Brush Creek Race 2009

One of the highlights of the Kern River Festival is the Brush Creek Races. This year we decided to up the ante a bit by throwing in an extreme slalom in addition to the already popular downriver race.

The Downriver Race is 3+ minutes of slides, falls and fun; the goal being to make it from the start to the finish as fast as possible. Within 15 seconds of the start, you launch of a 12 foot waterfall; after 2 minutes of frantic paddling, you have to negotiate the steepest section of the creek while you are completely out of oxygen - good times!

All Photos Thanks to Ryan Hudson

Marc Vernon headed under the KRBC Banner

The Extreme Slalom took place over a shorter section of river (the previously mentioned steepest section) and required the boaters to negotiate a series of obstacles, including a roll gate and a paddle toss ("The eliminator"). Entertainment ensued...

Paul Armes showing the correct line for the obstacle above the main drop

Impressive, but not the correct negotiation...

A deft paddle toss through the ring of fire (fire not included)

A different approach to the toss through the ring (reverse negotiation optional)

All in all a good time was had by all. The creek was a little low, but the weather was spectacular. If you missed the race this year, you don't want to miss out next year.



Highlights of the weekend include Tanya Faux winning one of the coveted Golden Bootie awards by negotiating “The Eliminator” backwards and then missing her subsequent hand-roll (don’t worry, the appropriate sacrifice ceremony to the river gods was performed at the award ceremony). Also Dan Gavere was able to negotiate the entire TJ Classic Slalom course on his stand-up surfboard; prompting the formation of a stand-up class next year? I would like also like to add that we paddled this weekend in celebration of the life of Jon Burnham.


And now for the long awaited results:

PS if I totally misspelled your name (and I probably did because I can’t read or spell being from Georgia) send me a pm and I’ll fix it.

Brush Creek Downriver Race

MEN
Bret Duxbury 3:13.89
Dan Gavere 3:20.27
Spence Joseph 3:20.95 - Jr
Paul Armes 3:22.16
Sean Smith 3:23.43
Tim Lawson 3:25.03
Shawn Bullock 3:25.39
Evan Moore 3:28.20 - Jr
Mike Spradlin 3:28.71
Dave Diller 3:28.98
Marc Vernon 3:33.74
Peter Wiechers 3:43.51
Doug Bouden 3:46.04
Mike Martyr 3:46.47
Joe Carberry 3:51.90
Noah Frazier 3:56.54
Jon Getting 4:02.99
Will Schrodt 4:05.61 -Jr
Andrew Pernicano 4:09.16
Wills Nessle 4:09.48
Sage Thompson 4:10.04
Bryant Burkhart 4:10.94
Alex Morris 4:21.04
Joe Chesney 4:25.63
Jim Schrodt 4:26.02

WOMEN
Tanya Faux 3:17.20
Liz Brackbill 3:54.62
Lynn Siodmak 3:54.63
Ruth Gordon 3:56.94
Jessica Albright 4:46.81
Lesley Butcher 4:53.72

CHEATER CLASS
Eric Giddens 3:03.05
Rebecca Giddens 3:17.62
Brush Creek Extreme Slalom

MEN’S QUALIFIER
Sean Smith 53.92
Tim Lawson 54.09
Brett Duxbury 62.30
Bryant Burkhart 64.54
Noah Frazier 65.49
Peter Wiechers 67.20
Mike Spradlin 70.20
Paul Armes 70.60
Dave Diller 70.80
Will Schrodt 72.90 – Jr
Joe Chesney 74.00
Evan Moore 75.05 – Jr
Marc Vernon 76.50
Alex Morris 79.30
Jim Schrodt 84.70
Doug Bouden 86.00
Wills Nessle 87.00
Mike Martyr 90.87
Andrew Pernicano 95.50
Sage Thompson 142.40
Spenc Joseph and Jon Goetting – DQ due to skipping the roll gate

WOMEN’S QUALIFIER
Tanya Faux 76.00
Ruth Gordon 84.30
Lynn Siodmak 92.00
Leslie Butcher 93.70
Jessica Albright 111.65
Liz Brackbill 113.70

CHEATER’S QUALIFIER
Eric Giddens 54.09
Rebecca Giddens 57.00

MEN’S FINAL
Tim Lawson 54.84
Sean Smith 61.91
Noah Frazier 63.80
Peter Wiechers 69.09
Brett Duxbury 80.52

WOMEN’S FINAL
Tanya Faux 60.52
Ruth Gordon 73.12

CHEATER’S FINAL
Eric Giddens 48.52
Rebecca Giddens 54.55


TJ Classic Slalom

MEN’S
Sean Smith 89.38
Jim Schrodt 91.98
Tim Lawson 94.54
Mike Spradlin 105.60 – DQ from the triple crown due to switching boats
Marc Vernon 107.57
Bryant Burkhart 109.74
Wills Nessle 124.60
Evan Moore 124.78 - Jr
Peter Wiechers 124.87
Noah Frazier 125.50
Paul Armes 128.72
Will Schrodt 135.31 - Jr
Brett Duxbury 168.14
Alex Morris 185.82
Joe Chesney 371.25

WOMEN’S
Tanya Faux 101.56
Lynn Siodmak 137.32
Ruth Gordon 174.89
Liz Brackbill 235.43
Jessica Albright and Leslie Butcher DNF

CHEATER’S CLASS
Eric Giddens 82.69
Rebecca Giddens 95.28

TRIPLE CROWN TOTALS - MEN
Shaun Smith 347.04
Tim Lawson 360.06
Marc Vernon 397.81
Paul Armes 401.48
Evan Moore 408.03 - Jr
Peter Wiechers 415.58
Brett Duxbury 424.33
Bryant Burkhart 425.22
Noah Frazier 427.70
Will Schrodt 453.82
Wills Nessle 461.08
Alex Morris 526.16
Joe Chesney 710.88

TRIPLE CROWN TOTALS – WOMEN
Tanya Faux 374.76
Lynn Siodmak 463.95
Ruth Gordon 496.13
Liz Brackbill 583.53
Leslie Butcher 387.42 + DNF
Jessica Albright 398.46 + DNF

TRIPLE CROWN TOTALS – CHEATERS
Eric Giddens 319.83
Rebecca Giddens 349.90
Mike Spradlin 384.51 – moved to the cheaters class due to violation of boat protocol

Cedar Creek Ride

With an extended period of nice weather in Kernville, we decided to hit up a high elevation ride one more time before winter. It was a beautiful day for late November; mid 70's in Kernville and 65 + in the high country - Cedar Creek was the destination.

We had a nice crew; Rebecca, Dave, Allison, Chris, Andrew and myself. We started at Sherman pass overlook and rode up over the snow, downed logs and rocks to get to Sherman Peak. The views were spectacular! After a brief snack (we had just started our ride) we descended into corral meadow (broken chain) and then down the Durwood drainage (flat tire) to the Rincon trail (another flat tire). From there we took an extremely exposed mining trail down to the four-mile trail (plunge over the edge, luckily everything ended up OK), afterward we rode out along the river (another flat tire for good measure). A nice night with friends at the brewery finished it off. All in all a spectacular ride with an amazing array of terrain and challenges. Enjoy some of the pictures from the day!

Fun on the Forks

July usually means the end of water on the upper Kern. Still there is fun to be had on the Forks of the Kern, a remote 17 mile stretch upstream of the SCE water diversions; this section has spectacular scenery and plenty of fun whitewater. While the run is short enough to do in a day, we really enjoy doing an overnighter on this section, especially when it is over 100 degrees back in Kernville. The day starts with a short hike in (by Sierra standards); about 2 miles of meandering downhill trail. Still, with gear in the boat and hot weather, the river is always a nice sight

Rebecca loaded up with her belongings The put-in is the confluence of the Little Kern and the Kern - ergo the name of the run - the Forks. The first few miles have fun, mellow rapids with plenty of scenic views

Rebecca taking in one of the many granite wall views on the run If you are doing an overnighter, there are plenty of camps to choose from; we tried a new one this time and fell in love with it right away. As we climbed out of our boats we realized that this spot had a great view of the Needles, a set of granite spires that are very unique.

A view of Camp with the Needles in the background As always, the fun challenge on overnighters is to concoct various "river" cocktails since packing in beer and wine tends to be bulky and unnecessarily heavy. On this evening we had an array of 151 jungle juice, vodka-tang martinis and kool-aide margaritas. Laying under the stars in the surprisingly cool evening air is about as close to heaven as it gets.

Man this is smooth.... When you do an overnighter on the Forks, you find yourself finding side activities to stretch out your day. We decided on a hike up Peppermint creek to view and slide on some of the granite falls.

Eric and Dave at one of the upper falls Rebecca staying cool on the hike After the side hike and lunch, it's back to the river to take on the more challenging rapids on the run; the new (and not so improved) Vortex, Westwall and Carson falls are the main ones, but there is still plenty of fun class IV drops littered throughout the whole run.

Dave in the main move in Westwall; not sure if he is taking in the scenery... All in all it was a great trip; Brett and Dave did their personal first descents of Westwall and Carson falls without any problems while we were just happy to be out on one of our favorite rivers away from all the other distractions life has to offer. If you are curious, here is a video of the main two rapids, Vortex and Carson falls (via Brett). Of note is the fact that Vortex has changed this year; one of the rocks in the center has toppled over, changing the rapid significantly. While the rapid is not nearly as fun, in my opinion, it is still fine. The center line becomes a bit worse at higher water, but then a somewhat creative sneak on river right opens up.

click on this to watch the video



As always, a permit is required on this section of river. Inquire with the U.S. Forrest service for more information.