Southern Sierra Outdoors

A New Generation: Part III: Big Pine Lakes

2011-12-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

By now, we had the High Sierra bug. After Cottonwood Lakes we were already looking forward to getting Maggie out on her first multi-day camping trip. We ended up getting a few days mid-week to sneak away and we decided to hit up the Big Pine Lakes area.

With another great 5-6 mile hike into the first couple of lakes and several lakes to venture to past those, this was a great place to spend a few days. You also get to pass an old cabin that used to be owned by Charleton Heston (now the USFS) and a very lush area of Aspen and flowers (that were in full bloom during our hike).

This area was a bit more traveled than Cottonwood lakes and we had more than a few interactions with curious hikers who found our party amusing. After a little poking around, we found a great little spot for our camp and settled in.

Every day with the little one is a learning experience for all of us. On our first car camping trip to Ladybug in Sequoia National Park, I set Maggie down on our bags while I took the tent down. A few second later I heard a little scream and turned around to find that she had rolled off the bags into a pile of leaves. I quickly brushed the leaves out of her mouth and made her promise not to tell her mother - now I am more creative when finding places to stick her while I have to do stuff...

Everyone seemed pretty happy with camp...

The next day we spent the morning checking out the area between the first two lakes - clearly an old mining area with lots of interesting artifacts as well as a cascade between the two lakes.

After a bit, we set off to check out the other lakes. We found a spot for camp at lake #5 and then set out adventuring for the day.

Along with amazing vistas, we saw the biggest tad pols I have ever seen in my life, their bodies were the size of ping pong balls!

After we had about enough, we headed back to camp for some leisure time.

It seems like you can't go wrong in the Eastern Sierra, but Big Pine was a big hit with us. Great camping and lots of little side adventures, many of which we were not able to get to. The next morning we loaded up and headed back to the car, very thankful that Maggie is happiest when she is out and about.

Of Course Sherman was very happy too...

A New Generation Part II: Cottonwood Lakes

2011-12-11T12:48:00.001-08:00

After a successful camping trip into Manter Meadow, we decided that Maggie needed her first High Sierra Trip. Again, easy access was important since we were not sure how well she would handle altitude, but we had an added complication this time around. After we lost Copper and Lucy, the house seemed too quiet - yes, even with a newborn. So, after some discussion of whether it was a smart thing to do or not (and it probably wasn't), I decided to add another family member - Sherman.

A great option seemed to be Cottonwood Lakes, about a 5-6 mile hike in that is dog friendly. We knew that Maggie enjoyed hiking, but had no idea how Sherman would feel about the whole thing, much less 6 miles at around 10,000 ft. We couldn't have been more pleased about his hiking ability and behavior, his Marmot Poop eating and bed hogging behavior on the other hand needs some work...

Cottonwood Lakes are spectacular, especially when you have them all to yourselves as we did. While the bugs were bad in the trees, we were able to avoid them by camping on an exposed knoll.

I'm not sure we could have picked a better place for her introduction to the High Sierra - with a view of Langley out of our tent and the clear Sierra night sky it was perfect

For those who would contemplate bringing a newborn to this altitude, there are some issues. The low pressure caused the breast milk to come out like a jet, which resulted in some feeding issues. If you already have supplemented with bottle feeding that might be a better way to go. Of course, I'm not a doctor (well I am, but not the right kind), so talk to your physician to figure out what is best for you.

We were sad to go, we would have loved to have stayed up there longer; but it was time to go and we will certainly be back with Maggie next year.

A New Generation Part I: Manter Meadow

2011-12-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

It has been a little while since we posted here. For those who know us, we welcomed Maggie Merced Giddens into the world on June 3rd. She came into the world happy, health and very alert. From the day we got her home it was evident that she was happy when she was on the move - I guess all that time in Rebecca's belly while adventuring seemed to carry through into her personality. So move is what we did...

After a little adjustment time (both for Maggie and Rebecca) we decided that everyone was ready for her first camping trip. We figured something manageable like Manter Meadow would be a good start. A pleasant 3-4 mile hike into a wonderful meadow in the middle of the Domeland Widerness. This seemed like a good place to start for a few reasons; first, it was a short hike so we could get out quickly if we needed, and second, there is a spring so that we didn't have to carry water along with all the extra baby stuff that now was added to our kit.

She loved the hike, looking all around at the great wide world - at least until she had enough and fell asleep. At camp she was a trooper, mostly sleeping and eating, but always up for some sort of adventure when those two things were not going on.

We met our friends Dave and Alison (and Charlie) later that afternoon and it was nice to share her first camping trip trip with them.

It wasn't the best night of sleep under the stars, but I have had worse. Certainly it was exciting to be out there with a new baby girl with a whole world full of adventures ahead of her...

A little break...

2011-10-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since we have posted here - we are still doing fun stuff, but little Maggie is taking up most of our free time, and I mean that in a good way. Here is a little video that Spencer Josif did of our Upper Cherry Creek trip this year. As always it was an amazing experience...

Upper Cherry Creek from Spencer Josif on Vimeo.

Uppers

2011-07-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

With all of the high water in the Southern Sierra this year, it has been a little more of a challenge finding steep, low volume runs. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been fortunate enough to get two high quality runs that are new to me; the Upper South Fork of the Kaweah and the Upper Tule (aka the South Fork of the Middle Fork, aka the Nelson Branch). If you are looking for water falls, these runs are a good place to start; they also have some pretty unique scenery and will certainly be put on my "to do" list every spring.

Upper South Fork of the Kaweah

I had heard about this run from a couple of people, and it wasn't exactly a glowing report. Yeah, there was a nice 20 footer in there, but people were not exactly lining up for this stretch. Part of the problem, I believe, was the access points; if you use the public access at the bridge near the park boundary and the road bridge that is the put-in for The Shatner Ranch stretch, I think there are a fair number of portages and it would probably make this a long day. If, however, you ask some land owners nicely, you may be able to put in about a mile below the park boundary bridge and take out at the first foot bridge, which leaves you exactly zero portages and a very enjoyable run.

The night before we had ran into the Italian Hammer Crew; they had just gotten off the Shatner run and were excited to find something with a little more classic California bedrock. They had briefly looked at the upper run but the water seemed high for a run they didn't know anything about and they elected not to go in. While I had no idea what the Upper run would be like, I was pretty sure there would be at least one good drop, and the weather had cooled significantly and the river was dropping so they were stoked to join up. In the end, the level was 1.6 on the SF gauge, which I would call a perfect medium level.

Along with the Kernville Crew, Austin, Spencer, Evan and Johnny, it was going to be a big group, but it ended up working out well in the end. Austin had some beta that we should approach some land owners below the 20 footer for permission to take out; they were super kind and had absolutely no problem with it. In fact, they were very interested in our trip. We also found a put in with a slightly worn trail in the grass (probably from the previous couple of groups that had boated the run this year) which put us in about a mile below the "normal" put-in. You know you are in the right spot if the first drop you see is the one pictured below; not very big, but a meaty hole with a big boil on the left side.

Hammer Crew Party Drop #1: Gio

Waiting for the shuttle, we stared at the hole long enough for it to start growing. It was getting to the point where putting in below it seemed like the right thing to do, but once the shuttle arrived, Daniel (Hammer-Crew lead boat) and I hurried up and got in to do it. After a little odd-even match, I ended up probing. It went well, and everyone that followed suite made it through without too much excitement.

What followed next was a long stretch of read and run class IV with one significant class V drop (to my recollection) which was fairly soon off the bat. There was a technical lead-in to a two stage drop with a potentially uncomfortable run-out if the first drop got the bet of you. Daniel fired it up first and made it look good, so the rest of us followed. This time there was some significant action with Spencer and Evan executing quick rolls on the lip of the second drop. Gigi's (Hammer-Crew member) action is shown below

Hammer Time!

About a mile or less above the big drop (which you can see from the road), you start to enter a granite section. Above this I would say the characteristic is much like the North Fork of the Kaweah with boulder problems being the main characteristic. Once you enter this gorge it feels much more like the East Fork, granite slides and large house-sized boulders dominating.

Evan exiting the first rapid of the Granite Gorge

The first rapid in this gorge is probably the most difficult one on the river; a multi-drop affair with a giant boulder splitting the flow before a chunky 10 foot ledge. The ledge is hard to scout from the top of the drop, so you can either run part way through and eddy out right above the ledge or just trust that the right side goes (albeit bumpy). Under no circumstances should you probe the far left side. Just saying.

Spencer in the Slide section

Just below this drop are a series of three fun slides. I didn't get pictures of the first two, but again, think bottom half of the East Fork

Gigi loves getting pics in my blog!

Evan bracing through the final slide

Austin Charging

There are a couple of more boulder drops before the highlight of the run, the 20 footer.

Spencer - check out the Monkey flower in the background...

The lead in is somewhat complicated, so make sure you pay attention before you get too excited for the falls. Also the eddy on the right has a very green water landing (at least at our flows), so a super boof right would not be recommended. It looks like it really wants to launch you off the lip, but after running it, I would say that is deceiving. Go ahead and try and boof back to the center. The face plant works, but feels a little silly (I speak from experience)

Austin on South Fork Falls

Another cool thing about this drop is the giant house overlooking it; they were very interested to see us running it and were taking photos from their porch. This drop is definitely classic Kaweah, and even if the rest of the run were marginal, it would almost make it worth it. As it is, the rest of the run is just fine on its own and this is simply the icing on top.

Team Kernville Hammer Crew (Johnny, Evan, Spencer and Gio)

All in all I would say this is a good class V run for when most creeks in the area are too high. The Kaweah was running in the 2100-2500 range, but the South Fork gauge is obviously preferable. I would go in there up to 1.8 without hesitation, but around 2 I think the read and run would get juicy. It could be run lower too, but I am guessing that below 1.4 the slides and falls would still be good but the rest would not be nearly as much fun.

Here is a video edit from Austin Nickell

Upper South Fork Kaweah, Class V from Austin Nickell on Vimeo.

Upper Middle Fork of the Tule: The Nelson Branch

The next week we rallied the Kernville Crew again, this time with the addition of Andrew. The target was the section above the Middle Tule, which is a great run on its own merit. The Tule drains a much lower area of the Sierra than the Kern to its South (and East) and the Kaweah to its North. Due to this, the river had run out of snowpack and the levels were dropping quickly. The Tule at Springville was about 220 cfs the day we ran this section and the gauge on the Nelson Branch (if you walk up the flume to where it diverts from the river was 0.40

This run has some classic big drops in the 10-30 ft range, but be prepared for a long day. We put in at a trail-head 1.5 miles up from the confluence with the Wishon Branch (which is the takeout) and it took us over 4 hours to complete the section; granted we removed a log and took a bunch of photos, but still...

Andrew Drops in

Apparently there is another put-in a little farther upstream that adds a few more drops - but if you put-in at this point the action starts of pretty much right away with the tallest drop of the run, a solid 3o footer (after a short brush portage).

Johnny Dropping in - Evan in the pool below for perspective

WARNING - there is a rock in the center landing of the pool, so DO NOT roll off the center. I had heard rumor of this so I probed the standard right line which involves trying your best not to reconnect hard with the ramping rock at the bottom. Here's a hint, try to get a little of right to left early on the lip so you don't launch off the right side early; this keeps the bow down and creates more of a glancing blow...

Evan's turn

Austin

I guess I was surprised to see everyone charge this drop, but enthusiasm was high, which was a great way to start the run.

As cool as the 30 footer was, I thought the run-out of the pool was a really unique drop. It consisted of a short slide into a solid rock corner. You pretty much just had to paddle into the pillow and ride it out...

The next half mile or so had a bunch of fun drops, starting with a fun 12 footer

Evan Stomps the 12'er

Then a long, narrow section followed by another three-tier drop with some creative line potential

Johnny in Sliding off the porch

This is soon followed by another signature double drop

Austin in #1

Spencer in #2

For some reason the Tule has had it out for me this year; I had another flounder moment at he bottom of the second drop where I ended up surfing. Yep, surfing a waterfall. After a little bit of thrashing around I was able to get out, but if it wasn't me, I would have thought it looked pretty funny...

After this, the character of the river degrades somewhat and there are several portages before you get to the end of the run. Many of them look runnable, just not pleasant. There are a couple of cool drops though; one of them slides around a corner and under an overhang.

Andrew in Monkey-Fu

And another nice banking slide

Spencer putting money in the bank

Here is another edit from Austin on this run...

South Fork of the Middle Tule, Class V from Austin Nickell on Vimeo.

Once again, another great day on my second new run in as many weeks. Gotta love living in the Sierra with a new adventure around every corner!

Ocoee Copper: 1996-2011

2011-07-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year we lost our Basset Hound Lucy after 15 wonderful years; Her brother and best friend (at least with four legs) Copper was left as the only dog in the family as we waited for the birth of our first child. As sad as Copper was to not have Lucy around any more, I do think he enjoyed the extra attention.

But try as you might, you can't stop time and 15 years is a long time for a Basset. But what a fantastic 15 years they were.

Copper and Lucy were doomed from the time we took them home. They were not going to get the standard Basset Life of leisure. Nope, they were tortured from the start. I remember one day, not long after we got them, we were at a race in Tennessee; we had discovered how cute it was when they tripped on their ears. So, of course, the first thing we did was take them to the top of a giant grassy hill and run down with them over and over - they would step on their ears and then tumble the rest of the way down.

From then on, they pretty much went wherever we did, and we were often shocked at the places they could go...

The way it worked most of the time was that Lucy was the brains of the outfit and Copper was the brawn. This was evident the first time we discovered hide-and-seek. We were at the Perception house at the Ocoee when we realized that they would naturally track us by our scent on hikes. We went out behind the house in the woods and one of us would run through the woods while the other held them back then let them loose. What ensued was the classic hunting howl followed by flapping ears and sniffing noses. Lucy was far better at figuring out when we looped back over our scent, but when it came to crossing a log or a creek, Copper was the first across.

And so it went on for years, each of them with their very distinct personalities, but always a great team.

It was always funny when people would adventure with them for the first time. At first they would have these apprehensions that these silly looking dogs would get stuck or have to turn back. Then there would be shock and amazement (and a fair bit if laughter) as they witnessed their determination and surprising stamina. Finally there would be respect for these little dogs and their great, big hearts.

One time, in particular, I remember hiking to the top of Olancha with them, a peak at over 12,000 ft elevation. As we got close to the top the boulder piles were getting bigger and bigger and a storm started getting close. It was clear that we were not going to be able to make it in time if we had to lift them up over each boulder, but they had no intention of being left behind. So we did the only thing we could think of, we tied them together with a pair of rain pants and poncho and then put a rock on them so that we could summit quickly before the storm.

Of course it wasn't always go-time; they had plenty of relaxing Basset time. It was always funny how copper used to like to take breaks in flower patches - we just assumed he was posing for pictures...

He was also the nap-time snuggler extraordinaire; great for sick days (or hangovers).

If he couldn't snuggle with you, he would find Lucy and pile on top of her...

As far as he was concerned, any attention was good attention, even if it meant having his mom dress him up in funny outfits or put peanut butter on the roof of his mouth...

We always made fun of Copper because he was a bit of a sissy, especially compared to his sister who was amazingly tough. It was pretty much the end of the world if he had sap in his paws or if nobody would let him up on the couch. Of course he had that look that would just melt your heart...

But when it came down to it, he was as brave as they come. No fear of heights and certainly no intention of not being there at the end of the adventure...

And in the end, they don't come with hearts any bigger than these two dogs.

They were the first members of our family and taught us so much about love. It was very special to us that Copper stuck around long enough to meet Maggie.

They will be missed always, but we were so lucky to have them and I would like to think they were lucky to have us.

So now our lives have forever changed, we no longer hear their paws on the hardwood floor or their bark at the door to be let in. We no longer have their stinky smells or their warm kisses. The last of the Wild Sierra Bassets are gone.

What we do have is a wonderful baby girl a basset lifetime full of memories. We will tell her about you often.

Thank you so much for your time here and your love. You opened our hearts and created a family for Rebecca and I to share, and for that, and so much more, you will always be remembered.

West Side/East Side

2011-05-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

One of the difficult parts about spring in the Sierra is figuring out where you are going to spend your time. Over a few day period in May, we got the bets of both worlds; a couple of kayak runs on the Tule river near Springville on the West Side and a couple of back country trips near Rock Creek on the East Side. Ahhh Spring...

The Middle Fork of the Tule is a great section of river nearby; unfortunately between the Kern to the South and the Kaweah to the North, it rarely gets run. It is a shame really, it is a great combination of technical rapids and smooth granite.

Marc in the Stairway Slide

I was able to get in it a couple of times with different groups in May around 360-380 cfs - a nice medium plus level. The first trip we made it through relatively unscathed (a rarity for the Tule). On the second trip we had a more standard Tule-ing...

I keep saying that I am going to do a little guide write-up for this run. Look for it soon!

One of the coolest drops on the run (and there are many) is Wall Street; a nice busy slide with an intimidating penalty box on the left side. At lower levels it is pretty straight forward, but at higher flows the barrel roll flake comes into play

Fred's Wallstreet Tombstone

Dave Barrel rolling into the penalty box

One of the good parts about holding the camera is that your carnage almost never makes it onto the internet. But for those that think I always stick my line I want to set the record straight. On my second trip I had a nice barrel-roll to one-handed-paddle-missed-roll to carp-off-the-wall-missed-roll to penalty-box-flail-slow-motion-roll. Andrew has part of it on video, but made the rookie mistake of stopping the film. Oh well, if it isn't here, then I guess it never happened....

Marc Sneaks the Beast with two Backs

Andrew looking for the boil line

One of the unique parts about the Tule is that as the water goes up and down, some rapids get easier and some get harder - there always seems to be a trade-off. At lower water Wall Street, Graffiti Slide and the "worst boof" in California get better, but other drops like the Swim Rapid, and some of the other in-between stuff gets harder. Luckily during this trip we had enough water to make the Swim Rapid pretty tolerable.

Will entering the Swim Rapid

One rapid that definitely benefits from more water is the last one above the Graffiti Slide. A nice 10 ft ledge followed by a sweet green wave boof over a pour-over. Heavenly...

Cody Upright

While the run is only about 2 miles, it is action packed, so keep on your toes. Fred got surprised by one of in-between ones and broached. Luckily the current flushed him through after a couple of seconds, but the force of the water wrenched him out of the boat and tweaked his knee pretty bad. It would not call it a very difficult run, but for whatever reason, the continuous nature always seems to create some sort of carnage - be careful out there!

Dave's Curls

Will in Graffiti Slide

Dave exiting the Tule

After trying out the liquid form of spring, we decided to try out the solid form and headed to the East Side to stay with the Martyrs in Sunny Slopes. Marc Vernon found us a nice adventure up Escha Peak and Dave, Allison, Rebecca, Marc, Mike, Doogie and Jasper rallied!

Endless Energy dogs

Starting the climb

A spectacular day on in the Sierra

The first steep part

As you may have noticed, Rebecca was pretty pregnant by now. 8 1/2 months to be exact. We were kind-of hoping she would go into labor and we would name her Escha - no such luck

We did have the good sense for her not to ski the main peak, so she waited for us at a viewing area about half-way up. A great spot at 9,000 ft!

We all really wanted to get to the peak so we could see out to the crest, but the time of day (and our lack of ability to ski down what we wanted to climb) interfered.

Ali getting ready for the final climb

As we neared the top is was somewhat humorous as we all got to a point where we were to0 nervous to ski up any farther and too nervous to turn around and ski down. I distinctly remember sitting in one place for about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to tackle this quandary; after a while I looked around and noticed that nobody else (except Marc) had moved during that time either. Since we were all in the same boat I was able to find humor in the situation and radioed to Marc "Gold Leader, this is Baby Maker - I think I shit my pants... Over"

Gold Leader Styling down

I promise, it is way steeper than it looks

Allison in here "uncomfortable" zone

As scary as it was (the thought of sliding down the hill and not stopping until you hit the rock band at the bottom was the prevalent one), it sure was a beautiful spot. After a while I turned the skis downhill and began my decent. Personally I thought it was way less nerve racking than Virginia Lakes.

Tracks, both human and canine

The next day Rebecca and I headed off up Rock Creek for a little mellow ski. Having never been up there, I can definitely say it is a very scenic ski.

Rebecca trying to ski her baby out

It was that perfect time of year when the creek transitions from flowing under the snow to peaking out and gleaming off the sun.

A hint of the stream underneath

We moved fairly slow and our goal was to make it to a good lunch spot - we found it at the lake near the base of the peaks

While we were sitting there, a group of skate skiers came down from farther up the trail and skated across the lake

Skate skiers being braver than I would be

All in all another great day in another great month in my favorite place on the planet - the Southern Sierra!

Family Portrait

A little video from 7 Finger Media

2011-04-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

Episode #1 -East Fork of the Kaweah- from 7 Finger media on Vimeo.

Bull Run Adventure

2011-03-30T21:47:00.001-07:00

Back in March we did a little local adventure up Bull Run Creek. Kevin Smith and I had run it back in 2008 during a rain storm; this year's big snowpack allowed us to venture back up there during much more pleasant weather to get another run down.

The old Brick Factory on Bull Run

Bull Run is not a convenient run; it is just short of a 2 hr hike in with your boat through some rugged terrain (and yes, there are ticks). Still, it makes for a fun adventure as you pass the old foundation of a brick factory (shown above) and some interesting old mining remnants (shown below)

An engine of some sort

You also get a nice overlook of Kernville as you head up and over a saddle into the main part of the run.

Taking a rest and overlooking Kernville

After a little bushwacking and a recommended tick check, you get to the start of the run, indicated by a sweet falls into a giant pool with rope access to the top.

The Start

Using a boat to negotiate the falls is optional, but since we brought them all the way up, it seemed appropriate to go ahead and use them

First Lap

Second lap (with a boat this time)

The run also has a pretty sweet 20 foot falls

Nice Falls

And some fun slide/slot sections as well (watch out for the sticky hole at the bottom of one particular section)

Blocking the hole makes it harder for the next boat...

The finale is a set of fun slides before the river starts to loose its bedrock character and turn into a rocky jumble. At this point it is probably best to just put your boat back on your shoulder and hike back out to your car.

Ryo sliding the Bull

Overall it is a lot of work, but there are some fun drops and it makes for a fun adventure on a nice March Day. Did I mention to make sure you check for ticks?..

Last drop before walking out

Calm Between Storms

2011-03-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

After a long January Thaw, the weather has gotten more active again in the Southern Sierra. If you are a skier or paddler, these storms are great; the nice weather in between storms is even better!

A Friday-Saturday Storm dumped some nice cold snow in the Sierra and Sunday looked as nice at it could possibly look for heading out in the back country. The crew met for breakfast at the new Bayesian Cafe (mmm Crepes) and then hit the road up to Sherman Pass. Hoping for a nice plowed road up to the standard starting spot, we were a little dissapointed when we turnined up the road and it was immediately evident that the plow had taken the weekend off.

The Chain Gang

No Problem though, the Tacoma has chains and a good set of snow tires, so we put all the weight in the back and the chains on the front and gave it a go. It was such a nice day that the ride in the back seemed pretty pleasant.

Rebecca and Marc enjoying a lift with no lines

Dave and Allsion are Stoked

The Skin up was a bit long; some of us had not been skiing enough this January. Still, despite the sore tele muscles, the scenery and the day were both spectacular.

Dave and Charlie chasing snow rats

Allison enjoying the weather at the top

If you don't already know, Rebecca is skiing for two these days. She is getting pretty big (due May 26th), but still able to get out and do plenty. Turns out all the motion on the skis and the bike tends to put the baby to sleep (surfing. on the other hand, makes her wiggle a bunch)

Reba...

and company...

This is the third trip in a row that we have gotten to the top of the Embry Bowl and had absolutely no wind and fantastic weather. So we all were able to stop and enjoy the view

Check out my stylish (borrowed) shades!

Dave thinks they are hilarious

or maybe he was laughing at this...

Marc and Keji having another great day in the snow

After a bite to eat and some good laughs it was time to head down the hill; the snow wasn't quite epic, but it was excellent!

Dave in Tele Mode

Rebecca and Keji following

Marc having and Embry Day

Allison Ripping it UP!

And Loving it!

The snow got a bit thin on the exit; we have definately lost some snowpack in the 6000-8000 ft range, but it sure looks like the high country has plenty for this time of year. Looks like the March Snowpack report for the Kern Drainage is at bout 135% of April 1 - gonna be another great year!

Chattahoochee's Lucy: 1996-2011

2011-02-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

In the Spring of 1996, Rebecca and I walked into a house in Atlanta looking for a dog. There were only two left in the litter, a very handsome boy and a goofy looking girl. We had intended to only get one dog, but I decided on the spot that we needed to take them both home. Rebecca was not too sure; our friend John Brennan was with us at the time and I remember asking him if he thought it was a good idea to get them both. John just laughed and said that he was keeping his mouth shut. If we were going to take one, we probably would have taken the boy, leaving the little runt behind, but she was so full of personality and love that I just couldn't leave her. We took them both home that day.

15 years later I can say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

Copper and Lucy on the porch at our Atlanta Home

From that day on it was Eric, Rebecca, Copper and Lucy. It was rare that we ever left them behind and only once did we ever seperate them for any length of time. They were great companions to each other and the very best companions to Rebecca and me.

Copper and Lucy at a kayak race on the Nantahala

We kind of assumed that Basset Hounds would just lay around a lot, and they did; but as we started taking them on adventures we realized that they were happiest going wherever we went. So we took them on adventures over mountains...

Through the snow...

Down rivers...

Even through the desert...

And they loved every minute of it.

Even though Lucy was the runt, she was always the one right behind us. No matter what obstacles were in the way of her short little legs, her enormous heart kept her going.

The only thing she needed was a warm place to curl up at night...

And someone to love on her every now and then...

She loved creek crossings as long as they were not too deep for her short legs...
And she never complained about anything. Ever. Not even when we dressed her up in embarrassing outfits...

She was the toughest little girl I've ever seen.

She was very independent; happy to spend time off somewhere on here own. You never doubted her love and loyalty, though, and when she was with you it was special...

We used to play hide and seek with them; it was one of their favorite games. One of us would hold them while the other ran around in the woods and hid. They would stay right on your trail the entire time and find you. If there was ever a moment of confusion, Lucy was the smart one and she would usually figure it out first.

She loved grass and flowers. I can only imagine what it smelled like to her little Basset Hound nose.

She had a wonderful life, full of exploration, companionship and love.

She certainly made every single day better for us and we will remember her with love and smiles always.

Now she is on to her next great adventure. Adventure on little goose; you were the best little girl ever.

January Thaw

2011-01-29T07:44:00.000-08:00

After the wettest December on record for most of the Southern Sierra, January followed up with it's normal precipitation let-down. We're talking goose eggs for precipitation, nada, donuts, the little boy who cried zilch. On the plus side we have had some beautiful weather; sunny and 65 has been the norm for about 3 weeks now. With all the snowpack built up in December, we were getting some spring like conditions on the rivers - time to hit the water!

January? Really?

Last year in March we had our Hospital Rock for Desperate Souls low water adventures. Here we were two months earlier in the season with slightly higher flows and super nice weather. Geno, Dave and myself were all able to sneak away from other obligations on a Wednesday and enjoy a spectacular day trip into Sequoia National Park.

Geno descending the stair rapid

It was Dave's first trip down this classic run and we had to keep an eye out for any changes that resulted from the December foods; still we made good time on the river. Luckily there were no new hazards left by the high water, if anything some of the drops had actually cleaned up.

Geno Hanging it out on Table Rock

The flows were relatively low, measured at 178 cfs at the zero-to-sixty guage, but everything other than 420 rapid was still good to go and fun. Dave nailed pretty much everything on his first time down and Geno got the photo of the day on Table Rock.

Dave drops off the Table

Dave checks out Super Boof

After getting to the diversion we found that there was no diversion, so Zero-to-Sixty was pretty prime to go. After not getting to run it at all last year due to water level, I was excited to get on it again.

The Author enters Zero to Sixty

All in all it was another great day on the Kaweah, hard to believe that we still have two more months to go until April...

Holiday Cheers

2011-01-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

Winter weather has come early this year in Kernville. We are already measuring a little over 70% of the April 1 Snowpack in the Southern portion of the Sierra. In the middle of the month we were boating on high water; at the end of the month the snow levels dropped, so it was time to break out the skis. We got a couple of nice adventures in; one on Christmas Eve and another on New Year's Eve. We just wanted to share a couple of pictures celebrating the close of 2010 with good friends and an amazing place we are lucky enough to call home.

Rebecca and Rose getting ready for a Giant Adventure

Playing Reindeer Games with the General Sherman Tree in the background

The only way to travel

Lunch at Congressional Grove

Pass the Holiday Cheer Please!

Merry Christmas Rick!

Rebecca and Rick are both expecting?!

Unlike the trees themselves, seeing Giant sequoia's never gets old.

The End of Another Great Day in the Southern Sierra

Andrew and Mark Scouting the Ascent

20 Minutes into the 2+ hour Climb

Keji Finds a Better Route

The Definition of a Blue-Bird Day

Nearing the top of the Embry Bowl

Andrew Earning his Turns

Lindey Perfecting the Sitzmark

Some Icicles on a Limestone Formation

Self Portrait - I call this one "Happy"

This one goes to eleven

2010-12-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it, the title of this blog entry is a famous line from "This is Spinal Tap" - referring to a new and improved amp that goes even higher than ten. The December Storm of 2010 certainly has that "eleven" feel to it...

What started out as blip on the fantasy weather charts matured into a full blown "hide the women, children and dogs" prediction - it did not disappoint. I suppose the appropriate joke would be "this is moisture tap" - you can see in the above Eastern Pacific Water Vapor chart; there was a conveyor belt of warm, wet air from the tropical Eastern Pacific. A low pressure spinning off the northwest coast has been pumping this air directly into the Sierra for an extended amount of time. An unusual western flow of air near the Canadian border blocked this low from progressing eastward; thus the extended weather pattern. I have heard various debates as to whether this was a true "Pineapple Express" event; but either way, it sure was sweet!

This storm was not a complete surprise, many of the weather models picked it up in advance. While we have occasionally seen storm total predictions in the 10+ inch range, rarely do they actually come through at those final tallies. For whatever reason, the models pretty much nailed this one though.

5 day HPC Storm Total Predictions for the Friday to Tuesday Period, Dec 17-22

The heavy precipitation was expected to be accompanied by high snow levels; in the 7000-8000 ft range, so we pulled the boating gear out of storage and waited for the skies to open up... And they did.

Here is plot of the weather station at Johnsondale, about 25 miles upstream of Kernville, at an elevation of a little over 4000 ft. As you can see in the third panel, the total precipitation measured for the 5 day period from December 16th to 21st was 14 inches. Surely the orographics at the crest would have increased that total, resulting in (at a modest 12:1 ratio assumption) 15+ feet of snow!

The Johnsondale Weather Station Data

Of course with the high snow levels, a lot of that precipitation came down into the Kern River, causing a peak flow on Sunday, December 19th, of a little over 21,000 cfs (last years spring snow-melt peak was around 9,000 cfs). Below is a chart of the river flow at the Park in Kernville. You can also see that the storm added some 50,000 acre feet to the lake storage.

Kern River Flow, Precip and Lake Storage Data

The rain started in earnest on Friday Night, so Saturday we went up for a couple of runs on Brush Creek. When we got there the level was 3 on the gauge; a fine level, but a little disappointing considering the magnitude of the storm predictions. After 1 run down it had risen to 4, on our second run down it reached 5 - now we're cookin'!

The next evening it continued to rain steadily, and by morning time you could tell things were different. As we headed up the canyon all sorts of creeks that we had never seen before were cascading out of the mountains and washing across the road. Not only that, but there were several rock and tree falls as well; despite the distinct possibility of getting stuck on the wrong side of one of these falls, we pushed on upstream anyway to check out Brush Creek.

Just Another Day Driving up Canyon

When we finally pulled into the Brush Creek Parking lot, I had a brief moment of excitement - the gauge was at 10! I had paddled this section as high as 7 a few years back at peak spring melt, and it was awesome. Ever since then I wondered if the creek ever got too high to run, or if it just got better and better. My enthusiasm was quickly squelched though as a quick look at the bottom section of the river revealed that 10 was, in fact, too high. The banks of the creek were entirely made up of strainers; not eddies. There were also various other wood hazards thrown in the middle of the current. While a kayak decent was not to be, a hike up the creek was definitely in order.

Um. The portage actually looks like a portage...

The Limbo Log is Long Gone

Triple Drop looking like a Single Drop
The Z-Drop below Speedway

Log-Chucker

The Gauge at Brush Creek - Level? Too many ABU's

After the hike we got back in the car and checked out South Creek Falls; normally a trickle, this was a torrent sending spray up above the road level - awesome.

Rebecca at South Creek Falls (1000 cfs?)

After trying to stay as dry as possible in the torrential rain, we ended up deciding to get wet on a more reasonable stretch of river - the class IV Cable Run. When we got back to town, the river had risen to 14,000 cfs from about 6,000 cfs earlier in the day. By the time we got on the water and did our run we ended up pretty much on the peak of the flood at 21,000 cfs. There were some huge waves on the run, lots of trees in the water and the eerie sound of large boulders rolling along the bottom of the river as we were paddling down. All in all a very spectacular day!

The Park in Kernville at about 14,000 cfs

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

2010-12-17T08:38:00.000-08:00

The latest forecast for the Sierra has something I have never seen before. There is so much water in this group of storms that they had to start over with the colorscale - almost 15 inches of water equivalent in the 5 day HPC. Wow.

Adventures to be had for sure, we'll keep you posted.

Grand Canyon - more to come

2010-12-07T11:14:00.000-08:00

Had a great trip in the Canyon this October; still catching up at work and wading through the thousands of pictures I shot, but something should be on the way soon. In the meantime, here are just a couple of shots I wanted to share.

Adventures on the South Fork of the Kern

2010-08-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

Better late than never...

Living in the Kern River Valley, the South Fork of the Kern River has long been on my "to-do list". Finicky water levels, lack of willing partners and a similar driving time to the Kaweah kept it from actually getting done. Finally some friends talked Rebecca and me into hiking in for an exploratory mission; after seeing the impressive White Dome gorge first-hand, a trip was cobbled together within the week.

Topo overview of the run (click to enlarge)

Preface:
Legend has it that only three other groups have done the 22 mile stretch of river from Kennedy Meadows to Long Valley (please correct me if this is wrong) with Royal Robins, Reg Lake et al. getting the first Descent in 1986 (a very late first descent for a river this size in the Sierra). Reportedly, the second descent crew of Keith Dinger, Charles Foster and Rick Norman portaged the White Dome gorge entirely. The best account of the run I found was from the last group consisting of Rocky Contos and Chip Childers who made it through the entire run with various tales of adventure.

From Rocky's trip report (click to read - recommended reading!)

"Defeated, I came back, seeing that Chip had gotten his boat to the side. No paddle. Would he hand paddle for a ways? Could we get another paddle at Sierra South that evening? He portaged the next couple class Vs as I went up to portage my boat down with him. During my portage along one of the 50 degree slabs, I lost footing and fell down, hanging on a tree. My boat went down to the river and started floating downstream. I yelled to Chip and scrambled down to him as fast as I could. A wonderful stroke of luck hit us, as Chip had found his paddle in the eddy right there, and incidentally, my boat floated into that at exact same eddy! I guess I had lost track of the paddle at that spot and continued searching downstream. The swim Chip had was his worst ever, and he was quite dazed from it - "hallucinating" he said."

After putting out a few feelers, Kevin Smith and Geno Hacker decided to join in the fun (how could you not be enticed by stories like that from Rocky?). Rebecca (still with an injured shoulder) and Allison Diller decided to meet us at camp and do their own exploratory hiking in the area of Manter Creek - the trip was on!

Through the magic of Delorme...

Before we get on to the account of the run, there are a few things to get out of the way first. Considering that only 3 of the 22 miles approach the magic 200 ft per mile gradient, don't be fooled. This is a two-day trip. It is conceivable that it could be done in a day by a group that knows the run, gets an early start, and is willing to hike some portion of the three miles out long valley in the dark; other than that, plan two FULL days. In addition, this is not a Sierra Classic in terms of whitewater; there are plenty of good drops, but there are also plenty of portages, both tree and sieve induced. Perhaps the Manter fire of 2000 hurt the quality of this run, but it is hard to say since nobody has done this run more than once.

With that out of the way, this run is a true adventure; spectacular granite gorges, beautiful side hikes, a serene float through Rockhouse Basin, bears, snakes and a very real sense remoteness await. We had between 300-350 cfs on the South Fork gauge - since there are no major tributaries below this section, I would estimate that we had very close to that amount in the river. I felt this was a low/medium flow for the run; more water would cover up some of the sieves and make a few drops more palatable with the trade-off of making some of the woody stretches come at you a bit quickly. Lower water would probably make some of the drops easier, but might induce a few more portages. A few days earlier when we hiked in the level was 450 - this appeared to be a medium/high level and would probably be my target if I went back in (which I might someday, once the memories of the portages fade away).

The SF Kern Gauge for May 25th and 26th

Forward:

Put-in at Kennedy Meadows

The put-in for the run is at the road bridge over the meandering South Fork near Kennedy Meadows. To the North you look up the PCT towards Olancha Mountain and Monache Meadow, to the South you look into the Domeland Wilderness Area. From here you have a pleasant 13 mile paddle through scenic class I-III. The main concern here are the cattle fences - we encountered three of them - two we were able to paddle through and one we had to walk around.

NOTE: the first fence is about 20 yards downstream from the bridge in a braided section of river. Don't let it catch you off guard since getting stuck in barbed-wire would not be a fun start to the trip...

The Crew getting ready for their SF adventure!

This section is extremely pleasant; right up there with the scenic flatwater on Upper Cherry, the Kern Headwaters and Fordyce Creek. I could easily see turning just this section into an overnighter for Class III-IV boaters (requiring a two mile hike out the old road above the White Dome gorge); great camping, views of the Domelands and presumably numerous Golden Trout to catch.

Looking North

There is about a two mile stretch starting somewhere near mile 5-6 where the whitewater picks up a little bit; no scouting was necessary, but picking appropriate routes through brushy, braided sections required a little attention. Overall, this section went much better than anticipated and it only took us about three hours to eat up the miles between the put-in and the entrance to White Dome gorge.

Some Rocky Sections

White Dome Gorge:

Approaching White Dome Gorge

As you approach the White Dome Gorge, the twists and turns in the river begin to take on some purpose and the granite starts to pinch in on the banks. Make sure you take the time to enjoy the scenery - it really is a spectacular place.

White Dome

It is pretty clear when the goods start; a boat scoutable class IV with a good sized eddy on the right is followed by a long class V dubbed South Fork Flush by Rocky and Chip. Scout this on river left and you'll be able to see the whole drop; this is one that would benefit from more water since the exit drop pinches down to about three feet wide with a good deal of water splitting off into a sieve (with another one just upstream of that for good measure). The rapid itself didn't look that difficult, but it also didn't look fun enough to push the risk-reward needle into the green for anyone, so we moved on.

After this is a sequence of fun drops; probably the whitewater highlight of the trip. We ran every drop in here except one, which also would have been much more enticing with more water since a slam into the left wall seemed inevitable at this flow. Every drop in this gorge was portagable at river level, but for about a quarter mile or so you feel locked in there with sloping granite walls; at this point there is no way out but forward. The second class V drop (pictured below) was fun and was follwed by the drop described by Rocky where Chip pulled his self proclaimed "Mark Spitz" in a ledge hole against the left wall.

Kevin in the Second Drop

The Mark Spitz Rapid (Smiling Slab)

At this point you begin to get the feeling of the character of the run; steep granite walls break off in huge chunks, tumble into the river in a pile and make rapid. Since the flows in here never really exceed a couple of thousand CFS, the river doesn't naturally to clean itself up by blowing channels between these large boulders. The result is a weird hybrid of Colorado whitewater in a California setting.

One of the best drops on the trip is near the end of the tight upper part of the gorge; a sweet double drop with rock-smear-boof on the entry and a largish hole on the exit - I like to call it peanut-butter-jelly-time.

The author smearing the entry

Kevin dropping into the second hole

and smearing the exit

At this point, the character of the river changes; the gorge opens up a bit to the left, the river begins to split into different channels and trees become a significant factor. The gradient here lessens, but it is still steep enough that you don't really want to go charging around a corner into a giant wood pile. There were still some fun drops, but the number of portages around strainers began to get frustrating, especially as it began to become evident that a late arrival at camp was inevitable.

Rebecca and Allison had planned to hike in at long valley and cut over a saddle to Manter Creek where they would set up camp. We were unsure of whether we would make it to that point by nightfall, so we were self-contained, but I much preferred a dinner of mashed potatoes and bratwurst followed by a night of sleep in a tent to a half pound of nuts and dried fruit followed by a night under a tarp with two other dudes and a forecast for rain.

It was somewhere in this section that our plan of attack became disjointed. Boat scouting would often lead me to a tiny eddy above a strainer where I would signal back that it was no good. Often we would end up portaging on opposite sides of the river with varying strategies and little communication. I suppose a time-out to regroup would have been in order, but we were basically in survival mode. The result was basically three independent paddlers making their way down the river instead of one coherent group.

In the middle of the chaos, there was one drop in particular that looked really good; a long lead in with a big airplane turn to the left followed by a riverwide hole. When we got to this drop we were on opposite sides of the river - I was on river left and Kevin and Geno were on river right. The entry to this drop pinched on the right side and required a squirrely boof with an overhanging rock before the airplane turn around a huge midstream boulder. Not being able to see well from my side I signaled Kevin to see what he thought. His reply was uncertain, so I signaled that I would begin the portage and asked if he wanted me to set safety. His reply was that he was walking too. After a 10 minute jaunt up and around the boulders, I was quite surprised when I got down to river level; Kevin and Geno were standing on river right, and Kevin's boat was floating in an eddy on river left? Confused, I gave the "are you OK" signal. Kevin replied that he was, but looked to be unable to get to his boat. My first thought was that he slipped on the exposed portage, dropping his boat into the river. In actuality, he got to the top and changed his mind on the drop, deciding to run it with the end result being a swim in the riverwide hole at the bottom.

It appeared the boat might make its way out of the eddy and float down directly towards me. If it stayed left we were in business, if it floated into the right channel we were in trouble. I scaled out on a strainer that was blocking the entire left channel and did my best Johnny Bench as his fully loaded Habitat floated directly into the tree I was standing on. Unable to get the boat out in time before the boat got lodged, I jumped in the water and pulled the boat downward, fortunately the weight of the boat and the strength of the current then pushed the boat underneath the strainer and I was able to swim it to shore.

At this point I was pretty sure that darkness would overtake us before camp. To the best of my estimate, we still had about 1/2 mile to go, at the rate we were going, we wouldn't make it. Thoughts of stashing the boats and hiking down to camp seemed realistic, but from our hike earlier in the week I thought the gradient would ease up, perhaps making the river travel easier. Continuing on until dark seemed like the obvious choice.

Luckily the river did mellow out and open up a bit, but the trees did get thicker. For the most part the river was boatable, but at one point we had to make a little duck between a tree and a rock to sneak through. I ducked under the branch and turned around to make sure the next boat got through. Geno was next and got pushed offline a bit, catching the tree sqaure across the chest. After a few seconds, it became apparent he was not going to be able to work free; furthermore he dropped his paddle to hang on to the tree and maintain his upright position. Debating between the paddle and Geno didn't take too long and I paddled to an eddy just below to help get him out. Between Kevin and myself, we were able to stabilize him and lift the log for safe passage. After Geno was safe on shore I started heading downstream looking for the missing paddle. The canopy of the trees and the setting sun made for poor lighting and I was unable to find the paddle; the good news was that the going was really quick with only one log portage before I saw the fire glow of camp around the corner. I gave out a little "whoop" which was quickly returned by Rebecca and I rolled into camp about 10 minutes before sunset.

Next into camp was Kevin, pretty much in the last of the daylight. Geno had elected to hike out the next day leaving his boat near the saddle that Rebecca and Alison had passed over to get to camp. He would be making his way down to camp from there by foot. We started dinner, drank some tequila, and hung out for a bit, waiting for a headlamp in the distance. Eventually we saw one making its way down the bank - unfortunately on the wrong side of the river. After a quick survey of a possible night swim across the river, we elected to ferry Geno across by boat. After some discussion of a reasonable spot for such a foolhardy endeavor, we got Geno and his overnight gear safe and sound to the other side.

Much food and spirit ensued (since that is what you do on single night trips) and in the morning we awoke to one of the more scenic camps I've experienced in the Sierra - which means it was totally sweet...

Home sweet home

After a hearty breakfast, it was the group consensus that a hike was definitely in order. There was absolutely no way we could paddle through this area and not explore; the obvious choice was to head up Manter creek as far as was reasonable (the obvious gorge shown below).

Camp with Manter Creek Gorge in the Background

After poking around for a little over an hour, I started to get restless thinking about the whitewater the lay ahead - Kevin was clearly thinking the same thing. We said our goodbye's to our pals (who would continue exploring this basin) and headed back to our crafts to finish off the short (at least we assumed it would be) three mile to the take-out/hike-out.

Taylor Gorge:

I'm not exactly sure of the time we left camp, but 11:00 am would be a reasonable guesstimate - for future groups, that is pretty much about as late as you would want to leave and still figure on getting finished that same day. With just the two of us, things went pretty quick; meaning we scouted anything that was class V, did one cool side hike - other than that (and an hour portage to go about 400 yards down river) we kept moving.

Right out of camp was a chunky class V - not very enticing - portage. Then we had a cool drop with a log all he way across the bottom - runnable with a funky exit. Then it got heavy. The next 1/4 mile to Taylor Creek had some seriously manky stuff; stuff I might run with a camera crew and safety, but two dudes and an unknown section of river still to go made the easy portage on the left an easy decision.

Yep, portaging high and left was clean...

Soon we hit Taylor Creek; I had heard there was a nice hike up here, so we parked the boats and scrambled up as far as we could. This was no disappointment. The waterfall just up from the river was just a teaser for the beautiful box canyon just upstream. I could have spent all day there, but after a bit of lunch, some lounging and a few picture, we new it was time to keep heading down.

A pleasant falls just below...

An Amazing Box Canyon

After lunch we started working our way down; to make a long paddle short, the river character changed quite a bit to more congested (i.e. treed) rapids - almost all of which were runnable. The problem arose in the scouting of said rapids. Thrashing through the now heavy undergrowth was arduous, and often portages were more difficult than running whatever manky rapid was the obstacle. Still, I would not say the run was without some fun drops.

Kevin on a boof somewhere

At on point, the river clearly starts to drop off and the banks do not facilitate any sort of scout. I ferried to the right side and walked down to the granite cliff and could only see a 10 foot slide into about a 20 foot fall (no landing visible) followed by a runout into boulders that appeared to just end in rock. River left provided no additional info, and since there was a serious portage alluded to in the previous trip report, we assumed we had met our match and had to do an up and over.

In retrospect, I think there is a good chance that drop was runnable. Certainly, it would be worth ditching the boats and scouting on the left at river level long enough to get a good look at it - I think the full scout might take 30 minutes - our portage took about an hour and a half.

Committing to the portage, I followed Kevin - who clearly has no fear of heights - some 200 feet above river level. At one point I had to run across an extremely exposed section of granite; if I was 10 feet above the ground I think I could have handled it. I wasn't, I was 200 feet above the stinkin' riverbed. As I breathed deeply and made myself scramble across the exposed dome, my feet began to slide downhill on the flaking, decomposed slab; knowing that I had no choice, I simply kept my feet moving forward, eventually catching solid granite again only to skid to a stop right next to Kevin. "I hate that Shit!" I exclaimed (or something to that effect). Kevin, being used to these sorts of things, simply replied "yeah, that was dicey" (or something to that effect).

After finally making our way down to the riverbed and catching glimpses of what seemed like potentially the best rapid on the run that we were portaging, we finished off the portage at river level past two chunky drops that might be runnable at higher water. Knowing there was not much more before we got to the end of the run, my ESP convinced me to jump out at a rather non-descript turn to the right only to scout what is certainly a mystery rapid. I swear, 300 cfs were rounding a corner at in a class II rapid, and only 100 cfs was passing through about 3 hotel sized sieved out boulders. BE WARE of this - I have no idea what would happen if you decided to go ahead and paddle into the class II entry.

This drop/nightmare signifies the end of the run. There might have been another 10 minutes of paddling class II, but the trail up Long Valley creek soon appeared on our left. The only bummer was the total lack of beer and babes at the take-out; we had to unceremoniously load our boats and hike the 3 (or was it 5) miles out.

The end - or is it...

Of all the things I remember about the difficulty of this trip, the one thing that stands out is that this is the only time I have ever seen Kevin tired. Don't get me wrong, it is not like I was a spring chicken, but those who know me know that I am old and being tired is a normal condition. But, the fact that, no matter how early in the season it was, this run wore out the indomitable Kevin Smith tells me that it is not for the faint of heart. With that said, if you have the will and the skills to hit up the South Fork of the Kern, an adventure surely awaits...

UCC - how low can you go

2010-07-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

So, last year we probed the high side of great on Upper Cherry Creek; it was exciting to say the least. Ironically, in the high water year that was 2010, our trip tested the limits on the other side of the spectrum. Was it worth it? Well, read on...

Looking into the void: would my return trip be more successful?

During the week of July 12th it appeared that Upper Cherry would be coming in soon, but levels didn't seem to be dropping just yet, and people were hedging their bets as to when to drop in. Make a mistake on the high side, and epic stories or portages await, drop in on the low side and... well, I wasn't sure, but I was sure I had seen video of people running it ridiculously low. Geno was already in and we were hoping for another couple of boaters or so to round out the group; there was a possibility of Garreth and Laura joining us, but as the levels started to drop precipitously over the weekend, I was apprehensive that they would not wait around. At least Rebecca (and her bum shoulder) and Allison (who will shred it next year) were game on hiking along with us the whole way - good company and the ability to throw a rope would get us a long way. As luck would have it, potential of a first K-9 descent and the serendipitous appearance of several other slackers eventually brought the group to 10 boaters, 4 hikers and 2 dogs - yep, a real UCC party!

Going to sleep on Monday night with four at the takeout, we woke up to find a groggy Drew - sweet, we had a probe! After a somewhat hasty gathering of gear we headed to the trail head where we found Tim, Rachael and a couple more hikers (Matt and Dee) - sweet, more company! It was thus, that we began the hike, looking forward to, if nothing else, being in a spectacular place with some awesome folks.

Drew Duval stopping for a ciggy; one of the few times I caught up to him on the hike

Having done the hike the year before, this go-round was basically uneventful. Other than Drew and Garreth sprinting off into the distance, Laura's pack disintegrating, a couple of mosquitoes, Bishop almost catching a chipmunk and a lot of sweat, there was really nothing to make note of. Oh yeah, this is the one time we totally envied the hikers on the trip - they seemed to actually be enjoying themselves.

It almost looks like they hike themselves in...

I'm not tired, I'm just old

The welcome descent to the river

Garreth rocks into the put-in

Laura, disintegrated pack and all

Rebecca and Allison getting ready to cool off

The only thing to do once you get to the river...

almost heaven... upper cherryyyy

After a cool dip and a little hang-out time, we decided to head down to the put-in slide. Tim and his crew had not made it down yet, but it seemed like they shouldn't be too far behind us (a common UCC hike in misconception), so we geared up and went down for an initial taste of gravity. Geno gave us a little action with a kick-flip into the left pothole at the bottom drop, but all's well that ends well...

Laura Launches a Late afternoon Lap

Geno Genuflects to some Gnarly Granite

After a long hike and a little fun on the put-in slide, we were ready to set up camp, cook up a good meal, have a little wine and relax. After a hanging for a while without a sign of Tim and Rachael, Rebecca and I headed back up to the put-in to see what was up. We found Rachael, but no Tim and no Hikers - somehow they were ahead of Rachael at one point, then somebody hit a worm hole and some wild goose chasing occurred. This is pretty standard for the hike, so I won't go into it any further except to say that everyone made it in eventually, even peaches.

Camp#1 - good morning skeeterville

Camping on Upper Cherry has to be one of the best kayaking experiences out there, if there is anything that rivals it, let me know so I can go do it. Staring out at the granite domes and then down at the giant, crystal clear pools seems otherworldly. Cap that off with a star-filled sky, your sweetie by your side and a 7-hour-hike-induced coma and you are almost in heaven.

The next day we spent a little time getting our crew together (now 7 boaters, 4 hikers and 2 dogs) and then headed downstream on our adventure. Rebecca, Allison and Bishop planned on staying at river level until the gorge above Cherry Bomb and then going high with the hopes of seeing us run through the gorge and then meeting us at Flintstone. Walkie Talkies helped and both the boat crew and the hiking crew made quick work of the terrain down to West Coast Gorilla.

slip-sliding away day one

It's so pretty you don't even notice the boat abuse

Tim in the overhang

After a leisurely California style lunch above the Gorilla Gorge (Tim even busted out his leisure shirt), we routed in to check out exactly how nasty WCG looks at low water. The answer is that it actually doesn't look that much worse than at high water, but after oogling it for a couple of minutes, everyone decided to walk this time around.

We sent the hikers around the next gorge, but in retrospect they said they saw a line through on river left - for those who may venture in at a future date, this would save about an hour and a half of up and over, so make sure you check it out.

I was a little concerned about the exit drop at low water since I remembered most of the water going into a wall/pocket on the left; it was definitely worth a scout, but still went fine. The next open section before Cherry Bomb gorge was it's usual scenic and fun self, then (and this is more for my notes than anyone) a short 3 1/2 hours after leaving camp, we were there...

I had told Geno that I would do what I could to convince people to scout Cherry Bomb Gorge; I know he wanted to run it, but going in site unseen can be unnerving. I also told him that I was pretty sure that, no matter what plan we agreed on, we would probably just go in there without scouting. Turns out I was kind of right. After everyone agreed that a scout wouldn't be a bad idea, we all scaled up the granite dome, a task that took all of about 15 minutes. At this point we were overlooking the entry gorge, not Cherry Bomb itself. Upon learning that the real scout was another 20 minutes or longer, the consensus was that scouting was really just a waste of time and we did what I thought we would do from the get-go: head into Cherry Bomb Gorge.

It turned out that all the drops in the entry gorge were good to go - at high water I had portaged one that looked extremely meaty/manky. The exit drop at low water was again a concern due to water falling into the left wall, but went well for the most part. Next thing you knew, we were there.

In my last write up on UCC I compared Cherry Bomb Gorge to the Vatican of kayaking; I still don't think that is a horrible comparison, but in retrospect, maybe a better comparison would be the Pyramids. I don't know, there is just something ancient and magical about it to us kayakers. Certainly it is as breathtaking for its beauty as its intimidating presence.

Cherry Bomb Lake - peace juxtaposed to...

tumult

Cherry Bomb at low water is, in my opinion, a trade-off. The majority of the water goes off the kicker in the middle with little hope of getting the clean launch off the left side. On the other-hand, Drew proved that you could paddle out of the pothole, and I proved that landing on your head was not much of an issue...

Laura in the moment

Drew and Tim lead the way; Drew electing to go left of the entry rock and Tim electing to go right. All in all, I would suggest a right line at low water, the resulting sideways launch seemed to be more predictable than Drew and My corkscrewing method. After Drew checked out the pothole up close and I gave it some underwater scrutiny, the others settled in on what looked to be the way to go. With Garreth bringing up the rear, we had all made it through the most famous part of the gorge, now just the left-left-middle-right-middle-left remained.

Garreth, in the loneliest position...

Eric and Rachael Grinning

It turns out that at low water the actual line is left-left-anywhere-I think I missed a drop-anywhere-left, write it down if you have to. The main concern again,was the choke-stone on the exit, but much to our delight, Drew indicated from his perch, there was an opening on the left. And there you have it, we made it through. This was quite the opposite experience from the year before for me. I think I was even smiling and laughing (even on the inside). I was also happy that everyone decided to go in and nobody got left out making the massive portage by themselves.

Awaiting the exit seal-launch

With all the time we spent not quite scouting, Allison and Rebecca were even able to get good seats for the show. Allison was stoked that she actually got to see me roll in a rapid, something that rumor has I'm actually incapable of.

Allison, Rebecca and Bishop enjoying the entertainment

All that was left was some time on the Jedi-Slide and Tea-Cups, and we would be hanging out at camp.

Rachael drops into camp

Garreth's wonderland

Eric and Geno at happy hour

Home sweet home, camp #2

Drew antagonizing the fish

As we sat on river right (we obeyed the sign and did not camp at Flintstone) soaking up the sun and watching Drew catch and release at least 5 trout, a crazy vision appeared

Taylor, Nick and Josh rolling into camp

A group of three more kayakers came into view, dropping the teacups and, yep, a member of the trio flipped in the last drop into Flintstone pool and swam... much to the cheering and elation of the crowd. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me; besides, it is totally something I could see myself doing, so I hope to get leniency when it is my turn...

It was great to See Taylor and get to know Nick and Josh; we were all genuinely stoked to see them show up and share camp with us. Once the second crew of hikers showed up to camp a little later, our crew became 16!

Now as anyone who has done it knows, camping at Flintstone pool at the base of Cherry Bomb Gorge with the setting sunlight whispering off of the rocks... well, it's Nirvana, or Shangra La, or Happy Gilmore's Happy place; that is if you have already run Cherry Bomb Gorge. I can't imagine camping out at the bottom, staring up in anticipation, waiting for morning to come so you can hike you ass all the way back up to that locked in gorge. Sure there are some big drops on day two, but you can always just walk to the lip, say no thanks and pass (with various levels of effort). Maybe after I have run it a few more times the mystique will run-out, but I hope it doesn't...

Day Two began with a nice leisurely breakfast and Garreth and Laura going up to film the Georgia Boys headed back up to the gorge (no room for their story here, ask me about it sometime though). Right about the crack of 10 am we began making our way down through the goods.

Groove Tube and Perfect 20 were good to go

Perfect 20 - Tim

Josh

Geno

Then someone got the crazy idea to run the entry into Double Pothole at low water. After getting off my photographer's rock and watching person after person go into battle with the rocks on the entry, I decided (along with Rachel) that a much more sensible (and traditional) portage around the rock on the left and class II ferry free of rock contact would be the better option. As a result, though, I have no photos. I'm sure some will come though...

Rebecca wishing she had a kayak now

Double Pothole was sweet. Waterfall alley was sweet. Then it was Kiwi time. By the time I got down there (after more photo taking) Drew had already run it and was lounging with his feet out of the boat in the enticing pool at the bottom. Apparently he had styled it, but nobody could see into the pocket to determine the depths and reconnaissance potential therein. Still, not being a group to dawdle, Taylor, Laura, Garreth, Nick and Myself got after it.

The Amazing Mister Taylor backferries into perfect position

Nick in a pocket? Don't think so!

Laura showing the boyz

Of course everyone styled it, and I was the last to go. I didn't want to insult Mrs Pocket (I assume it is Mrs since Niki was the kiwi), so I proceeded to straight line it into the pocket.

Eric pre-pocket

OK, it wasn't a straight line, I actually thought I was doing OK, but the long awaited bump left never occurred and I resurfaced into the wall. I heard Nick yell "he's OK", so believing him, I swiftly paddled off the boil into the pocket, took it in briefly (hoping to never return), then paddled out. Happy to not have to be vertically extracted, I began to appreciate the low water level once more.

The good thing about low water was the ability to paddle out of the pocket, the bad thing was that the landing in Dead Bear was quite green. Even the waterfall slayers Drew and Taylor wanted no part of it, so we began what can only be described as an arduous portage. The payout at the end was the adult version of foam boats as we sent our loaded boats over Dead Bear.

The alternate Dead Bear line

Not looking good...

A better line

Another California style lunch awaited us at the bottom and all that would be left would be for the boaters to work their way out the low-water run-out and survive the final gorge, and for the hikers to somehow make it to the bottom and ride on the back of a kayak across the lake.

Hikers making time on the last day

After many rock encounters for the boaters and a rattlesnake encounter for the hikers, the lake was finally in view (it turns out the up and over on river left at the red rock gorge is the way to go - there is even a trail of sorts if you look for it). While most of us finished off the run at river level (don't blue angel the nozzle at low water, it gets pretty tight in there), the hikers finished off high and right.

A view of the log jam from the hiker's perspective

A quick paddle across the lake, a forty-niner burger and a beer, a 12-pack of Mountain dew and a 4:30 am arrival at home was all we needed to wrap up a perfect trip. So ask me again if I thought it was worth going into Upper Cherry at low water... Well, I can't think of anywhere else in the world I would have rather have been...

Trail Peak

2010-06-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

With all the heat over the last weekend, the Kern River Peaked and started it's drift back down towards somewhat normal levels. Thoughts of the dwindling snowpack and Rebecca's shoulder injury turned thoughts towards a last ski adventure for the season. Marc had overheard that the road to Cottonwood Lakes was open and we decided to load up the truck and go see what was left of the 2010 big snow in the Southern Sierra.

Headed into the Golden Trout Wilderness

A busy weekend of work warranted a little down time and Copper and Lucy were eager to join, so we decided to drive up Tuesday Night and set up camp then spend all Wednesday climbing for turns. Our intention was to leave the 14 year old dogs behind in a pile of blankets, but as soon as we got up to Horseshoe Meadow, the cool weather brought them back to puppy form, so we decided that they should join the adventure.

Across Cottonwood Creek with Trial Peak in the distance

Having not spent much time in the area, Horseshoe Meadow was a very pleasant surprise; camping by a meandering stream surrounded by peaks seemed like a great way to spend a couple of nights. Add that to the fact that there was nobody around, this seemed like a very good choice of adventure. It was clear from the outset, however, that skiing was not going to be epic; we were probably about a week late for that. Still, an outing in the high Sierra is always a good time.

Marc in search of snow

After a couple of hours of mellow hiking along a trail with plenty of small stream crossings for the dogs, we came to a point where we could transfer the skis from our back to our feet - aaahhh

Copper taking a break while we ski-up

The ski up was pleasant for those with two legs; the four legged folks were mushing into the soft show a bit. Still, Copper and Lucy are used to this sort of torture and plodded up the slope with little complaint.

Rebecca and Copper near the summit

Lucy Dragging a bit with Horseshoe Meadow in the background

Trail Peak is the second highest peak on the Kern Plateau (Olancha being the highest) and provided a great 360 view of the South Fork, Golden Trout and North Fork drainages with views up towards the Eastern Sierra, Kaweahs and Triple Divide Peaks - Spectacular.

Mt Langley to the North

Rebecca's not so sure about ski boots on summits

Maybe the safest thing to do is just sit down

We took in a little lunch and took in a lot of scenery at the top. It was impressive. We could see the entire South Fork Drainage all the way down past Olancha and into the Domelands. We could also see the Golden Trout Creek drainage as it meandered east then plummeted into the North Fork of the Kern. To the west you could look down the Cottonwood Creek Drainage to Owens Valley and into Nevada. Of course North was the High Sierra, still with a surprising amount of snow.

The whole family at the Summit

East towards the Kaweahs

We would have loved to stay there all afternoon, but a brisk wind and gravity eventually unseated us and we started back toward camp.

Getting a little artsy

It was not the worlds best skiing, but as Marc said, any day you get to put your boots on is a good day.

The easy part

Copper and Lucy not too far behind...

Skiing down towards camp

After getting back to the snow-ish line, it didn't take long to boogie back to camp. We had a couple of Just Outstanding IPA's and sat by the creek soaking in the scenery

Chilling by the creek

While sitting there we got to observe the social behavior of Marmots, listen to a Cowboy sing as he rode down the trail, relax and soak in the Southern Sierra - what a day!

Dueling Whistle Pigs

Cirque Peak and Cottonwood Creek

Testing out the glider port on the way home

As always, we are thankful that we live here and get to enjoy it on a regular basis.

Hiiiigh Water, 2010

2010-06-07T15:58:00.001-07:00

Good snowpack and a cold spring have given way to some of the highest water we have had on the Kern in the last 10 years. Here is a little video of Fender Bender at 8000 cfs - thanks to Allison for holding the camera much steadier than I was feeling at the time...

If the right side of the screen is cutting off, click on the video to see the widescreen source on youtube

Upper Brush

2010-04-28T20:54:00.001-07:00

In 2006 we got a chance to get on this run at pretty high water (5 on the Brush Creek Gauge). I remembered some big drops, some big holes and a ton of wood. At the time there was not much beta on this run and having put-in late in the afternoon and waaaay too high up the watershed, we had to do a moonlight hike out and finish off the run the next day. Afterward, we all decided it would be better to get back in a little lower water for a more enjoyable experience. 4 years of drought and a bunch of chomping at the bit later, we got a chance to get back in...

The Crew hiking in Cherry Hill Road

On Monday night I got the call that the New Brush Creek Guage was at 3 (FYI this gauge has had 3 versions in the last three years) and an Upper Brush run was cobbled together. At first it was just Geno and myself - not the ideal group size, but we really needed to get in this thing. Tuesday morning we ran into a crew of boaters out from Steamboat Colorado, and our two became seven. After a short delay as we mashalled the crew, we headed up to Cherry Hill road and began our hike in. Having put on way to high up the previous time, I thought I remembered that the goods started at the confluence of the second major creek as you hike out the road. In retrospect, the best entry is at the first creek - Alder Creek. There are a couple of good drops above this, but the majority of good drops on the run is from Alder Creek down.

Putting in at the wrong confluence... again...

The first half mile or so below where we put in was mainly spent on the shore as we carried around wood. A lot of wood. More than I remembered - I'm guessing the McNally fire is still taking its toll on this drainage as dead trees are still falling in. Finally we hit the 6 footer that I remembered as the signal that things were about to get good (at the confluence of Alder Creek).

Team Steam Running Alder Falls Blind

Imediately after that drop was another wood choked drop that I ran into a pile of saplings that gently lowered me to the safety eddy above yet another strainer - fun line, but not really necessary. Then a nice 10 footer (the Pot) with a wood pile above it; simply put in at the lip on river right, two strokes and boof! Right below that is the Kettle - only about a 5 footer, but a potentially tricky hole.

The Author into the Pot

Team Steam: Cali Pot aint so bad

Soon the action becomes hot and heavy; when not carrying around log jams, you are scouting the next drop. Next is a slide where you are clearly going to take a hit. If possible, get right and absorb the hit with the bow - for 4 out of five of us it wasn't too bad

Team Steam on the Endo Slide

Team Steam: another "clean" line

Team Steam: the one that didn't go well - notice the nose dimple

Somewhere in here is a drop that can be run, but there is a log in the entry and a nasty landing if the line is not nailed - scout right. Soon you have one of the highlites of the run, a twenty foot slide (Mary) into a thirty foot slide with a wall ride (Jane). Very Nice! At this point you might be catching on to some fun I am having with the names on this run. First off, I don't smoke, but we did have a winner of the Colorado Canabis Cup in our midsts. Also, well... let's just say that I don't recommend doing this run with a small group or taking any side hikes. We'll just leave it at that.

The Author on the Jane Slide

Team Steam on Jane...

... and off the wall

Team Steam: fires it up

Another couple of smaller drops leads into the one mandatory drop enduced portage of the day. This comes right after a confluence with another creek on the right - a small four footer then get out and portage on the right. Just after this is a nice granite gorge with a good slide that is hard to get to after the portage, a second slide that a few of us ran (but is not recommended) and a third drop that is sweet and semi mandatory (a long portage up and over the gorge awaits if you don't run this). For the record, running the second slide felt like getting sucker punched.

Team Steam on the Schwag Slide

The third drop in this section is probably the other highlight of this run. A long narow slide to a curling drop. At high water I remember the curl shooting about fifteen feet up the rock on the right. This day it only shot up about 5 feet or so.

Team Steam on the Garden Hose

And the kicker!

Team Steam's down with UBC

After this there is another nice drop that is ruined by a log jam at the top, followed by a long, helter skelter rapid that is pretty dicey even without the log poking out near the bottom. After this there are a few more smaller drops, then it gets to be pretty congested with fallen trees. A chunky portage and a set of three slides signals the end of any drops of significance; hike back down to your car on the right or work you way through the logs on the creek - whatever you feel like at this point.

I'm not going to lie, a ton of work needs to go into this run to get the wood out before it becomes anything other than expedition kayaking. But, I do feel that if the wood is removed, this run approaches "classic" with some really good drops and only one mandatory portage (I would probably still average three or four portages due to heavy rock-contact aversion). As far as levels go, I felt like the solid 3 we had on the new Brush Creek Guage was pretty ideal; I would say most folks would be happy with this level. Higher would be a bit harder but added padding would help in some drops, lower would be a bit easier, but bring your ass-pads. Either way, I look forward to getting on this run again - before four years are up!

No, Upper Brush does not connect to Brush - here is the hike out...

Reminder - reconaisance hikes in not recommeneded, larger groups suggested. Call or e-mail for more details.

Giants in the Snow

2010-04-28T18:42:00.001-07:00

Giant Sequoias are impressive enough on their own, but if you get a chance to see them in the snow they are downright magical. There is something about the way the red stands out against the white background; if you throw in a nice snow flurry so that you can't even see the tops of the trees, it seems like they just go on forever.

Bob and Rebecca cross one of several creeks

California has had a very strange March and April this year; not only are we getting storms, but they are very cold. Taking this opportunity to tour into Sequoia National Park with our good friend Bob Campbell we found tons of snow with a nice layer of light stuff on top - not the usual April snow in CA...

A white, red and black wonderland

Heading in past the Sherman Tree and towards the Congressional Grove is a nice easy tour with a high density of Sequoias. Once you get about 100 yards in you have the place completely to yourself.

Makes you feel a bit small

Unlike the summertime when you have lots of people and designated trails, wintertime in the Giant Forrest gives you solitude and freedom; something that is not always easy to find in some National Parks.

Bob and Reba checking out the vista

On the way back to the car we took a high route and found some nice backcountry area to do some turns. The light snow made turns a blast, even on my skinny skis.

Bob drops through the trees and over a bridge

I've done this tour a few times, and it never dissapoints. This trip, the combination of the great conditions and the great company made it one of my favorite days of 2010 for sure.

Dog days of winter

2010-03-09T13:54:00.001-08:00

Had to share...

Hospital Rock for Desperate Souls

2010-03-09T12:11:00.001-08:00

After a long winter with no boating, some nice weather and a hunk of time on our hands convinced us that a trip to the Kaweah was warranted. Normally I am a high water junkie; my personal low run on this section before was over 600 cfs at Three Rivers, but reports of successful runs down in the 400's made us think that a flow of 380 cfs might be doable, if not enjoyable. After two low water runs (one at about 380 and another at about 400 - corresponding to about 120-140 cfs on the stretch), I can definately say that this run is a good time, with or without water.

Rebecca looking up at a scenic Angel Wing rock formation

The first day we ran from the Hospital Rock parking lot down to zero-to-sixty. At that point the 60 cfs diversion made the river extremely non-enticing, so we hiked up to the roadside and jogged the shuttle from there. The second day we decided to walk on up to Buckeye campground and put in there.

Rebecca on Buckeye rapid

Gino takes his turn

When we got down to the "normal" Hospital Rock put-in, we discoverd the scary reality that is the Hospital Rock rapid - Check out the massive, tree clogged sieve on river right. At this flow there is no water going around the sieve...

Rebeeca doesn't like the line on this one

From there it looked pretty chunky down to Baby Niagra, so we decided to shoulder back to Baby Niagra and put-in there. Most of the rapids from there down had the same lines as normal water with smaller holes and a lot less push.

Rebeeca on the roadside drop

The only exception really was 420 rapid where the water starts to go subterranian. The first day we carried around the entry sieve and ran the rest, the second day we just called it and walked around the whole thing.

Reba's 87th photo on 420 gorge

That funky drop with the pinball finish

Gino on Table Rock

Again, I was blown away by how much fun this run was at these low flows. Maybe it was not being in a boat for 4 or 5 months, but I would certainly go do this again on a nice February day!

The author getting his Februboof on

Out of the office, will be back soon...

2010-03-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

We are still alive and well, just been either too busy or too lazy to update stuff. So here are a few pics and synopsis of what has been going on around here...

2009-2010 winter has been a good one around the Kern River Valley. The normal El Nino pattern here is wet and warm; for some reason, the latest rendition of El Nino has been wet and cold. Normally we have to do most of our skiing above 8000 feet, but this year's low elevation snowline has opened up some new territory for us, namely Spirit Bowl.

Mike Breaking Trail to the top

Spirit Rock is a granite outcrop near the top of the Sherman Pass (at least the part that they plow in the winter) and has a nice north facing slope. Marc, Mike, Andrew, Rebecca and I got a chance to get on it one day with a nice fresh dump of snow.

Sorry Andrew, I didn't have any good pictures of you skiing, so this will have to do

A look at Spirit Bowl from the top - Spirit Rock is to the left

Mike with Spirit Rock in the Background

All in all it was a super day; good sn0w, good folks, good workout...

Marc shredding his spirit

One of the more entertaining aspects of this ski is the exit across a creek and up the hill back to the car. Some folks decide to ditch their skis and jump across, others tried to make a snow bridge.

Um... how did you get across?

"Back in Canada we simply walk on water" - Marc Vernon

We all eventually made it across with varying levels of sucess and skinned our way back to the car. Who says Kernville is best enjoyed in the Summer!

Happy New Year

2010-01-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Weeeeee!

Got a couple of decent storms in December, enough to start poking around on the Tele-Skis. They didn't plow up Sherman pass until right around new years, so we were relegated to the Greenhorns - still a lot of fun to be out playing in the snow.

Rebecca trying to avoid stump alley

Rebecca and I went out in during one storm and found some fun spots - a little thin in places, but well worth the work.

Marc and Rebecca at minitahoe

A few days later we got out on a bluebird day with Marc and had a blast on some thick, wet snow.

Eric Showing off his mad-Georgia-tele-skills

We found a nice north facing stash and pretty much obliterated it - so don't even try to go there until the next big snow ;-)

give me a C -eh-N-eh-D-eh

It was a great couple of days to try out our new skis - and man were they nice...

Who says there is no line here

The storms brought usually shy Greenhorn Snow People as well...

Happy New Year - here's to a great start in 2010!

Moab and Gooseberry Rocks!

2009-11-19T11:04:00.001-08:00

So It has been a while since I promised pictures - lots has been going on at the brewery. Anyway I wanted to get these up from our trip to Gooseberry Mesa and Moab - both of which provided some of the most fun/unique riding I've ever had.

On the way to the Great American Beer Festival, we decided we deserved to have a little fun. First off was a stop at Gooseberry Mesa just outside of Zion Nat'l Park. Neither Rebecca or I had ever ridden on Slick Rock before. We started off on the practice loop to get our toes wet; turns out slick rock is really not slick at all. Gaining confidence we headed on for a loop out the South Rim to the viewpoint (seen above) then back along the North Rim.

The first few minutes was pretty humbling on a section called bowls and ledges - everything was so different from what we were used to. Not only did it look like there was no way to climb up this stuff, but it really looked like it would hurt when (not if) you fell.

Part of the frustration was that we were on a trial marked as moderate, and we knew we wanted to head back on a trail that was considered difficult. Thoughts of mangled bikes and bodies mingled with amazment at how fun and pretty this place was. It wasn't until we actually hit the Yellow Trail (marked as difficult) that we began to get some confidence that we might actually make it. It turns out that confidence is everything on slickrock, since the rock can handle much more than you think it can.

Pretty soon we were comfortable that not only was slickrock much easier than the type of riding we were used to, it was a frickin' blast!

It was so much fun, that we decided to camp out that night and do the loop in the other direction with an addition through hidden canyon the next morning before heading out to GABF.

Skip ahead and we were on our way home after a very eventful and fun few days in Denver. What better way to break up the long ride home that another stop, this time in Moab to meet up with some friends and ride there. Our first day was on Porcupine ridge - a bit more like the riding we were used to with bombing, ledgy downhills and some impossible moves (for us at least). I didn't have the camera with, but we had a great time riding with Corey, Lisa and Steve. The next day we were on our own and were pretty much required to ride the Slickrock Trail.

Having spent a few days on slickrock now, we were comfortable enough to enjoy the amazing scenery this ride has to offer. If you were going to build the perfect mountain bike park, you would be hard pressed to top this place; Amazing views, fun riding and some kick-your-butt hills made this ride unforgettable.

I have to say, I love my local trails, but I really can't wait to get back to these places for some more good times.

A Little Slickrock on the to and from GABF

2009-10-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since our last post, but we are still up to no good. The latest was a trip to Gooseberry Mesa and Moab on the way to and from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. We've never ridden slickrock before and man was it fun (and different than anything we've ridden before).

We'll try to get up some more pics soon, but while I've got time I'll throw up a couple of pictures from the i-phone

Rebecca and Lisa on Porcupine Rim

Eric doesn't need no stinkin' bike for slickrock

Rebecca enjoying the spectacular camping in Slickrock State Park

Dudes (and one Dudedette) Paddling Faster Than Normal

2009-09-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

So you've done Cherry Creek, big deal. Have you done it in a non-stop fashion while paddling faster than normal from the confluence to the leap? Have you then gone on to run Lumsden with the peanut gallery in full effect? Have you then gone on to party for 12 hours straight? Have you then gone on to paddle the creek the next day in a state somewhere between extremely hungover and still intoxicated?

If so, you've officially earned your Cherry Creek Badge of honor. If not, you have something to aspire to... or is it perspire to...

RACERS, ON YOUR MARKS

If you have been to the Captain Kirk Cherry Creek Memorial Race, you know what it is all about. If you haven't... Well if you haven't it is kind of hard to describe, but I guess I'll try to explain what it means to me - it's about being with your paddling brothers and sisters and celebrating how lucky we are to be able to do what we do.

It is also about boating hard and playing hard.

Screw this Green Boat! The Captain (aka Charlie Center)

The Man, the legend - Noceti

A sober (I think) Joe Bosquin

Tim Hagan - the man behind the curtain
Eventual Runner-up Macy Burnham (check out the Dancer Pro...)

Keith and Rebecca (left) planning out their race strategy). It went something like this:

Keith: "If I get hammered, you have to keep going so that someone can time the race"
Rebecca: "If I get hammered you better save my ass!"

If you look closely you can see people talking smack

The intensity at the put-in. Feel the tension?

Safety boats getting a head start - they should get to Mushroom by the time I do...

The race itself is about 40 minutes long; from the confluence of the main down to Lewis' Leap. I have to say that you start to feel pretty exposed about 15 minutes into the race when you are already extremely tired, are headed into Mushroom, realize you are probably passing the last of the safety boaters and come to terms with the fact that you will be paddling the remainder of the class V run on your own.

To be honest, I'm guessing that there were folks past Mushroom to help out a racer in need - the problem was the lack of oxygen and tunnel vision prevented me from being able to see them. Keith and Rebecca, on the other hand were completely on their own; they raced as a team, ostensibly providing safety for one another as they made their way down to the finish line. This is certainly one of the more thankless jobs during the weekend and a big thumbs up to those two for sucessfully escorting the time clock down to the leap!

This year's race sure seemed to have all the makings of a good one. There were 5 Green Boats, yes 5 (I think that must be every single Green Boat on the west coast). Macy Burnham, Tim Hagan and Ben Wartburg were the only ones that "manned" up and paddled old school boats (the Dancer Pro, Animas and a sinking Dagger boat of some sort). I rounded out the class with my stubby Remix 69 - but like I told everyone, it's not the size that matters...

Sure enough, It was one of the more competitive races in recent memory (except for Charlie blowing away the field for the win). Here are the results

Long Boat
1. Charlie C., Green Boat, 36:40
2. Macy B., Dancer Pro, 37:44
3. Guido, Remix, 37:52
4. Taylor C., Green Boat, 37:53
5. Robbie H., Green Boat 38:07
6. Jared N., Green Boat, 38:38
7. Thomas M., Green Boat, 38:50
8. Tim H., Animas, 40:30
9. Ben W., Sinking Response, 1:01:34

Short Boat
1. Ben J., Mystic, 40:25
2. Aaron S., Nomad, 41:03
3. Kurt S., Nomad, 41:15
4. Joe B., Nomad, 42:11
5. Sean M., Nomad, 43:04
6. Chad D., Nomad, 46:43
7. Roman N., Fluid Solo, 55:10

Team
1. Rick S., Habitat, 44:46
Jim B., Jefe
2. Rebecca G., Remix, 45:37
Keith K., Nomad

Highlights of my run included a mostly-capsized run through Jawbone, a sweet boof off the center rock in Mushroom, a complete flub of Unknown Soldier, getting lost in some boulder garden, survival through Sky King and a nice boof at Christmas Tree Hole. Other highlights include, but were not limited to, Ben W mostly sinking his way down, Roman's heroic surf in Richard's Hole and Dave and Kevin's equally heroic rescue of Roman in Richard's Hole.

As racers finish their runs, they congregate on the rock overlooking Lewis' Leap and talk smack about how much faster they could have been as well as make fun of other folks as they make their way down. Comments like "Is Joe racing or is he safety - it doesn't look like he is racing..." or "Where is Ben, we are about to loose light on the sun-dail".

Charlie explaining exactly how he smoked everyone

So who's setting safety for the safty folks...

Rebecca looking bad-ass

Ducklings headed down the leap

One of the highlights of the weekend is when the race is done and everyone fires up Lumsden. The peanut gallery is always in good form and you get to see just about anything that can happen on Lumsden. We were a little late getting down this year and only got to catch the tail end of the action, but here is some of it (mixed in with a little pre-race day footy).

The scene...

The parking lot below Lummy

Is that Joe's boat?

Is that Joe?

After the fun at Lumsden, it's time for some serious lounging and swimming time before the late night party scene...

Lounging on the rocks

Who says pool toys are for kids

Taylor achieving terminal velocity

Something funny happened...

After this, things got a little hazy, something about a killer BBQ, the Big Creek Shot table, keg stands, men in dresses, not one but two bands, and a whole lot of dancing. Maybe we'll round up some pictures for a later post. Until then.

A little vidy of the Lumsden show

In memory of Kirk, Kenny Gould, Deb Martin, Larry Berg, Lars Holbek, Jon Burnham

Fun on Fordyce

2009-08-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a run that has all the feel of a High-Sierra run without all the work, you'll find it on Fordyce Creek. Recreational releases in the late Summer/early Fall make this a destination spot for most Class V boaters in California once many other runs are done. We made the 6 1/2 hour trip from Kernville to see what all the fuss was about - was it worth the trip? You bet!

400 cfs of Fordyce - portage #1

After getting back from Upper Cherry Creek back on July 4th, things have not gone very smoothly at the ol' work place. Without getting into details, we were more than ready for a couple of days off after about a month and a half of mostly work and very little play. We were so ready, in fact, that we left Kernville at 8 pm and drove through the night, ending up at Lake Spaulding at about 2:30 am with no paddling partners, no pre-arranged shuttle, and basically no plan. The thought was that there had to be people there - it was the only thing other than Cherry Creek running in the Sierra.

As usual, our optimism for hoards of California boaters was ill-founded, and a couple of hours after waking up at 7:30 am (so we wouldn't miss anybody), our attentions were turned towards having to spend a day in Truckee being tourists. We had heard that Fordyce is a fairly long day and thought that certainly by 9:30 the hoards would have arrived - they hadn't, so we packed up and reluctantly drove off to check out the Tahoe area. As we were pulling out of the parking lot the cavalry came to the rescue. Two cars with boats! Chris was in one car - a Nevada City resident who had done the run a few times before, and Serge - a Russian born paddler who, like us, was a newbie on the creek. After a brief conversation, we agreed to paddle and off we went.

I had heard various reports on the shuttle - long, 4-wheel drive, easy to get lost, etc. I'd also heard various reports on the run - Class V, remote, scenic, etc. In retrospect, I believe someone can do the run reasonably without having someone who has done it before (certainly beta on walking around the last couple of hundred yards would help). I'm not so sure I would take on the shuttle without someone who has done it before. Needless to say, it is 4-wheel drive (any reasonable 4-wheel drive will do), and you can get lost (take the unmarked right near the top of the hill!).

The next day things went a little smoother, the hoard (two other cars) appeared earlier (9:00 am) and we had picked up an additional paddler in our party (Jason flew in from Utah just for the occasion). Since we knew the river and the shuttle now we had a fairly leisurely day

Once you get to the river, things start off pretty much right away with a fun slide.

Rebecca rubbed out in Eraserhead

Rebecca, Headless?

Immediately after there is a series of peton-potential read and run drops (far left, not too far right not too far left - got it?). Then there is a scenic drop into a pool in a rapid known as Old Man's. All the while in this first half-mile you are still marvelling at the surroundings and the crystal clear water. Soon the river basically tells you to quite taking it all in and pay attention dammit. As you leave the pool of Old Man's and round the corner you notice the dropoff that is Insanity Falls. Now every rapid on Fordyce has been run, two in particular on not what I would consider "classics" and Insanity Falls is the least "classic" of the two. Don't get me wrong, there is a legit line and it looks like it could even be fun, but for some reason, the serenity of the trip to that point just throws me off any desire to run this...

The Scenery coming into Insanity Falls

After insanity, the whitewater stays fun for about another mile woth a fun boof, bishops balcony another fun boof and then Rotator Cuff

A super-fun boof below the falls

Of the classic drops on the run, Rotator Cuff is probably the one that grabs your attention the most (along with split falls). There is a nice long lead-in ramp into about an 8 foot falls with a hole that is nicely backed in on the right side. Of the two days I ran it I had a super clean sky-boof (on the first day) and a deep melt-down (probably taking it for granted on the second day).

Rotator Cuff - glory boof or melt-down...

Jason rotating the cuff on day 2 (don't ask me how...)

After this the river mellows out noticably for a few miles; beautiful class I-II stretches occasionally interrupted by fun class IV drops or gorges.

Rebecca Cruising

Lunch - eating it all up

In this middle section you'll find yourself alternately oggling the surroundings and grinning at your paddling companions - an absolutelly amazing section of river.

Wolf on another fun boof

Where's Barry? Sliding on the sweet left line of course...

Jason pinned again...

After you cross under the green bridge, the whitewater picks up again. A fun gorge (rattlesnake?) and some more drops until you get to the highlight section of the trip. Fordyce Falls, Split Falls, The Hole that ate the Donner Party and more...

Fordyce falls is a fun 15 footer with easy lapability and a couple of different lines to try (including yet another melt down just right of where Jason is in the picture below).

Jason on Fordyce Falls

Another classic on this run is split fall - not quite 20 feet from top to bottom, but if add the distance traveled underwater after you hit the pool, it has to be approaching 25'

Alex on Split falls

Wolf taking on the Split

Jason about to go deep

After all this, The Hole that Ate the Donner Party really doesn't look all that bad, but I can attest that the hole at the bottom is sticky and has enough juice to enduce a couple of ends in a Jefe...

The hole that is about to eat Eric (green jefe entering on the left)

A little vid of Rebecca...

There are about 3 or 4 more fun drops after this until you reach a boulder garden that gradually gets more and more choked off. On the first day we tried to work our way down until we ran out of space. The best approach is to hit the trail on river left when you see a giant rock. Stay on the trail a couple of hundred yards, it will go back down to river level and you can finish the paddle down to Lake Spaulding. Once you are on the lake you get to paddle a couple of miles back to the parking lot where most folks get to hang out and drink beer while a couple of unluckies get to do the 2 hour round-trip shuttle...

Overall I would have to give this run an A+ rating (above 400 cfs) with the only downside being the shuttle (and maybe the lake paddle for some folks). We decided that Fordyce Creek is the bastard child of Upper Cherry Creek and the Headwater of the Kern. The fractured granite domes that surround you and the cedar and sugarpine forrest that try to block their view are, in my opinion, the highlight of the trip. I would easily do this trip as an overnighter just to hang out and enjoy the scenery a bit longer. I think it is one of those runs where higher water is definately better - with 500 cfs feeling better in every way than 400 cfs. We'll definately look forward to making the pilgramage again next year...

UCC: on the high-side of great!

2009-07-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

Intro:

First of all I need to preface this post with this: This run is entirely not worth doing. If you plan your life around making the 4-5 day window, you are a total loser. It is saturated with people, the hike in is brutal, the whitewater is overrated, the scenery is mundane and the camping is marginal at best.

With that out of the way, here is my outlook on Upper Cherry Creek...

Wow...

You can't really describe this run; you can only experience it. The secret is out - Upper Cherry Creek is the crowned jewel of California kayaking. It has everything: A true wilderness experience, jaw dropping scenery and as for the whitewater - well, you've seen the pictures and videos. The downside is that there is going to be increased usage on this run, most likely to the point that exceeds what the area can handle. Some might point out that blogs like this only endanger this run (and others) even more - and they have a point. On the upside, there are several defense mechanisms built-in to Upper Cherry Creek. First is the hike; 10+ miles with a boat and all your gear on your back is part of the limiting factor (boat draggers will be black listed). Second is the whitewater; while some might argue you can turn this into a class IV+ run, the creek itself will limit the number of people that attempt it. Finally, the flow window is so short and relatively unpredictable, that only a dedicated few will be able to catch it at the right time.

The following account is obscenely long and will be fairly uninteresting for most folks. But when you finish a run like this you find yourself talking about in incessantly to anyone that will listen. So to spare folks that torture, I decided to write it all down; allowing you to skim, skip and ignore whatever you choose. If you are looking for detailed info on the hike, the run or flows, it's all buried in here somewhere. If you are interested in tales of carnage and terror, those are there as well. You'll even find some candid thoughts on fear and how special it is to overnight in the Sierra from someone who has been paddling for over 25 years. Enjoy.

Please Read and Respect

Materials:

Dedication certainly played into our trip this year; with flows remaining temptingly close to good, but seemingly never dropping in, UCC was the ultimate teaser. I had planned on going in as early as a week before we actually did - luckily there was beta coming out from folks paddling West Cherry that the water was still staying high. finally there was no more time to wait; we were going in - level be damned! Certainly I believed that the snow was running out, but the long drive up the East-Side of the Sierra Tuesday afternoon did nothing to instill confidence in my gamble. As I traveled over Tioga Pass, it sure seemed like there was plenty of snow around to keep flows up for a little longer. As luck would have it, it did - but it turns out water is good in UCC...

Until Better info comes along, the T above HH is one option for gauging UCC

Rebecca had left town to volunteer for First Descents - a great program that teaches young adults with cancer how to kayak. In her absence, the plan was to meet Tim Collins and Jacub the Czech (he actually has a last name - Nemec - with some funny squiggles over various letters) on Tuesday Afternoon and then hike in Wednesday morning. We had one more in our group, Jake Stoesz, who was going to arrive late Wednesday and hike in that night and meet us in the morning at camp just below the put-in slide. Seems like an infallible plan right?

I pulled into the takeout clearing to find Tim and Jacub hanging out with Jason and Nate, who had just gotten off the run. Yeah, it was high alright; stories of portaging entire gorges due to scary holes were mixed with reassurance that the water had to be dropping. A few beers and a couple of safety meetings had Tim and Jacub stoked to start hiking in right then and there - cooler heads prevailed and we decided to camp at the put-in and start our hike early in the morning as planned. The night's sleep was interrupted every now and then by thoughts of the hike and the whitewater that lay ahead...

My Rig

The Hike

Morning came soon enough and we started off on the 10+ mike hike at around 7 am. Now I say 10+ miles because I've heard everything from 8 miles to 12 miles. Distance is irrelevant anyway when you are talking about hiking since the terrain really dictates the speed of the hike, but I had heard that 6 hours of hiking time is a nice pace where you are moving, but not pushing it. Since we were going to be waiting for Jake the next day anyway, we decided to take our time and make the hike as pleasant as possible.

Jacub on the Hike

The first half hour or so was uphill; enough to make me wonder how my couch-conditioning program was going to work out for me. Soon enough, though, the trail leveled off and more or less remained cross country for the rest of the way. The hike had pretty much everything you could ask for; stream crossings, mosquitoes, sub-alpine lakes, mosquitoes, scenic overlooks and mosquitoes. Actually it was not that bad thanks to the invention of Deet.

This is Where Mosquitoes Come From

A First Look at Cherry Bomb Gorge - It Even Looks Big from Here...

All in all I would say we actually spent a little under 6 hours hiking, about 30 minutes on provisional safety meetings, 30 minutes resting, eating and getting water, 15 minutes wandering around at the standard getting lost spot and another 20 minutes while I ran back and got the water bottle I left at the creek crossing at the standard getting lost spot. By safety meeting math, that got us to the river in just under 7 hours from the start of the hike. By the way, just before Styx pass, don't go to the cabin - stay right along the creek. If you asked me what the hike was like, I guess I would say it is pretty much what you would expect an 10+ mile hike with your boat and gear to be like...

Looking into the UCC Headwaters

The final 20 minute descent to the river is gratifying, exciting and welcome all at the same time. Kind of like the bottom part of an icecream cone with all the good stuff melted down in it - kind of...

The Hike is Finally Over...

The Creek - Day 1

When we got to the creek, the main question in everyone's mind was "is it still too high?" Certainly it didn't appear to be - calm crystal clear pools can be very deceiving though. I went for a quick swim and sat at the river's edge and soaked in the beauty for a while as we regrouped and relaxed after a solid day's effort.

The Put-in! Nice 360 hole by the way

After a while, the desire to get in our boats got the best of us and we headed down to the put-in slide. A quick scout revealed a great sequence of slides and drops into yet another amazing pool. We hopped back in our boats and it was all smiles down to the pool. Jacub, who had gotten off a high water UCC portage fest a few days earlier mentioned that it seemed like the water had not dropped much. This did not bode well for the rest of the creek, but man, it was a good level for the put-in slide...

Tim on the Put-in Slide

Tim on the Pinball Section of the Put-in Slide

Tim Working out the Pinball Ferry

After a lap down, we decided to set up camp. There were plenty of places to choose from, and after we settled on one, we went back up for more laps on the slide. A nice dinner of mac and cheese and sausage topped of the evening - even the mosquitoes couldn't put a damper on the night.

Home Sweet Home - Camp 1

The Creek - Day 2

The next morning we awoke with the hopes of seeing Jake's boat parked on the beach - no luck. His plan was to start hiking about 9 pm the night before and maybe catch a few hours of sleep at the put-in, so we figured he was still up there catching some z's. We had a leisurely breakfast and then decided to do some more laps on the put-in slide. When we got up there we saw the Colorado boys who had started the hike just after us and camped at the put-in, but apparently no sign of Jake.

At this point there were two realistic possibilities; one was that Jake decided to stop and camp along the hike somewhere, the other was that he got lost and made the wrong turn into the gorge. The wrong turn has probably been done by many groups (including Tim on his first time in). It consists of getting lost at the standard getting lost spot, then plunging off into the canyon about 2 miles downstream of the standard put-in. Apparently sketchy down-climbing around cliffs is one good indicator that you have made a wrong turn...

As 10 am turned to noon, it appeared the later option was the most likely. We decided the best course of action would be to stay put (it seemed the water was still on the high side); even if we got started by 2 pm we would easily get down to Cherry Bomb Gorge before dark. As we chilled out on the rocks, basking in the surprisingly pleasant July sun, we finally heard some shouts. Looking up across the river we saw Jake walking upstream at river level with his boat on his back. After a few hoots and hollers of excitement at finally having our crew together, we got the story. Sure enough, Jake made a wrong turn, ended up downstream a couple of miles, hiked upstream for a while with all his gear, then decided to stash his gear and hike upstream with just his boat. To add to the confusion, he had hiked up earlier sans gear (to within 50 yards of where we were no sitting) and saw a group of 3 paddlers headed down. Having waved to them and having them wave back, he began dashing back to his boat only to find out after the fact that they were not us (we were happily doing laps on the put-in slide). Finally, after somewhere around 11 hours of hiking and a couple of hours of sleep, Jake, finally found us and we were on our way!

Sliding Away - Day 1

Below the put-in slide, there is a long series of easy granite slides with some of the most spectacular scenery I've come across. I have to say that even at high water, some of these slides were pretty rough; I've heard that at "ideal" flows, it is a bit of a drag (pun intended). After that you get to a rocky section with a few distinct drops, then back to more slide like action. Everything was going well until somewhere in the middle of the slide sequence, Jakub snapped a paddle. We busted out one of our breakdowns (now we were down to one) and cut the broken paddle into pieces to be packed out. After that it was back to more action...

Jake in the Overhang - Doesn't look so bad at high water

The Run-out of the Overhang Drop

Soon we came to the first real gorge - I believe it is called the class IV gorge. Jacub had been in at high water a few days earlier and said it was pretty busy, so we decided to give it a quick scout. Plus the extra time gave Jake a minute to rest his eyes while we scrambled down the granite to check out what was ahead. As indicated by it's name, this gorge is not very complicated, the only real issue is the exit rapid called West Coast Gorilla, which I think is bit more intimidating than its East Coast counterpart...

The First Real Gorge - Ending in West Coast Gorilla

From the original scout on river right, the drop looked pretty sketch - dropping into a small channel with pretty substantial piton potential in a pothole on the right. After running the gorge and checking out the drop from the left it seemed a bit more manageable. Jake had run it before, so he acted as probe using the far left line to clear the piton, albeit with a bit of action against the right wall in that general vicinity.

Jake goin' Ape

Jakub and I decided a center rout might be a little more agreeable and he fired it off. The only issue with the center rout was that the boof flake of choice did not have a ton of water going over it, requiring a deft move where you drive up on to it from left to right and then swing the bow back to the left hard before take-off. Jacub had pretty good position going in, but the boof flake just wouldn't let him on soon enough - the result was that he was a little late in getting his bow left and hit the piton pothole at full speed. The result was something like a kick-flip where he was able to remain upright and cartwheel somewhat off the rock; impressive, but not the line I wanted to take. Learning from that, I drove a bit harder, but still barely got my bow in position at the desired take-off spot. The landing was surprisingly soft and the run-out feels a bit like being shot out of a cannon; good stuff.

Jacub pre-kick-flip

Jazzed, we headed downstream into the second gorge (maybe this one is the class IV gorge?). There is a fun boof on the entry then a tricky one where you have to boof and drive right to avoid a bit of mank against the wall on the left.

Nice boof in the Second Gorge

After that there were a couple of slides then a nice area just above Cherry Bomb Gorge where we decided to camp. This brings up another fact about UCC; there are so many great camps that I think it can handle a large number of folks. The main concern is to make sure that you use proper etiquette when setting up and breaking down camp. Don't trash the place, don't poop next to the river and don't burn anything down - words to live by...

Home Sweet Home - Camp 2

The Creek - Day 3

The next day we got an early start; clearly everyone was stoked to see if the gorge was down to runnable levels. We ate breakfast and started making our way downstream. We got to the top of the gorge and started the long hike up and around (in the process Tim found a Rattlesnake that was so friendly it didn't even rattle). Our first glance of Cherry Bomb Falls over the lip was not the most encouraging; the entire cauldron was white. Not only that, but there was very little green water in the succeeding drops. Jake pointed out the sequence: left-left-middle-right-middle-left. I repeated this mantra in my head over and over till I had it down.

After making our way to the view up the gorge from the bottom it seemed the crux move was really the last. The falls and the weir were definitely stiff, but in theory, a rescue could be performed somewhere before right-middle-left; just before the last three drops it looked like you could get out on the right side. This seemed like a great place to set token safety for the last sequence that entailed a 6 footer without a clear launching pad into a decent sized hole, followed closely by another fold, then the crucial chokestone boof. There was clearly not much time for recovery in this sequence, so the first move was critical. The lack of safety options and the high water was making me a bit nervous. The devil and the angel on my shoulder began to converse - one of them, I'm not sure which, pointed out that this was my first trip down UCC and maybe I could come back and get into the gorge at lower water. It was even theoretically possible that the water level would come down substantially by that afternoon (we were bound to be going into the gorge around noon - the highest part of the diurnal flow pattern). A quick survey and Tim, Jacub and Jake were all in for going now. A second survey and nobody seemed to psyched about committing to another run later that afternoon. After several minutes looking at the final three drops, I opted out. With the water level and the lack of safety options, the devil, the angel and I deemed that the chances of four of us making it through there unscathed was pretty slim. Everyone nodded and we started heading back to our boats.

Our usually chatty group was silent on the hike back up. We got to the last overlook of Cherry Bomb Falls and lingered for a second or two. As I sat there trying to picture those guys going in, me sitting there overlooking the whole scene unable to do anything should a problem arise - I decided that we were better off if we all went. Besides, I knew I would regret not going in there and I felt strongly that I could make the moves. I broke the silence - "I'm in...". Everyone was stoked, I think we all felt much better as a team and even though I really hadn't spent much time with these guys, a trip like this really seems to create a bond between people.

As a side note, after the fact I wondered to myself about when you call off running something and when you go for it. Certainly there were lots of doubts in my minds about headed in there, but I would not say there was an ominous feeling. The longer you paddle, the more you walk around big stuff you know you can run - that's a fact. But where is the line between healthy concern and listening to your gut. I've always said I respect the paddler that walks something they can run more than the paddler that charges something they shouldn't. The question always is whether you can recognize your own place in this spectrum...

Once you commit to entering the gorge, there are only two options. One is to run it, the second is to back out at the lip of Cherry Bomb Falls and head up a sketch crack back to safety - but in reality once you drop in, you're in. The lead-in rapids in the gorge are pretty darned good - one we walked around since it seemed a bit dodgy and we were were more focused on what lay ahead. Once you finish these, there is a huge pool - the calm before the storm.

The first time you paddle up to the jumble of rocks above Cherry Bomb falls, it's a religious experience. The towering granite walls, the crystal clear water, the not-so-distant roar of whitewater echoing through the canyon. This is the holy-land of kayaking and one might argue that once you pass through, you will never be the same. I wonder if meeting the Pope would make me have to poop in my pants...

Once you get to the lip of Cherry Bomb Falls, you get to stare down the barrel of the gun. The line is pretty basic; drive left and hold your angle avoid surfing the weir and regroup for the next sequence. We decided to run it in groups of two; Jake and Jacub, followed by Tim and me.

Jake went first, opting to go right of the lead in rock (which was actually quite a bit underwater) driving hard left. He hit is line, but the approach left him almost sideways on landing. Since the water was pretty high, the boil coming off the wall caught his downstream edge and he flipped as he entered the weir. After a quick roll, he was upright but in the dreaded weir-surf pointed to the right (the least desirable direction). Jake is bomber and we were pretty sure he was going to work out of it, but it was still a disconcerting position for us (and him) to be in. Helpless, Tim and I signaled for Jacub to wait - the last thing you need is two in the hole. We sat there and watched and encouraged Jake to surf it out. I'd give it a good 30 seconds of quality time before Jake worked his way out - to cheers from the crew. Jacub now had the green-light and tried the line to the left of the entry rock. This line seemed much more controlled and he pretty much nailed it, brushing up against the bottom corner of the wall slightly as he dropped through the weir. Sweet; two down safely, two to go.

Jake headed in

Jacub - Note this is considered high flow for this drop.

It was time for Tim and myself to go. Now those of you that paddle with me might notice a little ritual I do before I run anything of difficulty. First, I find some dirt and rub down my paddle and hands; that's because somewhere in my lineage is there is a race of prodigious grease producing ability. If I did not constantly rub down my paddle, it would simply fly out of my hands every now and then. The other thing I do is splash water in my eyes; you see I wear contacts and this seems to be the best way to prime them so they don't swim around in my eyes, or even worse fall out. Well my ritual was cut short due to the fact that I could not find any sand - the whole gorge seemed to be stripped clean. Tim was clearly ready to go, so I skipped this step and went on to splash my eyes and get ready to go. Next time I intend to carry a pouch of sand with me into Cherry Bomb Gorge...

The plan was for me to go first, then Tim. We both decided to take the line to the left of the entry rock, driving a little left to keep off the wall at the bottom. I headed into the drop with left angle, once my stern cleared the rock I took a good right stroke - a little excited I probably pushed too hard and felt my boat start to spin left a little too much. No problem, I will just throw in a little correction stroke on the left - as I did, my dirty little ancestry kicked in and the paddle completely turned in my hands. Not good. As my boat continued to spin left, the only thing I could do was try to re-grip my paddle, relax and do the classic reverse boof. Yep, I was pretty much backwards by the time I went over the drop. You know how time can slow down right, well everything kind of came to a stop as I flew off the drop and I thought to myself, in a surprisingly calm manner: "Just Ride it out". I guess the kayaking Gods were feeling generous that day; I skied the autoboof, landing backwards but perfectly balanced, and just paddled away from the wall and through the weir. In the eddy below I saw Jacub laughing hysterically, Jake congratulated me on my line (having only seen me go through the weir he had no idea how bad I pooched it). Moments later Tim flew off the drop, facing in the desired direction and having little trouble with the wall or the weir, and we were all ready to negotiate the remainder of the gorge.

We were all extremely stoked until Jake pointed out the obvious - "we're not done yet!". The next few drops are pretty straight-forward; left, left, middle. Then a little break before the final right, middle, left. We eddied out and I looked up at our planned safety spot. As we sat there, Jacub grinned and peeled out - making it over the first drop, fighting left through the second and finding the slot to the left of the choke-stone. "Weren't we going to set safety here?" I asked, noticing how hard he had to struggle to get left. Tim kind of shrugged and charged off with a similar result to Jacub. I guess not, I shrugged to myself. Jake looked at me and I gave him the nod - off he went. Perhaps he was a little too far center or perhaps it was because Jake is just a big guy, but his boat went deep in the hole in the first drop, back-endering a bit and pushing him back to the right. Unable to fight left through the next drop he basically dropped over the middle dead sideways. At this point, Jake began his second surf of the gorge. Thinking that now would have been a good time to have that rope, I scrambled out of my boat in the tiny eddy and began trying to figure a route up. It was clear that I had to get the boat up to a pothole on the right and then traverse across a crack downstream to get into position. Knowing in the back of my head that the clock was ticking, I decided to grab the bow of my boat in one hand and try to pull myself up via a small crack with the other hand. This proved to be a serious miscalculation with a loaded boat. Straining, I pulled myself halfway up but could get no farther; the boat was pulling me back into the river. There weren't too many options now, one was to let go of the boat, the other was let it drag me back down to the water. Losing the boat would have not done Jake or myself any good since the rope was still in it, so I decided to try a controlled slide back towards the water. Thinking how bad it would suck to end up swimming the rapid that Jake was now stuck in, I clung to what little bits of rock I could until I was able to get back to a somewhat stable position back where I started. Pissed at myself for taking as much time as I was, I grabbed the rope, clipped it to the bow and climbed up to the pothole where I pulled my boat up and scrambled across the rocks to see what the status was. This whole process probably took over a minute and I was extremely relieved to see Jake still in his boat and in once piece in the pool below the drop. Apparently after repeated, and unsuccessful, attempts to surf out the desired left side, Jake had to finally surf out the sievy looking right side. I'm still not real sure how he did this, but he said it kind of flushed him under the overhanging rock.

So there I was, sketched out from almost falling in the river, out of breath and not at all pysched to run the next drop. By this point in time Tim had done a similar rock scramble up from below. About 50 feet separated us and I asked if it looked like I could make it to where he was standing. He gave me a two word reply: "Must Run!", and I turned back towards my boat and began getting in.

Sometimes when you are running class V you have no choice but to just settle down and get your shit together. This was one of those times. I seal launched into the eddy, sat there for a minute and took some deep breaths, conjured a mental image of the line and I was off. Nice boof on the right, controlled through the middle then a flurry of strokes to get left before a sweet boof to the left and around the Chokestone. Pheww!

At this point with everyone safely through Cherry Bomb Gorge it was all smiles - feeling stoked and relieved at the same time, we pulled up on the rock in the center of the next drop and seal launched into the last drop of the gorge proper. Taking a minute to rest and regroup, we recounted our individual adventures to each other before turning our attention downstream.

The remaining slides and falls into Flintstone Camp are just loads of fun - starting with the jedi slide, followed by a series of fun tea-cups.

Post Jedi Action

Dump-Truck

Too Much Fun after the Bomb

Tim and Jacub Safely into Flintstone Pool

Even with all the action, it was still just after noon when we pulled into Flintstone Camp - plenty of time to finish off the run. We all agreed, though, that we were happy to stop and relax and enjoy this awesome place for one more night. We ran into the Colorado Boys who were breaking from lunch and headed down to camp a little lower, probably below Dead Bear. They mentioned another group of 9 had run the gorge the afternoon before (probably the first descent of the year) and had a swimmer in the weir - no idea how that one ended up. We started pulling all the gear out of our boats and having lunch and the Colorado boys paddled off to enjoy the goods downstream.

For the next 8 hours or so we chilled, did the occasional lap down the series of waterfalls above camp and enjoyed being in the heart of Upper Cherry Creek. I have to say, that the dichotomy between being utterly overwhelmed with adrenaline one minute and being so completely relaxed hanging out by the pools the next is hard to describe. I have to say that that was probably one of my top 10 days on the river in my life - even though we only made it about a mile and a half...

Home Sweet Home - Camp 3

Ready you are: Happy-hour at Jedi Slide

Dayz End - Day 3

We also ventured downstream to look at the drops below camp - groove tube, perfect twenty and double pothole. We actually got to catch a couple of the Colorado boys running double pothole. I had no idea the lead in to that drop was so ugly, but I figured we would figure it all out tomorrow.

After getting back to camp, we saw some folks hiking down the opposite side of the river with their gear - leaving the kayaks behind to go-light into the gorge the following day. This seems like a good way to do it on some levels; if something goes wrong in the gorge you dealing with unloaded boats - something that would have really helped me in trying to get out to get a rope to Jake. On the other hand, once you get used to paddling a loaded boat it has its advantages - you can punch almost any hole and the added gear seems to add stability. The final advantage to doing the gorge with gear is you don't have to carry it all around the gorge...

That night we cooked up some gargantuan meals. I had evidently packed enough food for about eight days on the river; which was good since some other were starting to run low. By the time is was all said and done I think a packed out a single bag of couscous and an extra power bar or two. I had a great night's sleep under the stars and felt about as content as I had felt in a long time.

The Creek - Day 4

The next day we woke up and had a leisurely breakfast. The word was that we had some of the biggest drops still ahead of us, but plenty of time to do it. The water had dropped again - it was looking like those folks who were waiting for the fourth of July weekend were going to luck out with "optimal" flows.

We set off downriver, looking back one last time at Flintstone camp with Cherry Bomb Gorge in the distance. Around the corner was one little drop before we came to the Groove Tube, Perfect 20 and double pothole. Jake had had his fill of excitement the day before and elected to meet us at the bottom of double pothole.

Breakfast Drop - Day 4

Jacub busted out the video camera while Tim and I ran through. The groove tube is a cool 8 foot slot through what looks like a total maelstrom. The line is clean though and both Tim and I emerged unscathed. The Perfect 20 is all of 20 feet and lands in nice cauldron with potential problems on the left side if you were to end up there. You can run the left line and hit a flake partway down; the result is a drier landing, but potential for back compression if you land too flat. The other option is to take it down the right side and tuck straight in. At this point I must admit I'm no expert at running waterfalls; the tuck is not something I encounterd often in my days racing and most of the rivers I run these days don't have clean 20+ footers. Anyway, after a brief lesson from Tim, I floated off the lip of Perfect 20, tucked, hit, resurfaced, sweet. I couldn't resist sneaking a peak as I landed; the results was feeling like I had been slapped around a bit, but I think I kind of liked it.

Jacub followed soon after electing to take the left line, hitting the flake about halfway down. The result was a flat landing - luckily the water was high enough to make it soft (also Jacub is young and compressible).

On to Double Pothole. We got to the entry and scouted; the entry line the Colorado boys had taken on the right the afternoon before was not an option anymore. The water had dropped enough that the flake they had gotten their bow over was not very enticing any longer. Staring at the uglyness that is the lead-in to Double Pothole was discouraging. You've seen the video of the drop - it is super sweet looking. What you don't see is the rock jumble above where all the water slams into a giant boulder. At high really high water you can paddle up against the right wall and clear the boulder, then scramble left to the takeoff point. At lower water you can portage around the left side and put-in right next to the boulder and ferry above it. At medium high water neither of those options seemed all that legit.

After staring at our options for a minute we decided that we might be able to use a pothole right at the lip to put-in, but it would require some teamwork. With one person lowering a boat down into the pothole and one person holding the boat in position, the third person could get in their boat. At this point the paddler would need a push upstream to give them enough time to turn the boat down and head off the lip. This wouldn't leave much room for error, but it seemed like the best plan of attack.

After a brief discussion, we all agreed. The last step involved various 5-8 rock smeering routs to get everyone in place. After almost falling in and swimming the last part of Cherry Bomb Gorge, I had no interest in falling in and swimming Double Pothole - despite my 5-10 savants, my confidence in my rock climbing ability had seriously diminished in the past 24 hours. Jacob and Tim did most of the work while I clung to whatever little holds I could find to get in place. With Jacub going first, Tim in the assist position and me operating the rope, we were able to put successfully put our plan into action.

Double Pothole - The assisted Triple Pothole Version

Tim was next, now with me in the assist position. Once there, I realized that there was a lot of responsibility in the assists position. You didn't want to be the guy that screwed up the push, resulting in a beat-down of your friend. At the same time, it was all fairly straight-forward. Tim nodded that he was ready and I pushed him up and out into the current. A quick turning stroke and a couple of forward strokes to get speed and he was off. I never got to see anyone land their lines, but by Jake's reaction downstream everything seemed fine. Finally it was my turn. Jacub had climbed back up to assist me - a quick push, a quick turn and I was flying off the lip. Being so close to the drop, you couldn't really get much speed; the result was that it was hard to land high and dry, instead the bow scooped a little and I received a little face-shot before exiting the drop cleanly at the bottom. From there, both Tim and Jacub decided the quickest way down was to just jump into the pool; Jacub electing the take the forward flip route...

Jacub about to Flip into the Pool Below Double Pothole (top left)

Right after Double Pothole the hits just keep on going; another nice sequence of tea-cup drops followed by Kiwi in a Pocket and Dead Bear Falls. At these flows the Tea-cups were pretty juicy but fun - I would say that with much higher flows they would become pretty intimidating. We ran groups of two through that section and regrouped above Kiwi in a Pocket.

Having filled my adrenaline box for the week with whitewater and rock scrambling, I really had no desire to run Kiwi or Dead Bear. Both drops involved 20+ footers with cave rescue potential. Plus, having run everything else to that point I figured I should leave something to the imagination. Jake and Tim and I set safety and filmed while Jacub dropped into Kiwi - good line. Then Jake and I watched as Jacub and Tim fired up Dead Bear using the lead-in and seal-launch options respectively. The seal-launch provides very little time to line up the drop; in fact you really are just seal launching into the free-fall. Tim's just kind of kept going left after he hit the water, resulting in about a 45 degree angle on the landing. It looked a bit awkward, but he came up smiling...

Jacub on the Lead-in Line in Dead Bear Falls

Tim on the Seal Launch Line into Dead Bear Falls

After Dead Bear things mellow out considerably. There is a fun slide, then a drop with an overhanging slot that we decided to skip, then a fun drop ending in a hole that tends to make people swim - no problem though since the pool below is the size of a giant parking lot...

UCC Skittles - bite sized candies by the fun slide

Another Drop You've Probably Never Seen (but will enjoy)

A Tight Drop Near the End

At this point you begin to notice the character of the river changing dramatically. The river starts to meander through trees and past beaches. The next mile would actually be the worlds best inner-tube run; dangling your feet in the water, looking up at the granite walls, sipping on a margarita out of a nalgene bottle - truly spectacular scenery.

A Scenic Meandering Section of UCC

Jake Happy to be UCC'n

After a while, West Cherry comes in on the right and things start to pick back up again. There are lots of drops, but since we were moving quickly, they kind of run together in my mind. There is one good sized drop that I recall and one drop that we portaged (although it looked to be runnable). There was definitely some fun stuff near the end of the first gorge and a fun slide just before the last gorge.

A calm spot in the Red Gorge

About a half mile from Cherry Lake

The last gorge has several drops of debatable quality. The highlight being the Nozzle - a pinch drop with a bit of a recirculating eddy on the bottom left.

The Nozzle - Next Stop Cherry Lake

From there it is on to the lake. After a short paddle across the lake and a not so short hike up the hill we were back to our shuttle vehicle. Stoked, tired and extremely happy, we celebrated our memorable trip with warm beer and high fives. After headed back to get the car it was off to Buck Meadows for a 49'er burger; which on that day was quite possibly the tastiest burger I've ever had.

After four days of some of the best whitewater and most amazing scenery I've ever come across, it was time to go home. I can't say I was ready to leave, but I can't really say I was ready for more either. I had an overwhelming sense of bliss as I drove over Tioga Pass and back down 395 and the Fourth-of-July fireworks in Independence capped off my journey. It's funny how sometimes you need some periods of insanity just to help keep you sane.

-Eric Giddens

For future reference, here are some of the guages of potential relevance during the time we were on the water.

The T Gauge Above Hetch Hetchy

The Gauge into Cherry Lake - highly experimental

More Kaweeeeeah Action

2009-06-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Yep, another day on the Kaweahs - East Fork one day, Hospital Rock the next; Doesn't get much better for back-to-back day trips. There's lots of info out there on the East Fork, so I won't bore you with the details; just wanted to put up some pics of a really fun couple of days with Rebecca, Jason, Trevor and Geno. There are a few shots that are definately worth looking through, including a nice sequence of Trevor's eventful run through triple drop. The rest are a hodgepodge of shots while we scrambled for cameras between drops. Enjoy!

For those who might be interested in getting on this run this year, or at a later date, the flow peaked at 850 cfs at Three Rivers the day these photos were taken. If you are doing this run earlier in the year you might want higher flows at Three Rivers (due to the fact that the North and Sout Forks are contributing more water in the Spring). On the downside of the spring melt, you are looking for peak flows in Three Rivers anywhere between 650 and 1000.

Disclaimer: This is my subjective opinion having never run the East Fork at low flows. I have, however, put on at 1100 on the downside of peak flows and I can attest that it gets pretty burly - especially if it might be your first time down. FYI, the double secret probation gauge above the put-in bridge apparently read a fairly constant flow (no big diurnal) of aroung 165 cfs. For those who know, this corresponded to the water level being solidly in the notch, lapping 2-4 inches higher. Note: Summer of 09 was not a typical high Sierra year with cold weather and copious thunderstorms in May/June. Hope that helps... All information garnered in this blog may or may not be appicable to said unavigable waterway.

Let the boofs begin - Trevor catches air

The dicey seal-launch

The drop right below the dicey seal launch - which looms in the crack just up and to the right

Then back to the fun stuff...

Rebecca enters the sweet double drop

from below

Eric in the sweet Double Drop

Tim easily gets right

Rebecca also gets right

Eric entering Triple Drop

Landing...

Fighting left through the boil

Finding the Slot on the Left

Lining up the third drop for...

One last face shot...

Happy Ending...

Trevor Enters Triple Drop

Landing?

not where you really want to be...

entering drop 2...

some action...

Then out of drop 2...

Not done yet...

The finale

All in all, a very stout run through T-drop. Not sure I would have pulled it off without a good bootie beer...

A quick stop for lunch where we had a scaley friend to keep us company

Now I always loose focus when people write stuff on their blogs; unless I really know them, all I really want to see are the rad pictures. You might think I'm shallow and unintersting (and I am), but mainly I just have a very short attention span. Anyway, I'm going to interupt the shiney, colorful kayak porn for a second here to interject how much I really really like this run. If you take a second to look past the whitewater in each of these pictures, you'll see a really, really beautiful canyon; not only that, but those of us who have had to hike out know it is "effectively" remote as well. That said, the East Fork has something for everyone; if you want to go big there is Triple Drop, Deadwood, Baby Hook and Skyhook - If you don't, there are lots of great class V drops and a few poison Oak infested portages. Serious Sierra Goodness if you ask my opinion - which you didn't, but your at my blog...

And back to the action:

Jason lays it down old-school

Trevor sliding out the first slide in the slide gorge

Jason on the second slide - go between the Moose Knuckles

and sliding...

Tim lining up the overhang
not the smoothest slide on the East Fork

Garreth from the East Coast digging the East Fork

Tim rounding the corner

Happy People

Part II - Hospital Rock 4.9 ft on the Hospital Rock Gauge (more like 4.7 above the diversion, which was not pulling out the max cfs)

Tim not getting beat down in Baby Niagra

Trevor exiting 420 rapid
Garreth, Laura and Rebecca chillin in 420 gorge
Tim on Table Rock Falls

Tim exits the bird bath

Geno on the superstar boof

Eric at about 20 on zero to sixty

Trevor exceeds 55

Bootie Beers all around - for Geno

and a well deserved one for Trevor - not for T-drop (which for the record was not a swim), but for baby Niagra - a nice welcome to Hospital Rock...

South Merced

2009-06-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

Lars Holbek called the South Fork of the Merced one of the best, runnable, Class V multi-Day trips in the World. After our first trip down this, it's hard to argue with him. The motivation for doing this trip actually had a lot to do with Lars' statement - after his passing this year, it seemed like a nice way to pay tribute him, Nancy and everything they have done for the sport of Kayaking. Plus, with a recommendation like that, how could it not be a ton of fun!

We drove up from Kernville late Tuesday night after work; the plan was to meet a few folks near the take out and shuttle up to the put-in for a two-day trip. Unfortunately, the Yosemite Park crowd was in full force even mid-week, and the pre-arranged campsite was full. After some late-night searching, we finally found a place we could crash for the night- a parking space in the Indian Flat RV camp.

The South Merced is 23+ miles long with lots of Class V - I'm not sure if Lars' 4 hour and 14 minute run will ever be duplicated, but certainly the first time down we were expecting a long 2 days. The result was a desire to get on the river somewhat early on Wednesday - something that was not destined to happen. The Wild Goose Chase that ensued Wednesday morning as we tried to catch up with the rest of our group was somewhat comical - except for the fact that we never caught up with the rest of our group. I'll spare you the details, but a big apology goes out to Tim and Chad - note to self; arrange a back-up meeting time and place in case the shit hits the fan...

Four of us (Jason, Corby, Rebecca and myself) ended up putting on about 1 pm with thunder clouds building, there were a few miles of mellow, scenic river before we started to hit the class V's.

About 3 miles of scenery before it starts

The drops on the South Merced are not really one-stroke wonders; most rapids are fairly long and involved. Having never done the run before, the going was slow. Most of the rapids on the first day are formed by boulders, but there are a few granite drops - and yes, the blind corner on the right side below that one drop is clear...

Rebecca on the run-out of another long one

Since we were not sure how long we were going to be going for the first day, I did not get too many pictures. Definately missed the opportunity to take shots of a nice big rattlesnake during one scout. Also the first long class V with the tree-duck should have been a good photo-op.

After about 3-4 hours on the river, Charlie Center and his crew caught up with us. Yep, they saw Tim and Chad hanging out at the take-out around 1pm, waiting for us to show up - oops. Can I apologize again...

The good news was that we now had someone to expidite our way down the next couple of miles to camp - Super Slide! Super Slide is probably the biggest drop on the South Merced, and also one of the easiest. It was so super, we had to run it twice!

Looking down the final slide

Rebecca entering the slide

Jason exiting

By the way, the cary up to redo this drop is easy at river level, so even if you are not camped out at Super Slide camp, I highly recommed taking the time to do it again... So fun...

Like every other overnighter I've ever had in California, camp was awesome. We packed in a couple of bottles of wine and sipped and snacked while we watched Charlie reel in the trout - a couple of really big ones that got away, the biggest I've seen in a place that was not stocked. Nothing like a campfire and sleeping under the stars in a place that no one but boaters get to experience.

Corby's Camp in the mist of Super Slide

The next morning, we slowly packed up camp; half expecting Tim and Chad to come boating down from a higher camp. Charlie, Katie, Thomas and Katies Brother (sorry man, I'm always referred to as Rebecca's Husband, so I feel for you) did a breakfast run on the slide - nice lighting

Thomas having water for breakfast

Little Katie, Big Drop

After breaking camp and glancing upstream one more time, we started off on day two. For the next hour or so, we played played tag with Charlies Crew; trying not to cramp their style (8 boats is too many for such a congested run).

Corby just below camp - this qualifies as a "boulder rapid"

We came across them at "the portage" and a few other drops until we finally lost contact with them for good in one particularly long rapid.

Charlie Center - Da Man

The second day consisted of too many drops to recount, all of them class V, but kind of staying the same the whole way down - quality. There was an interesting mix of boulder rapids and granite gorges.

Corby on another nice slide

Eric probing a deep hole

We probably put on around 10 am and spent a solid 6 hours running the rest of the class V; it's kind of suprising how many drops this river has. At one point, as we were scouting one of the main sections - a triple drop in a funky gorge - it started to rain some of the biggest rain-drops I have ever seen. Dime sized drops maybe? Sure seemed spooky as we dropped into that section

Corby in the storm

Eric on another nice granite slide

Corby finds a nice boof in the mess

We finally got around to lunch about 2pm; thinking we were almost done with the class V's - fat chance!

Eric on another drop

Finally, things started to mellow out, it seemed like we now had a good chance to make it out before dark.

Jason Finally gets to smile

The last notable drop on the trip turned out to be one of our favorites - I wish this drop was on my local river so I could lead people through it blind all the time. The river narrows on the left side and plunges between some huge boulders in a blind chute. It sure looks like you are probably going to die, but it is super clean and fun!

Corby in the fun chute

The last 7 miles are class III - a long paddle out for sure, but as the soreness and tiredness sets in from your two days on the South Merced, this paddle out seems like an ultra-meditative state of higher awareness... Either that or I was simply entoxicated from hyperventalating for two days straight...

Thanks Lars!