Go West Young Man...

...were my Dad's parting words. So thats just what I did. My sister and I made it to Boulder, CO in 27 hours. We had a nice hike in Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday. Saturday, I met up with some paddlers to run the Bailey Canyon section of the NF South Platte. We were treated to very nice weather and a great run. I even randomly ran into two fellow Potomac boaters Geoff Calhoun and Eric (last name?) On Sunday I met my friend Jason aka "Hutto" and another friend Jason, who I met last year on the Gauley and ran 2 laps on the Waterton Canyon section of the South Platte.

Beautiful day on the river, near the get in

Curt at Four Falls

Jeb, lower drop of Supermax

Looking upstream at Supermax

Sunday night I drove a few hours west to Aspen. My new summer home. I drove as far as I could on rt 82 then I parked a few hundred yards down from the closed gates to Independence Pass.
I started training for rafting on Monday morning. We ran the lower section of the Roaring Fork into the Colorado River, then a few miles on the Colorado through the new Glenwood Springs playpark and the South Canyon wave.

All photos Bailey can be found by clicking here

more to come soon...

Heading West...

My sister Sara and I hit it hard to get to Colorado. We got here in 27 hours, taking a short sleep break in Missouri at 4am. Some pictures are below.

Topeka, Kansas

Driving...

More driving...

Finally Colorado, still a ways to go...

Mountains on the horizon, almost there...

Chasm Falls, Rocky Mtn National Park

Cheatfest 2008

Looking upstream from the Upper B putin

I got an email from Billy on Wednesday saying that the Upper Blackwater River in West Virginia was going to be good on Friday and he was planning on hitting it with his buddy Trevor who knew the run very well. I have wanted to run the Upper B for a while, but never felt ready. My stomach was already rumbling with many mixed emotions as I was busy finishing up my last week at work and planning my trip to Colorado.

I was planning on racing the Cheat on Friday, but the Upper B was much higher on my list of fun things to do on a 70 degree day in WV with good water the day after you left your job. I was packing until 1am slept a few hours and got a call from Scott at 4am asking if i was up and on the road yet. I threw the rest of my gear in the truck and hit the road from my sister's place at 4:15am headed for Davis, WV.

I got there around 7:30, saw Scott's car but no Scott. I hiked down to the put in with my camera and tripod to take advantage of the morning light. Man, it was love at first sight. What an awesome put in. The action starts right away. I got a few pics then headed back up. Slowly Billy and his buddy Trevor's crew rolled in. Before i knew hit we were hiking the boats down.
This was it, I was doing it. I was a little unsure about using a paddle I had never used, but my main one was broken. It took a few rapids to get used to, but it worked out.
What a great run. It all happened so quick and continuously its tough to remember many of the rapids. Tomko Falls was pretty memorable. Two back-to-back amazing 10 foot boofs. I let out a yell at the bottom expressing my appreciation for this beautiful creek.

Looking upstream from Sticky Fingers

OK, I can breathe now. What an awesome day!

The Blackwater will let you know if you let down your guard. Just above, or maybe in the first part of the duly named last rapid (My Nerves are Shot, I cant take it anymore) I didnt square up enough for a hole and went for a pretty good ride. I kept it together and got out and into the eddy safely.

A small celebration after completing a run I had been wanting to do for so long

After the grueling hike out we were at our cars by 11:30 am. So we ate some food and headed over toward the Upper Yough to take advantage of the nice day and what turned out to be a great water level and uncrowded day on the Yough. What a great way to calm down after the Blackwater. We were all pumped to see that the Yough was running at a healthy 2.5ft.
Afterward it was time to make our way to the infamous Teeter's Campground, the site of Cheatfest.

Orange Crush...in his element

It was a fun filled weekend. Friday night we partied down with the O-So-Famous Orange Crush, Bob the keyboarder and his Indiana following. Then Billy and I spent most of Saturday playboating on the Cheat with a good flow to it. Also of note, was the classic Glenn Miller shuttle ride out of the Cheat Canyon: strap your boat on, grab a beer and hold on!

Glenn Miller shuttle

Oh those crazy Brits!

Saturday evening was good as always. Bluegrass music, more Orange Crush and Brett and Shannon made an appearance which was a pleasant surprise. I need to dry out so I headed to Harrisonburg Sunday to hang out with my brother and get in some mountain biking on the new trails at Hillandale Park in Harrisonburg.

Some scenery around Teeter's

All of my belongings! Lots o' toys in a Toyota.

All Photos from Cheatfest

Final Days on the Potomac

As my final days in Maryland drew to a close, the rains came and the Potomac rose. I wanted to get in some laps on Great Falls before I left, but the river just kept rising. It was nice getting to hit some of the rare high water playspots on the Potomac. I tried my hand at the Maryland Chute-Out, a small local playboating competition which turned out to be a lot of fun. Ian and his Go Huge crew showed up and went big. It was a great last couple of weeks on the Po. The pictures will tell the rest.

Great Falls at 8.2 ft on Little Falls Gauge

Charlie on Elbow Wave..notice the logs in the background

Peter on Bud's Hole...good perspective on how deep this hole gets

Charlie at Bud's Hole going vertical

Surfer at Dead Cow Hole

First Chute-Out of the year, now part of the Hometown Throwdown series

Bion rackin up some points in the Hometown Throwdown

View the rest of the Photos Here