May Melt!

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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