So It Goes

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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