The Perpetual Flow

Some Photos From Around Thailand and Bali

2010-12-24T21:01:00.000-08:00

These are all taken with my Canon Powershot D10, no photoshop, and reduced to 50% JPEG quality for speedy uploads. Quite impressive for a compact, digital waterproof camera, I love it. I wish I had my D-90 every now and then, but this camera rocks! Here is a good combo of macro, night shots, landscapes, etc....

A flower and ant in Bali

Times Square, NYC

Street-side Pad Thai in Bangkok

Bike ride near the Thailand - Burma boarder

Train ride to Chiang Mai

Longtails at sunset in Tonsai, Thailand

DWS Tonsai, Thailand

Water falling off a stalagtite, Tonsai.

Flower in Bali

Snorkeling in the Gilis

A little blue fish

A coconut shell and coral

Loy Kratong Festival in Chiang Mai

Curt and Melissa on Gili Air

Christmas Lights - Bali style, Christmas Eve

Curt Melissa and Roy - Christmas eve mustache

The Upper Upper Cispus

2010-09-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

Any section of river that is called the "Upper Upper" anything has got to be good. The Cispus is no exception. It has been described as a great "east meets west" style run. Steep and rocky pool-drop in places, continuous and pushy in others with a must-run, unscoutable 30-footer - Behemoth. Lots of wood, but only two mandatory portages. Its a great late season alternative to low-water runs on the Truss.

Drew scouting the first drop: A fun 15-er into a very tight squeeze under a log. Photo: Jimmer

Fastlane dropping the first drop. Photo: Jimmer

Drew A. making the squeeze. The higher the water the tighter the squeeze! Photo: Jimmer

Orion first drop, right side of Island Rapid. Photo: Curt Joyce

Copedawg, second drop of Island. Photo: Curt Joyce

Fastlane - Behemoth! Photo: Curt Joyce

Orion going stern first at Behemoth! Photo: Curt Joyce

Cope stompin' it down! Photo: Curt Joyce

There are many other good rapids, just no time to photo them all. But half-mile of whitewater that includes the landslide rapid above Behemoth to below Righty-Tighty is an absolute classic section of whitewater. So fun.

Sweet little side hike to a swim-in gorge with a waterfall at the end. So sweet! Photo: Curt Joyce

Copedawg gets a glacial facial! Photo: Curt Joyce

Fastlane. Photo: Curt Joyce

All photos from the Cispus here

Exploring a New River: The Ohanepecosh

2010-08-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Me at the big drop towards the end. Photo: Adam Elliott

I love doing laps down the Little White or the Truss. Its great to try new lines and catch new eddies. But what I really love is paddling new rivers. Last week, the stars aligned so that Copenhagen, Fastlane and myself all had the day off and Adam was just hangin' so we all rallied a day trip up to the Ohanepecosh. The "Ohanny" as its called, is a beautiful river gorge originating off the SE side of Mt. Rainier in the National Park.

The Ohanny is known for its crystal clear waters and high-quality, but not super challenging rapids. It lived up to its expectation. It was a great day of exploration. Upon arriving we stretched our legs with a short hike up to check out Silver Falls.

Although its been run, I think it was a little more excitement than we were looking for, so we enjoyed the view, discussed the line (for next time), then headed back to the truck.

None of us had ever run the Ohanny before, so the day involved a fun mix of boat scouting, sending one person down to check for wood and then subsequent portages due to wood.

This was real boating. What its all about. Even running laps on a hard river you are dealing with the known. The four of us working our way down with very limited prior knowledge tapped into a different style of boatin': a whole different approach and attitude.

Adam Elliott boofin'

Seizing every minute and enjoying every stroke, not knowing when we might be able to make it back to this river, or paddle another unknown river together.

Copenhagen soakin' it in

The most noteable and unique rapid, Elbow Room, involves dropping an 8-ft ledge in the entrance and staying far left to squeeze between a boulder and the bedrock wall. It was a stellar rapid!

Adam Elliott strokin'

It was a great day. Water so clean and clear I drank right out of the river.

Fastlane in one of the many beautiful gorges

After the run I raced Fastlane on the shuttle, me biking, him thumbing, I won. Its an easy bike or jogging shuttle, which makes the run all the more appealing.

We had a great flow: between 1900cfs and 2100cfs on the Cowlitz at Packwood gauge. Could have been done with more and would have been fine with less.

Silver Falls, Ohanepecosh River

A Photo Tour of the Little White Salmon 2010

2010-07-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

The Little White Salmon boasts clean, clear and cold water with many high quality drops. It runs for a good portion of the summer and happens to be only 15 minutes away. We have had a great start to the summer with lots of laps down one of the best class V runs in the world. Here are some pictures taken over the last few months to at least help give a small idea of how sweet this run is. Enjoy.

Step 1: Set shuttle, which is nice and easy for such a high quality run

Lots of fun boulder gardens in Gettin' Busy builds to an awesome climax at Boulder Sulice

Christie Glissmeyer airing it out at Boulder Sluice

Photo: Curt Joyce

Tyler Houck gettin some and Drew A headin downstream

Photo: Curt Joyce

Island is the next significant rapid. The move involves ducking a tree at the entrance and then handling whatever the river throws at you over 3 ledge drops. Drew A launching one of the ledges.

Photo: Curt Joyce

OHH YEA the L-Dub its good baby, just ask Copenhagen!

Photo: Curt Joyce

Just after Island is one of my favorite boofs in the world: Sacriledge.

Photo of Curt Joyce by Drew Austell

Next up is S-Turn. Curt Joyce waiting for the right moment to stroke it.

Photo Drew Austell

Dave Martin second drop of S-Turn

Photo Drew Austell

Wishbone. Check out that clear water!!! No photoshopping here.

Photo: Drew Austell

Two options for Wishbone: Autoboof on the left

Paddler: Tyler "Fastlane" Houck

Photo Drew Austell

Or super delayed "boof-plug" down the center.

Paddler: Curt Joyce

Photo Drew Austell

Just downstream of Wishbone is the Stovepipe Gorge

Curt entering the gorge

Photo Drew Austell

Copenhagen and Dave Martin amongst it.

Photo Drew Austell

Just below the gorge is Stovepipe, another amazing boof. Drew Austell gettin some airtime

Photo: Dave Martin

Next is the beauty of all beauties: Spirit Falls

Curt Joyce tucked and ready for landing.

Photo Dave Martin

Drew Austell feeling the Spirit.

Photo Dave Martin

Its a beautiful place and there is only one way there.

Tyler "Fastlane" Houck soaking it in.

Photo: Curt Joyce

Adam Elliott making the eddy above Chaos

Photo: Curt Joyce

Drew Austell firing up Chaos

Photo: Curt Joyce

Susan Hollingsworth: Nothing but smiles after her second run down the L-Dub!

Photo: Curt Joyce

The Spirit of a Man, The Soul of a River

2010-07-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

Me at Freight Train, Cal-Salmon, CA Photo: Jared Sandeen

Over the last month I have pushed myself, helped push my friends and have been pushed to paddle more than I ever have paddled before. Today, I sit here tired, dirty, smelly, worn out and very happy. I paddled just under six vertical miles in less than 30 days. That is more than the height of Mt. Everest. As a team we raised $6500 for First Descents kayak camp, helping to get cancer survivors out on the water.

Me at S-Turn, Little White, Photo: Drew Austell

In the last 6 months I have had the chance to explore some of the most beautiful areas I could imagine. From snowy days on the Upper Blackwater in West Virginia, to two days on the pristine waters of the Perth in New Zealand, back to the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia and southeastern classics. Then back out to the Northwest for a multi-day trip on the Owyhee, some rare springtime runs on Trout Creek, high water on the Columbia Gorge classics, then down to northern California in the Salmon drainage, which boasts many beautiful granite gorges flowing of crystalline waters. All of these places were explored and experienced from river level. In a small, buoyant, piece a plastic which I have used to navigate the path laid before me. These places hold a special place in my life. I have felt the gravitational pull to deep canyons and have answered the call.

Bottom Creek, VA Photo: Curt Joyce

Me on the Upper Perth, NZ Photo: Ken Oliver

Susan, Drew and Jeff chargin' the Miracle Mile of the MF of the NF of the Willamette, OR

In life we all take risks. Paddling whitewater is a risk that I take and have come to grips with the consequences that come along with it. I love to paddle. It drives me, it fullfils me and brings me closer to what I feel is real in life. I am able to think clearly and directly when pushing myself in whitewater. The here and now. I cannot afford to think about anything else beyond the next few strokes.

Camp, second night of the Owyhee, OR

Paddling whitewater is a deeply psychological endeavor. That is why a lot of us are addictivly drawn to the sport. The ability to maintain mental clarity in chaotic situations is paramount. Therefore whenever paddling at or near ones personal ability, you are always walking a thin line. Being able to successfully conquer a river physically is much different than being able to psychologically conquer a river or particular rapid.

Day 1 Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge 2010: THE Off the Cowch Team paddles the length of the White Salmon River - Trout Lake Creek to the Columbia.

Portaging the soon to be removed Condit Dam and dewater canyon and paddling the final gorge - "The Narrows"

When a paddler allows him or herself to become mentally comfortable where they are on the river, a whole new world opens up. This is where I feel like I am able to connect with the soul of a river. My first encounter with the soul of a river was a solo evening run on the Nordheimer section of the Cal-Salmon. I had already paddled a few laps on the South Fork of the Salmon and really wanted to try out the classic Nordheimer section. As usual in Forks of Salmon, CA there weren't many folks around, so I went to the put in and got changed and figured something would work out. Sure enough as I was walking to the river a friend was taking off with a few first timers and offered to drive my shuttle. Sweet!

Mind over matter...Drew A entering Lower Zig-Zag, White Salmon River, WA Photo: Curt Joyce

I had never done the run, but got some quick info on some of the rapids and dangers and set out. I knew the run was within my limits, a deep gorge with deep, big-water class 4+ rapids. It was primarily read-and-run, with one big rapid I choose to take a look at.

I was feeling good. Paddling my 12' long boat was smooth and fast. Efficiently punching waves and holes, accelerating on every stroke. Paddling through the beautiful granite gorge by myself, I was awestruck. The beauty was incomprehensible, the evening light on the crystal clear water, the endless mountains of evergreens, and sheer granite walls rising from the river. The river took on it own persona, and I could feel its soul. I was not alone. I wasn't trying to conquer the river, just experience its power. In fact, I let the river guide me on its course downstream. Following clues I could read from the surface as to what was going on deep underwater. The run was awesome. Finishing the 9 mile section in just over an hour I found my ride waiting for me and he had even stopped to take some pictures while I was deep in the gorge. It was an amazing day.

Mind, body and soul connect

The river flows beneath

forever

wild, yet serene

New Zealand wrap up

2010-06-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Me running Maruia Falls, this waterfall was the result of an earthquake

I havent had a chance to wrap things up from New Zealand and so much has happened since that I am gonna do a photo essay to finish off an awesome trip down under. If a picture is worth one thousand words, I hope these pictures tell a cool story. I had a great 2.5 months enjoying lots of world class whitewater, some sunshine, some rain, some really good people.

Dany - Zee German Upper Kakapothai

Some rocks on a beach in Southland

First Asscent

Slope Point

en route to the Whitcombe

Waiting for the Helicopter

Hot Tip from the NZ Guidebook - "Never turn down a trip on the Whitcombe"

Liz and I enjoying a sunset in the Catlins

Big Air Comp at BullerFest 2010

Lake Wanaka

Zee German showing off, Upper Kakapotahi

Spotting the launch pad

BOOF!

The ocean

Fiordland

Going for a walk in New Zealand

2010-03-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

Mt. Pollux and Mt. Castor

After spraining my thumb a few weeks earlier I decided I really need to give it a rest. The only way I really saw this happening was by making it impossible to go paddling; so i borrow a backpack, bought 8 days worth of food and headed into the woods. I picked a very ambitious route, with the main goal of escaping the masses. After almost 2 weeks in Queenstown, I was ready to get out in the wilderness and away from the throngs of gapers filling the air, water and hiking trails anywhere it was easily accessible.

Having not been backpacking in at least 5 years, I was pretty pumped to get out and do something that I had really enjoyed at one time in my life. I mean, what better place to go for a tramp than New Zealand? Liz's pack fit surprisingly well and my Chaco river shoes and Chaco jandals (kiwi for flip-flops) would suffice as footwear for the trek. I had Moose drop me off just north of Makarora and hiked 20 kms the first day up the Young River to the Young Hut. The next day I hiked to the head of the Young River where it dead-ended in a massive U-Shaped valley. I then headed over Gillispie Pass down to the Siberia Valley and stayed at the Siberia Hut. Gillispie Pass was steep - 2hours of steeeeep switchbacks, some of the time using arms and legs to grovel up the next pitch. The summit was amazing. Wonderful 360 degree view, Mt. Awful almost close enough to touch. The Siberia valley to the west and Young Valley to the east. The descent wasn't any easier, maybe even harder on my sore knees.

Mt. Awful from Young Valley

Summit of Gillispie Pass

Crystal clear waters of one of the hundreds of tributaries, makes for light packs not carrying H20

In the Siberia Flat almost to the hut after a big day of walking I could not help myself but gape at the amazing surroundings - I felt so small, insignificant, and all alone in such a massive landscape. At times I could count as many as 8 to 10 waterfalls I could see all around me, draining the snowfields high above. As I stood in this beautiful glacial valley I couldn't help the overwhelming feeling of what a small speck my existence was in this wonderful place. Smaller than salt in the ocean - nothing. Just as I was taking it all in, I stepped in a pothole buried in the grasses. This came back to haunt me the next afternoon as every step was very painful. I had made it down the Siberia Valley and was heading up the Wilkin River towards Jumboland. Half-way to the hut I didn't think I could make it any further. It was mid afternoon and I figured I could bivy in Jumboland Flat and head out the next day. I started looking for bivys and decided I should carry on for the Top Forks Hut. I very slowed worked my way up river, climbing steep slips around large sections of gradient in the river, then returning to river level on the flats. The last flat went on forever. I was seeing mirages of a hut and of my friend Iffy, who I knew was hours ahead of me. I tried to make as straight line as possible through the flat, following no trail at all, just where I though the hut would be. I ended up making at least 10-15 stream crossings each one feeling deeper, faster and sketchier than the last. I had given up on switching to jandals for the crossings and was wading through chest deep grasses when not waist deep in water. I could see the forks of the Wilkin from very far away, but it felt as though it was never getting closer.

Its easy to feel small in Jumboland!

I finally got to the point where I wasn't sure if I should be crossing the river and maybe I should just stay put. But I knew the hut had to be close and the draw of a bunk bed and accomplishment of making it to the hut drew me across the fast, freezing glacial stream. Once on the other side I was again in aww of my surroundings. After another 15 minutes of slogging I saw the hut!

Iffy was surprised to see me, thinking I probably bivied or turned around. My knee was killing me, I was starving, and I was at one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Top Forks - the confluence of the North and South Forks of the Wilkin River is an amazing place. Nestled right below many of the famous alpine ascents in Mt. Aspiring National Park - Castor, Pollux, Apollo, Aeolus, just to name the ones visible from the front porch - Top Forks hut has been the basecamp for almost all of the first ascents of the alpine peaks in this area. Many of these first ascents dating back to the late nineteenth century.

Top Forks Hut - My home for a few days

I was still starving after dinner. Maybe I planned a little on the light side for my rations. A guide with two clients was also staying at the hut intending on heading over Rabbit Pass the next day as well. HE strung up a radio line outside and at 7:30 we all huddled around the stone age looking radio transmitter for the forecast.

Deciphering the weather forecast from the weather lady on the news is hard enough for someone new to the area. This guy was all over the place. Considering New Zealand is made up of so many different eco-regions and influenced my so many different factors figuring out the weather is part luck, some climatology, and lots of guessing. What we got from it was that it was probably going to rain the next afternoon.

I need a rest day. I wasn't sure at this point whether I could even make it out. Rabbit Pass is one of the more formidable treks in NZ. Its not alpine mountaineering, not rock climbing and not tramping, really its a 10-12 hour day combining the three with orienteering thrown in as well. This is why I came on this journey. I was excited to test my meddle on this unmarked alpine crossing, as it is referenced in the guidebooks. After finding out the first night that Iffy was also heading the same way, we were both counting on each other in a way for support in this mission.

I told him I couldn't make it and need to rest, maybe do a day hike to some of the surrounding glacial lakes. He was keen. The lakes were beautiful, but even without a backpack I was struggling to make it up and down the many steep bits. We took a swim in one lake - Lake Diana - right under the massive headwall of Mt. Pollux.

Swimming in Lake Diana

That night I decided I couldn't make it any further. It was be irresponsible to try and make it over Rabbit Pass. Not to mention, the weather that was "predicted" for today looked like it was going to be moving in overnight and the next day. Iffy realized he missed his window to make the pass solo. So we decided to eat some extra food this evening. I still had 5 dinners left so we splurged and had a reconstituted feast, still hungry afterwards.

The next morning brought a cold drizzling rain. Perfect for sleeping in. Iffy and I had a true rest day today. Drank lots of coffee, read the littering of old outdoors magazines and local maps in the hut. Played a ridiculous game of "Oh Hell" and talked a lot about everything from internal frame packs to foreign policy. I went down to the river to fill up water bottles once and that was about the extent of my physical activity for the day, it was amazing. Every now and then you could heard a thunderous roar, and look up just in time to see a massive ice and waterfall off the mountainside, and 15 seconds later you would never know there was anything there! Powerful.

Iffy at one of the many stream crossings heading down the Wilkin

The next day we make our way back down, finding better lines through the top flat and made good time. I wore my jandals all day and my knee was feeling pretty good. Made it to Kerin Forks hut in a few hours, the swam in the Wilkin to rinse off the sweat. Relaxed. Head out the next day - 21 kms down to the Makarora. The last two days all we could talk about was buying steaks upon arrive at civilization. With that in mind, we made straight for SH 6 and hitched a ride to Wanaka. Ate steaks, sausages and beer. Satisfied.

Hitching in New Zealand - Sweet As, Bro!

I guess I learned a lot on this 7 day adventure. Walking over 100 kms who knows how much vertical loss/gain, but i bet its a lot, I didn't make my initial goal. Didn't really come close. Maybe it was unrealistic, maybe I didn't have enough food or good enough shoes. But really, I think what made the difference in the end was that I found what I was looking for and was content. After all, I wanted to get away and I did that - at Lake Lucidious, I was about 45kms from the nearest road in a sparsely populated area of one of the least densely populated countries in the world. All of the geographical features in the surrounding area were named from greek mythology. It was beautiful, I was happy. All of this completed less than a year from when I was still walking around in a cast and cane. When I thought about it I couldn't have been more happy with my adventure. Plus, if I made all three passes I was planning on, there wouldn't be anything left to come back and do.

The waters of Southland New Zealand

2010-02-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

Camping in Milford Sounds

I have been down in Queenstown for a few weeks now hanging out with friends, doing some hikes, riverboarding and kayaking. Liz, my friend from Wet Planet, is working at Mad Dog River Boarding and has taken me out my first couple of times riverboarding which has been a nice change. Its fun being uncomfortable in an environment that you are generally quite comfortable in. The section of the Kawarau - the Roaring Meg - is not difficult, but has a lot of water going through a very tight canyon, so there are lots of strong eddylines and boils that tug your flippered feet and body board in different directions.

Lake Wakatipu

I rode along with a rafting trip on the Shotover Canyon, which was a fun sunny day out. The rafts provided the usual entertainment and the run ends with a 100 meter long tunnel from the mining days that opens right into the final and unscoutable grade IV rapid - Cascade.

Charlie, Liz and Moose rafting the Shotover

Me watching the rafting action on the Shotover

Photo: Liz Arnold

Raft entering the Tunnel on the Shotover

Liz and I had been wanting to do a long day on the river and get a chance to seen the infamous Nevis Bluff rapid on the Kawarau at river level. We put in above the bungee bridge and ran the Dog Leg section, which had about 200 meters of HUGE waves. Fun stuff. She brought along her co-worker Ian "Twiggy" who was keen on scouting and possibly running Nevis on a riverboard. Being the only kayaker, and not feeling 100%, it didnt take long for me to decide to portage at least the 1st two drops. Ian fired it up. Both his fins were ripped off, and he probably spent more time underwater. Nevis is huge.

Nevis Bluff from the road above

1st drop of Nevis Bluff at river level

Twiggy about to go deep on the second drop of Nevis Bluff

Liz and I headed on down to Citroen Rapid, which we had pre-scouted on the way out. Liz styled it on the riverboard, I followed behind her with a good line through the fun, big water rapid.

Liz scouting her line on Citroen

My birthday was soon approaching and I was itching to get out of town and do something fun. Moose was able to hook up 2 tandem sea kayaks for a few days. So in a day we made quick plans for food and logistics of a 3 day sea kayaking trip in Milford Sounds - Fiordland National Park. Liz and I had never been in a sea kayak and Moose and Charlie had one practice day in Lake Wakitipu. The weather was looking like it was gonna hold so we made it happen.

Liz and I ready for action!

Choppy first day!

The first day was a beautiful drive to Milford Sounds, but didn't put on until around 2pm so the water was quite rough with a strong headwind. This area is spectacularly beautiful. Think of a bigger version of Yosemite with fiords reaching out into the Tasman Sea. We spotted a protected bay for a fall-back option because there are only a few places where you can get out of the water. Its mainly 100-500 meter sheer granite cliffs dropping right into the sound. Found a small spot to camp above the high tide line and boom - home for the night.

Birthday Camp!

Harrison Cove - Where I spent my 27th birthday

We enjoyed good food and drink and even Dutch Oven brownies for my birthday. We realized the sea was much calmer for paddling in the morning and evenings, making better time the next day passing under the many looming peaks and magnificent waterfalls. Dense fog rolled in and made things interesting. We made for Anita bay, the next known landing site. We ventured in the ocean briefly, but were cautious due to fog and rising winds.

Fog rolling into the Milford Sounds

Anita Bay - Camp Two

Charlie and the stone building at Anita Bay

Escaping the sandflies!!

Milford Sounds local

Milford Sounds - Fiordland National Park

Cheers for now - more updates to come!

Two Days on the Perth

2010-01-25T15:15:00.000-08:00

Curt - Some Rapid on the Perth

Photo: Rachel Curtis

I have heard and read a lot about the Perth River, and now I have finally had a chance to experience the raw beauty and power of the Perth for myself. No where have I been where the evidence of the tremendous forces that shaped a landscape were more obvious than making a trip down the Perth River.

The boats arriving

We had our overnight gear dropped off at the Scone Hut, while the 7 of us and our boats were dropped off about 2kms up the Upper Perth from the hut. Here the Perth is steep, tight and technical creek boating. Most all of the drops require scouting for a clean line and the ever present sieves and other nasty spots. We had a great flow for this upper section. Rachel and I scouted upstream while waiting for the next loads of people and gear to arrive. The evidence of the glacial activity that shaped the riverbed is everywhere. Huge granite boulders stacked precariously upon one another make up the majority of the streambed and river banks. The evidence of recent high-water events was also very obvious in the debris deposited amongst the boulders.

Dany - 1st drop on Upper Perth

Ken - Upper Perth

Rachel - Upper Perth

The action starts right away chasing the ever disappear horizon-line. We broke into a group of 3 and a group of 4 to make things easier, but we were quickly jumbled again as the drops required good scouting by all. We had a nice afternoon making our way down to the hut and enjoying a relaxed pace knowing all we had to do was get downstream to our gear, make some food, drink some wine, relax and repeat.

Charles - Scone Creek

The upper section went well and we had great flows. The Wharoaha gauge was reading about 110 cumecs, (using the guidebook correlation puts the Perth at about 44 cumecs - which might have changed from recent floods - b/c there was plenty of water in the section above the Hut and from the Hut down was pretty juicy the next day!) There was even enough water to run Scone Creek. I scouted the drops and wasn't seeing the lines or feeling the motivation to get back in and out of the boat to scout every drop. This section is good though and the drops are bigger and steeper than the upper section of the Perth.

The evening in the hut was enjoyable. We had a good mixed bag of folks - Me, Ken from CO and Charles from NC, two Germans, a Canadian and Rachel- the only kiwi in the crew. Michell- one of zee Germans provided endless knowledge on chocolate and chocolate producing companies, and just about anything else really. We ate hunks of cheese and drank wine from our dinner bowls and followed our noses trying to find hot pools but only discovering a few warm springs.

The hut life - drinking box wine from bowls

Morning was great. No loading boats on cars, calling helicopters, making plans- none of it, just eating some food and going kayaking.

Put-in Day Two

We loaded up our boats and shoved off around 10am. There is 1-2kms of warming up when putting in at the hut. This was nice for getting used to the loaded boat. This is also when it dawned on me that I haven't actually ever paddled with overnight gear in my boat. I guess the Perth was pretty much as close to a trial by fire as you can get. Just as I thought I was feeling pretty good, the bottom dropped out and the river just kept getting steeper and steeper. My boat was feeling sluggish and heavy in the stern. Ferrying and carving maneuvers that are usually effortless were starting to wear me out. The water was cold, big, pushy, and drinkably crystal clear. Rach and one of the Germans had run the Perth before, but at much lower flows, so it we were treating it as a first descent. Some rapids were boat-scoutable, but there was a lot of in and out of the boat climbing as much as 100-200 meters downstream to see what all laid ahead and where the next big eddy might be. The scouting in and of itself also started getting tiring - getting in and out, running up and down - mentally as well as physically. Trying to put together all the pieces of these long complicated rapids and keep these pieces together in time to get in your boat and connect the dots. The horizon lines feel like they never end. There are no waterfalls on the Perth. The gradient comes in the form of long, steep, pushy boulder gardens that lead into more of the same with very high quality 4-8' boofs everywhere.

Ken gettin' the goods

Photo: Rachel Curtis

Dany - Knuckle Grinder

The Perth is real kayaking. Most of the paddling I have done in the last year was spectacular, but was generally on something familiar to me or someone in the crew. Going out on the Perth with only a small amount of prior knowledge was a real adventure. The very soul of kayaking. Immersing oneself in an environment so remote and demanding - yet equipped with the tools necessary to come out the other end. We didn't see anyone else the second day, no hikers, paddlers, fisherman, or helicopters.

Scouting...

Curt Boofing...

Photo: Dany

The action stays steep for about 3kms and the eases of for a bit. The final gorge has 4 or 5 fun grade 4 rapids in a supper scenic schist gorge. I was so drained i didnt even think to get out the camera. The Perth is an awesome run. Maybe not the best place for learning to paddle with a boat full of gear, but definitely awesome! I look forward to heading back, maybe for a day trip with a light boat next time!

Looking back at the final gorge...

New Zealand summer paddling and a slice of life...

2010-01-16T16:13:00.000-08:00

Curt Joyce - Curtain Call - Arahura

photo by: Rachel Curtis

The rain continued to fall my first week in Hokitika, so we got on a few more of the runs around here that need rain. These were all either hike-ins or drive in runs, so costs have been low, which is nice.

Hiking into the Styx

First rapid on the Styx

We hiked into to the Styx and put on around trap #36 ( about 4km hike). The rain from the last couple of days insured good medium-high flows. This provided some excellent continuous grade 4+ action where scouting was difficult because it was essentially one big rapid, and swimming was not an option. Sam, Marlow and Aja decided to put on a bit lower, so I ran the upper 300 meters twice while they were scouting/getting geared up. The top section could be described as a combination of the East Fork of the Hood and the NF of the Payette – steeper and bigger than the Hood, but not as big and fast as the North Fork. But the action all too quickly mellows in the hike in section to fun class 3 boogie allowing for the chance to take in the scenery and beautiful day. You can fly in much further up adding some more continuous grade 4+ action and one steep grade 5 gorge.

The following day saw more clear weather so we rested from the hiking the day before and did an afternoon trip to the Kakapotahi, this time hoping to get on the Upper section. Upon arriving we received positive beta from another crew that it was a good medium-high flow and the standard epic portage around a double sieve was now runnable! Game on!

Then, the rains came again, and it came hard. While sheltering from the storm in the Hokitika Holiday Park kitchen we were trying to get a crew and make some plans. Barney showed up with a crew ready to paddle. With this much rain, the only semi-sensible option would be a high-water run on the Totara. Finding the road flooded by the overflow channel of the river set us back about 45 mins b/c we couldn’t get to the put-in road. After the police let traffic cross the still flooded main rain, there were a few sketchy stream, crossings and then we got on. It was a fun, fast and brown river with one nice gorge that made for some big waves and holes and fun moves.

Always a good thing to see on the way to the put-in.

Still trying to get to the put-in...

Good flows on the Totara

With yet another front moving into Hokitika, the weather on the West Coast was not cooperating well with our paddling plans so after getting in a few more good hike or drive-in runs we high-tailed it out of town for a few days to dry out and go to her folks place in the Marlborough Sounds. We spent one day catching Cod (plus 2 sharks and 2 Parrotfish) and another morning getting scallops and eating them for lunch, yum!

The Marlborough Sounds

Measuring scallops for the keepers

A few days later found us back in the Hokitika Holiday park making more plans for paddling. I got in a few more laps of the super fun and classic Upper Kakapotahi. The guidebook description is right-on for this one: "The beautiful upper Kakapotahi is a fantastic kayak run, one of those places kayaks were just made for. It has seven drops, all of which are difficult to scout and have some consequences for blowing the line." It is a great run to follow someone who knows the lines so you don't have to scout and can just bomb through the beautiful granite gorge.

Warren at Postmans - Upper Kakapotahi

Curt Joyce - Air Mail - Upper Kakapotahi

photo by: Warren

The weather has been awesome for the last week almost, opening up options for the Heli runs. Heli-kayaking is all about a fine balance of prior planning and flexibility. The more people flying to the same put in the cheaper the flight is going to be. And the further away and smaller the crew or any odd numbers makes the flights much more expensive. We fortunately had a solid crew of 4 (including one German, which is always good to have along) and found a popular day for trips up the West Coast classic: the Arahura. The guidebook description says it all: “One of the most sought after and enjoyed runs in New Zealand. The Arahura rates as one of the great kayaking runs in the world.“ 15 kms of fun basically. Its all good to go except for one mandatory portage - Dent Falls, used to be a classic, but the shifting of boulders just made it a huge sieve. The Arahura offers steep continuous boulder gardens, crystal clear drinkable waters, and the best ending to any kayak run ever: The Cesspit and Cesspit gorge. Formerly rated a Grade VI rapid, there is a line and some big air and a fine line around a nasty pocket. Then an eddy to catch your breath and 200 meter gorge with big holes and sweet boofs. Amazing! I’ll let the pictures tell the rest.

Heli-Kayaking - a dangerous and expensive addiction!

Once the Heli leaves you're in there - crazy feeling

Standard Arahura

Rach styling a fun drop

Ken in the pushy and sieved out rapid Billards

BOOFing the exit

Danny - Zee tokin' German

Cool head-cam boof shot Curt Joyce

Cesspit - Scouting the entry drop into the gorge

Cesspit Gorge

Pohutukawa

Nice sunsets on the beach - Kiwi style

All pictures from this update

New Zealand, First Impressions

2010-01-03T21:52:00.000-08:00

Farewell 2009 - Last sunset of the year!

Well, I knew it was too good to be true that it was sooo easy to get my boat checked in and it didn't cost anything. My one gear bag was the first on the carousel in Christchurch, so I waited patiently for my boat until all the bags were gone. No dice. I waited impatiently for a few days and got the call that it was in Sydney a few days after I arrived. I borrowed a friend of Rachel's boat for the first couple of days, we got in two laps on the Matakitaki, a fun grade 3 boulder garden in a beautiful valley.

Matakitaki Valley

Mauria Falls - I didnt have my boat yet - check back for pics of me on this one

Rachel was more jet lag from Africa than I was so New Years was pretty mellow staying at her folks place, a beautiful house overlooking the Tasman Sea, in Nelson. We went down to the beach New Years day and got in a nice swim. Nelson is kinda like the Florida of NZ, but with snow-capped mounatins in the distance.

White bait that Rachel's dad caught - a New Zealand delicacy

The airline had my boat flown up to Nelson and I picked it up on the 2nd, in time to head to the West Coast for the up coming rain. Hokitiki is the main hub of the West Coast. The rained poured down for a good day and a half, so we looked for the few runs that you can do under such conditions only to find them too high once we got to the river. So we spent most of yesterday driving around and doing no paddling, oh well thats how it goes sometimes. It finally stopped last night and we were able to get on the Lower Kakapotahi today, as the Upper was too high to run. It was a great grade 4 run with some fun pushy boulder gardens, an exciting canyoneering adventure to get to the river and a great granite gorge with ferns and moss everywhere. So far things have been good. Pretty limited on the runs we can do with all the rain we are getting - its supposed to start up again soon. It hasnt really been clear enough to see the big mountains yet, but I guess they are up there somewhere. We have some good options for paddling tomorrow, so I am optimistic.

We've done plenty of this

And some of this

The entrance to the gorge on the Lower Kakatopahi

Alright thats about it so far. Looks like a nice day or two then more rain. Better than no water though right?! Check back for more updates soon.

Cheers,

Curt

All Photos

Slideshow

Winter Boating...lessons (re)learned

2009-12-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

Winter boating is beautiful!

Well its finally became time to dust off the poagies and extra layers and hit the river. For me breaking out the poagies is the official start of winter boating. Its easy to take going to the river for granted when it becomes such a routine procedure. However, once the air and water temps start approaching freezing the room for error decreases and the consequences greatly increase. Snow and ice make routine scouting and portaging epic and swims can quickly become life threatening.

I love paddling in the wintertime, especially in the snow. There are, however, a few more considerations that should be taken when heading out - no matter if its an old favorite or a Personal First Descent. This past weekend was a great couple of days on the river getting in two laps on the Upper B on Friday and a run on the Top Yock in the pouring snow Saturday. Although there were no serious mishaps, a few things happened that had me thinking about my personal and our group's preparation for the trip.

After a swim and a lost paddle, Steve busted out a breakdown - that turned out to be a lefthand control paddle and didnt know it, better than nothing but better to know that sort of thing in advance. We also learned that duct tape is not good for the connection so dont tape the ends the residue sucks! Fortunatly Russell had his own breakdown and was fine. However, losing a paddle means no poagies. I generally carry extra gloves should I need them for any rope work or other emergencies. But left them in my truck back in DC.

I started to think about what else we had as a group and individually to be prepared for the worst. Russell brought along a down puff jacket and a winter hat, two great things to have should you have to spend the night in the woods. We all had some extra food and water, headlamps and drysuits which are really nice, but also a piece of safety equipment in my opinion when it comes to winter paddling. After looking back, I realized I was so pumped to go get on the river, that i had forgotten a few key things I always bring along for winter paddling, so I brainstormed and made a small list here of things i think everyone should carry along when heading out to boat this winter. Its a little extra weight, but if its an easy get-in and get-out than no big deal, if its a hike-in than its great training for Cali!

Here is a list of the stuff I think anyone paddling in the winter should carry along individually to make for a prepared trip to the river and should the occasion arise, a survivable night in the woods:

Pin kit
first-aid kit
waterproof matches and starter material
limb saw
neoprene gloves
dry beanie
an extra dry layer (down puff or fleece)
emergency blanket
headlamp
glowstick
breakdown paddle
2 throw bags
water and or purifying tablets
knowledge of surrounding area - access/egress points

-nice to have:
compact stove + fuel
liquor
dry gloves
cell phone if you think it might work

If you carry other essential items please comment!

Back to the Potomac for a little while...

2009-11-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

Me nailing the wheelie at Grace Under Pressure

Well the whirl-wind road trip is over for a little while. Its time to earn some money and do some "on the couch" boating, or maybe its "off the couch", I don't know, but there is a couch in my life again and a roof over my head - many thanks to my good buddy Brett Mayer-Achoff.

The wonderful thing about working and living in Bethesda is at least you know you can go paddle anytime. Dawn Patrols, evening runs, and even the infamous lunch-break falls session...love it.

I've had the chance to get out on the Center Lines at Great Falls the last four days, and got some cool photos thanks to Brett. Saturday I also got to take Fastlane down the fall for his first time. A good time was had by all. Grace has to be one of the best feeling boofs around, especially today as the water came up a bit to about 3.75 ft on the little falls gauge.

Fastlane strokin' it at Grace

Me about to stomp it down

Then you get this sweet drop

Life in the Fastlane

It was an awesome afternoon paddle and really cool light as we were taking out. Its nice being back on the Potomac for a little while paddling with friends and enjoying the wonderful escape that Great Falls provides to the local paddling community.

All photos from the Falls

Finally back home...a little boatin' in Virginia

2009-11-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

The goods

After a few good weeks of paddling in the Southeast I thought it was all over. But low and behold it Hurricane Ida spread its rain all over North Carolina and Virginia. I considered heading back to NC, but waited a day with the hopes of doing some Blue Ridge Mountain creek boatin'.

After some phone calls it sounded like the Nelson County steeps were going to be going. One and a half hours later I arrived at the NF of the Tye takeout to find a solid crew consisting of just about every creek boater in Virginia. I think the added displacement brought the creek up just a bit. The rapids were good, it was a little scrappy in-between, but a good morning on a classic Blue Ridge Mtn boulder garden style run. Looking at the gauges it looked like the Paul's Creek drainage got more rain so we headed over there pumped to get on the steepest runnable half-mile in Virginia. After hiking in, I was concerned it might be too low but continued hiking after reassuring claims of "Oh I've done it lower than this" from some of the Paul's creek regulars. Just less padding I guess! So we headed on up and gave it a go. It was definitely steep and fast. There were some good lines and some good pitons, a sore elbow and a lot of laughs.

All photos from Pauls and NFT

Mase - NF Tye

Brandon on the first drop on Paul's

Trevar B taking flight near the top of Where's Hayne

Trevar B taking flight again near at the bottom of Where's Hayne

Thanks to the C'ville crew for showing me a good day in the Blue Ridge.

That evening Drew came up to my Mom's house in Roanoke to stay in anticipation of getting on a really classic steep creek just up the road. I checked the gauge the night before and it was way high. That morning we headed out there to find the water over the bridge footing about up to the "N" on a Werner Player paddle, which was about equal to 10" over the footing . Covering the footing is generally considered high, so we knew we were in for a big day - especially since it was Drew and my first time down. We had a good crew who knew the run well, Thanks to Harris Hayne and Eric O'Connell for some beta on the lines. As to be expected with a big crew and high water there was a little bit of excitement, fortunately nothing too bad. A blown skirt, a piton or two, a swim and a pin - it could have been much worse - but we got out in one piece and just before it got dark. This is an absolute classic run, with a portage or two or three, steep, continuous gradient, beautiful scenery, big rapids and the ability to run at a wide range of water levels. Please treat this run with the respect it deserves - it is a difficult run in a remote gorge with tenuous access issues...we dont want to loose this one!

All photos from this run

Drew at the first rapid

Harris lovin' the steepness

John feeling small in the heart of the waterfall section

Harris hookin' it up with the beta

To round it all off I got to head out on Saturday with beautiful blue skies with my Dad to the also classic Maury River. I remember hearing my Dad talk about Devil's Kitchen all the time when I was young as the most daunting stretch of river. Well at one point it was quite daunting for me as well, those days are over, but it is a great boulder garden in a very pretty setting. I ran back p and ran it a few times catching different eddies and taking other lines. After it let up a bit I met my Dad just downstream of the pass, and he put on with the 20 year-old 14.5' Old Town Camper. We continued downstream through some more boulder gardens and wave trains with more water than we had run this section the many times before as kids. Dad did a great job negotiating the rapids in what was probably a less than ideal watercraft.

Pops given 'er in the longboat of choice

Southeast Update...good fall to be boatin' in the SE

2009-11-04T14:42:00.000-08:00

As I was driving back from Washington I wasn't sure what the next few months were gonna hold. I was planning on a few weeks of fun paddling on the classics East Coast dam releases.....but got a whole lot more.

I paddled a day and worked a day on the Gauley. Catching the best of the fall foliage in WV was awesome. Rachel and I then headed to the Russell Fork for some high quality big, steep water. From there it was home to drop off some gear and down to the Green River in Saluda, NC. Rachel and I got to weather the rains at Devin and Lindsay's place in Brevard, NC while paddling the Green as well as some classic natural flow runs including: North Fork French Broad, Section 4 of the Chattooga, the Horsepasture River and Overflow Creek. With all the rain, we had options and had to make our decisions based on how we were feeling for the day...epic drops and hikes vs. fun class IV/V with easy logistics....life is tough.

The next week leading up to the Green race brought beautiful weather. Blue skies and warm during the day and cold and clear nights...autumn at its best. This week we spent camping a mile downstream from the Green takeout with good friends: some old and some new. All we really had to worry about was when to wake up and paddle the Green again, and one lap or two.

As the race neared the anticipation grew. I found myself feeling gripped on a river I had become relatively comfortable with over the last few weeks. The anticipation grew into anxiousness as I sat at the first rapid awaiting my starting time on race day, November 7th.

My stomach grew more and more unsettled, then finally it was time: I was in my boat and before I knew it I was off, charging down over a half mile of class five rapids dropping over 200 vertical feet.

I knew there were tons of people littering the rocks lining the creek, but in my tunnel vision the masses were just dots of color like a strange fall foliage yelling at you as you pulled on stroke after labored stroke downstream.

Then the finish line, what a glorious feeling! A cathartic relief, all that preparation and anticipation suddenly gone....I made it, it was over. At least next year it won't be so new, but from hearing the chatter around the river that day, likely just as all consuming as 6 minutes of your life could possibly be. The Green Race is awesome.

Here are some photos from the last few weeks of paddling around the East coast.

The Wet Planet boys gettin' some on the Russell Fork:

Tyler aka Fastlane layin down a Boof at El Horrendo

Dave at Climax

The Horsepasture: Absolutely stunning from put-in to take-out:

The ground had already been saturated before it started raining on Oct. 27th, but it rained nice and hard so we considered the options and picked a good one. The level on Wednesday the 28th was right at .4 on the bridge gauge on Upper Whitewater Road, a great level it turned out. The day could not have been better, blue bird skies and good water, creekin' at its best. The hike in and hike out made you have to want this run, but it was manageable and we took turns scouting most of the big horizon lines.

Rainbow Falls: the Put-in

Scouting Staircase (aka Stairmaster) awesome horizon line #1

Half-way down Stairmaster

Rachel Boofin'!

Jeff eying his next move

Eric flying off one of the big rapids in the middle

The last part of the last biggie Highway to Heaven...a very rad rapid.

The take-out. It feels like the edge of the Earth.

Dave took Rachel and I down his old home run, the SE Classic Section IV of the Chattooga

Dave having a Zen moment

The fall colors reflecting off of Tugaloo Lake on the paddle out

Overflow Creek, in the headwaters of the Chattooga

The Green River:

Rachel dialing in her race line at Frankenstein

Andy charging the Notch

Drew spankin' the monkey

Andy at Sunshine

Curt at Sunshine photo: Chris Baer

Looking downstream from Sunshine at Drew

The last of the summertime goods...the Cispus

2009-10-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

At a time of the year when the majority of the creeks in the country are drying up its exciting to know that there is still plenty of creek boating to be had out here in the Northwest. The Upper Upper Cispus has been our saving grace for that rush of class 5 adrenaline. The White Salmon is still great for everyday commuting, sprint laps and work of course, but knowing that there is still water in the Cispus is awesome.
I first got on the Cispus towards the end of July with good water flows (around 750 cfs). It was BROWN and awesome. Even at lower flows (approx. 450 cfs) the upper upper Cispus still provides tons o' fun. It helps having been down it a few times so you know where the rocks are and aren't.

The run starts off with a bang: A sweet double tiered 15' er into a small pool, then immediately duck the trees. The upper section is a bit bony even at good flows, then Adam's creek generally doubles the flow about a mile and a half into the run. Its a great east meets west style run: East coast boulder gardens and rock banging and some big West coast style drops, namely Bohemith. This is one awesome rapid. There is a fun lead in rapid that you dont want to mess up then a small pool above the big one. At this point you are committed, its unscoutable and unportagable from the pool above. Its one heck of a horizon line because you are looking way down past the next rapid. The rapid just following Bohemith, Righty Tighty is awesome as well. Enough talkin' check out the goods:

Andy styling the first drop

Drew ducking the trees immediately following the first drop. Oh yea, there's lots of interesting wood on the Cispus!

Andy running left at Island around 750 cfs (its a sweet slide to boof!)

Trevor on BOHEMITH!

Looking down from Bohemith into Righty Tighty...awesome section of river!

After running all the good class 5 there is an awesome little side hike up a very narrow and remote gorge that can only be accessed from paddling down the upper upper Cispus and swimming into this gorge that gets you to this beautiful waterfall. Its a nice treat after some good quality kaykaing.

Stay tuned east coast updates are coming soon. Im in Highlands NC today having great runs on the Green, Russell Fork and today the Chattooga. Yeeehaw!

A True Classic: The North Fork of the Payette

2009-08-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

Staying in the flow, heading downstream and keeping it upright: the best NF beta

Photo: Brian "BReal" Ward

Ever since reading the description of the North Fork of the Payette in the Western States Whitewater guidebook a friend gave me last year I was instantly drawn to the mystique of this run. HUGE waves, HUGE holes and HUGE RAPIDS was pretty much what I got out of it. Last month I got the chance to check it out for myself. It sure enough lived up to its reputation. On the ride up we looked at Jacob's Ladder and Nutcracker. Its hard to appreciate the size and complexity of any of the rapids from anywhere but in a kayak. Not long after putting on Drew's friend, how was our guide, felt really squirrely and said "I'm gonna die out here if I dont get out now." So he took out and we continued on, following very limited info that Drew remembered from his last visit. We had a healthy flow of about 2,300 cfs. Some of the rapids felt like they went on forever, it was awesome!!! Having a guide is helpful in places, but more often than not you are just cruising down the middle wavetop scouting for massive holes. Its so big and fast that you can punch a lot of stuff you wouldn't expect to be able to punch. We did all 15 miles top to bottom the first day and the upper 10 miles the second day then headed on back to the Gorge. It was a nice change from lots and lots of creekboating. One more of the 50 Classic runs in North America down. Big Water is a much different and really rad animal!

Me feeling small in the massive North Fork whitewater

Photo: Brian "BReal" Ward

Me launching a boof towards the bottom of Nutcracker

Photo: Brian "BReal" Ward

Boby (Zee German) styling the famous "rock drop" boof in Jacob's Ladder

Drew Austell and the North Fork making the Green Boat look small in Jacob's Ladder

Summer in the Northwest...

2009-07-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

Alight, I have the afternoon off so I broke out the computer to add some updates and photos on here. It was a very busy weekend here, working 2 trips a day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The past few weeks have been awesome. During the week things had been slow allowing for lots of paddling. We did a midnight float trip down the Lower Wind River last week, the night of the full moon. It was a fun class 3-4 run with 3 good waterfalls at the end AND a hot spring on the side of the river. We have been running the Green Truss section of the White Salmon almost daily and still making a road trip every now and then to the Little White Salmon, 20 minutes away. The Little White is dropping and will sadly be too low within the next week.

Our team ended up placing second in the EddyFlower vertical challenge. We got edged out by 400 feet at the last minute. We had maxed out most of the big runs in the area, so on the final day of the competition, 3 of us headed over to the Klickitat River, the next drainage east of the White Salmon. It is a fun, very continuous class 3 run. We did three 18 mile laps totally 54 miles and 3,300 vertical feet. It was a long, fun and tiring day for sure. Not bad for just being off the couch and all. Well worth it.

Also recently BZ Corner local Dave Hammond organized the first annual Big Air Bonanza at the infamous ender spot, Top Drop, on the White Salmon river. This 3 foot pourover was serving up some radical longboat enders. The event was well attended by both spectators, participants and dogs. The particpants dawned the biggest shades, tightest neoprene, sketchiest helmets, most porous drywear and longest boats they could find. The judging consisted of all spectators yelling out a number between 1 and 10 for each move, the numbers were added and averaged to determine the winner. Michael (Miguel) Shields from Allstar ended up with the victory in a Prijon Hurricane. It was an awesome event and I look forward to the next Big Air Bonanza for sure.

Here are some photos from the last few weeks:

Putting on for the 2nd of 3 laps on the Klickitat photo: Fastlane

Me practicing swimming over and under strainers for a Swiftwater Rescue class

Drew about to launch it on Boulder Sluice, Little White Salmon

Drew working it through Island, Little White Salmon

Drew styling Sprit in the Green Boat, Little White Salmon

Getting big air in the Green Boat photo: Lindsay Green

Me popping it up in the Crossfire photo: Lindsay Green

Devin gettin some air in the RPM photo: Lindsay Green

The view of Mt. Hood from a friends porch.

The Green Truss bridge

The Class 5 climb down to the river to put on the Green Truss section of the White Salmon

Me boofing the second drop of Bob's, White Salmon River photo: Lance Reif

Me firing off Big Brother, White Salmon River photo: Drew Austel

Lance coming off the lip of Big Brother

Drew headed into the heart of Lower Zig-Zag, White Salmon River

Double Drop, the most runnable unrunnable rapid, White Salmon River

The "Salmon Jump" maneuver at Double Drop

2009-06-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

OK, just wanted to get out a quick photo dump and update on my status. Things are awesome out here. SO much water and people to paddle with its amazing. I have had the chance to get out on the Little White Salmon a few times already and I have paddled to work a few times as well. Our Vertical Challenge team is raking up the feet and are leading by about 13,000 feet. We had a good crew hike in 4 miles up Eagle Creek in Oregon to run the Punchbowl Falls and the gorges above it. It was a truly amazing place.

Me dropping Punchbowl Falls - Eagle Creek, OR

Columbia River Gorge

Mt. Hood

Rattlesnake Wave...the playspot across the street

The Trout Lake Ice Caves

The Klickitat

Punchbowl Falls, Eagle Creek Oregon

Mt. Adams, Washington

Lance at the lip of Punchbowl Falls

The Gorge above Punchbowl on Eagle Creek

The Wet Planet North Camp communal tent

Thats it for now, I gotta go run a trip. More updates to come soon.

Farewell to the East Coast

2009-04-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

It is once again time to say a farewell to the lush Appalachian hills that I have called home for so long. I am moving on once again to new rivers, adventures, and people. I am really going to miss all my friends and family here, but feel that I have had an awesome few months back and recovering from surgery.

This time last year I got on the Upper Blackwater for the first time before I left for Colorado. I have gotten on it 3 times in the last couple of weeks and then I also was lucky enough to catch the North Fork of the Blackwater....the steeper cousin of the Upper B. Check out the topo of the canyon.

I havent really been on it with the photos recently. I have just been psyched to be out and paddling with my good buddies and staying focused on being in the flow and in the moment when on the water. Through this I have truly been able to appreciate my surroundings in an almost Zen like state.

More to come.

Water, Water, and more Water

2009-04-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend started a day earlier than planned when I got a text from Billy on Friday morning. I was having a nice day in the burbs, making some eggs and sausage when I found out that the Blue Ridge Mtns west of C'ville got dumped on with rain the night before. I quickly finished my all-american breakfast and threw a weekends worth of gear and some clothes in my truck and booked it to Billy's place. All the streams were dirty brown on the way there, and the sun was starting to shine...it was gonna be a good day, I could tell. I picked up Billy, we scurried to Mark's and relieved him from a day of daddy duty and headed for the moutains. It was all suspect what would be running when we got out there. The last look at the gauges had us wondering if things might be too high. Before arriving at the NF of the Tye, at Billy's request we made an impromptu stop to do some hiking and looking. We liked what we saw. This turned into hiking and boating. First D??? Who knows? New Nelson County classic steep creek?? who knows? There was one runnable 25-30 ft slide (with out any chainsaws necessary) that had a fun 50-75 yards of micro-creekin boogie lead-in. Billy found this one on a hiking trip a few weeks ago and thought it might go. He named it Preist's draw (i heard "free straw", just for the record). We hiked a ways upstream to find even more vertical goodness, that was unfortunately unrunnable due to wood. I think with some sawing and z-draging this could realllly be a kick butt run. Its super micro-creeking at its finest. Check the pics.

After a few laps, each going higher and higher until we got to a larger strainer, we headed on. The NF of the Tye was looking pretty beefy, I have never done it and Billy wasnt planning on it with his shoulder injury and I felt hesitation from Mark, so we decided to go look at Adrenaline Alley, which was totally wood choked. We made a group consensus to head to Staton's creek. After a long, long, long drive to Staton's (kidding I had to throw that in there, it just feels long when you have been driving in high anticipation of getting in your boat) we arrived at the steeps once again. the put-in is awesome, right below a huge unrunnable waterfall. Mark and I did 2 more or less successful laps. there was some wood to walk around, including a tree that fell between our first and second run...sketchy. Statons is not like anything I have ever done in a kayak before. Lots of running into, over, and against rocks, logs, briars, and occasionally water. It was quite fun though. Most of the big drops were good to go except Duck and Run, I think it was called. Which involved some scrambling and then a killer seal-launch right into the next rapid. I totally botched the first big rapid both times with a styled out stern piton. Despite the maze of logs and f-u rocks and briars, it was still lots of fun and very steep.

I returned to C-ville to drop off the guys ate a delicious Pad-Thai dinner and then headed to my brothers place in Harrisonburg. I drank a beer and slept, hoping the NF of the Blackwater would run in the morning. After talking to John, Mayer, and Ian it looked like we were doing the Laurel Fork of the Cheat, a seneic class 3-4 through a wilderness area. Long story short, I waited, cell phone dont work in WV, they were running later than i thought, i panicked, thought they bailed, so I thought i would be smart and find them at the Top Yough. No such luck.

Fortunately I did find some other boaters who had just put on and yelled to them asking if i could get a shuttle ride. I got the thumbs up and met them below swallow tail falls. The Top Yough was BROWN and feeling pretty big. I ran the left side double boof at Swallow the first lap which was awesome. The Top Yough is great cause you can run it down to reported lows of 48 cfs to reported highs of 4,000. Saturday it was just under 800 cfs and was awesome. Big, pushy water, with fun boofs and big holes. I ended up getting in 3 laps which was very nice.

The last two laps i paddled with a local, matt fithian, who graciously offered me a couch at his place after paddling. I accepted. we drank beers and watched super bad and i went to bed, he went to a hot tub with some friends and 3 ladies, but i couldnt ruin the ratio for them so i stayed behind and went to bed.

Sunday, we were blessed with a blue bird day in West by god with 68 air degree temps. awesome day for the Blackwater. We met up with two of his friends who didnt party the night before and got up at 6 am to boat. They were on it, by the time we met them at noon at the Upper B putin they had already done a lap on Deckers Creek and a lap on the Lower Big sandy. We did the Upper and lower blackwater. Then they headed over to do 2 laps on the Top Yough. Impressive.

It was an awesome day for the Blackwater, just over 300 cfs when we put on. Fun level. The amount and quality of the boofs on that run really amaze me. I had a great time and felt much more at ease with the river than my first run down the UB. I was able to really enjoy myself, the challenging, not-stop paddling, and the beautiful canyon.

Unfortunately my camera battery died so no pics from Saturday or Sunday, but here a few from Nelson County.

Enjoy.

First D?? Quite Possibly

I hereby name this Free Straw (actually Priest's Draw)

The slide

The lead in to the slide

Mark

Lead in to first big drop on Statons

All the Pictures from Nelson County

Soaks, Sleds, and Sun...Colorado 2009

2009-02-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

After leaving Colorado on that fateful day in August with my truck loaded down like the Clampetts rolling into Beverly Hills, I wasn't sure when the next time I would be back in colorful Colorado might be. Well after a wedding, another river job, a surgery, 4 casts, some crutches, a nephew and a deskjob I came back to visit Emily and some AWR buddies from this summer in Aspen, CO.
It was an awesome way to spend a birthday and let off some steam from being cooped up for so long. The day after I arrived we tooled around in the upper Fryingpan basin, checking out the river covered in snow. Much different scene than summertime. On super bowl Sunday we headed out to Arches National Park and had some dinner and a brew in Moab. Arches NP was super cool. We did some short hikes to almost all of the Arches. We had the place to ourselves since everyone else in the US was watching the superbowl. We checked out "Wall Street" a climbing area Emily went to this fall, right outside of Moab. I had to sink in a few handjams even though I was pretty much still on the ground.

During the week I rode Emily's bike or drove hger car around Aspen checking out the scene. Good people watching abounds in Aspen, especially in the wintertime.

On Thursday, I met up with Mark and took his sled up into the backcountry. We went way out Richmond Ridge, almost to Taylor Pass. I flipped it a few times and had some other bailouts before I felt very comfortable on it. It was much more of a workout than I expected. I was very sore the next day. Got to see some awesome views from way up at 12,ooo ft. I had never seen or been surrounded by so much snow in my life. It was amazing.

Emily and I left for Orvis Hot Springs just outside of Ouray, CO on Friday after she got off work. We enjoyed some awesome soaking under the crisp,clear, Colorado skies. We saw a few shooting stars even. On Saturday we did a quick tour of Ouray, the ice climbing park, Red Mtn. pass and headed for the Black Canyon. However, after driving to within 5 miles of the North Rim, we found out that the road is closed in wintertime. That was a bummer, but we collected some firewood instead and headed back to 'bonedale. We checked out Abigail Washburn and her string quartet including Bela Fleck in Aspen on Staurday night. It was a killer show!!

And all too soon I had to return home. Even though I didnt get to ski, it was an awesome visit and I cant wait to get back to CO in the winter sometime when I can take advantage of the awesome skiing and snowboarding.

Arches NP:

Hand Jammin' in Moab

All Pictures From Arches/Moab click here

The winter wonderland of CO:

Sledneckin'

Sledneckin'

Mark doing a front flip off of a cornice

The backside of Aspen Highland, the five fingers

Mark, rippin it

Some dude flyfishing on the gold-medal Fryingpan

Where I lived this summer, covered in snow

Stubbs, loving life

Colorado Backcountry

The rest of the Colorado pics, click here

Looking Back...2008

2009-02-06T13:06:00.000-08:00

I know its a little late for a best of 2008 post, but I just haven't gotten around to it, so here goes...

I BECAME AN UNCLE!!

My Nephew - Robert James Phelan, Jr.

I got in at least 28 new runs, these are the ones I can think of:

Holtwood – Susquehanna
Roaring Fork, Colorado
Oh Be Joyful creek
Upper East
Daisy Creek
Upper Animas
Lake Fork, Gunnison
Castle Creek
Crystal River
SF Crystal
Upper Fryingpan
South Platte - Bailey’s Canyon
South Platte – Waterton Canyon
Clear Creek of the Ark
Arkansas - Browns Canyon
Arkansas - Pine Creek/Numbers
Colorado - Gore Canyon
Colorado – South Canyon wave
Colorado- Glenwood Playpark
Beaver - Eagle Section
Beaver - Taylorville Section
Bottom Moose (low water)
Upper Blackwater
Lower Otter Creek
Seneca Creek
Russell Fork
Meadow Run Cascades

I paddled in 3 new states: Colorado, Georgia, and Kentucky

I was probably the most excited about getting on the Upper Blackwater for the first time in May, right before I left for CO. However, it was really awesome getting to paddle with all my buddies in Colorado. We fired up some really fun stuff.

I did my first kayak race, on Gore Canyon of the Colorado. My race run was only my 3rd run through the canyon, it wasn't great, but i finished and gave the racing thing a shot, not sure if its really my style, but definitely something different.

I got paid to paddle the Gauley River 24 times, that was pretty cool.

The longest I went all summer without paddling was the 4 days I came home for a funeral.

I totaled 187 days on the river, not bad considering I didnt paddle at all in December. Thats just over an average of paddling every other day!!

It was an awesome year, lots of good times with good friends.

And heres a 2008 good times Photo Dump.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T14:38:00.000-08:00

It is all too easy in this day and age of intense consumerism to get caught up in the things that we don't have: the hottest car, newest electronics, best job, etc... However, this Thanksgiving as I sat in the recovery room of the Shady Grove Hospital in immense pain, I had the chance to realize just how thankful I am for what I have been blessed with. Just after waking up from surgery I was in extreme pain. In order to try and keep my mind off of the present I thought about everything that was good in my life. I have an amazingly supportive family who is always there for me. I have awesome friends who share my love for adventures and good times. I have good health, a college education and tons of ideas. Without the support of my friends and family I don't know where I would be. I want to say thank you to everyone who has played any part in my life for being who you are.

I finally decided to go through with the surgery on my foot that I have been putting off for a while in hopes it might magically get better. I have been awkwardly and painfully getting around over the last two years since my fall while climbing down at Looking Glass, NC.

So, in the final days before my surgery I decided i needed to go out and try and clear my system as much as i could. I had the chance to get out on Great Falls a lot. I got to paddle the Maryland side of the Falls at a higher level than I have ever paddled it, as well as some good days on the Virginia side. I always enjoy paddling the falls and it was just like the "good old days" of the last year or two being back here paddling with friends and leaving work to go fire up the falls.

John Haddock on The Spout - VA Side Great Falls

Scott Anderson on The Spout - VA Side Great Falls

John Greer on The Spout - VA Side Great Falls

I was hoping to get in some creeking on the Blackwater with some recent snow in WV. However, the weather stayed very cold and the snow, instead of melting, just piled up. So i figured if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I headed out to Caanan Valley Friday morning after they had received about 24" of snow in the week prior and about 8-12 more inches Thursday night. It was snowing most all of the day and was a total whiteout. The wind was blowing hard and the air was about 15 degrees, not including wind chill.

I rented some snowshoes and ended up snowshoeing up to the top of Bald Knob with some other folks i knew from kayaking and then snowboarded down in what turned out to be waist-deep power in some places. The hike up was awesome. I can really sympathize with the saying "Earn your turns." I gained a new appreciation for the downhill after snowshoeing the whole way up.

Whitegrass is a very awesome place. Everyone out there was having a great time regardless of skills or experience. Its hard not to have a good time when you are romping around the snowcovered woods of West Virginia.

Every now and then during the ascent you could hear random people letting out yelps of cheer. It was not uncommon to hear a few "Whooooohoooo"s or "Yeeeehaaawwww"s while making the climb up to the top of ny of the surrounding balds.

Earning the turns - Justice skinning up a really narrow steep trail we took to the top on Friday

Celebrating small victories at the Round Top shelter - about halfway up to Bald Knob

The view of Bald Knob from the shelter

Me with an icy beard

Whitegrass...what a cool place

Saturday turned out to be an awesome day. The weather got a little warmer, in the 20s and the snow and wind subsided. I met Billy in the morning and I got some XC skis and he decided to try out the "Guides," a Telemark setup. XC skiing turned out to be quite interesting for me. Not only was it quite uncomfortable for my foot, but i was also quite bad at it. We managed to make it up to Bald Knob, where you could actually stand for a few minutes, as opposed to Friday, and we enjoyed a beer. Meanwhile, Billy had managed to break the bindings off of his rental skis and faced a one ski / ski sledding decent. I just fell pretty much the whole way down. I am glad I can laugh at myself. Doing the pizza with XC skis with no metal edges barely slows you down, and puts you in a very weird position to fall i found out.

All Whitegrass Pictures

Billy, chatting it up about the Guides with innocent bystanders.

The view from Bald Knob, Saturday

Blackwater Falls

One last day...I was lucky enough to get ut on the falls with John, John, Billy and Brett one more time before my surgery. We met in the Maryland Parking lot and got all geared up for a cool evening run. The level was just right for a medium Maryland lines run and a lower water run on the VA side. We started off on the MD side with awesome lines off Pummel; which is an amazing boof at higher water. Then we hit Z turn and the left side of Horseshoe, which is also a great boof when it is at the right level. Then we headed over to the VA side, ran U-Hole at the top and then all the other standard lines.

Gearing up at the put-in

Mayer prepares for Takeoff on Pummel

Weird effect with the flash, but Billy is nailing the boof at U-Hole

Well, my foot is all cut up, in a cast and i am now on crutches. Its not for good and I am very excited about the fact that I will soon be able to walk normally again and enjoy all the things once again that had been bothering me so much over the last couple of years.

All Pictures from the Potomac

I will keep posting in my recovery.

Here is a sweet X-Ray of my foot with the two screws in it:

The Russell Fork...Finally

2008-11-13T15:35:00.001-08:00

After scanning American Whitewater for years, there remained one classic class V run in Virginia that I had always looked at with nervous ambition. The Russell Fork is way off in the far corner of Virginia on the Virginia/Kentucky border, not very close to anything. In addition to its location, the dam feeding it only has scheduled releases for 3 weekends a year in October. Thats not to say that it doesn't regularly flow, however often much lower, on natural flows throughout the year.

For some reason, I never made it out there to paddle this awesome gorge. A few weekends ago I had the chance to head out there with my buddy Billy Armstrong aka Strongarms and we both had our first go at it. It just so happened to also the the annual Russell Fork Rendezvous weekend.

It proved to be every bit of a classic as any good story might make it out to be. It's a pretty short run that is lots of fun and can easily be run multiple times in one day.

Banjo music, a huge fire, kegs of beer on top of a truck...this must be the Russell Fork

Handpaddler at Climax

A stoked Strongarms after a sik boof at Climax

Sunset over the Russell Fork Gorge / Breaks Interstate Park

The most pimpin' shuttle rig ever - Chris from Colorado's WREC Center

Fall foliage in the Gorge

Looking upstream at the first rapid: Tower

What an awesome time.

The rest of the pictures

Time to Reflect...

2008-11-07T23:00:00.000-08:00

Summer is over, Gauley season is over, 6 months of getting paid to kayak...over. Man what an awesome six months. Looking back, I don't think that I really would have changed anything either. Well, maybe I wouldn’t have landed so flat off the 25-footer on OBJ or had a class V raft wrap on a forked tree in the middle of a class two section of water. But other than that, what a great time.
I got to live in two of the most beautiful areas that I have ever been. My backyard was my playground. It was truly a breath of fresh air, both literally and figuratively, coming out of the concrete jungle of Bethesda, MD. Colorado is an amazing place to be in the summertime. Although Aspen and the surrounding area is well known for its awesome skiing and snowboarding in the winter, all that snow can make for one hell of a summer. When the days get longer and warmer the outdoor activities in the Roaring Fork valley are endless. Mountain biking of all varieties out your front door, tenuous crimpy sandstone face climbing, bomber 3 pitch granite hand-jamming, four species of the largest prettiest trout almost anywhere, lazy river booze cruising, back-to-back 30 foot waterfalls, and everything in-between. At the end of everyday I found myself wishing that there were a few more hours of daylight. I wasn’t done having fun yet.

Working for Aspen Whitewater Rafting proved to be a good summer job once things got going. There were a lot of rookie guides this year, including myself, but a really awesome crew. My favorite job by far was safety kayaking, basically saving the customers that have fallen out of the boat. I also guided some rafts and did some shuttle driving and led some ducky trips (by far the most hilarious part of the job). We all did everything there. AWR is a small outfit of about 20 people so everyone gets to wash booties hang up lifejackets, etc.

I must emphasize how much fun it was paddling the Roaring Fork everyday, either for work or fun or both. There was a tremendous snowpack last winter which translates to an epic summer in Colorado. The Roaring Fork ran for almost 3 months straight peaking out at just under 3,000 cubic feet per second. This run has a little bit of everything. Boofs, bouldergardens, tight lines, big open lines, a small waterfall, playboating, you name it. I would say it is far and away the best class IV run in Colorado, and one of the top in the Country.

In the time I was out there I had many friends come out to visit from back east. It was great showing my friends runs I had done or exploring runs together that none of us had run.

As July was coming to a close as was the inevitable...the rivers were dropping. The once snow covered mountains that enveloped the Roaring Fork valley were now gigantic barren faces of red and grey rock with the occasional gully or drift of dirty snow still clinging to the most shaded ravines.

I definitely fulfilled my goal of paddling as much as possible and the longest I went all summer in Colorado without paddling was the three or four days I went home for a funeral. After paddling what was pretty much the last single day class V whitewater left in Colorado for 5 out of 7 days my body was beatdown and tired. In the days spent wandering around the one horse town of Kremmling, CO the disappointment that marked the of the end of an awesome season and uneasiness of an uncertain future must have been radiating from the dirty clothes and greasy hair of me and my buddy Chris as we sauntered into the local Subway, too tired and out of creative combinations of rice, meat, noodles, and sauce to make our own meal. The nice lady working that evening clearly picked up on it. She offered cheerful conversation and bought our meals for us. Following the Gore Fest and race I headed back to Aspen for another week or two of scrapping rafts down the painfully low river. Before long it was time to start packing the truck and blazing a new trail.

Where would this trail take me?? I decided since I was already heading back east with all of my gear I might as well try to get a job on the river for Gauley season. I was making phone calls the whole time I was driving from Colorado to upstate New York for my college roommate’s wedding trying to see if anyone needed a videoboater a week before the season started. After hearing nothing but my radio I finally got a call back when I was somewhere in Ohio I think. It was the voice of my soon-to-be boss at Class VI Mountain River, the foremost outfitter in West Virginia on the New and Gauley Rivers. She said she could work me a day or two a week as a whitewater videographer, or videoboater, and I said I was in. After the wedding I paddled a few dam release runs on Labor Day on the Eagle and Taylorville section of the Beaver River, then a low water run on the Bottom Moose. That evening I was greeted with the utmost hospitality at my friend John Greer’s Mom’s house. I awoke early the next morning and drove about 10 hours to Fayetteville, WV. I was finally on familiar ground again after 4 months of wandering.

Working on the Gauley was an experience in and of itself. The river draws customers and workers alike from all over North America. It is a gathering of whitewateraholics from Alaska to Georgia and Ottawa to Washington. Working the Gauley for me wasn’t awesome because I am a badass playboater and got to do trickywhus and McPhonicsNastyMonkeyLoops all day. It’s a fun river to paddle no matter your watercraft of choice or the pace you paddle. I felt extremely lucky to get to kayak the Gauley every release and worked all but about three days. You get a lot of time to think to yourself while paddling class V rapids solo 4 days a week. I couldn’t help but think about all the people missing out on this experience. Now I know the river ain’t for everyone, but when I’m out there I just can’t help but feel sorry for the misguided souls sitting on the couch eating Doritos and drinking crappy beer living vicariously through television shows and video games. LIVE IT! I digress.

The Gauley really is just a flat out beautiful area and awesome river. There are no death defying waterfalls or long technical boulder gardens but you can find lots of fun when venturing out of the main current and hitting some really interesting lines. Working the Gauley was awesome not only because of the whitewater, but also because of the culture and history and traditions and the people that make up the whole experience. The owners at Class VI were clearly hooked more than 30 years ago when they were some of the first people running commercial trips on the New and Gauley Rivers. I had a great time getting to live in the woods under two Wal-Mart tarps in the woods of West Virginia. I really felt one with the woods when I would come back home to my tent or step out back to nature’s bathroom and notice the leaves a little more yellow or orange than they were the day before. On my days of I enjoyed many climbing trips any of the surrounding crags or an evening mountain biking through the think deciduous forests of West Virginia. I also had the pleasure of getting to show my girlfriend, Emily, the wonders of West Virginia, virgin territory for her. We had a great time exploring Wolf Creek and wearing out her dog, Stubbs, swimming in the New River. Getting to share such awe-inspiring area with a total newcomer really opened my eyes to the real grandeur before me. It is easy to take the mountains that you see everyday for granted. However, after spending all summer in the Rockies, there was a certain comforting feeling I got coming home to the Blue Ridge.

Now what? What lies in store for this twenty-five year old homeless jobless bum? I have a college degree, an arthritic subtalur joint (heel), a laptop, lots of pictures, and health insurance. The way I see it the options are endless but I must follow the order o operations. First things first, I am getting surgery on my right foot so that 4 months from now I should be taking my first pain-free steps since falling 20 feet on to rock two years ago. In my downtime I also plan on telecommuting and working as much as possible as a consultant for my former employer, MDA Federal. This will allow me to make some money, stay fresh on my GIS skills, and curtail the inevitable boredom that comes with recovering for 3 months from surgery in the dead of a Mid-Atlantic winter. I also plan on working on expanding my photography and revamping my website to really try and get it out there and actually sell some photos under the guise of “artwork.” I may sink, I may swim, but if I don’t jump in I reckon I will never know. So I will be working on my website as well as searching out new avenues for displaying and “advertising” my work as much as I can through small coffee shops and retail stores. You know places where people interested in pictures of autumn leaves swirling in a small eddy on Mill Creek might hang out.

The outlook is good. Life is Good! I cannot wait to be healed up and more physically able than I have been in the last two years. I will try to keep my blog up-to-date with pictures of gnarly incisions and festering foot wounds and casts. So please keep checking my website as well. I just added an all-new category “The Very Best Of…” which can be reached from the links at the top. I really like it because it will be a nice quick and easy way to get to the goods. These are some of my top picks that would serve as good desktop backgrounds or prints. All of these will be protected, but can be downloaded or printed for a small fee.

Photos coming soon...

The Perpetual Flow.com - The Very Best Of...

Takin' My Time in West Virginia

2008-10-09T11:09:00.001-07:00

Sunset over the New River

New River Gorge Bridge from below

Wolf Creek

Fowlersville Falls, Bottom Moose NY

Second Drop, Eagle Section, Beaver River

Okay, so I have been in WV for 5 weeks now and no updates. The internet service is spotty at best most of the time, the rest of the time I am out having fun, sorry. I headed back east a few days before Labor Day weekend. I went to my college roomate, Matt and Amiee's wedding in upstate NY that weekend. I got a job video kayaking for Class VI on the Gauley river on the drive back. Labor Day I met up with my buddy John Greer and paddled the Beaver and a low water run on the bottom Moose. The next day I drove down to Fayetteville, WV to make my new home in the woods.

I lived in a tent on a giant rock for the first 3 weeks. The next week my neighbor headed out so I took over his old platform. It is pretty deluxe.

I have been on the river working almost everyday. the few days i have had off i still went out on the Gauley on play runs. It has been really great being back east. I have had a chance to hang out with most of my friends out here. on non-release days i have been rockclimbing and mountain biking and taking photos.

Thats about all i have time for right now. Hopefully some more photos and stories will soon follow.

Wrapping things up in Colorado

2008-09-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I am now back on the east coast. My last two months in Colorado were awesome and very busy. I was having enough fun that I didn't have time to sit down and type about all that I had been doing.

The on last few days of July, all the stars aligned just right so that my friend Chris Gorman and I had the wonderful opportunity to paddle the South Fork of the Crystal River. This was THE run I wanted to do this summer after opening my brand new Colorado guidebook for the first time I saw the picture of the clean waterfalls that were to be had. After miles of grueling driving in 4 wheel low, and trying not to bottom out my truck of roll it down the mountain we got as far as we could without ATVs. So at that point it was starting to get dark so we decided to hike our boats and most of our gear the rest of the way up to the Devil's Punchbowls and stash it for the night. After about 40 minutes of hiking our gear up, I came around a turn and low and behold: the falls. What an amazing sight. We scouted the launch and the line on the lower drop, took some pictures, then stashed our gear and headed back to set up camp.

We enjoyed a nice fire, some pasta sides, and some chicken Chris obtained from the Lakota refridgerator. After a few beers I retired to my truck bed and dreamed of the water we would soon be paddling. The hike up wasnt bad in the morning since most of our gear was already at the waterfalls. Once we got there, Chris wasted no time asking some random hikers to shoot video and pictures for us, which they kindly obliged. Getting the boats to the launch and launching in turned out to be quite a task. We had to hold each other's boats right above the entry slide while the other climbed in, then gave a little push and we were on our way. The first drop was a small low angle slide into a 30 foot dead vertical drop into a super deep aquamarine cauldron of snowmelt water. The second drop was a 20 foot 45 degree slide into a 20 foot vertical drop. This one required angling and driving right in order to avoid a shallow, rocky landing on the left.

In my ramblings...

2008-06-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

They say pictures can tell 1,000 words, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. These are all photos I have taken since being out here in Colorado. Enjoy!

I drove to Colorado with m y sister, Sara leaving Harrisonburg, VA around 1 :30 pm heading for Colorado. I started off driving...West Virginia, the first new state. Still pretty familiar territory. I have many memories of driving 64 west to the New River Gorge from Roanoke, driving past Roaring Run and Low Moor. From Harrisonburg driving through West Augusta past the Maury and Goshen Pass. Sam Black Church past Rupert and Ranielle ...Lansing-Edmond Road. Fayetteville. Past WV was still familiar.

I bought a one-way flight to St. Louis spring break of my Senior Year of college, to pick up a black Subaru Outback I had purchased from a wholesale buyer over the internet....yea, i was a bit skeptical but it was all good. Drove it home the same day all the way to WV, massive snow, it drove awesome, stayed at a hotel and drove home the next day.

I digress...Sara started driving in WV or Kentucky and got us a long way. I took over for the latenight shift in Indiana, woke Sara up for the Mississippi. I got us into almost to Kansas, and we napped around 4am for a few hours outside Kansas City, Missouri. We hit the road hard ready for Kansas. Its a blur from there on into Colorado. We made it to Boulder around 6 to surprise Sara's friend Lecia for some dinner at a great India bufette. Delicious real food after 27 hours of driving.

I did some hiking in Rocky Mtn. National Park, some kayaking, and hanging out with friends in the Front Range. I left Sunday afternoon to drive to Aspen where I had my first day of guide training Monday morning. I arrived in Aspen around 11pm and headed east past the town towards Independence Pass. I arrived to at the locked gate and found a pulloff just down the road and called it home for the evening. This would be the nightly routine for the next month.

Dinnertime in the truck. Beans...yumm!

One of my favorite spots was about 12 miles up Castle Creek Rd, at the ghost town Ashcroft. This old mining town sits at about 10,000 feet above sea level. There was still about two feet of snow in the middle of May when I was staying up there. A few nights I would wake up to 3 to 6 inches of snow and frozen condensation in my truck. It was a truly beautiful thing to open the back of my truck and see tons of snow covered peaks.

What I awoke to the next morning at 10,000 feet in May.

Kayakers and surfers sharing the man-made play feature on the Colorado River at Glenwood Springs.

The South African brothers getting their taste of the American booty beer tradition

Free Thursday night bluegrass at Snowmass

Dan's 1982 Audi loaded down after a post work Slaughterhouse run.

Mt. Sporis as seen from the Prince Creek mountain bike trail

The Maroon Bells and Maroon Lake

A beaver pond and a mountain somewhere above the Clear Creek put-in.

Driving over Cottonwood pass from Buena Vista to Crested Butte.

Ian and the mighty Subie going over Cinnamon Pass from Lake City to Silverton.

A snow covered mountain along Keebler Pass from Aspen to Crested Butte.

The Slate River meandering through the valley towards Crested Butte

Aspen trees and snowcovered peaks...it is the Rockies

Mount Crested Butte

A cool view of Mount Sopris

A mule deer fording the Fryingpan

The gold medal trout waters of the Fryingpan River

Gearing up

An unrunnable man-made drop on Castle Creek

Johnny Haddock paddling the upper Fryingpan River

Twin Lakes and Mt. Hope

Raft Guide training

Mount Massive and some other tall snowcovered fourteeners

Iowa Shaft trail

Aspen from Smuggler Mountain

Greg shreddin' it on the Rim Trail

Jeff tearing up some of the well deserved downhill on the Rim Trail

Climbing the ridge line on the Rim Trail

Celebrating Jeff's ability to legally enjoy the delicious taste of carefully fermented hops

A few weeks in Aspen, and all over Colorado

2008-06-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

My Lincoln log home

A great tie-down job

Beautiful Crested Butte

Summer may have finally struck Aspen. After toughing out the coldest, snowiest May of my life, flowers and trees are finally blooming and it is only getting down to the 40s and 50s at night out here. Most of my days in May were spent training how to guide a raft down the river. I picked it up pretty quickly and my previous experience in reading water was helpful. Most of the folks I work with have never done much on the water, they are primarily skiing fanatics. I got in a few days of paddling on the Roaring Fork at the end of a day of training. I have also been going down to a man-made play feature on the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, CO. At these higher levels it becomes an awesome surfable wave 6 to 10 feet tall. I have seen a number of people out surfing surfboards even.
I have had a number of vistors already stop by on their summer paddling tour. I paddled with my buddy from DC Johnny Haddock and his buddies Alex and Will. We had a great run on the upper Fryingpan one day and Castle Creek into the Slaughterhouse section of the Roaring Fork the next day.

Johnny Haddock, typical boulder garden on the Upper Fryingpan

A few days later I took a week off work to hang out with Billy, Brett, and Ian, the rest of my paddling crew from back in the DC area. I met them in Crested Butte and jumped right into it running some of the bigger and better waterfalls in the state, including a 25-footer, and a 20 and 18 footer. They pretty much drove 30 hours straight and got right on one of the hardest and steepest regularly run creek in Colorado, Oh Be Joyful creek. Its a great one. Your third stroke after putting on is off an 18 foot water fall. Then it keeps on going from there. We also paddled the Upper East, and Daisy Creek in the Crested Butte area.

The gang with Mt. Crested Butte in the background

Billy doing some last minute repairs

Scouting Avalanche, OBJ

Ian at Heart Attack, the warm-up drop on Oh Be Joyful

The lead-in to the 25 footer

The 25 footer on OBJ

Typical gradient on Oh Be Joyful

20 footer on Daisy Creek

One of the slides on the Upper East

I left for a day to go visit with Jeff in Salida and paddled the Clear Creek of the Arkansas and the Buena Vista playpark one day. We reunited and decided for something a little more mellow and get in some miles so on the way to Durango, we paddled the Lake Fork of the Gunnison. We then did some pretty wild offroading to get over Cinnamon Pass at 12,640 ft. We cruised into Durango, got some dinner and brews, then drove a little ways out of town and camped at the Colorado trailhead. The next day we paddled the upper Animas, an awesomely beautiful 26 mile run. We had good water and a full day of paddling.

Lake Fork, Gunnison

Upper Animas

Upper Animas scenery

We then headed back towards Aspen and hit the local classics: Upper Fryingpan, Castle Creek and Slaughterhouse on the Fork.
It was great paddling with my good buddies and showing them some cool new runs that are so different from anything back east.
With the recent warm weather the creeks and river around here are reaching their peak. The Roaring Fork has more water in it than it has in more than 10 years. This has provided soe awesome big water kayaking, but the Slaughterhouse section is too high for commercial rafting trips, so work has been slow the last week.
I have started to do some mountain biking the last couple of days now that the trails are open. It has been a very nice change of activities and a great chance to get in some good cardiovascular workouts. There are some really great trails that I can ride to from my house. There is a little bit of everything: steep climbs, clean singletrack, rocky singletrack, and great downhill. All this paddling is making my legs soft.

View of Aspen after a 40 minute bike climb up Smuggler Mountain

Iowa Shaft trail, great singletrack

View all photos from this adventure

Go West Young Man...

2008-05-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

...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...

2008-05-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-06T22:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

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

Joyce Family Swim meet on the Yough

2008-04-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

Dad staying in his boat and looking good at Cucumber

Before I headed out west I really wanted my Dad and brother to experience some of the places I have enjoyed over the last year or two. They both enjoy paddling and the occasional rapid, so I wanted to take them down the Lower Yough on duckies. Fortunatly the water levels cooperated with us and we had a great time on the river. I gave them a few brief instructions before the first rapid and we were on our way. I have never paddled a duckie so I was not sure what to tell them as far as manuvering them, but just kept it simple and told them to "follow me."

Gearing up

Half-way through the first rapid, Entrance, I turn around and see my brother on my tail and my Dad in the river in down stream swimmers position. "Oh man, this is gonna be a long long I thought." I pulled my dad to shore while Jeff was rounding up his boat in a nearby eddy. Now dad was glad I persuaded him to wear that extra fleece layer. We regrouped talked about hitting holes straight on rather than sideways, and continued on. Everyone had good lines at the largest rapid, Cucumber.

Jeff demonstrating Dad's style of paddling a duckie through a rapid

Throughout the 7.5 mile float there were a few more swims and butt bashing. I just considered this good practice for this summer. Jeff tended to be a little more self-sufficient than Dad was. Jeff would swim his boat, paddle and himself into an eddy and get back on while Dad would mostly just hold onto his paddle and float downstream hoping that Jeff or I would come to his rescue. You cant blame the ol' man, I'd make my sons do the work too if i was in the same situation.

Nice day on the Lower Yough

On Saturday we enjoyed a mellow 12 mile float down the Middle Yough, the only section of the Yough I haven't paddled. After running the gauntlet of fisherman at the put-in we were pretty much all alone on a beautiful river in a deep gorge. It was a great day for a float down the river, blue skies, a cool breeze and cool water.

Middle Yough

We rounded the day off with a pancake supper at the Ohiopyle Community Center, some fishing in a pond with no fish and a great campfire.

We enjoyed three great nights of camping with varying degrees of wind, rain, thunder and lighting each night. Saturday night's campfire took the cake by far. Thanks in part to Jeff's firewood collecting abilities.

Is that Bigfoot collecting firewood??

Three goofballs

Pennsylvania ridge and valley

The rest of the photos can be found by clicking here

A Trip Down South

2008-04-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

Bryan, being on top of it as always, emailed me a month or two back about heading down south for the spring Tallulah release. In my usual fashion, I expressed interest and didn't follow up until a week or two beforehand. I couldn't get anyone that I usually paddle with to commit to taking 3 days off of work for a paddling trip, (ya'll are lame) so I just went solo. It was weird packing up the truck and planning for one person, but I guess I better get used to it. From the get-go I was thinking this trip would be a good shakedown trip for moving to Colorado for the summer.

I left town Friday morning and stopped in Roanoke, to drop off a load of clothes a dresser and some other things I wont be needing for a while. Then got back on it and headed to Asheville. I met up with a guy named Phil to drop off a C-boat he had just bought and posted a message asking if anyone could bring it to him. He was visibly pumped to get his new boat and he hooked me up with a tasty six-pack and a few bucks for gas.

I then met up with Bryan and John, who had spent the afternoon at the Charlotte Whitewater park. We hung out at a Books-A-Million parking lot discussing plans for the weekend and speculating what the rain might do. Exhausted from a day of driving we ponied up and stayed in a Super 8 for the night.

Friday morning I was bound and determined for another run on the Green so I headed straight to the takeout. I was able to bum a shuttle and tag along with a very good local boater. I climbed in his truck with his buddy Ben who smelled like he slept at the bar the night before. The two guys exchanged put-downs on the ride to the put in while I was trying to remember all the lines. Jeb was very nice in the top sections refreshing my memory of the hazards and preferred lines while sprinting between rapids.

I walked the big ones, not having time to scout them as Jeb was in a big hurry trying to make it to work on time. There was no resting or eddy catching besides the portages. Zwicks and Grove Tube were awesome as usual. By the time we got to Hammer Factor Jeb was way out in front and Ben and I were behind, Ben turned to me above the toliet bowl and said ok, we are just gonna run the rest direct. Good times. We took the right boof line into Hammer Factor and the sprinted for the takeout.

I was literally out of breath. Then before I knew it I was loading my boat up not in my truck but up on someones Land Rover for a second lap. Why not? It was a beautiful day out and it was only 12 noon.

The second lap went about as fast as the first. By the time I got to Hammer Factor this time I was pretty smoked, blew the boof move and got Hammered.

No pictures exist from this trip because there was no time for that.

After the second run, I gave a guy named Wilson a ride up. He was tryin to get me to do a third the the entire time. He was a hoot. I was spent. Man the Green is an awesome river. Its cool paddling with the locals and listen to them talk about it. I heard on more than one occasion some combination of "Man, the Green is the Best" or "I would paddle the Green everyday and be happy."

The scenery in Western NC

I dropped off Wilson and headed for the Tallulah Gorge. It was a beautiful ride over there. Rainy and foggy, but beautiful. I Went past Toxaway Falls, the Horsepasture River, and Whitesides Mountain. This area comprises some of the hardest, most remote kayaking and climbing in the State of North Carolina, if not the east coast.

Too bad they were closed...I love boiled peanuts

Toxaway Falls

Whitesides

I arrived at Tallulah Falls, GA around 7pm, found a picnic area that overlooked the gorge and had some shelter from the rain, I made dinner and took a few pictures here. Bryan and crew were crashing in a hotel after a day of getting skunked on the Cheoah. We met up in the morning and had a great run on the Tallulah. Oceana is definitely an intimidating rapid, but its not really that hard, just lots of fun and very fast! We moved pretty slow with the large group, but the scenery was so good I couldnt complain. Most of the run is walled in on one or both sides with 300 foot granite walls.

Bryan at the lip

Curt below Oceana

the Ampitheater

We went to check out the Cullasaja after taking off the Tallulah. It looked a bit low for me to want to put back on all my wet gear and get in my boat. John and I scouted the gnar on the upper Cullasaja which was pretty full-on. Props to Mark for firing up T-Bone on the middle section.

Hand Paddler facing "the Thing"

I headed back to the takeout campsite and hung out with a few Alabama guys. I woke up early and headed to the putin so I could get in a couple of runs at the higher release level. I was one of the first on the water Sunday morning and really liking the extra flow. More padding and bigger features. I out to check Oceana with more flow, but the line was the same. So i fired it up, took a few pictures at the bottom, and then didn't stop paddling until the takeout, including the 2 miles of flatwater. I bummed a shuttle ride with some guys who turned out to be Ian's friends. I put in with them, but with a 6 hour drive ahead of me I didn't feel like taking my time getting down stream. So I ran solo once again from Oceana down. It was really fun running solo on the Tallulah. It is a very scenic run, not very difficult, and very continuous, especially at 700 cfs.

In all it was an excellent trip. I drove 1,400 miles, paddled about 10: two laps on the Green, 3 runs on the Tallulah. I got to hang out with Ian and Bryan, took a random dude a boat...overall I would say the mission was quite successful.

Carnage at Oceana

See all the pictures here: SE Trip Photos

Another Day on the Sandy

2008-04-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Team NRS member Johnny Haddock gettin his butt out of the office chair

We finally saved Johnny Haddock from the doldrums of his cube for a day and got him in his kayak. We had a great day out on the Lower Big Sandy. Blue skies and clear clear water. No wonder this is such a classic run. Enough text already, enjoy the pics.

Brett's signature move on Wonder Falls - the Twist and Shout

Billy goes deep while Brett spectates

Another dog encounter - this one's name was Dude

All the rest from the day are here: Lower Big Sandy 3/29/08

Playin in the Backyard

2008-03-25T18:27:00.000-07:00

Brett making the most of the day under the rising full moon

Paddling alone on the Potomac gives one an amazing sense of freedom and oneness with the surroundings. It is a great opportunity to reconnect with nature and align one's senses. Just the thought of the perpetuality of rivers flow carving its way from the hills of the Shenandoah valley, from the feeder streams of the North River where I remember falling in love with the water and just learning to negotiate its intricacies with the edges of my kayak and the blades of my paddle.

The days are getting longer and lighter, the air and water are getting warmer and the Potomac has some good water in it. A few weeks ago center chute was in for almost a week, that was a nice surprise, a few days of wave, then a wavehole, then a great hole at 5.3ft. Days like these make sitting at work very very difficult. Its also days like this when I am so thankful to have such a resource as the Potomac so close to home and my office. I have been out paddling 5 of the last 7 days. After work and before work kayaking keep my sanity in this otherwise barren concrete covered wasteland.

Curt at Center Chute hole Photo: potomacpaddlers.com

I spent lots of time today reflecting on the last year. Many good times come to mind. One of which being the local run. The Potomac will be missed...long summer days on the Falls. 80 degree water, 95 degree heat and 95 degree humidity. It was truly a great feeling crawling up the scorching hot rocks on the flake to get in another lap on the Falls with you best buds.

Yesterday we had a crew out at the Overflow Chanel that was recently cleared of wood in the high water last month. Its been years since this has been cleared enough to run. Scott ran it this weekend and after watching him bang up his new boat and Geoff break a paddle I wasnt too psyched to get on it. Not to mention I was trying out a boat from Scott and was not at all fitting me right. The drop looks fun and runnable, I just want to wait for a bit more water to pad things out and get my boat dialed in.

Ian shreddin it at Center Chute Photo: potomacpaddlers.com

Great Falls around 5 feet

Another Weekend in the Woods

2008-03-20T05:47:00.000-07:00

Wonder Falls

The levels were dropping last week from the lack of rain and or snowmelt so Ian, (currently the jobless wanderer) and Brett, (the highschool teacher on spring break) were able to get out of town a few days earlier than Billy or I. They were able to get two beautiful days out on the Lower Big Sandy and a run on the Top Yough before I even got out there.

Tyler and I arrived at the Jenkinsburg bridge takeout around 11pm to a small shanty of vehicles and tarps. I added another vehicle and a tarp or two to the mix and we had a nice shelter from the drizzling rain. Friday night was a fun evening that involved wine, beer, Natural Light, Cuban Cigaritos, beer funnels and 12 frat kids. Thats right we were sharing the woods with 12 frat pledges from WVU who were wielding one of everything from the Wal-Mart camping section including an axe, a 12-gauge, 150 hotdogs, 12 cases of Natty Light, and 2 handles of cheap vodka.

We were slow getting going in the morning which was fine because we were waiting on some of Brett's friends to join us. We ran shuttle in my truck and has 7 boats, people and gear in my poor little rig driving out of the Cheat Canyon, it was great!

Tyler at the Lip

Billy enjoying airtime. Photo: Brett MA

Saturday turned out to be a very nice March day complete with sunshine and laps on Wonder Falls. We took our time and enjoyed the run, some of the folks had never been on the Lower Big Sandy.

Men in Skirts...lots of them Photo Brett MA

Billy scouted Big Splat for about 2.5 to 3 hours, but finally bucked up and ran it in his playboat. Nice work dude!

Waiting and scouting in anticipation

Nice work Billy!

Jeff from Roanoke had an interesting swim at the Big Splat seal launch and his buddy pegged him in the head after he had emerged from the cave and was relatively safe.

Tyler and someone else at First Island

After running shuttle we poured a sip out on the gravel road for our fallen comrade, Johnny Haddock, in hopes that tax season might soon end and he may soon have his life back.

We met Scott at Perkins for some quality eating and then headed to Pine Ridge shelter to camp. Billy got all cynical and Buddhist for a while and Ian added some depressing Avett Brothers tunes to the mix.

Scott, Tyler and I made another fire in the rain, and drank a few brews to wid down the evening.

We awoke Sunday morning to and inch of snow and fridged temperatures. Bouldering was out of the question so Billy, Brett, and Ian headed back to town, while Scott Tyler and I hit the laundromat in Friendsville to dry out some gear. I blew my neck gasket which sucked, but I actually got a loaner drydeck from John Mason of Mountain Surf for the day, which was really killer and a life saver.

Too cold for any pictures on Sunday!

All photos can be seen here:

http://www.theperpetualflow.com/gallery/4530941_wzX9T#P-1-28

A Trip to the Doctor...Seneca Creek

2008-03-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

I was not feeling well enough to go to work yesterday, which convieniently happened to be the morning after a HUGE rainfall and snowmelt in West Virginia. I met Scott, Billy and Nathan at the takeout for Seneca Creek around midnight. I have wanted to get on Seneca Creek for quite a while. It is a long, remote, wilderness run deep in a gorge running off the tallest mountain in West Virginia, Spruce Knob. It does not run very often and when it does you have to be right there to catch it when it does...and we were.

I went to bed in the back of my truck Tuesday night to the sound of bowling ball sized boulders crashing into each other and rumbling their way down the raging torrent that was Seneca Creek. We went awoke, we found that the water was still raging at the takeout, a good sign that there is enough water to put on 13 miles and over 1,400 vertical feet upstream.

We hiked about 2 miles in from the parking lot at the top before we decided we would put in. The creek was slowly working its way downstream picking up flow from all the little feeder streams. It wasn't long before the real action started. There were some ledges and fun slides towards the top. Then some boulder gardens and rock dodging. There was also lots of wood dodging. There were some rapids with logs and some logs with rapids.

Billy getting ready

Scott at the put in

Billy getting his boof on

There were great boofs and ledges everywhere.

Nice drop with a big hole

After a few miles of steeper and steeper drops we came around a corner with a big 'ol horizon line. We were pretty sure it was the 30 footer upper Seneca Falls. We got out to scout it and the left side was good to go.

Scott at upper Seneca Falls

We were all pumped to see that Knife's Edge was free of wood and good to go when we got there. What a cool rapid.

Nathan at Knife's Edge

The nature of this creek, unlike most is actually kind of pool-drop in nature, its just that the pools are hundreds of yards of continuous class 3/4 boogie water with some trees thrown in the mix. The steepest 9 miles averaged 224 feet per mile in gradient and the steepest mile was at 350 feet per mile. Not only was it cold and overcast bit it also snowed on us most of the day, which was a very cool (or cold) feeling.

Billy at Knife's Edge Photo: Nathan Sass

There was lots of wildlife: On the drive down i saw 4 opossums, 1 raccoon, and lots of frogs in the road. On the way to the put in we saw a bald eagle with a fish in its mouth. I saw a brook trout in the creek while paddling, and of course lots of deer on the drive home (both dead and alive).

Billy put it very well in a post paddle email:

"Flood conditions for sure!!! By the time I got to Franklin WV there were raging little streams crossing the highway all over the place. By the time I got to Seneca Rocks lower Seneca Creek was THUMPING, once in a while you could see it well and it would be huge. Their was one hole that was under a street lamp so it could be seen, and it was probably ten feet deep on that tiny little stream bed. You could hear boulders rumbling on the creek bed, and hear them colide with each other...it was wild. I was seriously concerned that the whole canyon that we were camped in would flash flood and wash us and our cars down into the creek...We woke up at the crack of dawn today to see tons of water still, but lower. We hit Seneca Creek. The level was perfect as far as I'm concerned, probably about a medium flow. It was a truly epic day, complete with swims, petons, lost paddles, epic 30 footers, too many ten footers to count, some of the best boofs into steep pillowed out floom slides that I have ever seen, an amazingly steep riverbed flowing through a super steep valley that was claustrophobic at times and completely bedrocked in at others...so many great great rapids....more trees down than you could shake a stick at hahaha....more sketchy tree maneuvers than I am comfortable repeating anytime soon. Some effin sweet rapids, yes Seneca Creek has the goods. Hopefully Curt and Nathans pics will show up soon, they both got some amazing shots, Nathans pics from knife edge were killer....OK I just got home and my phone is dead so I just wanted to give a quick report of the day. It was sweet, but it was also really long, about 9 hours, and really cold, and I'm real tired now but really glad I made it out there, I wish you guys could have been there it is an incredible place, defiantly one to get on at some point."

Check out the rest of the pictures here:
http://www.theperpetualflow.com/gallery/4468546_hRWhi/1/262815031_re5up

Rough day for the red Salto

A little this a little that

2008-02-25T16:43:00.000-08:00

Scott: "I think we are gonna go hit the upper Youghabezi instead today"

Curt: "That sounds like the upper Yough at high water"

Scott: "It is"

Curt: "Cool"

Unfortunately I forgot my camera for the Top Yough at 850 cfs and the upper Youghabezi at 3ft. But dang it was sweet. We had some good lines and 16 miles of great paddling. The 5 miles of flatish water between the Top and Upper Yough were an almost welcome rest from the raging pushy water in the rapids.

The next weekend, Feb. 15th-18th, I took Friday off of work and met Billy down at Old Rag for some climbing and camping. They were calling for nice weather and the mother nature delivered.

Nightime bouldering session

We packed up all of our gear at the Berry Hollow parking area and headed uphill with some heavy packs full of food, water, camping gear, a trad rack, a rope and other climbing gear. We ate a small snack at the top, Billy's sleeping pad blew off, he retrieved it from a tree in the gully below the summit. We eyed the guidebook for a while and decided on heading to the God's Area, in particular Oh my God Dihedral. What an amazing sight! The name only begins to describe this 50ft of rock. Determined to climb it, but not comfortable enough to lead the 5.10c dihedral, I did some bushwhacking to get a toprope setup on this beautiful piece of granite.

Billy and I did multiple laps on this route and marveled at our tattered forearms and hands from the course stone. By the time I did my third lap and cleaned the toprode it was starting to get late, so we packed up and headed for the hut on the other side of the summit. Making jokes the whole way about how Brett better have a fire waiting for us, it was a nice surprise when we saw his crashpad outside of the hut. Brett was already cold and working on a fire for us, what a guy. We made some dinner, drank some Nighttrain, did some headlamp bouldering, analyzed life and all its intricacies, enjoyed the fire and eventually slept. We were greeted with a beautiful sunny morning and headed for the crag after a few gallons of Mate made from melted ice out of potholes in the rocks.

Oh My God Dihedral

After the dose of morning mate we headed for the southeast facing Whale's Lip area to catch the morning sun. As with most climbs here, we got to the base of the climb only after a good amount of honing in and bushwhacking. I got geared up and led a route called "Crab Crawl." It was eerily similar to the route I injured myself on in NC...a slabby trad route with an unprotectable start and lots of footwork. But I stuck it out and it turned out to be a fun climb with a great view. Brett pointed out a bald eagle soaring below while I was belaying Billy up.

We topped out and headed towards the summit to get in some bouldering. It was nice and sunny at the top. We then headed back for our bags and decided to head down the mountain. We were all tired and wore out, my ankle was hurting especially bad from all the scrambling.

Brett and I headed back to Bethesda and Billy went home to C'ville. On the way home I was making plans for the next two days.

I met Scott, Tyler, and John Greer in Friendsville Sunday morning and we got a run on the Upper Yough in at 2.3ft. This was another first for me on the Upper. 2.3 proved to be a fun level also.

Scott at Swallow Falls, Top Yough

With the rain we were getting that evening we went to bed with hopes of some creeking on Monday. I dont think we got as much rain as we thought/hoped for, but we had a very low, boat abuse level run on Meadow Run into the lower Yough loop. We also found the put-in for Drakes run, which will be good to know for the future.

What a great 4 days of playing in the woods. By the time I got home Monday evening, I had driven 850 miles, my hands were shredded, i had two blisters from paddling and I smelled like I had been in the woods for 4 days.

O-Deck Surfing and other Good Times

2008-01-10T20:43:00.000-08:00

Last weekend turned out to be a great weekend for Paddling on the Potomac. On Saturday Ian and I met up with Scott at Great Falls and paddled the Fingers on the Center line of the falls for the first time. Ian captured the moment best when he turned to me above the entrance rapids to the falls and said, "I'm nervous as s%#$!" We made it to the eddy and walked the top drop- Grace Under Pressure- and scouted the lead in and the fingers drop.

Another added layer of nervousness came when we noticed the portage was completely iced over, so we really had no option but to run it. All went well in the end and it is a super fun drop, just a bit more hair raising than the MD or VA sides.

I met up with Johnny Haddock on Sunday for a more mellow day on the river. We attained up to the O-Deck wave and had an awesome surf session. We switched off boats so we both got in some great rides.

We then paddled back to Angler's stopping for a quick surf at MD Chute, and then were pleased with the nice surprise of lunch food provided in the Great Falls parking lot by the camera crew who was filming a quick piece on kayakers at Great Falls for the visitors center.

I put together a quick video below including the surfing at O-Deck and other random acts of the Homegrown Locals squad over the last month.

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Chilly Water

2007-12-30T19:57:00.001-08:00

Its been some time since my last post. Work got busy, my internet was down and I've been out having fun.

Since last posting the water has gotten quite colder as well as the air.

John, Brett, Billy and I took a trip up to Western MD where we camped in 3 inches of snow and paddled 3 laps on the top Yough the next day then came back to DC and head out for an exciting night at Cheif Ike's.

The following weekend we stayed local and had an awesome day out on the VA side of Great Falls.

Brett, John and I had a nice Dawn Patrol paddle through Mather Gorge the day after we got about 4 inches of snow. That was a beautiful morning and another great start to a day at the office.

I headed out for an afternoon surf/lunch break at Rocky Island waves which was a nice distraction from work.

Brett and I went out for a quick surf at Rocky, then hiked up Difficult Run, paddled Difficult Run, I got beat down in a hole above the gorge, we walked the gorge, then paddled back to the cars.

Billy and I met up on Thursday, the 28th of December and surfed S-Turn at 3.79 then attained up the gorge and caught some good surfs at O-Deck wave. We almost had forgotten what it was like to paddle with lots of water again.

Slide on Sovern Run at the LBS putin

This evening we just got back from another great WV adventure. Ian, John and I drove out Saturday in time to get a run in on the Top Yough with almost twice as much water as a few weeks prior. Still a great run with some big holes to keep you on your feet.
We met up with Billy who had just got off the lower Big Sandy at Little Sandy's for some delicious homecookin'. We went to Teeter's and set up came. There was some drinking of beer and standing around in the cold before we decided to retire to the warmth of our fluffy sleeping bags.

The beautiful Emerald Green waters of the Lower Big Sandy

Sunday morning we awoke to foggy breath and icy gear. Ian got a fire going with bicycle chain lube and some small sticks. There was also an extra car in the otherwise abandoned field - Scott showed up after a long day of driving and kayaking further south in WV.

Thawing out some gear

We all took turns thawing out our gear around the pitiful flame and then got on the road to set shuttle. As it always seems to happen around those parts of WV the shuttle took a few hours, but we were on the Lower Big Sandy my around noon.

LBS putin, awaiting the shuttle drivers

This was John, Ian, and I's virgin run on this classic WV stream. You never get your first decent twice! What a great day for our first run down the LBS. The river was running at a moderate to lower level, but the water was clear as could be and the air was crisp. We were convinced by the veterans of the LBS that Wonder Falls was best run blind, so we followed the given verbal beta and all had great lines.

Scott at Wonder Falls, LBS

Ian Styling Wonder Falls

Scouting Big Splat

Team NRS member, Johnny Haddock, seal launching at Big Splat

Scott Firing up Big Splat

What a great weekend of paddling. We almost had the entire HGL crew together again, but Brett had to be snowboarding and snowmobiling his way around the snowy north Maine woods. We enjoyed some Banana Leaf Thai cuisine in Cumberland, MD on the way home.

Another Day on the Falls and Some Time on the Rocks

2007-11-12T07:21:00.000-08:00

After two great weekends on the road it was nice to hang out locally, at least for a day or two. Friday was Billy's last day at MDA so some work friends went out for a happy hour then headed back to my to hang out before heading to see the Hackensaw Boys in Arlington. James and I rocked some pretty sweet jumpsuits and Billy dawned the classic pink ruffled shirt. We arrived to a large crowd of fans at Iota, but did our best to boogie ourselves some wiggle room.

Curt at Pummel Photo: Brett Mayer-Aschhoff

Saturday was a beautiful day and the water was higher than we had seen in a long time on the Maryland side of Great Falls. We had a great time making runs down the cenetr of Pummel. I had probably one of the crziest lines on the notch that involved going off backwards in a barrel role and landing on my head. Man that drop looks much bigger upside-down and head first!
Some bad lines were had but we all escaped unscathed. We topped the day off with some pizza and then headed to my house for a campfire, smores and a few frosty brews.

Hackensaw Boys rippin it

I was up at 6am on Sunday packing my car with David to head out for some climbing at Seneca Rocks. We were there by 9 and climbing by 10. I wanted to get in some leads but this was only my second day outside climbing since the fall. So I was happy cleaning gear today. We got on some fun climbs and scrambled around on the top before decending to terra firma.

David heading for the anchors on 7-11, Franklin, WV

David and I grabbed some adults beverages and joined Eric and Sarah at the Front Porch for some delicious pizza. We recounted the events of the day and enjoyed each others company. The plan was to head to Franklin, WV to do some sport climbing on Monday. It poured all night as we slept in our tents, I was second guessing my decision on taking a day off now that it was looking like it was going to be a rainout.

It turned out that Franklin was mostly dry and very climbable. We got in some great routes, I got out on the sharp end for the first time since my fall on December 28th, 2006. I have a lot of ground to make up in my mental fitness, but overall it was a great feeling leading again.

I See Green People

2007-11-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

Before I even got serious about kayaking I had always looked at the Green River Narrows as an incredible river that was far beyond anything I would ever be able to paddle in a kayak. However, over the last year, I have put in many many long days and weekends paddling all different types and sizes of rivers. All of this time spent learning the intricacies of the way water acts and reacts when it falls quickly over rocks culminated in my mind as I was loading up my kayak and gear Friday afternoon.

Brett, John, Billy and I were headed to the Green. The Green River Narrows lies outside the small town of Saluda, NC about 45 monutes south of Asheville, NC. We all met up at various places along I-81, eventually all meeting at a Walmart parking lot in Lexington, VA. Friday evening was spent at John's folks place in Wytheville, VA. The hospitality of super nice people and a really cool converted barn house only slightly helped to calm my nerves as I lay there looking at the wood panel ceiling and recounting the pictures and rapid descriptions of the river we would be paddling the next day.

Brett at Frankenstein

Curt at Boof or Consequences

Racer getting a face full of rock at Go Left or Die

On race day we tried to get out in front of the racers but had some difficulties because the water wasn't turned on until 9am. So we got to Go Left and got out to watch some of the racers come through. Its quite intimidating go through rapids you have never seen knowing that you can't mess it up because there are racers barreling down behind you.

John dropping into Chief

GORILLA!

Racers at Gorilla and Scream Machine

Curt at Nies' Pieces

Billy in the tube at Groove Tube

Curt at Hammer Factor

The Green River race proved to be an excellent show of super-human strength and ability. It was amazing watching the country's best paddlers giving it all they had for 4 or 5 minutes down an extremely difficult and dangerous section of river. Even the pros mess up sometimes and there was plenty of carnage to be had.

Female racer at Gorilla. Photo Ben Edison

Maybe one Saturday in November I too will be paddling my butt off alone down this steep gorge, chasing the clock and ignoring the guy in the chicken costume and the hundreds of other fans yelling and screaming. But for now I will be happy getting out on an awesome creek with my good friends and enjoying some unbelievable whitewater.

Imagine seeing this while headed into a very stiff class 5 drop!

Back to West Virginia

2007-10-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

It has been a week or two since the last trip to West Virginia, so I knew we were due another trip with all the rain. None of the Nelson County creeks came up in Virginia, so Brett, Billy, John and I met up at 5:30 Saturday morning and made the game time decision to head up to the Canaan Valley area to get in some paddling. After lots of driving, scouting, and deliberation, we decided to get on the lower Blackwater. The upper was too high and the North Fork was too low.

Douglas Falls, North Fork Blackwater

Kayaking safety, like climbing, is all about risk management. Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut when things get messy. This was the lesson learned on Saturday. Thats all I will say about that. However, the day ended on a high note however with an awesome Hackensaw Boys show at the Purple Fiddle in Thomas, WV. This was followed by the after party at the Mountain State Brewing Company just up the road. We managed to be the odd group of kayakers who knew no one and were not in costume. But we didn't let hat hold us back from having a good time. It was a wet and chilly night but we all huddled in John's 1980s era Eureka tent and made it to the morning.

Sunday was a great day and we got to put on our soaking wet and freezing cold kayaking gear and paddle the Lower Blackwater without incident. On the way home we stopped by Dolly Sods Wilderness area for a quick side trip to Bear Rocks.

Dolly Sods

Self Portrait, Bear Rocks Dolly Sods Wilderness Area

Hackensaw Boys, Purple Fiddle - Thomas, WV

Wet Rocks are Good Rocks (for paddlers anyhow)

2007-10-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

This generally means it is raining or has been raining, which hasn't happened around here in almost 90 days. Thank goodness for dam releases and Great Falls, two things you can always count on in times of no water.
The rain started falling yesterday morning so we celebrated with a Wednesday morning Dawn Patrol. We had a good crew for this run, Brett, Ian, and eventually John joined as he couldn't bear the thought of not getting a lap in. We were on the water by 6:30am and made the first decent of the Maryland side just as the sun was rising through the rain clouds.
Ian and I headed up for another run. The scramble back up was made more difficult by the soaked rocks. The second run went off well. Ian had a close call with Horseshoe, but kept it together and was fine. What a great way to start the morning off!

The rain has kept falling which gives a good weekend outlook, but the more imeadiate intrest is the Potomac. It has finally risen enough to run the VA side. Billy and I left work around 1pm today to head out to the falls. WOW, I had almost forgotten how awesome the Virginia side is! Three spectacular drops, each very different from each other or any other rapids I have paddled. I got in two runs and opted to be the photographer for the last. This carry back up is brutal when its nice out, and really tough in the rain.

Curt dropping into U-Hole, the first rapid on the VA side of Great Falls

Billy gettin some good air on the Spout, VA side, Great Falls

What a great lunch break.

The Leaves They are a Changin'

2007-10-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

In my effort to give my shoulders a break from any long term injury I have taken a whole week and a half off of paddling. This has been the first two weekends in a row that I haven't paddled since April. However, I still needed to get outside and enjoy the beautiful fall weather and scenery. So Jess, Delia (her cool dog) and I headed up towards my old stomping grounds Shenandoah National Park. We Drove a ways up the Rapidan River and found a great campsite. We were getting there just before dark, so I had to stop and get a few pictures.
The drive in felt as if we were driving through the scene of a calender page.

Driving up the holler

The Rapidan River, although crowded at times, is one of my favorite fishing spots in SNP. If you hike up far enough or head out in less than desirable conditions or times of year you can have it to yourself. The fishing is great and the scenery spectacular. The Hughes River is probably my favorite just because of its remoteness.

Nice little pool on the Rapidan

Its no wonder President Hoover had a summer home here during his Presidency.

Another pool on the Rapidan

Sunday we headed upland and hiked to Mary's Rocks, a rock outcrop with a nice 360 degree view. From here you can see out to the tidewater area on the east and the Page Valley and Shenandoah valley to the west.

Looking Northeast from Mary's Rocks

Third time's a charm

2007-10-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

After finding out that this past weekend was a long weekend thanks to Chris Columbo, it was a no-brainer that the Gauley was the place to be. This is my third trip up there is Gauley season. The last two times involved at least one marathon trip down the Gauley, (Upper, Middle and Lower) 26.8 miles of great whitewater and beautiful scenery.
I met Billy at my bro's house in Harrisonburg Friday night. We had a nostalgic ride around town, realizing that we no longer knew the people hanging out on the front porches of the houses on Elizabeth Street and other well known and visited college dwellings.
We took off Saturday morning and decided to paddle the lower Gauley and play as much as possible. And play we did. We hit all the major playspots and found some new ones along the way. We spent almost 2 hours at diagonal ledges eventually having it to ourselves, which is a rare feat during Gauley season. It was getting dark by the time we took off the river. What a day, all that playboating is enough to wear you out.

Looking up the gorge on the lower Gauley

We had the best playspot on the river, Diagonal Ledges, to ourselves for a while

On Sunday morning we decided to go to Fayetteville and demo some new boats. It was cool paddling something different. I got the new Jackson Allstar and Billy picked up the Fun. I was a little loose in the boat to really enjoy it and it handled a bit differently than my Project 52. I went through a couple of rapids in a full vertical stern squirt. Good Times. The Gauley is a great river! What nice Gauley season weather.

Looking upstream at Pillow Rock rapid

Feeling very small at Pillow Rock

What a Long Strange Trip its Been

2007-09-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday and Sunday were my first trip down the upper Gauley. Sunday we did the Marathon, upper, middle and lower Gauley...26.8 miles of great whitewater and beautiful scenery. A year ago I was scared to death trying getting myself psyched to run the lower Gauley. A few months before that I was swimming out of my boat at the class 2/3 Maryland Chute play waves a few miles from my house. My life as a paddler has been an interesting one. I always liked the water until I almost drown on the lower Gauley when I was 14 years old. Then I was scared of any type of water for a year or so. After my dad got rid of the motor boat he agreed to buy my brother and I kayaks when I was 16 or 17. He signed us up for some rolling classes, but I never really figured it out enough to take it to the river. This began my first 5 years of paddling. Mainly just easy stuff with the family where flipping wasn't really an issue. But whenever I did flip, I was swimming. So this continued for quite a while, as I was spending most of my outdoor time climbing. In college I started hanging out with a few guys, Billy and Jeremy, who were starting to do a lot of kayaking. My interest in the sport started to grow again now that I had friends inviting me to head outside with them. The only problem was that I still couldn't roll my boat 75% of the time. This is when I took on the title of "the little swimmer." This reflected my less than graceful style through most any rapid I got flipped on. This went on for a while, but it was hard to get psyched about kayaking when I was so bad at it. My interest and future in kayaking was waning.

Seven months after moving to Bethesda, MD, I discovered a true diamond in the rough...the mighty Potomac. Once again I was going to give kayaking another try. This time, would be different, this time I told myself from the get go, "This is it, I either need to make this happen, or sell my gear and stick to climbing and other outdoor pursuits." Having such a wealth of paddling literally minutes from my house and job has turned out to be a Godsend. After I met a few people to go paddling with I was hooked. Not long after, my good friend Billy from college moved here and I had someone who I could always count on being into going paddling.

Moonlit profile of Seneca Rocks

Last fall was a constant battle between going climbing or kayaking. I got into leading traditional routes and really enjoyed that. I really wanted to climb as much as I could. At the same time I was really enjoying kayaking. I continued both through last fall and winter. After I dislocated my heel in an ugly trad fall at Looking Glass in North Carolina, I have pretty much been concentrating on kayaking. More to come soon, but that should get you up to speed.

A few minutes before the fall...

A Summer of Dam releases

2007-09-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

My first big step in taking my kayaking to the next level came this spring when I ran the Upper Yough for the first time. Billy and I took a Shredder up to the Cheatfest this year and ran the upper Yough on Friday in the shredder so I could see the lines, then Saturday I ran it in my kayak. What an awesome river. It has a little bit of everything. Little did I know at that point how many more times I would get to paddle this awesome river in the coming months. Rivers like like upper Yough proved to be a great training ground for preparing for more difficult runs. There are plenty of class 5 moves to make with class 3 consequences.

Joe at Cheeseburger Falls, Upper Yough

In the beginning of July Billy, Joe and I took a road trip south to catch some dam release waters and a change of scenery. We paddled the Cheoah river in North Carolina, which has just recently been reopened for whitewater recreation and then made it down to the Ocoee in Georgia.

Joe and Billy at the bottom of the Cheoah run

Hanging out at our awesome roadside/riverside campsite

Links

1999-11-23T19:34:00.000-08:00

RiverDayz - Lance's Blog

Define Adventure - Drew's Blog

Fastlane Kayaking - Tyler's Blog

WaiPaddle - Rachel's Blog

American Whitewater