Fantasy

The opportunity to paddle the North Fork Mokelumne came as a surprise after missing another high Sierra run and paddling a couple classics on the North Yuba and South Silver in the South American. Known to be the favorite run of many California paddlers, Fantasy Falls piqued my interest and had me fired up immediately after driving to the put-in and seeing that flows were perfect.
We proceeded to get ourselves into a shuttle debacle lasting roughly 7 hours and possibly(definitely) adding a few dents to the bottom of the Corolla we were driving. Note that a sedan is not recommended for the short shuttle.
We put on later in the morning after a leisurely packing session and began our three-day, 24 mile journey to the bottom. We bounced down through the first day of mank and a few good rapids, arriving at our camp just above the entrance to the second gorge at around five. Sun, fire, fresh water, and a setting of huge granite domes and two big rapids below us made for an amazing camp.

Good morning! Into the second gorge.


The second gorge was the highlight of the day, possibly the trip. Big clean slides and rapids were the norm for the day.

One of the big, clean slides.


We ended the day with a portage around a gorge we mistakenly thought to be a recommended portage, a bit of flatwater, then a horizon line leading into another deep, steep walled gorge. We made camp above this and under an incredibly large pine tree. Surrounded by granite domes and the white sound emanating from the gorge below, we made fire, dinner, then slept well expecting the next day to be long and difficult.

Not to let us down, the river continued at a fast pace and kept us on our toes until the reservoir. After multiple portages around marginal at best gorges/rapids, and a full day of good, hard rapids we were excited to see the reservoir. The prospect of fresh cotton and non-freeze-dried food motivated us to complete the paddle-out in good fashion and make it to the car under the moon.

This run was made up of three long days full of more rapids than I can remember surrounded by unbelievable scenery and made even better by the great weather and fun crew on the water. Thanks to Darin McQuoid and Kevin Smith for motivating to get on this.

The runs namesake, Fantasy Falls.


The final slide, quite full of water at 7 in the evening.


Photos Darin McQuoid.

Salmon River

Ever since I saw No Big Names II: Amped, I have wanted to paddle the Salmon River Canyon. As you may know, that video has been out a good little while, so this thing has been near the top of my list for quite some time. After an aborted high water birthday mission last year, I was super fired up to get it this year.
The day finally came after weeks of waiting for levels to drop and for a crew to form. Crew on this day was large and included: Ryan Scott, Jay Gifford, Keel Brightman, Jeff Hazboun, Chris Gabrielli, EJ Etherington, and myself. Huge thanks to Ryan Scott for leading the charge and knowing the lines and trail.
We also had a trail crew including Lana Young and an AP crew shooting video and photos for an upcoming story. Keep an eye out for this one! It's going to be huge! On to other huge things...
The day starts great with a hike down hill for about two miles then a steep scramble down to the water, where you are immediately greeted by the first falls of the day, Split Falls. After this there are a few more falls, then the main event, Frustration Falls.

Myself running Split Falls.
Photo: Keel Brightman


Sticky ledge below Vanishing Falls.
Photo: Keel Brightman


Frustration is a three tiered falls, dropping about 65 feet, the first two being around 10-15, and the third nearly 40. All this is in an absolutely amazing canyon, in which you feel completely insignificant and tiny. Really one of the coolest places I have ever been.
After Frustration and the paddle out through the veil of the left channel of the falls, there is a sweet 20 footer, then Final Falls, the big falls that is often jumped or rappelled off. I was feeling pretty fired up after Frustration and looking at it while people were jumping and rappelling.
I ended up firing it off and having a decent line, over-rotating a bit and tossing my paddle to keep it from meeting my nose. I attempted one hand roll then was helped up by the bow of Gabrielli's boat. Thanks brotha!!!

Parting with my paddle.

Photo Copyright Lana Young


Make sure to check Ryan Scott's blog for photos and more story.
Also, I'll put some video up soon, so stay tuned.

Spring Lovin

To expand on the previous post....
As mentioned below, a boat or two was left on the shore of Bridge Creek a few weeks ago. This left the owners with a number of unappealing options: hike back in to either paddle the boats out, or hike all the way out again. Or they could choose to abandon the boats and let nature take care of business on those things. Not wanting to wait a million years to see any changes in the plastic, I decided to hike in and paddle one out, an orange Jefe to be exact. Lucky for me, another poor soul wanted to get on Bridge, so I invited him along, not really mentioning that I would be hiking the first mile and a half leaving him to paddle the manky section alone. He did great and we successfully recovered the boat, blazing down Bridge and Wooley with plenty of time to spare. Now for that broken boat still in there, hm?

After paddling a few more mellow days at the Salmon I turned south and made my way to Chico to meet up with Darin McQuoid . We had been hoping for Royal Gorge, but it had dropped out to a boat-breaking low level, so we decided to move south into the Yuba drainage. We quickly paddled Love's Falls, made some phone calls, then drove further south into the South Fork American drainage, where South Silver appeared to be running.
To be honest, I don't think either of us were super excited to be headed towards South Silver as consolation for not getting on Royal. It had always been on my list, but over time it slowly dropped as my impression of it fell into the 'too much hype' category...
However, we were both very impressed with the quality of the run and had a wonderful time as we slowly moved downstream and lapped Skyscraper.

Serious eye-candy...amazing photos by Darin McQuoid

Kevin Smith boofing at the top of Autobahn


Myself finishing off Autobahn


Again on a slide.


Towards a big hole.


Boofing one of the Teacups.




Boofing into Skyscraper




Boofing out of Skyscraper



Movin down Off-ramp.


Portaging on the Fantasy Falls run of the North Fork of the Mokelumne River......

Mission: (almost) Accomplished

Bridge Creek, Ca.: a mission on all accounts.
Arbitrary stats on the run: hike in a little less than 2 miles, one of which is down about 2000 feet; 4 miles on Bridge creek; then 9 on Wooley creek. The hike leaves your thighs burning and screaming for oxygen, or your pants ripped and nearly falling off. Or both, depending on your condition. Then some mank and good drops on Bridge lead to the hard part of the run, Wooley Creek. The 9 miles of class IV-V big water boulder rapids while tired from the hike and Bridge always prove to be quite exciting.
I had always heard of epic trips full of carnage followed by a long hike out in the dark all the way to the bottom, or spent shivering on the trail. Coming into this last trip I was pretty confident, with my 5 of 5 trips completed in a speedy(usually) fashion. In this report there is a reference to a less glorious trip. Though I'm not included in the swim count, it wasn't quite the quick trip I had experienced before.
Last weekend I found myself at the jump-off point for the hike on the night of Cinco de Mayo, unfortunately missing the festivities at the Nordheimer Campground. Excitement and anxiety ruled the night as we made some delicious burritos.
We awoke with the sun and leisurely ate breakfast and prepared for the hike. We began our hike and soon found ourselves standing at the top of the mile-long, steep scramble down to the creek. As the 'experienced' one of the group, I was chosen to lead the way down the hill. Needless to say, we got lost and actually ended up on the wrong creek. Great start to the day, right? Determined, we eventually made it to Bridge, and not even in poor time, about 2 hours. We made our way through the first mile or so of junk and wood to the first significant drop.

Gabe carving his way down.

Photo-Josh St.John

Everybody made it through this and the following few drops, until just above the best section of the creek. We pulled out to portage a large piece of wood and Jared turned over his boat to find a 10" crack along the edge of his boat. Not the best place to find yourself with a broken boat. Using what was probably better than my 'oh it'll be fiiiine', judgment, he and Josh decided to hike out at this point instead of continue and slow the whole group. Remember the hike in? Well, this was going to be a little less up, but a whole lot more out. They later guessed that the Bridge Creek trail was about 600 feet up a very steep hill, then probably 13 miles out to the Salmon river where we had our shuttle.

Jared hiking, sans kayak.


Then there were two. We were pretty sure we would beat them out and do shuttle, little did we know....
Gabe soon found himself stuck in quite the hole. I had seen this hole dish out some pretty serious beatings before, and this was no different. After watching the ends of his boat switching places for an uncomfortably long time, I ran back up to my boat and ran the drop, thankfully avoiding the beat-down hole. His boat conveniently flushed with him and he got himself organized quickly and after a short rest we were off again. A few more good drops and Gabe, tired from the stomping hole, found himself in the water a couple more times. Now very tired and a little disheartened, Gabe continued on, portaging the remaining rapids of significance, except the final falls.
Once on Wooley we blazed down the first couple miles of class 3 and stopped just before things get a little more hectic. We were both pretty tired at this point, but knew we had to keep moving. I mentioned that this would be the last place to exit the canyon until the take-out, but that I could lead us down Wooley pretty fast so time and light wouldn't be an issue, barring any mishaps. Not wanting to take the chance, Gabe supported the idea of hiking from this point, and though I didn't see it as an appealing option, the last thing I wanted to do was further split the group. Not to mention solo Wooley.
So off we went, hiking the remaining ~7 miles with our boats and averaging a little over one mile an hour. We made good time until dark, after which we slowed drastically and occasionally found ourselves asleep while taking a short break on the trail. We got out to the Salmon at Brannon Bar at around midnight, and thankfully found that Josh and Jared had made it out almost exactly three hours before us and had done shuttle. I don't think I have ever been as happy to see two dirty, sweaty, tired men. Well, maybe once.
So I join the legions of paddlers in the 'Bridge Creek Epic Day, or Two' group.

wash.mov

1 min 58 sec - May 10, 2007
Description: Short clip of a couple drops on Bridge Creek, Ca. and the Clear Fork of the Cowlitz River, Wa..

The Clear Fork

Quote from undisclosed paddling partner: "maybe we should just meet up this afternoon, pack our shit in the car, _____ a ____ and start driving north...we'll figure it out when we get there?" I was in, of course.
Plans to paddle this weekend came together much like they often do: on the drive north away from god-and-water-forsaken Corvallis. After some discussion and general mayhem we came to the decision to go to Washington. Great, narrowed down to the state. The Cowlitz drainage soon followed, but we still weren't sure what we would do once there. The Cowlitz has a wealth of streams feeding its main flow, most of which are lesser known class V adventures. We had paddled some of those other creeks and indeed had our share of adventure. Having been there before, but never paddling the Clear Fork, the supposed crown jewel of the area, and one of the best runs in the PNW, had us feeling a little more apt than usual to go for a well known and popular stretch. Not to say that we have anything against well known runs; the Little White probably stands as our collective favorite run, but for some reason, when in the Cowlitz, the call to explore had always overwhelmed our desire for a guaranteed quality run.
So there we were again, weighing our options and scouring over topo maps, when we noticed this rather large, steep, and easily accessible river. Clear Fork of the Cowlitz it was.
We made our way to the put-in mid-morning and were soon walking down a steep trail to the river.


We had heard that there was wood in the first, and possibly best, drop on the run and that we should veer right off the trial as to avoid the portage and put in below said drop. Odd as it may sound, we were all disappointed when we saw that the drop was quite clear of wood, but hiking back up to the top was not really an option.

Chris and Jeff still happy to be at the river.







After putting in, we quickly came to a fun little double drop.
Jeff going for the boof at the top.


Chris, same; and boofing the bottom drop.



The wood in the first drop must have made its way down and lodged in about ten more of the rapids. It did often aid in scouting, of itself.


Soon after this double drop, there was a sweet little gorge with a few slides into some meaty holes, then some portaging and some bouldery junk, then it's all kind of a blur of scouting, portaging wood, and running some fun rapids.

This slide was in there somewhere. Jeff, moving in.


Chris resurfacing after going deep.


This falls, affectionately known as 'Bitch Slap', about to dole it out to me.



Shortly after resurfacing.


"Deeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!"


The paddle out after the goods was relaxing and scenic, and the take-out was a welcome sight.
That night we drove straight to the Little White with little to no doubting and were again affirmed of the quality paddling in the great state of Washington. Maybe next time on the L Dub we'll stop a couple times and take pictures, but I wouldn't count on it.