Driving over the pass.
First camp on UCC.
Smoky sunset from camp.
The classic Upper Cherry Creek still reigns as one of the most popular runs in California and definitely the most trafficked high Sierra run. Offering spectacular scenery and equally impressive whitewater, UCC lives up to all the hype and media attention it has seen in the past and inevitably will far into the future. I'll spare all the beautiful pictures of UCC I'm sure you've seen many times before and instead showcase a few older photos of a run not as illustrious, but more fun, if you ask me.
Okay, actually a few UCC photos before anything else.
Jeff, a little center.
Jeff, uh oh.
It can happen anywhere to anybody. Always a humbling experience to see something like this happen, especially to a good paddler. All was well in the end, just a few shaken nerves and wide eyes.
Chris Gabrielli firin it up.
And soaking it in.
Packing up to go to the put-in of Fantasy Falls.
The beautiful reservoir paddle out. I can't imagine how epic this run would be without this reservoir. Or, for that matter how epic many of the high sierra runs would be without their respective reservoirs.
Running one of the early ones.
Lizzy probing the one that got us all.
Trying to avoid the pocket beatdown. And Failing.
Grants hand and I show the results of a good days paddling.
And reap the rewards with an amazing camp.
With incredible views.
And superb whitewater in the early morning.
And in the early morning of the last day, Evan fires off the runs namesake, Fantasy Falls.
Run two to start the morning off right.
There was something mighty frightn'in in that canyon.
And with that scared look in our eyes, we probably walked through manzanita tall and thick and granite open and hot to avoid what was within that gorge. We had a happy ending and moved on to more pressing missions from there.
