few good holes to plug out there. It punched them extremely well and resurfaced in great control. I think the smooth and in control resurfacing of the boat is one its greatest features.

Getting back right at Wheelie to avoid the pocket hole. Photo: Tony Robinson.

As for boofing, I thought it was great. It's gonna take some getting used to for me, as I'm not a good rock boofer, and that's a lot of what we have in the SE, so adjusting to the planing hull on the rocks will take a little effort, mainly in being aggressive with the edge
switching. Water boofing was great, and the plane out upon landing was super smooth (not the mush of the kick rocker of the Jefe). One thing about the plane out is that if you’re running super continuous water (like UWP), you’ll be getting to the next drop faster than expected, but that’s just something I need to get used to.

I can’t say much about rolling, other than the one time I’ve flipped in it so far, I rolled back up in a rowdy and crucial section of the West Prong.

I think my only complaints hinge around the outfitting. The hip pads will not allow someone with skinny hips, such as me, to add enough padding to get tight in the boat, so some customization was necessary there. Also, I had to do make some minor changes to the seat and thigh hooks to increase stiffness, but I’m one of those people who really likes to feel locked in, so I would guess most people won’t need to do anything in those regards.

So far, I’m loving the boat and can’t wait to get more and more familiar with it.

Jim

Team Pyranha

And just for good measure a little Linville Eye Candy:

Steve Krajewski at Babel Tower. Photo: JJ.

Steve not getting right at Wheelie. Photo: JJ

Tony Robinson at Jailhouse. Photo: JJ.

Cave Falls Boof. Photo: JJ.

Sorry, I broke my lens mount seal launching below Cave, so no cathedral gorge photos.

The Best Run in the Smokies that Never Gets Done

2010-04-02T12:34:00.001-07:00

When I first moved to Knoxville, two years ago, the middle prong of the little pigeon above the trailhead (commonly referred to as hike up Ramsey) intrigued me as much as any of my soon to be back yard runs. A brief write up on AW described one of the highest quality runs in the Smokies with the best boof in the Smokies. Yet, I never heard of anyone doing this run regularly.

So I had to check it out. After pulling into Knoxville late on a Friday night and starting Saturday off with a quick run down the Big South Fork, I decided to go check out hike up Ramsey for myself. Now, it's always difficult to tell exactly what a run will be like when seeing it with no water, but what I saw looked like the best bolder gardens I'd ever seen. Suffice it to say, I knew I would be coming back to confirm my suspicions.

Unfortunately, I moved to Knoxville in the middle of the drought, and it would be over a year until I got to see how good hike up Ramsey really was. After a midday thunderstorm last July, we rallied a group to hit the West Prong after work. The first sign of high water was having to take an alternate route to the Smokies due to the normal route being underwater. After some detouring, we arrived to find the West Prong at 2', higher than we felt like dealing with that day. So after a short debate about the Road Prong level, we headed over to Ramsey.

After a quick hike up, we sped down the first hundred yards of boogie water. Howard and Caleb were parked in a eddy on the left, so I followed Tony down the first fifteen foot ramp, then boofed left over the nasty little ledge hole, before turning right and off a huge ramping boof. While this might not be the best boof in the Smokies as claimed on AW(it's hard to make this claim when caveman is just over the mountain in NC), you will definitely have the permagrin on after this one.

Hitting the first boof just after sun up. Photo: Tom Janney

From there on, it stays high quality and high intensity all the way down to the takeout. Think West Prong, except steeper, more channelized, and more unique rapids. The run is boat scoutable the whole way down, but be careful for the sieve rapid, which fortunately has a great sneak down a slide river left. Basically, for those one and a half miles, hike up Ramsey offers the highest quality class V bolder gardens in the Smokies.

One of the mellower stretches, but still oh so good. Photo: Tom Janney.

Boofing the entrance to a rowdy double drop. Photo: Tom Janney

Finishing over the big hole at the island drop. Photo: Tom Janney.

All photos are from a return trip in January I made with my brother. After a week of boating some of the best stuff in the SE, including Horsepasture, Linville, West Prong, Henderson, and Raven Fork, we made it up there for a dawn patrol mission just before Tom had to return to Colorado. The gage at hwy 321 read 3.25 ft. that morning, while my other runs have been at 2.75 ft. and 3 ft., although the 3 ft. level was the highest on Ramsey due to Porter’s Creek lack of contribution. When we finished, Tom agreed that hike up Ramsey holds some of the best super steep bolder rapids around, and added that it may have been the hardest run he'd done all week. So be careful up there, it's spicy...