Little North Fork Santiam: Opal Creek and Upper Opal Creek

With all the water coming from the top in the form of snowmelt, we had a nice combined run of the Upper and usual sections of Opal Creek.

Breitenbush River

Great day on the Breitenbush with sunny skies and twice the flow of my first time down.

McCloud River: 3 waterfalls

We scouted three waterfalls on the McCloud River, east of Mt. Shasta City. Only the lower falls were runnable, and it caused quite a spectacle for all the looky-loos and swimmers at this spot.

Lower Tuolumne: a classic run

Me firing up a rapid typical of the Lower T:



Clavey Falls is the worst of this run, and the only drop that required out-of-boat scouting from our team of two:

Hospital Rock: a taste of Cali carnage

Ah, my first Class V swim...full story to come, but check out the following media for a teaser:




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the Cali trip has begun!

Wednesday morning was a flurry of errands and excitement as we did last-minute errands and shopping before getting on the road. One of the last-minute shopping items was a new Riot Magnum 80 for me to paddle on this trip. Sweet! As I type this, it hasn't come off the roof rack, and still needs to be outfitted, but I am stoked to get it out. With luck, we'll get some Class III+ to IV+ in today, so I can test my road-outfitting ability and get more used to the boat before we fire up the gnarr.

We made it out of town before noon yesterday, and after a stopover in Medford for shopping and errands, we made Redding as night fell. Wandering up the Pit River drainage, past the population-30 town of Montgomery Creek, we found a nice campsite partway down into the canyon of Hatchet Creek. We stoked a tiny and crackle-free fire (no sap in the sticks we used) and enjoyed a couple of nice cold Sierra Nevada Summerfests under a full moon and clear skies. Air temperature was 50 degrees overnight, and we broke camp shortly after dawn to explore the area and find some breakfast soon thereafter.

After hiking around Hatchet Creek to try to find a fabled (and once-photographed) triple drop, our hunger got the best of us, and we rallied back to Redding on Hwy 299 (enduring a couple of 10 minute full-stops for construction) and broke south on I-5 for a breakfast joint. After figuring out we passed the Black Bear Diner in Redding, we kept rolling, aiming for Chico. Here I sit, at the breakfast place in Chico, well-fed and ready to find the paddle shop and get back on the road for more southernly climes. Weather here is 95 degrees and clear.

East Fork Lewis run, testing the Magnum 80

With a freshly-broken MAC-1 and a Cali creeking trip coming up, I find myself in the market for a new boat. I grabbed Next Adventure's demo of the Riot Magnum 80 and headed out to Oly's after work for a demo run from above Sunset Falls to his place.

I like this boat! It punches holes extremely well, and resurfaces predictably. While it doesn't hold speed well, it tracks to a line while also turning easily. I feel like the slight V-hull at the stern makes the rear-end more stable and the boat easier to boof. This will be my boat for the Cali Gnarr Creeking Roadtrip 2008. Big thanks to Luke and Deek at Next Adventure for working with me to get into it on such short notice.

On the way to Oly's I ran into the folks with the mongo conversion van and a bunch of Pyranha boats. I said high again, and continued up the road. As Brenda was shuttling Oly and I up to the put-in in her sweet Model A Ford, we ran into them again -- they were headed to Oly's to camp for the night. We doubled back, Oly gave them a quick tour and a bottle of wine, and we were back underway. After the run, I got to hang and chat with these two lovely North Cackalackans (pretty sure that's how you spell it). It was Leland Davis and Andria Baldovin, of River Gypsies. Leland wrote the flyfishing and paddling guidebooks for North Carolina, and Andria is behind the Yoga for Paddlers DVD, among others. Dang, they are nice people! Hoping to meet up with them again for some boating when they swing back through Washington after their British Columbia leg. It's very inspirational to see people making whitewater work well enough for them that they can be on the road for 6 months out of the year. Someday...

Canyon Creek Washington, in a Scud

Ryan Y. and I took Paul M. down Canyon Creek for his personal first descent. He ended up sideways and/or upside-down in a couple of the drops, but for a first run, I've got to say he styled it.

I demoed Luke's Bliss-Stick Scud, and found it to be great fun. It doesn't punch, track, or hold speed well, but it steers and boofs like a crazy mamma-jamma and I can bow stall it in flat water. It's the best 66-gallon playboat (er, creekboat?) I've ever paddled. ;) I'd like to own one someday for tight creeks and various dicking around.

We ran into some folks in a mongo conversion van with 7 boats on it, but didn't interact beyond a few polite helloes, at least on this day. (Ooh, the foreshadowing!) The weather was in the mid-70s and the level was about 6 inches below the unit -- perfect for a first time descent! I'm hoping this run will have enough water left in it when I get back from the upcoming Cali Gnarr Creeking Roadtrip 2008. More to come on that.

North Fork Clackamas

Luke S., Ryan Y., Allen S., and Paul M. fired up the North Fork Clackamas at low flows. Much of the run was bony and woody torture, but Stairway to Heaven was nice indeed. Here is a shoddy low-res video of Ryan firing it up. (I forgot to up the default video resolution when I got my insurance replacement handset.)

Carnage Run is always fun

Another classic Carnage Run from Fish Creek to Bob's Hole on the upper Clackamas River. The levels were too high for any of the standard play features to be in, so Tim and I took our time playing the whirlpools at Big Eddy for a while. Maybe someday, whirlpool play will be the next big thing, but I doubt it. Sure is fun, though. Someone brought leftover kegs from the previous weekend's WKCC safety clinic, so we chilled in style at the takeout for a while afterward.

Molalla River, Table Rock Fork confluence to Glen Avon Bridge

Luke, Paul, Ryan Y., and I (were there others?) fired up 13 miles of Molalla goodness. I was loving the 0-degree-offset AT2 as I rocksplatted and sternsquirted down this long-feeling run in the RAD 195. I'd have more details, but I'm writing this a week and a half after the fact.

inaugural Carnage Run was a blast

This year's inaugural Carnage Run saw about 20 boaters gathering for an after-work run from Fish Creek to Bob's Hole on the upper Clackamas River. Minor carnage and many a good time were had. The carpool from Next Adventure just made it all the sweeter.

It was a trip to not be one of the noobiest boaters on the run...a stark contrast from last year.

Das Frankenboot redux: an update

Ernie's warranty repair seems much stouter than the original, and has held up to some pretty brutalizing punishment (including Upper Trout Creek) so far, without showing any signs of lost integrity. A photo:

Falls Creek: I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay

Falls Creek is a tributary of the Wind River in Washington. What a hike, what a massive waterfall, what wood removal work, and what a sick slide! More to come...

(photo courtesy of Oregon Kayaking)