This River Life

My first Oregon Kayaking Trip

2009-11-11T21:49:00.000-08:00

An Oldie but goodie, my first trip with Jason Rackley and some of the other OK regulars!
Link to Jason's TR

Mini Update: September on Dead Cow

2009-09-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

James, Josh, Joe and I met out at Dead Cow this weekend for a mini surf sesh.
Levels were prime for the little wave and I expect them to hold till the rains kick in for real. Josh was pretty new to the playboating idea but was tearing it up in no time once he stepped into James's boat, and James's was rocking Joe's C1 in short order himself.
Cheers and SYOTR!

Check out some photos here.

Chelan Gorge

2009-07-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

July 25th 2009:

American Whitewater has been working for over 10 years with the Chelan county PUD to get water released and allow access specifically for whitewater kayaking.

The dam was built in 1927.

If you aren’t interesting in sardonic wit and ironic humor, skip to the end for a summary but make sure to look at the photos while you scroll!

Initially I had decided the 6 hr trek from Portland to Chelan falls was too far for the 6 named rapids but when my other plans fell through, and Mike L called me at 5:30pm Friday night, I ended up being pretty easy to convince:

Mike: “You want to head to Chelan Gorge?”

ME: “Not really, its far.”

…. 5 minutes later….

ME: “Pick you up at 9!”

We left Portland at 9pm and owing to the late departure, had an easy drive up I5, grabbed a quick camp in Cashmere, were up by 8 and on the road by 8:05 AM. When we got into Chelan Falls and to the take out park, there were only a small handful of the 22 boaters that would make their way down the river that Saturday. The flow was scheduled to be about 360 or so, to be ramped up a bit more on Sunday.

After getting out pink laminated permit cards, having a brief chat with the PUD representatives and our AW contact, conducting the usual BS session and shuttle coordination we were off to the put it, up a windy dirt road opened specially for us by the CCPUD. We stopped briefly to scout the crux gorge from the rim, looking at Entrance Exam, Throne Room, Pinnacle, Super Boof and Boulder Seive.

Once at the shallow cobble bar put in, a few more boaters from the Seattle area showed up. Including several folks who had been at the previous release two weeks prior. We welcomed the advice about each drop, most of us only having ing heard of or seen video of this stretch a few weeks before. On particular boater in a blue and white Burn seemed to know the line quite well and recommend several locations to set safety before paddling off down the gorge eventually leaving the one boater who followed him behind.

After some shallow cobbles, a few unremarkable drops on the toughest of which pushed class III, the walls rose, the bedrock appeard and we were catching the eddy above Entrance Exam. Aside from the aforementioned paddler, the 5 in my group were the first. As Nick, Mike, Martin, Phil, Travis stepped on the rocks, we wondered where our Bareback friend had gotten to. Our questions were answered shortly when we hopped our way down the rocks and found him standing, river left, at the exit hole to the rapid.

Entrance Exam is made by 4 ledges, each a bit sticker than the last. The first presented no problem to most, the second had a slightly tricky entrance and flipped a few.

Mike below ledge 1

Mike after Ledge 2

John in Ledge 3

Ian in Ledge 4

The third seemed fairly benign, though offered up some nice backenders. It was the fourth that most worried about. With its guard hole and flake, shallow left side and retentive right side, it had made several swim during the last release and this day would be no exception. I took to calling it Two out of Three since it seems, besides the first ledge, that you got to run any two of the remain three well. Heaven help you if you cleaned the middle two. We were naturally astounded that the speedy paddler on the rock below the drop would have run in, apparently without scouting and without safety, we signaled to him:

Question: “Did you” (pointing at him and miming paddling) run it?”

Reply: “Yes I did and its good (nodding and pointing at the left side of the drop).”

This exchanged was repeated several times since the hole was quite sticky and to run it without safety would have been some kind of madness. The answer was always affirmative, “Yes I did.”

Imagine the surprise then, when Mike and Nick reported to me they had observed a long curl of blue and white Pyrahna plastic at the seal lauch for the put it. “But,” we thought, “He said he ran it and pointed out the line so enthusiastically when we asked…” At some point this fellow paddled away and I didn’t see him again though I heard about an upside down line at one of the bigger drops, with a slide on the left and kind of ‘bar fight’ on the right.

All this was soon forgotten as we paddle off downstream. The group having consolidated at Entrance Exam, we were 21 strong. I didn’t get out of my boat again for a while, running the next drop with the help of Jared, a Seattle boater who seemed to be everywhere we needed him. There are c ouple lines that require a helping hand and a shove to end up on the correct side of some rock. Jared was always there to help out, for which, I think we are all grateful. This was followed up by Super Boof, a super sweet, no brainer boof with the option for a rock slide, or a straight boof.

Super boof

Next up was Throne Room.

At Throne Room, an off-vertical slide, with a kicker of a sticky hole that feeds into an overhanging right wall right above Pinnacle, a drop that had yet to be run when I was there, has an easy line, but don’t screw up. We saw a few wall splats, last minute rolls follow by folks diving onto the rocks to grab boaters before they was backwards into Pinnacle.

All portaged Pinnacle that day, though Mike looked at it for an eerily long time. I for one was glad when he finally shook his head, and prepared to portage. He just said “No safety.” A fair call since the Boulder Sieve was next up and the exit hole to Pinnacle was about as burly as you could find anywhere.

Mike takes one last look at Pinnacle before portaging

We were all once again assisted by Jared around the Boulder Sieve, and we were pretty much done. There happens to be some really shitty sievey manky crap downstream, some of which I ran underwater or upside down, some of which other paddlers lost paddles on, and some of which I hurt my shoulder on. After that, more of the same style couple bars brought us down to the confluence with the Columbia and the takeout where the friendly PUD and AW representatives were waiting with fresh cookies and a cooler full of cold soft drinks!

My take on the Chelan gorge? It’s worth it!

The water is warm so run the first rapid or you’ll wish you had while you are making your third sneak and second portage. Go when there is more water. Stuff will clean up and though you may not want to run Throne Room, you’ll be happier on the rest of it. I saw some photos of the higher flow Sunday, and I think I saw Pinnacle being run too. In general, you won’t find a river with water that clear, water that warm, rapids with that particular combination of challenge and consequence north of Ashland and south of Squamish. It’s unique, rare and worth doing at least once. I’ll head back for the next release, especially with a little more water.

Epilogue:

Later, while chowing down calzones and pizza in town, the AW rep joined us. As we related the story of He-man, the speedy boater to him he confided that he had indeed seen the first paddler to come down, alone, in a blue and white boat, portage the first rapid. To which (perhaps beer induced ) cried of foul went up. As we put together the details in our addled brains, we realized, the early speedy start, the portage followed by the misleading “Yes I did” reply to our queries, meant only one thing: Premeditated Douchebagery. What is the world coming to? Remember however, the unnamed paddler is innocent until proven guilty and all evidence presented here is circumstantial and above all, good natured. I’m sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for the whole thing.

Check of the rest of the photos.

Cheers!

EJ

First Spencers Hole Rodeo: Results

2009-06-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday a mass of paddlers descended on Gates Oregon the likes of which no home town, grass roots kayaking even has ever seen before. Paddlers came in from as near as two block, to as far away as the deep south. Car laden with brightly colored plastic fairly clogged the roadway all morning. Boats of all shapes and sizes from open canoes, Perception Mirages and Dancers, recreational kayaks, to new school creekers and playboats. The rides were amazing with the best ride of the day being a non-stop 45 second mobius tumble. A move previously though impossible, starting with a right to left split and ending with a clean air back-loop making one full vertical rotation through every axis and dimension in space-time. For those of you working on this move, the crux is forming a time space distortion that allows you to keep your body rotation ahead of your boat. For those of you working on your vertical hole moves, you know how important this it.

Elvis “The King” showed up in his Pink “Cadillac” Space Cadet and despite the slightly aging design, threw an amazing double/triple donk-loop (Double end over end rotation with three full twists). It was a sight to behold. It’s amazing what these older paddlers can still accomplish. Remember, finesse and experience will beat power every time!

The Mass Start race was a sight to behold… neither photos nor words could possible do it justice.

All in all, you just had to be there. Really.

Actually almost nobody showed up.

I blame last minute notice.

To those that did show up, swag was given in thanks.

A few of us are hoping to get something a little more organized together a bit later in the summer.

I’ll keep ya’ll posted.

Would anybody interested if it was 90 and there was no water anywhere else?

First Spencers Hole Rodeo!

2009-06-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

** Update: Date for event is 6/20/2009 **

Official and last minute notice for the first (that I know of) Spencer’s Hole Rodeo.

!!DO NOT PARK AT THE FEATURE!!

How: Multiple divisions, classes and lots of swag! Everybody has a chance to win and its totally free!!

When: 11:00 AM (Registration)

12:00 Comp Start

Where: Gates, Oregon

Meeting and Registration at the Gates Park and Ride here:

MAP

As access is VERY limited

!!DO NOT PARK AT THE FEATURE!!

We will meet at the park and ride and walk or boat to the feature

How: Multiple divisions, classes and lots of Swag: Everybody has a chance to win and its totally free!!

Access is tight and we really don’t want to step on anyone’s toes out there.

!!DO NOT PARK AT THE FEATURE!!

Thanks to Jana Krause and World Kayak for providing the resources.

Hope to see you out there.

Let's Play #4

2009-05-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

OKCC Play Clinic #4 was held on 5/2/09 on the Clackamas.
We had a nice medium level for which Joe Bobs, the bastard brother of the better known Bobs Hole was in at a nice friendly level. This is not always the case. Even at its friendliest we had a couple of swims from this hole, which dealt out some first time beating and some impressive rodeo-ing!

It was a good day on the river, lots of attention was paid to eddyline play, whirlpool play and some hole riding.

It was my first river back in since the Grand and it did not disappoint, there are still some big boils, big holes and big waves to be had out there!

Big thanks to everyone who came out and I look forward to seeing you at our last one, next month.

EJ

PHOTOS

Grand Canyon Photos

2009-05-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

It only took me a week to go from 1300 to 544 to less than 200 photos to post:

Grand Canyon 09

Enjoy!

I'm BAAAAAACK

2009-04-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

- and working on the photos. Its going to take a while but you will be among the first to see the wonders of my recent Grand Canyon Float.

We did a 16 day trip with 19 wonderful folks (we traded at Phantom) and took out at Diamond Creek.

More photos to come soon!

EJ

Another Grand Adventure

2009-04-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

Its been a quiet few weeks leading up to it, but tomorrow, I'm getting back on the Grand Canyon. I'm looking forward to giving my new Level 6 gear a workout and have some canyon time. Check back at the end of April for some long awaited photos!

EJ

Lets Play #3: March OKCC Play Clinic

2009-03-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

The water situation is getting dire. 3 days of rain and the rivers hardly even bump.
But life goes on and we still have some play boating to do!

13 of us converged on the Bruno Mt run on the N.Santiam to cartwheel, surf, spin and bump our way down the run.

Michael, Liane, Michele, Bobby, Tren, Noby, Joey, Kent, Lindsay, Aleece, Willie and I met in Tualatin, picked up Carey at the Swiss Village and proceeded on up to the snow and the river.

There are plenty of little spots to work on surfing, carving, edge control and cartwheel including Bridge Hole, Zoolander, Sweet Spot and the Take Out Wave.

Aleece at the Bridge Hole

Tren and Liane at Zoolander

Michael on Sweet Spot

Nobu on the Take Out Wave

Check out the other photos from the day.

I'll be gone on the Grand for April but check back in May for the next Clinic!

See soon!

EJ

Rock Cr

2009-03-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

Saturday Feb 28, 2009:

It finally started to rain.. early in the week.. then it stopped and all that stuff we had watched come in, went out just as fast but Saturday... Thing is, we were left with a sense of optimism and thought to ourselves, "Screw the Wind, lets try for Rock Cr!"

Only, there was a lot of snow on the road, and not much water in the creek. We started out day like any good Oregon February run: by hiking a mile or so, dragging out boats through the snow.

When we got to Heaven and Hell, we found there was wood at the bottom of Hell, though with the flow, the drop looks very doable. Mike L and Michael W were the only folks who were feeling like tangling with it that day, and Mike L is the only person to run it. Turns out that wood was more in play then he thought and after a quick rescue, everyone else seal launched in and we were on our way downstream.

The level as low, the company was good and after a more then brief look at 3-Swim falls, we finished up and grabbed some pizza on the way home.

Its always good to get on a new creek in the area though.

More Photos from the weekend:

Lets Play: OKCC Play Clinic #2

2009-02-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

Saturday Feb 2,

Welcome to the second edition of the monthly Oregon Kayak and Canoe Club's Playboating clinic.The weather here lately has been sunny, cold and clear making for beautiful days, cold clear nights filled with stars and very low water. Last time we were on one of Oregon's best know play runs, Lake Creek. This time we were relying on dam release at a normal summer flow: The Niagra Run on the North Santiam.

Shuttling Boats

We had a gorgeous sunny put-in below Niagra rapid: a vaulted, short gorge with double undercut walls and an entrance that is just 5 ft wide. The rapid isn't hard, but the potential for carnage with a group of 11 just makes it not worth it so we put in right below it. Shuttling the boats down the walk way, on a gorgeous and relatively warm sunny day can get kind of warm in a drysuit so after a short cooling off period we got right to work at playing and found a squirt and a couple of holes right there

Cooling off and playing around in the water

Unfortunately, because of the low water, none of the normal eddy serviced playspots were in so we focused on eddy line and down river play in all the little spots, the type that every local knows on their home rivers. The North Santiam is no exception and conversations like, "So, just behind the next rock is a great little right cartwheel spot but you have to enter just square and be careful not to go to vertical or you'll hit the bottom" were pretty common. Sadly without any real spots, its hard to stop for photos.

Playing on one of the better eddylines

On a river with no "play spots" we still took several hours longer than usual having squirted, surfed, endoed and cartwheeled our way down the river so people were pretty exhausted and cold by the time we got to Spencer's Hole: the only well known, named hole on the river. Spencer's is a spot only a mother could love. It's intimidating, sticky and flushy, has a rock in the bottom, has a two stage attainment just to make it back up to the eddy, and a rock you can flush onto if you come off the surfer's right side of the wave upside down. That being said, its one of my favorite spots in the area and once you learn to work it, the possibilities are endless. Only a few of the troupe were still feeling up to throwing themselves in at the end of the day, with the sun going down behind the clouds that showed up.

Ann in Spencer's

We rounded out our day at the Sierra Mexican Restaurant in Gates Oregon and with our bellies full and our arms heavy we made our way back to Portland. Thanks to Michael for organizing and Shannon, Markus, Liane, William, Ann, Carey, Michele, Nobu and Willie for coming out, playing along, supporting and just plain having a good time!

Special Thanks to Liane for pickup up my camera at the end of the day at Spencer's!

OKCC Play Clinic #1

More Photos from OKCC Play Clinic #2

Throwing down in the Astro at Spencer's Hole

Cheers!

See you at the next one.

Lets Play: OKCC Play Clinic #1

2009-02-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

* REPOSTED FROM THE RIOT BLOG*

A couple of months ago Michael Williams from the Oregon Kayak and Canoe Club asked me if I'd like to help out teaching some of the classes for the Club. I accepted gladly and offered to teach a monthly play boating class, on the first Saturday of each month with a few exceptions.

Saturday, Jan 10th was the first of those (We skipped the real first Saturday so we could all recover from New Years)

13 of us met in Portland to head to Lake Creek and one more from Eugene Oregon met us down there at the put in.

Group meeting at the put in

Eddy at Grassy Lawn

Lake Creek is one of the area bigger water play runs. There are tons of catch on the fly holes and waves to have fun on but we focused on the eddy-serviced feature know as Grassy Lawn. Its a 35ft wide wave/hole with good eddy service and good access. At the level we were there it was a bit shallow for big loops but it made for a less intimidating and more friendly hole for the group to go play and get some comfort on the feature and figure out lots of new things, even if that's just how to relax and side surf.

All Photos by Corey Morton

Aleece working on her righty cartwheels

Shannon working on her spins

Having a good time on Grassy! See you at the next clinic!

Check out more photos from the day!

High Water McKenzie: 6.22 ft

2009-01-06T20:34:00.000-08:00

Clover on the McKenzie at high water is rumored to be the best set of features in Oregon. At the right levels, I agree. I've been there a few levels, 4.5, 4.7, 4.9, 5.4 on the McKenzie at Vida.. at all flows its known to give up big moves on at least one of its several waves. So when I called Althea to head out to Clover at 6.3 I was really excited and so was she!

Sadly, 6.3 seems to be kind of soft spot. From what I hear, from those in the know it gets good again at about 6.5 and up or 6.0 and down.

Luckily, we had a secret up our sleeve! With a little help from Ty of WRSI we got our shuttle set to Silver Creek, where the normal Mom's Pies play run take-out it and we found our treat!

High water Neil's Point! I'd heard a rumor of a fantastic wave hole down there at 7ft and thought it would be worth a try!

Turns out its a surging, steep, fast wave-hole with a big eddy and easier on/off than regular Neil's. Only downside: If you are used to the nice surfer's left shoulder of LW Neils, you'll find yourself flushing a lot but if you are comfortable in a grind, you can side surf for days in the pocket between moves!

Check out some photos from that day and go try HW Neil's for yourself!

EJ

Celilo Redux

2008-12-22T07:48:00.001-08:00

A while back I posted some short vids from YouTube on Celilo Falls.
Later I heard about this.

*image from the new story link

Outfitting your new boat 101

2008-11-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

Hey all-

Below are links to a three part series on outfitting you new boat.
Its specifically targeted to little people (like me) and big boats (like the Magnum 80) but everything in there applies to you and your boat, play or creek.
Cheers

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

*** UPDATE These links no longer work****
I'll do what I can to get them reposted soon

Low water

2008-10-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

Its still really dry! Where's our rain?

A friend's photo of the low water even up in the gorge on the Columbia river made me think about whats down there.

Some YouTubes about Celilo Falls:

Where the hell have you been?

2008-10-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

I’ve been too long away from the blog. Its that time of year though. Things get so busy during the summer. All the sudden you can be out boating till 10:00 pm , you stay out all weekend instead of coming home in the dark rainy nights. Some people live like that I reckon, but in the North West, we take out long days when we can get them and when we get them, not much else goes on. Eating, grooming, sleeping, stop really mattering when you can paddle after a full day at work. Life becomes a bleary eyed blur, work, traffic, paddle, dark, drive though, sleep. It's freaking great!

Miraculously, however, the rain has begun to fall again, though a bit slower and not in the quantity that would be nice… but all things to those who wait. I am patient. So long as it comes.

In the meantime, let me recap:

The Cispus at 1000cfs is AWESOME
The Box Canyon of the Ashlu, when Byran calls it “high” if wicked cool and I can’t wait to get back.
The Fear Canyon on the Elaho is also really cool but DAMN does big water scare me.
I didn’t spend nearly enough time at Spencer’s this year AND
Low Water Ohanepecosh is fun but can be very scary in the right company!

Check out a few of my favorite shots from the Summer and Early fall and keep looking for more posts when the rains come for true.

EJ

What happened to the other guy?

2008-09-04T09:55:00.001-07:00

Those of you who've read and been following closely my life and times, you may recall a little trip down the Elwha that turned into something more.
You may also recall that I went in and got my bout out but left one behind.

This is Chris G's account of the rescue mission for the other boat at his blog:
Accross The Curtain

Fun Fun??

Give it a read

Cheers!

Photo update!

2008-08-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Photos from the weekend trips to the Ohane and Upper Upper.
and some mid week shots from Spencer's Hole.

Spencers

Ohanepecosh

Cheers!

Why I Soloed the Grand Canyon of the Elwha..

2008-08-06T23:02:00.001-07:00

Almost anyway.

Two weeks ago Jeff and I went up to the Olympic Peninsula to run a remote class V near Port Angeles, on the Elwha river. The run involves and 8.5 mile hike in with boats and once we get up there, we have to deal with two class V gorges with difficult or impossible to scout rapids. One rapid is called Nightmare because it is unscoutable. When Jeff and I got to Nightmare we were feeling very tired. Jeff was recently off a 41 mile 6 day class V trip and was mentally pretty fried and I basically stood up out of a desk chair, strapped a boat on my back and hiked many miles over reasonably difficult trails.

We were tired. We knew what rapid we were facing but we saw wood in it and some logs that used to be in the river, were gone, downstream somewhere. After about an hour of talking and several conversations, the last of which was:

EJ- " I think we should go, do you have any strong feelings about that"
Jeff- "I'm scared to death of that"
EJ- "Ok, lets start hiking"

What followed was the sketchiest few hours of my life to date.

We had to ascend steep scree slopes with loose rock, no safety and nothing between us and the several hundred foot fall to the river. We attempted to climb with our boat and when that didn't work, to haul our boats up with ropes. Eventually one of the boats got caught on a rock and because they were tied together, we were forced to leave the both behind. There wasn't time and it wasn't safe to climb back down to the boats to free them. My camera was still in my boat. After we abandoned our gear we still had about 700 ft to the tree line going up the same nasty loose rock slide slopes. In a few places, Jeff had to climb first, then lower me a rope so I could get up. Eventually we just put our heads down, and scrambled up digging out hands and feet in. As long as we kept moving up, we made ground. If we stopped, we started sliding back. Once we made it to the tree line, we felt a bit safer but the terrain was just as steep. We stripped off our gear, scrambled up to the trail and hiked 6 miles back to the car, finishing in the dark. I walked funny for the next 3 days.

Over the next week a few plans hatched and fell through and by the time the Saturday night rolled around, I was planning on heading back in to get my boat and a camera back. So on Sunday morning I set out with two ropes, and rappelling gear, hiked the 6 miles back up the trail and dropped over the side.

About 8 rappel stations down I got to the boats, got them attached to me so while I rappelled the would be lowered as well. After a while of fiddling with ropes, I got both boats down to river level but had to leave both ropes tangled in something on the slope.

I secured Jeff's boat, packed up my gear, portaged the sieve that was the first rapid and set off downstream. I finished out the frist class V gorge, made one more portage and bank scouted once. The river then opens into a broad valley, where I asked a fisherman how to find the trail out above the next gorge. After portaging a ways over logs in the valley, I came to and entered the second gorge, which I had intended to walk around, without having come to a trail. I paddled down to the first horizon line, decided I'd had enough of boat-scouting class V, turned around and paddles back out of the gorge, portaged upstream and bushwacked around till I found a trail.

Once I loaded all my climbing gear and wet kayaking hear into my boat, it weighed around 100lbs or so. Carrying that up the steep 0.5 mile trail out of the gorge and up to the main trail took a little over an hour and was rather painful though once I reached the flat trail, it was easy going and fast back to the car.

I had left the wedding I was attending in Seattle about 10:30 pm Saturday, hopped the 11:45 ferry from Edmonds and gotten to the Whiskey Bend parking lot at lot at about 3 am Sunday. I left the car about 8:30 am got back about 13 hours later at 9:30 pm with my boat and camera and paddle but had left behind Jeff's boat and my two ropes. I scarffed a bagel and drove back to Portland, stopping to rest somewhere, and arrived at about 5:30 am on Monday morning.

That was two days ago.

And now I'm back at work.

EJ
8/6/08

Saturday on the White Salmon

2008-07-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

July 16-
Corey, Devin, Joe and I met a few other folks up at BZ and did Farmlands through to BZ.
It was 3.2 on the stick at Husum and a really good day up on the river.
Enjoy the slide show!

This River Log

2008-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

Since not all of the runs I do are worthy of posting full color spreads (infact some of the rivers I do aren't worth doing) and I like to get out a lot more often than I post, I wanted a way to share the rivers I'm on easily. Its little now but officially, this is the unveiling of ThisRiverLog which also appear in the sidebar.

Stay tuned for a few photos from Mike of the day thats the first entry.
Good times.

EJ

Photo Update:

2008-06-16T23:43:00.000-07:00

On the return from the Grand, Sybille and I did some traveling. We drove over Glen Canyon, through Grand Escalante, Zion and the Sierras. Slept out Twice in sub-20 degree temps and had a great time easing our re-entry. I shot a few along the way and kind of like them better than my Grand shots. I hope you enjoy

Grand Canyon Photos

2008-06-13T13:35:00.001-07:00

They are finally here. I had enough people lay into me enough times and here they are.

We were fortunate to have the controlled flood of 41K CFS on our first couple days. The morning of our put-on we were watching the water rise inches as we packed and that was just the ramp up, the flood gates were opened the next day while we were at Soap Creek. Our first major rapid was flooded.

Many of the major rapids in the Roaring 20s where significantly changed if not gone. House Rock because a riffle with a toungue down the left whereas President Harding Rapid became a huge boat flipper that ate a cataraft and cartwheeled a 16 ft Mauravia from another group.

A few days later we were back down to typically low spring flows, drinking beer and bouncing through wave trains.

Too few days later, we took out at Diamond creek for a rude reentry into the world and a sad, long trip back home. I'm looking forward to my next visit!

Have a look at the photos to see what else went on.
This is the narrow set only 165 out of 1489 that I shot. Enjoy

WKCC Safety Weekend 2008

2008-06-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

The Willamette Canoe and Kayak Club holds and annual weekend of safety classes taught by volunteers to their peers. This year the event was more popular than ever and extremely well organized by Sandra Uesugi. She also led the morning warm up exercises and cooked most of the food, which was excellent.

Land classes included knots, throw bag technique, packing for overnights and extended trips, mechanical advantage including z-drag, escaping vertical pins and entrapment rope rescue. Wet classes were shallow water crossing, swimming rapids, strainer swimming, wet throw bag practice and rescue practice.

I hung out for the free food, good company and to take photos to document the whole thing, not necessarily in that order.

Just a few photos are show below.
All the photos from the weekend: here

Sandra made cupcake and blue icing for all the volunteers! Accompanying kayak benders made for a fun and educational snack. The bender on the right is demonstrating the Oregon Tuck, the left, old school waterfall techinique.

Sandra and Cate warming up

Lindsey about to swim over a strainer

The worst injury of the weekend. What happens when one person has a rope on one really big guy!

Mandatory group shot, Keith demonstrates the running man!

McCoy Cr: The Best Creeking in Oregon...

2008-06-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

is in Washington!

May 31st 2008:
Casey, Rick, Jame, Richard and I met the bridge over the Cispus on FR 23 at 9:45AM. Rick and I met up in the morning, the other three had camped up there the night before for a shake down cruise in his new EuroVan.

McCoy Creeks is a bitty trib of the Cispus near Randle Washing. Bennet calls for 150-600 cfs at 5-15% of the Cispus at Randle. We had about 3K there giving us a calculated 150-450cfs but I swear it was more than that. Our own visual estimates were more along the 600cfs range. You can look at the photos and make up your own mind though.

Put on grins

Rick and I had done this one once, about a year before the other three were new to the run. As it turned out, we had forgotten most of the run which is a real shame considering the number of quality drops that are in there. McCoy Cr on Oregon Kayaking.

It looked a bit higher than last time and there was a nervous pause at the put in but that could have had something to do with the miners with guns and a stick pickup truck down the put in path.

The day started out rainy so I missed out on the first few drops but as the rain tapered off and the sun came out so did the camera.

Richard finishing up the drop with the pothole. We all ran left.

Richard below the tight double drop.

James halfway through Chinook Falls

Richard finishing up the bottom slide of Chinook Falls

Richard really hit the boof on the '20ft' falls.

The big portage was next up and though I've heard of a better way, we instead went up and around and roped the boats down a couple hundred feet before 'schwacking down to river level. Once down there and after a short breather, Rick paddled across and looked upstream at the clear path down to the river.

Shortly after that, the confluence of Yellowjacket and a mile or so of read and run class IV followed by a couple more miles of annoying class II.

Unfortunately, my shoulder was too sore in the morning to paddle on Sunday but we spent the better part of the it driving around anyway. We found out that the road to the Super Slides still has plenty of snow miles from the take out and that the put in for Smith Creek is REALLY steep.

BUT my shoulder is feeling better and I'm looking forward to WKCC Saftey Weekend next weekend.

Check out more photos here.

Till next time!

May Melt!

2008-05-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

Chris G, boofing. As if you didn't notice

This week has been HOT.
Its like someone open the oven door and turned on the sun lamp. In just a few day, every drainage with a little bit of snow leapt up to bankfull or higher. Including high elevation, rarely run creeks like EF Rock creek.

First run by Jason Rackley and crew and subsequently run a handful of times since then, it was full of wood then and its full of wood now despite the wood faerie's best efforts. it seems the heavy snow that allowed the higher creeks to run and the larger rivers to flood also downed alot of small wood into the creek bed that's barely a boat length wide in most places.

The five of us (Chris G, Jeff H, Richard Y, Rick C and I) got to the put in and stared down the brushy, woody tunnel that was EF Rock Creek and after hiking down the creek to the falls hoping we would see the wood lighten up. Instead, we didn't see an end to the brush and wood and we discussed the possibilities. Eventually we decided that there was too much wood, too much water and too many of us. The likely hood of finding 5 eddies above the next log across the river and the next one and the next one was too low for all of us to on. We opted instead of a quick park and huck and to ease on up to a lap on Opal before camping and hiking in to Battle Axe on Sunday.

I started out with the camera down below straight away while Chris fired it up first, followed by Rick and Richard. All three of the boofed it following Chris's example. He boofed so far out he cleared the boil and nearly ended up on the wood at the bottom of the pool. The sound of his hull, and those that followed, hitting the water was enough to make me decide the boofing out like that was a cool, put potentially painful option. Everyone said it was soft but it sure didn't sound that way. As you can see, I went for the low angle, huck and tuck.

Rick C, at the lip

It seemed like such a good idea to plug it. Richard took this one

The landing was super soft but I flipped in the boil and as I snapped a quick roll something in my already injured arm popped and it hurt like hell. I had pulled the muscles in my arm a couple weeks prior on Opal Gorge in a rookie, hero-highbrace. Luckily, just the muscles, not anything joint relate.

Richard, gettng airborne.

After I rolled up, it was hella painful just to paddle over to the pull out where the team had to help me get my boat back up to the road and once there, get it loaded.

Well, at least the sun is tucking back up soon so maybe I'll be healed up and there will still be some snow up in the hills then. Till then, I'll have to find something else to keep my occupied like puzzles or knitting...

I hope to be out there soon.
Till then.

EJ

More Photos from the day

Some of Ricks Shots:

Weekend Update

2008-04-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a busy one for me. Lots of time spent behind the wheel driving up to Seattle and back to Hood River for some important goings on.

The first ever Robe Canyon Race, organized by The Range Life was held on Saturday. The RCR really intrigued me because of its unusual format: Teams of two, time trial with a mandatory portage with expected times over 30 minutes. It was a far cry from the Canyon Creek Race with winning times under 6 minutes. So I drove up to Seattle Friday night to my food friend Kyle's house. I was preceded there by Hood River local, Kris L, Jason S and Jesse. We had planned separately to head up the race and see what was up. None of us has done the run before but were hoping to find others who, like us, had no teammate but unlike us, knew the lines. Unfortunately, by the time we woke up, got some food in our guts, and rolled, convoy style to meet Melina and Hometeam, Ammen and his wife and Brett, it put us a little behind schedule to connect with anyone to race with. Instead Jason, Jesse and I got involved with the safety crew. At least this way we get to run the river and see the local boaters kick some ass.

Put in at Robe.

Kyle, Brett and Kris all hiked in at various places to help out with safety, finish timing and to just plain spectate.

The level for the race was a bit lower than desired: about 4.9” but there was still plenty of water for a race and the advantage was definitely with those who knew the low water lines.

We were following Chris J down to Face Plant to get set above Catcher's Mitt so I have lots of photos of folks in those two drops. I guess that what happens when you set up in only on place but I was happy to help out.

Setting Safety at Faceplant

The winning team: Ben and Rob

After the race we headed over to a grab some beer and pizza from a local place and learned the results.
Check in with TRL for full results
Have a look here for my full set of photos from the day.

That night, I went to bed early and let the rest of the folks head out without me to have some fun. I had other plans for the morning. Though Todd G and Johnny U had expressed interest in my early morning run down the the Little White to catch up with Devin for his first time down. Somehow they never did call. Though I am interested to here how their run down Ernie's went!

Once I got back into the Gorge and to the take for the LW, people just started showing up. Who knew the Midget had such a fan club! Ryan, Austin, Geoff, Keel, Jarred, Lana and I were all in for this 13yr olds first trip down the Little White.

Pre-Trip outfitting adjustments

It turned into a fantastic day: Sunny, warm, about 3.1 on the stick at the top. I'm sure you can expect a full TR from Devin and his Dad coming soon but as far as I am concerned he styled everything he ran ,which was everything except Spirit, and I was just there with the camera. Not everyone was quite as lucky however: Jarred missed his boof at Spirit, and got a pretty good beat down in the curtain and then later in Chaos.

Some of my favorite shots from the day:

Austin at Boulder Sluice

Devin in Island

Geoff in between at S-Turn

Ryan at Stove Pipe

Jarred on his way to some unfortunate events.

Geoff going after Jarred's boat in Chaos

There are more great shots here so be sure to check them out!

After watching the rescue efforts, Devin Lana and I all portaged Spirit. The other three Little White All-Stars had great lines and were even joined by Ben and Jesse C who were in town for the Hood River premier of Hotel Charley 3.

Cheers!

EJ

NorthWest Creeking Comp

2008-04-15T23:41:00.001-07:00

The Peanut gallery at the the starting line

This past Saturday marked the first NW Creeking Competition in its new incarnation. Past years have seen low turnouts and lower water levels for the Canyon Creek Extreme Race but the combination of new ‘management’ and a significantly earlier race date was a grand success.

Joe Stumpfel, I and 80 some-odd of our closest paddling friends, came out in force on April 12th 2008. As some of you may have heard from me before, Canyon Creek levels are measured against the ‘unit’ (he). Its runnable very low and very high but flows within 4 or 5 inches of the unit are pretty standard happy flows. Past years flows have been more like 12 inches under. This year lots of racers we caught by surprise with the higher flows and found themselves rodeo-ing when they should be racing.

Luke S, the guy who made it all happen

You may also notice the Ol’ Joseph was in a K1 instead of a C1… I don’t get it either.

I volunteered as a starter right between Prelude and Thrasher. Prelude is one of the sticker spots on the river and I and the other starters watched or rescued 10 or so swimmers all while watching from above as another smaller handful of paddles swam out of the first drop as well! I heard personally from about 5 people who swam on their morning practice runs!

Richard hitting the boof at Thrasher

Well we couldn’t have asked for a better day and the even turn out exceeded anyone’s expectations. A big thanks to Luke Spencer of Next Adventure for making the whole thing come alive, to Shannon Crosswhite for doing a great job as volunteer coordinator and to all the racers, volunteers and spectators who came out to hang and made the day what it was.

Results are posted at Paddler Magazine

Don’t read to much into my place! 1: it was my first race and I didn’t want to blow my wad 2: since I was a starter, I ended up coming down after the R2s which was well after they were expecting any kayakers SO, I think my time was a little bit made up. No worries though, it was just a good day on the river with friends, in the sun, with great water. Pretty ok in my book! I’ll take the whole thing next year.

Riot C1-er Joe Stumpel, cross training.

Check out some more photos here

Hope to see ya’ll on the river soon.

EJ

Photo by michaellongphoto.com

ThisRiverLife

A Grand Return

2008-03-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

Hey All-

I'm back from the Grand, had a great trip with the other 14 people along. The 41K flood was pretty cool though we were kind of bummed to miss House Rock entirely since it was completley washed out. I took over 1400 photos and am still working on getting those sorted and edited so you can all be sure to have a treat in a short time. I got back into Oregon on Monday, was on Neil's Point on Tuesday and back behind a desk on Wednesday (BOO).

Right now my back is sore from boofing Big Brother in my new favorite boat, the Riot Nitro, and I've got some photos to muck with. Can't wait to see ya'll out on the river when all this crazy spring snow decides to do the right thing and melt nice and slowly!

Cheers!

EJ

Grand Canyon Bound

2008-03-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm heading to the Canyon today. I'll be back in about a month and hopefully then I'll have lots of new photos to post. That is, if I make it back from the flood.

EJ (blue haired once again)

January Butte Creek

2008-02-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

Jan 13, Butte Cr is a small creek near Scotts Mills. Its mostly Class 2-3 but sometime it drops over twisty steep ledgy drops that end in stompy holes. Its kind of schizophrenic but in playboats it can be pretty fun! Three of us, Mike L, James B and I went out hoping to huck Upper Butte Creek Falls: a 30ish foot river wide falls you can see here but sadly, we got snowed out and just headed back down stream. I like to be short on the words and long on the photos so here goes! Thanks to Mike for the photos, check him out at www.michaellongphoto.com

Cheers,

EJ

THE Canyon Creek!

2007-12-11T17:14:00.000-08:00

Here in Pac NW (as in many places I am sure), we are blessed with numerous Canyon Creeks. There's the Canyon Creek of the Stillaguamish, often over shadowed by its close neighbor, Robe Canyon. There is Canyon Creek of the S. Santiam Drainage.. but most importantly there is THE Canyon Creek in the EF Lewis Drainage. I say THE Canyon Creek because all other pale in comparison! I know the Corvallis Boys love their Cayon Creek on the Santiam but even they have to admit there is nothing like bouncing down a lap on CCWA.

What makes Canyon Cr so special you ask? Its not the hardest, its not the steepest, it doesn't have any big waterfalls.... but what it does have is a little bit of everything! Its got a waterfall, its got a technical boulder garden, its got some stompy ledges and its got a steep section with a couple quality boofs back to back that are pretty hard to beat. It even has a little mank for those of you who need to be punished!

Last Sunday, Casey, Chris K, Amy C. and I were joined by Dusty (a recent transplant) for a couple laps down THE Canyon Cr on a cold December day.

The creek starts out unassumingly under a bridge down a forest road near Amboy, Washington. The time honored UNIT is the downstream river left bridge pylon. With the water just at the bottom concrete pad its 'even with the unit'. Time was we looked at the EF Lewis Gauge but recently a Canyon Creek Gauge came on line. I haven't figured out the correlation yet but within a couple inches on either side of the 'unit' you are sure to find some goodness. Though its been run at least to -12" and much much higher

The run starts out with about a mile of class II before you come to the first drop called Swizzle Sticks. Its a crooked boof, followed by a constricted ledge hole followed by a 200yd long swirly gorge.

Next comes S-turn, a really fun drop starting with three lines between boulders, making a tight turn to the left and ending in a thrashy, steep diagonal hole usually run on the left. Macho boaters eddy out on the right in the short moving pool between the entrance and the left turn.

Now depending on who you ask, the hole at the bottom of S-turn OR the next constriction is called Terminator. Regardless of what you call it the hole has S-turn has seen its share of swim and you would do well to avoid it, especially at higher flows.

Prelude to Thrasher and Thrasher are downstream aways and they are both broken ledges with stompy holes. I have personally swum out of each and I recommend picking your own lines!

After the Thrashers is the Boulder Garden. Another variably named drop, but most people know what you mean. It can be fairly challenging to scout but it starts out class 2-3, builds into a couple sizable ledges and ends with a bang at a pretty mean hole. Its been run all sorts of ways, but being far left at the bottom is probably the most popular.

Swimming here is a bad idea as Kahuna is the next drop. Kahuna is the largest single drop by far. Keep your eyes on the right side for the last chance scouting eddy! This one is super fun and since the portage basically amounts to a throw and go, you might as well run it.

The Drop Zone starts with Kahuna, goes through the aforementioned mank an over Champagne and Hammering Spot: back to back 8 foot (or so) boofs that just can't be beat.

The only drop left is called Toby's. The site of a drowning a few years go. Usually I go for the sneaky slide about 15 ft off the left but at the right flows, there is a flying boof down the right side. I don't recommend going for the gut of this one.

Well this concludes whitewater but you still have a mile or so paddle out on Lake Merwin. Just make sure you turn left and paddle till you find the take out bridge.

This is the point where you wonder what happened to everybody, but without carnage it gets pretty boring to keep telling you that we all had good lines so I though I'd wait till the end.
We all had good lines. Good enough for everyone but me to man up and hit a second lap. Instead I just sat around the takeout and played with the photos.

Jason Rackley also has an extensive write up on this one here.
Its a popular run for us and its worth a stop if you are in the area in the paddling season! Hope to see you up there soon!

Parting Shot:

MORE PHOTOS

Three Days in the Valley

2007-12-07T23:44:00.000-08:00

The McKenzie Valley

When it rains really hard, the McKenzie River in Oregon has some of the Northwest's best play boating and accordingly, boaters from the area come out of the woodwork. Some people came with me for another play clinic, others just showed up on their own but the people I ran into while boating on the Mack are to many to name here so look at some photos!

Kim Russel at highwater Clover

Capo mid Donkey Flip at Clover

Julie G surfing low water clover for the first time

Aaron Goodwin mid Backstab at High Clover

Todd Baker getting some air at Clover

Have a look at some more This River Life Photos from the week.

See you out there soon!

EJ

Thanksgiving Photo Shoot

2007-11-29T16:48:00.000-08:00

Before I was on the McKenzie, I was paddling on the Skykomish River in Washington. If any of you have been up there in the last year, then you know that the North Fork road saw some pretty heavy damage in the flood last fall. I had the good fortune to be up there the weekend it happened for some of the last runs BUT thats not important now. What is important is what it looks like now along with a some good paddling folks on the South Fork.

Another amazing day in the Sky Valley!

-EJ

South Eugene High School Kayak Club and Friends

2007-11-26T18:32:00.000-08:00

After the Thanksgiving week of gluttony James and I met up for a play session on Neils Point on the McKenzie River and for the third weekend in a row I ran into the South Eugene High Kayak Club. These shredders were tearing it up out on the wave and I know I wish I had had the chance to be kayaking at that age. I am jealous

I have to apologize to those guys but I am terrible with names and I can only remeber a few but Quinn, Althia and Geoff were just a few of em getting it done out there.

See you guys on the river soon I hope!

Check out some more photos here

What do you get...

2007-11-14T08:14:00.000-08:00

when you mix a bunch of women paddlers and one Dead Cow?

NO
AND A LOT OF

That's "No Ego and a lot of Smiles" if you failed 1st grade

11/11/2007-

I had the good fortune to team up with Kate Howell and the Willamette Kayak and Canoe Club
to teach a ladies only (mostly) playboating clinic out at Dead Cow Wave. We left Corvallis, bout 9 am picking up paddlers on the the way. Cate and I met in down town Corvallis and headed out to the infamous COP SHOP, a popular meeting area sandwiched between the local Adult Shop and the State Troopers post, where we met Kate and Kay. From there we headed up to Stayton Or on the N Santiam where we met Ashley, Grace and Dave (Dave was our token guy, besides me but I was teaching). Then up to the put in at Mehema Or where we met 4 more women, Rachel, Laurie, Lindsay and Courtney. ( I am so amazed that I can remember everyone's name).

After gearing up, a safety talk and a short warm up, we headed on down the river on the 4 miles of class 2 before the DEAD COW WAVE. The Dead Cow wave is the ultimate beginner wave. Its large enough to be retentive, small enough to be really non-threatening, fast enough to carve and throw small blunts, with a eddy large enough for 4 roll attempts and a swim! It has a smooth bottom and has about a 1000 cfs window on the North Santiam at Mehema gauge. You want between 2200 is getting low and 3500 is getting high. At one level at the higher end there is even as surgey wave hole where you can sling some ends and get some loops.

I recommend it to any aspiring playboater as a smooth transition to surfing if you're not ready for the Dries or Bus Eater!

ANYWAY,
I saw a few AHA's and alot of smiles on everybody's faces. Lindsay got some of her carves, Rachel felt what a difference a boat can make, Cate got to surf on her knees and a good time was had by all.

The only draw back to the Dead Cow is that its in the middle of no where, on Class 2 with a 4 mile paddle in and a 4 mile paddle out and the paddle out has a damn too. The damn is perfectly safe, there is a boat portage slide that's actually pretty fun!

I get as much enjoyment from teaching and watching people learn as I do from doing it so it was a great day for me too and I am looking forward the the next skill class I'll get to be a part of in Portland soon.

See more photos here!
UPDATE: Video that Kate shot!

Cheers
EJ

Class 2 is for you (and me)

2007-11-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

I blame Cate for my pain. She brought the C1 devil to my attention and so I followed the crowd of WKCC paddlers out to the Deschutes for a little fun and found out a few things: I can roll a C1, I was worried about swimming on Class 2, its really hard to rescue boat on your knees and the pain doesn't go away in a day.

Steve Stuckmeyer in his 16ft canoe led a large, canoe strong, group of Willamette Valley paddlers to the East side for some fun. I though it might be a good time to come along, paddle Cate's Redline C1 for a kick. It was that indeed with the first day being about 14 miles and second being about 12. All I can say is that my life if fundamentally altered. My knees hurt, my ankles are still sort and I just spent about 7 hrs converting my cracked ZG to a C1. Good times.

Enjoy!

Photos by Steve Stuckmeyer

New Season, Old Story.

2007-10-31T22:32:00.000-07:00

I originally posted this on In Between Swims but recent interest, a lack of good things to post and reasons to not forget have spurred me to post it again here.

Kenobi Gorge, Little Goose Cr. Washington:

Those of us in the Pacific Northwest are some of the luckiest paddlers in the country. Classic class V runs abound and partly due to that, so do untapped, untold gems. Jason Rackley (www.oregonkayaking.net) is a whitewater explorer always seeking out the newest, steepest of such runs and thanks to his effort and Chad Bellville he found one right under our noses. This one has since recieved alot of press and made some waves in the northwest and hopefully has helped kayakers in the Columbia River Gorge near Hood River, Or. to not take it for granted that all the best runs have been found. The Green Truss of the White Salmon, the Little White Salmon, the Wind River and many others have long since overshadowed any potential exploratory steeps, save this one. This the my story about Kenobi Gorge,a sick gorge on Little Goose Creek, a trib of Trout Lake Creek, a trib of the White Salmon and how I am In Between Swims.

June of 2006, I am talking with Portland boater Mike Long:
Me: So, what are you up to this week?
Mike: Something big with Jason.
Me: I'm in!
Mike: Are you sure, its pretty big.
Me: Sure, I can walk it if I don't like it right?
Mike: Uhh.. Sure.

A few days later I find my self in Washington, in the woods with Jason and crew. Jason had opted out to shoot video letting the rest of us have all the fun. Little Goose Creek has a handful of good drops on it, some serious mank and a marginal 50 or so foot waterfall we named Imperial Falls. Mike, Ben and John put on at the top and ran a couple extra drops, including the mank and portaged Imperial. I carried my boat down the path and put on just below the big slide called The Kessel Run.

After Kessel some more mank, a really fun double drop called Chewie which apparantly becomes a hellish swirly at higher flows. I had my fun a bit lower down.

Mike Long makes Kessel Run in less that 12 parsecs.

Right before the Gorge proper, we hiked up and out of the river canyon, to the rim and downstream to scout it out. We got to the fixed line that had been set up earlier. First drop looked straight forward, second drop was pretty obscured by the trees and I didn't feel like rappelling down and ascending just to look at the ledge just below so I move around a bit and said "So.... whats the line?" to which Mike Replied, "You wanna be 4 ft off the right wall and boof out."
Then I said, in my best cocky boater tone "Looks good, lets do it" (Thunder Cracked off in the distance)

So we hiked back and headed down into the Gorge. There was a bit more stuff to paddle before we all got out to look at it from river level. "Right wall, right wall, all I gotta do is get right and boof" I kept thinking....

Mike ran first and stomped it, then John, who also came out clean. I got in my boat, paddled off down river, First drop, caught an edge, but got upright and got way right no problem.... (Right Wall and Boof) I was so far right, "This is gonna be easy, why were they so worried" (Right Wall and Boof) Then suddenly my nose went up on the right side (Right wall??) and I dropped over the lip a bit sidways (..boof??). Luckily it is screaming down through there so I cleared the seam, not so luckily I didn't get my edge up and I flipped over. "No worries," I thought just before missing my first and only roll attempt. After that I felt my paddle up against the wall (@#%!^$ Right Wall, @$^!$ Boof!!!) and soon after that I fell in the seam, gave up on the roll and pulled out. I remember a fleeting glimpse of white, kicking like mad before there was nothing but water.

I was being held in the middle of the recirc, not getting tumbled, just sitting there agains that !@$$ wall. I pushed off, got spun, tried to kick off with my feet got spun, this is one sticky hole. When I reached up and felt my boat there surfing with me I thought, "AIR" and pulled my head into the cockpit. Well the best laid plans of mice and men, I couldn't get a breathe, just kept sucking air into my stomach. I even had time to recall the physiology of the mammalian dive reflex where your body won't let you breathe if you are submerged. Its the reason why most drownings are "dry downings." I gave up on the breathing, and tossed the boat and suddenly, my head cleared the water and I start hearing the voices of angels (John, Mike and Ryan shouting) "ROPEROPEROPE" and I vaguely recongnized the dark blob floating next to me as my salvation. But alas, I got pulled back into the hole trying to hang onto my Gus as my trip out only managing to get a finger on the handle of it as it took off down the next drop. Luckily this pulled me out of the hole enough to get the rope John threw me and though I went right back in to the sticky maw we named Sarlac, John pulled me out and onto the rock where I took my first breath in what seemed like minutes (really about 40 seconds). After Ben came down and I got myself collected thanks to the crew, we continued on down the river. I have never been so scared on a river as above the next drop we called Supercollider because of the way it hits you in the chest.

The miles of class 2-3 paddling out helped me to collect myself mentally and I was in good spirits by the time we reached the take out. I have since decided I need a redemption run 4 feet of the @#%! Right wall this time! Next time I'll do better but hey we are all in between swims right?

For a more complete trip report including video check here!

EJ
10/21/06

Drydeck Safely?

2007-09-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Is Creeking in a Drydeck Safe?

I've been using a drydeck for about 3 years. They are great for playboating as they are super comfortable, usually super dry (depending on the boat) and can be even cheaper than buying a skirt and drytop separately. Some folks think they are a bit dangerous, either because when/if you swim you're gonna get more wet or getting hung up on a log, or other hazard and being unable to free yourself. I creek in a drydeck in the warmer month because I find them dryer and more comfortable, easier to dress etc. I just got a new IR drydeck to fit a recent switch to Riot boats. Its my second IR deck and I've been really happy with it so far and IR's service (No, I'm not sponsored but I wouldn't mind one!)

I've never really worried to much about getting wet while swimming. Its gonna happen unless you're in a drysuit (and sometimes even then). As for entrapment, until recently, I had never heard of anyone actually get their skirt hung up and be saved by pulling themselves out through the tunnel. Now I've heard of it once from Jesse Coombs.

Its been my opinion that creeking in a drydeck is just as safe as creeking without a facemask or without body armor. I agree that it may be slightly more hazardous but the extra risk is minimal an manageable, same as wearing a helmet without a facemask or using a back deck roll while creeking. All of which I do. Granted there are probably more people that wear helmets without face masks than creek in a drydeck but I want to hear what ya'll think.

Hit me!

EJ

September Upper Upper !?!

2007-09-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

Just when the NW is at its Dryest...

Chris G started talking about the Upper Upper again. We must have been desperate or something but it was actually really fun! The guage read a little under 400cfs on Saturday and on Sunday seemed a bit lower but all the lines are the same, there aren't too many F-U rocks and even at Behemoth the line is pretty much the same but with some interesting results.
I also had a chance to paddle the Riot Thunder with my new IR Drydeck. The Thunder, is a sporty boat and the Drydeck is super dry and comfy too.

photos by Rick Cooley.

Yep, that me backwards!

Kris dropping in

Chris G and the Super BOOF

On Injuries, Boredom and Pain

2007-08-25T11:45:00.001-07:00

Hey Ya'll-

It's that season in Oregon where its dry. Dry dry dry. So we here, are largely bored. Local playspots and the odd dam release are all we have to go to till the rain is back. And though I'm injured, which is lame, at least I know I'm not missing much though I do miss the water. Till then, enjoy some photos!

-EJ

Northwest Video Scrapbook

2007-08-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest addition to the Northwest Kayaker Blogdom-
Ryan Scott of Columbia River Gorge Blog has recently started his new video blog.
Check it out at http://www.gorgehits.blogspot.com/

August on the Upper Upper

2007-08-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

I first ran the Upper Upper Cispus last year and it quickly became the destination creek for the mid-summer low water runs. It typically comes in just as the Ohane drops out and holds pretty well for a while. This year, I've tried to get on it twice already but have been turned back by higher water than we were up for each time. BUT finally I made it up.

Rare and Random shot of me on Behemoth. By Rick Cooley

The last minute assembled crew was made up of Mike Long, James Bagley, Kris Litz, Rick Cooley, JD Gaffney, Charlie and myself. We had heard about a couple spots of new wood. The boulder garden right below the First Ledge and in the third drop in the boulder garden below Behemoth.

The lower water we had made the first spot of wood runnable, though a bit scary. Most of us portaged it. The second spot of wood is really not a hazard. The lines through the boulder garden is still right all the way down. The wood is easily avoidable. HOWEVER, in the class III runnout, be on the look out for a mank drop leading into a river wide downed alder. With the dropping water levels its a serious strainer and Charlie had some trouble, swam above it and, for a few scary moments was caught in the branches under the water. Everything came out ok but keep an eye out for this log!

Otherwise, check out some photos below and HERE

~Cheers!

JD on the First Ledge

Charlie finishing up Island Drop

JD at Behemoth

WKCC Safety Weekend

2007-08-02T20:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the Willamette Kayak and Canoe Club had their annual Safety Weekend where a the Willamette valley kayakers get together to share techinques, tips and practice throwing ropes and what not. I spent my time wandering around listening in, helping out and taking photos. Check it out here.

So It Goes

2007-07-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those ideas...

"Everybody's gonna love this!" and you get excited and see it through enuncumbered by the thought process. Yea thats me. I did that.

I was trying to let everybody know that I think Riot does a great job taking care of their customers unlike some other companies out there and to show how much I trust their boats. The Magnum is the best creek boat I've been in and there's nothing out there I'd rather paddle. Since I got my Astro 54, I've been getting more bounce and more pop than anything I've paddled before. No bull.

So, sorry guys.

~EJ

Youngest-ever descent of the Green Truss

2007-07-24T15:23:00.001-07:00

WonderMidget Strikes again

As far as anyone knows, WonderMidget, Devin Morton, is the youngest person to ever run the Truss at 12 years old.

Devin at Bobs

I had been planning a trip get get a couple Truss newbies down in Late July when Devin's Dad, Corey asked if they could tag along. "Of COURSE," I replied, hoping for a huge group. We quickly enlisted a bunch of people to put in with us: Nate Herbeck, James Bagley, Kyle Kovalik, Will Robens, Will's friend Will, Brett Barton, Kris Litz, Devin, Corey, Myself, Michael Williams, Rick Cooley, and Jason Schroeder. Interestingly, we started with 13 and ended with 10... The world may never know.

Anyway, back to the little dude... and the rest of the crew. I love bashing down the Truss with a huge group, low water especially. If I can't have water, I might as well sucker a bunch other others with me so I am not the only idiot out there right? Well as all the rest of the idiots would agree, it was a great run. No where near the expected carnage, only one swimmer; only two people didn't run Big Brother. (not bad for a trip where out of 13 only 5 had done the run before! After a quick scout at Bobs, and a huck session at Big Brother, we all fired off Double without scouting, even the Midget, who flipped and rolled between the drops and gutted #2.

Everybody had great lines in Upper Zig Zag, especially Devin, who floated calmly behind his dad, watching him get worked!

Nobody in the newbies group fired off BZ, but it will be there for a long time.
Check out Devin's blog for a short vid and some more about the little dude.

Devin at Double, by Rick Cooley

Kris Litz fires up Big Brother on her first time down

Kyle Kovalik on his first time over Bobs

Rick Cooley, another first timer on Big Brother

Know what I did this summer?

2007-07-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

Neither do I really..
Its been a while since I've had time to sit down and tell ya'll what I've been up to and though everytime I run something I think, "Oh man I've got to write something up for this one..." its just not happening. SO, basically since I left Idaho, spent a week in Montana, headed to Washington and met up with some Seattle friends for a good run down the Fall In The Wall, then over to the Cooper and headed home. Next couple weeks were work, trips to Spencer's Hole and Ohanepecsh, Clear Fork and a Hike in to the UU Cispus. Below are a handfull of shots from the last few weeks. Keep an eye out for more including the Youngest Ever Truss Descent!

More Photos

Cheers~

Jesse Coombs at Spencer's Hole, Gates Or

Sera Jansen at Spencers

Kris at Gold Hole

Missoula Crew on Kootenei Cr

Me on the last drop above Franklin Falls on Fall In The Wall

Rob on Monkey Cage, Top Tye

So It Goes

2007-07-07T01:50:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those ideas...

"Everybodies gonna love this!" and you get excited and see it through enuncumbered by the thought process. Yea thats me. I did that.

I was trying to let everybody know that I think Riot does a great job taking care of their customers unlike some other companies out there and to show how much I trust their boats. The Magnum is the best creek boat I've been in and there's nothing out there I'd rather paddle. Since I got my Astro 54, I've been getting more bounce and more pop than anything I've paddled before. No bull.

So, sorry guys.

~EJ

Goldan Canyon: Idaho 07

2007-06-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

After our Big Sands trip the whole crew headed over to the SF Clearwater for a low water run down the Golden Canyon. Grace, Jason, Kris, Megi, Rob, our new friend Matt R. and I drove out on a hot day staring down at the pin rock and seives thinking this may not be such a good idea. Golden Canyon is normally run, by those we talked to, at around 1500cfs or greater. We had about half that.

We put in right below Coyote Falls, none of us could see a reasonable like throught the rocky seivy run out. Just as well, we all had a solid reson not to run it instead of the typical "If my shoulder wasn't bugging me," "If my boat wasn't cracked," and "I'm not used to this boat yet" excuses. From there on down, it was more or less boat scoutable class IV and Rob, Matt and I too turn probing the larger drops where Jason would get out to scout and shoot some photos. We also had David shooting photos from the bank the whole way down.

Fortunately for me, it was much cleaner than I thought and though I was paddling my Riot Magnum, I was wishing I had been in my new Astro for a few spots. Unfortunatley Kris got wedged in a seive through one of the gorge-y sections, and had to pull out but she flushed out immediately thankfully and all gear was recovered and everybody was all smiles. She probably just needed to cool off. The run concluded with a fair amount of flat water that has us all wishing for more water at the takcout, one more swimmer after an chin-meets-rock incident (ok in the end). Jason was super-stoked on the run and he's right, its a pretty good class IV run a that flow that I'd reccomend but still think a bit more water would be better. It reminds me of a mini Tumwater Canyon stretched out over a few more miles.

Next time you are stuck in Idaho for the second low water year in a row, I check it out.

Thanks to David for all the photos.

-EJ

Salmon River Canyon Media Update

2007-06-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Remember the AP news crew from that last Salmon River Gorge trip?
Well they got their stuff published in the Summit Daily News in Colorado.

Check it out!

Sorry Jay, unless you were paddling the Riot Magnum that day, the photo is of me.

Cheers

Big Sands Creek: Idaho 07

2007-06-22T23:13:00.000-07:00

Like so many water starved Oregonians, we headed over to Idaho with Jason Rackley this June dreaming of big waves, huge holes and high water on the Lochsa and anything else we could find. We tried last year and hit low water so we tried again this year, a month earlier and hit even lower water! Good news is we got a run on Big Sands Creek. Having Kris and her brother Ben "The Montana Connection" Litz along is always a good idea . A group of Missoula boaters were headed down the day before us and you can catch there experience on the American Whitewater Site.

It started with just Rob and I but we ran into a wandering but not lost soul at a local hot spring who we invited to join us for our run. As our conversations with him continued, and as the night moved on, Rob and I gave each other a lot of hard looks and had some serious thoughts about whether Matt, "Class V --", was up to the task. We decided it would be alright but were still a bit nervous on the hike in. Speaking of which, its one of the easiest 3 mile hike ins I have ever done, gentle up hills, smooth dragging and easy downhills... except for one quarter mile long section.

Kris and Matt hiking over the new deadfall. 'Que the fuck?'

Once we got down to the river, having never paddled with Matt "T-rescue" Reistetter, we started going over hand signals and river etiquette and he made a few more comments about not being a Class V boater and then something we never expected. "So, if I can't roll, do you guys want to T rescue me or just pull me upright?"

Silence....

Till Rob said, "Just Roll."
Pretty much the only think the Idaho guide book says is 'Don't get in over your head on this one' and 'Hiking out would be nearly impossible' so at this point Rob and I were pretty worried but in true tempt-fate style we put on, Matt chagrined and floated on downstream to the first few splashy class IV rapids. Long-ish but straight forward drops with fairly easy to avoid hazards make up the first entry drops but once the river tightens and steepens up, we were in for a good time. The hits just kept coming though when at the bottom of the first Class IV drop Matt said "This is definitely a step up for me." A comment that was immediately followed by a long hard stare between Rob and myself but we kept on going. About the only thing I had to say was simply, "We just need to keep heading downstream, walking or paddling, just keep heading downstream."

Rob on the first 10 footer getting the boof off the right wall.

We all had good lines off the first drop and set the tone for me being the probe unit all day. We all portaged the drop below the logjam as there was log across it and Pancake and the drops below it. I ran everything else and Matt and Rob made one more portage above a sticky hole somewhere in the middle.

Reenacting the guide book photo at the end of one of the long technical rapid of the day.

Matt, Where the wild things are. Right above Pancake and the subsequent gorge seen below.

We all portaged this long boulder choked rapid starting with
Pancake at the top followed by two marginally runnable
piton filled ledges and some fast water.

After the portaging around Pancake, the gradient mellows out for a while and I was convinced we were done till we came around the corner and White Sands dumps in. From there on down to the take out, the gradient is pretty constant, and the extra water made for some big fun Class IV drops where I couldn't help myself and just didn't want to eddy out. It reminded me of coming onto Wooley Cr from Bridge Cr in Cali, or the bottom two miles of the Bald Rock Section of the Middle Feather.

Matt, class V-- wonder stud, did great all day never faltered, always made good decisions and stayed on the game the whole way down. Look for him in Seattle now.
With some takout beers, some bullshit talk, advice on getting a new helmet and a ride back down to camp in his Westfalia we made a friend and ended up boating again the next day on the SF Clearwater.
Turns out our fears were unfounded and I can't tell you how glad I am.

Check out more photos here

-EJ

Wenatchee RiverFest '07 and Top Tye

2007-06-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

The way was long, the road was dark but last week an bunch of us Oregonites, natives and transplants alike, ventured up to the Washington and the little town of Cashmere for some fun in the sun.. or clouds. So the weather didn't cooperate for Saturday but the water level was prime for Granny's, where they held the rodeo and those folks know how to put on a festival. A rodeo, downriver race, lots of vendors, a couple different auctions, live music, an exclusive campsite and just plain good people!

Some of the good people!

Granny's is a big fast wave in the middle of a wave train at the last rapid of the normal run on the Wenatchee. Some of the competitors had a rough time on the wave; it can be a little flushy on one of the shoulders. I didn't show up in time to compete. Instead we got up late, had a run on Lower Icicle with some minor carnage, a breakfast and Sandy's Waffle Haus in Leavenworth. So once again, I was behind the camera for this one.

Top: Rob, still crazy after all these years (notice the lack of skirt)
Bottom: A new generation of crazy: Robbie

Later that night, after a play run and some chill time, I found Jeff, staggering around the parking lot, Lisa uncomfortably asleep in back of my van so we decided it was time to head to the campground but as we went to leave, more and more people wanted a ride back... So.

Post party load up.

In the morning, a quick play run followed by a journey up to the Seattle are gem the Top Tye!
The Skykomish at Goldbar was at 7500 or so and since the floods last winter, its apparently reading about 25% low. So it was pretty high but it only equalled big water fun times! A group put on upstream of us and before we even had gotten ready, one member came down after swimming in one of the first ledges, hoping to find his boat. Another member of their group had his first swim in 6yrs at Box Drop, a straight forward ledge that drops into a meaty hole below a sketchy ferry above a rock/log sieve. Most of our group portaged with the exception of James, who had a smooth line.

Don't get me wrong, we had our share of carnage! A swimmer at Monkey Cage, whose boat travelled over Crack in the Earth without him and we were chasing his gear, and portaging CITE, Thad ran the gnarly ledge below and had a good surf and out of boat experience.

The rest of the run was fairly uneventful but following a portage around Paranoia, we can to the best part of the run. Big boofs, big water feel and tight twisty drops with push! Good Times!

Monkey Cage for me, shortly before being upside down

Monkey Cage for Brad... an hour after being upside down!

I recommend getting on it that high if your confident and it made a great end to a great weekend with great people. Isn't that great? The drive back home was long, and dark but we made it safely. Got to go for now though. I'm heading to Idaho for two weeks starting tomorrow morning.

Big thanks to Sybille and all those who organized the Wenatchee Festival, another gret job guys. And thanks to Conor for the shots on the Tye!

Cheers!

Oregon Salmon and Other things

2007-05-31T19:20:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder of where we were going on the back of CK's rig.

Its been a while since my last post but I think its been worth it to come back with a little trip to the Oregon Salmon! Ryan and Chris do a great job covering the run. Check out their blogs for some super shots but for me the weekend started Saturday when the Chrises and I left Corvallis for Hood River, on a mission to pick up CK's new boat, Valerie, meet Jeff and hammer out a quick Truss run on the way. A late start meant Jeff ran the Truss solo but we pushed on down to the Salmon and did a quick hike scout up from the bottom.

Scouting Frustration from the canyon rim

After a night of interviews by the Associated Press (I have no idea how CK pulls this stuff but its always an adventure with the guy) we hiked in and made our way down to the river. It start right off the bat with a sweet 15ish footer with a kind of interesting log duck lead it... nice.

Getting our Associated Press Crew across the Sandy on the hike in

The rest of the run is just as tight, just as committing and just as big as everything you've heard or read. That all played in to my decision to portage Frustration and in the process injuring my knee. I kind of feel like it would have hurt less to just run the thing and I don't feel like I really ran the Oregon Salmon unless I run Frustration. CK keep Final...

My preferred line at Final Falls. Jay G after throwing the rest of our boats for us.

Chris K hucking his paddle at the last second on Final Falls.

The rest of the run is uneventful and shallow but its a good way to unwind from the intense gorge. Check out some more photos here

Oh and Keel breaking into our take out cars... that was clutch.

On other notes, I've finally started the 9-5 lifestyle, but that's ok for now. Life has been intense lately and a little daily grind is ok for now. Especially when I can still get into awesome gorges with awesome people. BUT Summertime means Spencer's hole is just around the corner too so I'm looking forward to getting back in the playboat soon. Its been too long.

Also, I've happily been noticed by Playak.com, a great site that I use all the time. I feel like I've hit the big time!

Cheers-
Blue Haired Freak.

Missoula Meandering: Pt 3

2007-05-13T22:37:00.000-07:00

8th Annual Best In The West Rodeo

Amy and her new Champion Belt Buckle

For the 8th time, paddlers from all around gathered at Alberton Gorge and the Triple Birdges put in for the Best in the West Rodeo. Hosted by Seth Warren, who did a great job despite the highest early season water level anyone could remeber. On the 12th of May the Clark Fork was heading up and showing no signs of stopping. The high water more or less washed out the whole stretch making a standard format rodeo impossible.

Billy watching as what should be Comp hole, greens out.

Seth Warren did a great job organizing a competition despite the flows settling a down river team and individual freestyle event judged at three locations along the way. Triple Bridges, Tumbleweed and Fang. Judges paddles down to set up while the the competitors did their best to stay excited. The whole run only took about 30 minutes at the high levels though the boils were pretty exciting. I heard about one paddler who dissapeared completely during the competition! I opted not to compete because I couldn't find a team (I always was picked last) and because I was hoping for some photo ops BUT becuase the run was so fast, most of the competion had already happend but the time I even put on. Thats ok though, I still got a few. Check em out here.

Paddlers at the put in. Specators on the bridge.

In the end, Amy Jimmerson and Evan Garcia came away individual champions leading their teams as well. A post-party, grubfest, and raffle was held and even I won something. First and probably last time that'll ever happen probably. Infact, I won a shirt AND a Palm Tow line! Big thanks for Scott Doherty of Word Class Kayak Academy for putting that together and running the show. Busy guy that day, the WCKA graduation was only a couple of hours after the rodeo ended.

My first raffle winnings.

I'll definately try and make it back for next year, Scott and Shreder will be taking control and it should be an even better time. Hopefully water levels will be closer to normal, Brennans might even be an option! It was really great meeting so many great folks and paddler, getting to know some of the WCKA kids better, even meeting their families. I've got lots of respect for Scott and Seth for working so hard to make the whole thing happen. Personally, I just can't wait to see next years buckle!

- Fading Blue Haired Freak

Missoula Meandering: Pt 2

2007-05-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

The World Class Kayak Academy

Did you ever have one of those days at you playspot where you felt like things were really coming together, like you were getting to be a 'pretty good' playboater only to have some kid come down and throw some sick moves you didn't even think were possible in that feature. Its been happening to me alot lately; seems like everywhere I go I run into the World Class Kayak Academy kids. The instructors were up on the Little White Salmon not so long ago, the the Lochsa, now back in their home of Missoula, on Brennans Wave and out at Triple Bridges. Given the oportunity I decided to try get some photos. Check em out!

Missoula Meandering: Pt 1

2007-05-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

Upper Bear Creek Mission

After a great weeked on the Lochsa, and a couple of days on the wave in Missoula, I met up with Ben again for Bear Cr. I had tried to get on this one last year but it was already too low. That day is the subject of a long story involving getting skunked three times in one day, in two states, wrecking a tire and driving back to Missola from Coeur d'Alene on a donut spare at midnight. Good times!

Well this trip was quite a bit better. The level was just lapping at the top of the guage rock, almost, so as Ben said, "This is a non-nervous level." A couple of days before Ben had mentioned to me that Jessie, a local paddler had scouted a waterfall about 1/2 mile upstream from the normal put in so we all decided to hike on up and have a look.

Waterfall on Upper Bear Cr. Taken from the log jam.

After looking at this steep multi-tierd slide with a scary logjam in the runout we all back down. Ben didn't like the logjam, I didn't like the spinal compression or ankle break potential. All agreed a bit more water and the move around the logjam would be do-able and the injury potential would drop. "AJ would do it," was repeated a few times.

After portaging the as-yet unrun, un-named slide falls we came to another log jam, and another and another till we realized why this stretch was little known and unrun.

Ben, showing me what Montana Creeking is all about.

After getting to the normal put it, the rest of the run was a blur of slides, boofs and holes. Hotel California, Tijuana Crack Whore, and Brave Bear falls were all really fun drops at this level. Just enough to get the dander up, not too scary. I'm not used to boating on slides so it was especially interesting for me but all's well that ends well and after a knocking out the rest of the run we dragged our boats back down to the parking lot for some elk sausage and cheese. Montana Creeking Tailgate!

Jessie getting in trying the Tijuana Crack Whore backwards.

Jesse on the pillow of Brave Bear

Me, boofing the top ledge at Brave Bear

For more Photos check here

It also seems that somewhere in there I lost my helmet. If anyone sees or hears about a Sweet Strutter out at Bear Cr, gimme a yell! I went up there a few days later looking for it but didn't find it. I did find the Cr much higher than the other day, at least 5 inches over the guage rock so I think that means Jesse owes Ben some beer. Better luck next time.

-Blue Haired Freak

Cinco de Mayo on the Lochsa!

2007-05-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

What happens when you combine getting a few hundred of your closest friends together on a really fun river, on Cinco De Mayo no less? Nothing short of a good time at the

Lock-Saw-Ron-Day-Voo

Enough of a draw to even get me to Idaho from Western Oregon, with a few stops on the way.
I left C-town Wednesday morning and went over the hill for a quick Meadowcamp run with CR and got on the road in time for a brilliant sunset a quick, frosty overnight roadside in Oregon and a couple days in Riggins (the Salmon was too high for anything good sadly)

I don't recommend taking photos while driving but it can be cool

Roadside Self Portrait in Idaho

Once I got to the Lochsa and met up with Montana paddlers and friends the good times really began. As a first timer to the Lochsa and the Rendezvous, I can say its a big river (to me) and the peoples hearts are just as big. There is very little as awesome and that many paddlers in once place all doing something they love and there to have a good time. Paddlers from all over and at all skill levels meeting for the first time act like old friends. The Montana crowd is

no exception and among those I had met before and those I met there, I am happy to call all of them friends.

A few friends in the eddy above Pipeline

I was even lucky enough to witness the latest in Whitewater Performance Craft: The SuperCaravelle (sans optional Canopy and Floor Boards) on its maiden voyage from the Fish Creek put-in to Pipeline. Missoula paddlers Ben and Ira piloted this surprisingly worthy craft with only 5 swims between them despite backing down into Lochsa Falls and Pipeline.

Lochsa Falls!

See some more photos of the day here!

Of course the day on the river was followed up by a huge party at the Lochsa Lodge, lots of stories were made and probably forgotten, a few thousand in cheap beer was drunk, along with at least one bottle of JD in the back of a trailer. I am sure you can imagine the rest.

A parting shot

A big thanks to the Missoula paddlers, those who I know and those I just met for letting me tag along, for showing me down Fish Creek and the Lochsa. I had a great time and can't wait to do it again!

-Blue Haired Freak

Zoolander!

2007-04-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

I can't turn left!

From the people that brought you Dead Cow Wave, in our continueing efforts to find small, out of the way features that are user friendly and easy to learn on bring you ZOOLANDER. A small ledge hole just outside of Idahna, Or on Hwy 22.

The Skinny:

Zoolander is a small, righty carthweel and spin spot on the Bruno Mt. run on the North Santiam. Otherwise know for its play at higher flows, this run should keep all but the pickiest big feature fanatics at bay. This also means never a line up. As the name implies, its a right carthweel ONLY spot. There is a retentive and deep enough pocket on the surfers right but anyone who attempts a lefty will be rewarded with a sound THUMP and probably flush upside down. Vertical right to left splits are easy enough though. Its also pretty friendly for side surfing and spinning. The eddy is a bit flushy out the back so a quick roll is handy to avoid hiking.

One more thing... Just like Zoolander the movie, this hole may not be worth a special trip. If you are already out that way I highly recommend a stop. If you are serioulsy cartwheel challenged, this is a really great spot to dial in your edge control and body position. Improvent here will be immedialty rewared with more ends and more retentive rides.

Where is it/When is it:

I've been out to it between about 1000 and 1300. I expect the range is a bit wider than that too.

To get there, head East on 22 past Detroit. Once through Idahna, look for some green metal buildings on the south side of the road. Just past these, where the guard rail starts, is a turn out. Hike up river from there and put in just upsteam of the speed limit sign.

If you are doing the run, look for a Triangular rock in the middle of the river about 1/2 mile past Cooper Ridge Rd bridge. The hole is on river right.

Have a great time, let me know how it goes.

-Blue Haired Freak.

The Best Laid Plans

2007-04-26T00:04:00.000-07:00

CK exhibiting good dental hygiene at the put in of Canyon Cr.

The plan was simple: Two days, 4 rivers. A little playboating on the North Santiam, up into Washing to pick some lines through on Canyon Cr Washington for the extreme race in a week. Next day, Little While and Green Truss. Seemed simple. Day one went ok, Bruno Mt was at about 1000cfs. There's some fun play out there at that flow including a righty cartwheel spot. Up to Canyon Cr where the lack of water was a bit disappointing, but expected. Low water clean lines are the key to doing well in the race.

CK at Thrasher

Me at Thrasher, skying the rock boof.

Kahuna

Kahuna= autoboof fun so I decided to plug

Day two: Our third, and shuttle, couldn't make it but set us up with his roommate and local paddler Jason who was kind enough to run shuttle for the price of a Hamms. We put on the Little White and I started hacking up the lines: missing boofs, catching edges in Getting Busy. Nerves built on nerves and Island came up soon. As we were scouting I noticed my boat full of water and after emptying it out saw the 5" crack across the bottom. I know I'm not the first to break a boat out there I know. On my first trip down, three people hiked off because of broken boats. I followed suit while Chris decided to finish out the run solo. I guess it went great for him and I did alot of second guessing my decision on the 2.5 hour hike upstream. After staring at a map later, I realized there was a road just up hill on the left. Damn.

After a while at the put in, Chris showed up with the van and we drove back into HR to stop at the Shed on our way out of town. A kind of anticlimactic and slow end to my first Little White Hike.

-EJ

Loop It UP!

2007-04-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend I spent some time over in Central Oregon looping it up with Liquid Logic lady, Christina. Groom Lake is fun little hole that is an auto-looper or great for space godzillas. Even ran into a few other friend out there, Hattie and Mike.godzillas. Even ran into a few other friend out there, Hattie and Mike.

Christina going big

Old School style! (Photo by Christina Russel)

Doing my best to look good. (Photo by Christina Russell)

Hattie, dropping in (Photo by Christina Russell)

Split Wheel (Photo by Christina Russell)

The air up there. (Photo by Christina Russell)

Big thanks to the LLLL for showing me the ropes and Christina for having a camera handy to make it look like I know what I'm doing. Go paddle!

-Blue Haired Freak

LOOK!

2007-04-18T12:39:00.001-07:00

For more photos, check out my Flickr site.
Some of my favorite photos are there from the past few years of paddling in the Northwest!

Including a gallery of me and the recent possible First descent of the Black Rock Fork of the S. Umpqua

Have a gander.

-EJ

April in California

2007-04-17T19:29:00.000-07:00

This past weekend four of us from Corvallis headed down to the Feather drainage hoping to hope on some of the goods. Against advice from a few friends, James Bagley, Jeff Hazboun, Chris Korbulic and myself went hoping for West Branch runs.

After meeting up, we tossed ideas of an impromptu Royal Gorge trip but settled on Big Kimshew and Bald Rock. We didn't count on the gates....

Gate#1: Jeff and James try for a way around

Gate#2: Jeff the ghost.

Gate #3: We could still hear the river

After hours of driving around on forest roads we gave up at about 1:00 am Saturday morning; we camped at Gate# 1 deciding to hit Bald Rock in a few hours.

Saturday

In the morning, on the road and a few phone calls later to some locals, we were told that Milsap Bar gauge was reading low, the level was already near the recommended max and it was raining and our local wanted nothing to do with it. We ran shuttle, and put on at noon. I think we were all pretty nervous till after the portage around Atom Bomb Falls. Lots of solid V drops, lots of bank and boat scouting, a few portages including Curtain falls and we finished the run about 6:20pm. I can easily say I have never dodged so many sieves and undercuts in my life and my heart was pumping the whole way down. No photos in the rain and the time crunch. James shot some video so hopefully he puts somthing together!

We were all pleased to be at the lake, in a limited sort of way. Happy to be at the bottom safe, happy to have had safe lines all around... no so pleased looking forward to the 4 hr, 13 mile paddle out. At 10:30pm Saturday night we stumbled up the steep bank by the van, made some food, toasted our arrival and went to camp at the put in.

Sunday

Up at the crack of 9, on the road by 10 searching for access to Big Kimshew again. This time, more dirt roads, and deep Cali red clay stopped us. No photos: I was too busy trying not to get stuck and helping James not to slide into the ditch. In the end, we were skunked on Sunday.

Big Kimshew will have to wait till the next trip when we figure out the gates down there. I'll post more pictures then.

-EJ

More Than You Ever Wanted...

2007-04-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

to know about me. This post is all about just that, its going to be a place I can keep track of my achievements. I'll update it as things change.

About Me:

I started paddling at age 9 in Florida and, it being Florida, the boat was 16'6" long and 20" wide and the paddle was a 90 degree 235cm. It wasn't till I moved to Washington that I started to spend anytime on rivers and even then only occasionally. In April '04 that I got my first playboat and From then on I've been hooked. I've paddled rivers all through the northwest though my favorites are still where I learned: the Skykomish in Washington. The Sky is still my favorite river just for the runnability (all year) and variability (you can run it everyday of the week and take a different line though Boulder Drop each day). Since moving to Oregon the number and steepness of the rivers I run has increased dramatically and the last 2 years have been wonderful in terms of paddling. To anyone who wants to paddle more, I recommend Graduate School. Even they, however, will eventually kick you out. So now, I am armed with a Masters in Molecular and Cellular Biology, a minivan and a will to paddle before I let my life become the sum of 9 2 5. 16 if you are keeping track.

UPDATE:
Having entered the workforce unwillingly and unwittingly, I am now a database admin, and software engineer at a small Biotech company in Portland. Don't let that fool you though, I'm still the same person on the inside. I think...

To me kayaking is about challenging myself and growing through those experiences. Challenge take the form of a new move, a bigger drop or teaching people on the river. I get the same joy out of running a big drop as when someone I am paddling with gets their first spin or cartwheel. Its a choose your own adventure sport whether its Class II or Class V+, river running, creeking or playboating, its all a part of this river life.

Competition:

2006 Nugget Rodeo: Intermediate Finalist
2005 Wenatchee Rodeo: Team Second

Leadership:

Began teaching Sea Kayaking 1999
Co-led Outdoor Education class in Alaska
Willamette Kayak and Canoe Club Saftey Weekend 2006: First Aid
Ongoing informal playboating clinics

Countries Paddled in:

US (Nothwest, Northeast, Southeast)
Canada (Skook, Tofino)
New Zealand
Antarctica (Technically not a country and sure it was only flat water in a double inflatable but its still pretty darned cool!)
China (Last Descent of a stretch of the Mekong)

First Descents:

Kenobi Gorge: Little Goose Cr, trib of Trout Lake Cr, trib of the White Salmon River
Black Rock Fork of the South Umpua

Boats Broken:

Liquid Logic Pocket Rocket
Pyrahna Micro 230
Liquid Logic Gus (4 times)
Wavesport ZG54
Riot Magnum 72 (3 cracks and one fold)

Media of me:

May/June American Whitwater: photo by Jason Rackley
American Whitewater: Kenobi Gorge mention

Media:

Oregonkayaking.net: One or two write ups and a whole load of photos. Thanks Jason!

Videos:

Kenobi Gorge
Sweet Creek
Green Truss
Copper Creek
Henline Creek
Spencers Hole
McDowell Creek
Skwrle Waters
More Recent Spencers Hole vid

Big thanks to Jason, Ryan, James, Jim and all the others who spent time on the vids.

NEWS:
Syndicated news story and footage of out trip down the Oregon Salmon River Gorge in June 2007.