I was still reeling from my bout with food poisoning, so I took it easy with another mellow run down the Lower Wind. I ran The Flume twice again -- it's getting less fun as the water runs out. I made just one pass at Shipherd's Falls, but I nailed my lines, so I was happy with it.
Dingo Dave swam the whole way, as he embarked on his virgin riverboarding voyage on a run that was probably a bit low for such undertakings. He said he'll bring kneepads and an athletic cup next time. Since he didn't technically have an out-of-boat experience, he drank beer sweet and pure from the can it came in. The same could not be said for all of our crew...
Cory had a swim at High Bridge due to a broken paddle, followed by a swim at The Flume due to a 190cm breakdown paddle. :) Kourtni got rodeoed in the first drop of Shipherd's before punching and earning a booty beer. The hot springs on river left below Shipherd's Falls make a cozy setting for keeping the booty beer tradition alive -- watch as Cory and Kourtni keep their river karma positive:
To Kourtni's credit, she hiked back up and ran the drop cleanly to make good on it:
Arriving at BZ Corner at 8:05 a.m., I found that I was the only safety boater there, so I chatted with Nate, Heather, and Austin for a while until more folks arrived. Our celebrity safety coordinator Sam showed up at 8:35 or so, and we soon had a critical mass of safety boaters, so we made ready to head up. On the way up to the put-in, one of the many unsecured kayaks in the trailer of the shuttle rig blew out and onto the road, bouncing and skidding to a halt. Luckily, it was a rental, demo, or somesuch.
This marked the first time I didn't use a rope to put on the Truss (and my second time ever on the Truss), which was a good experience. Takes more effort per paddler, but is so much more time-efficient. My safety assignment was Big Brother, and I ended up serving as secondary cave roper for the day, behind the big cannon rope-launching machine known as Luke Spencer. Ryan Youngs and Turin were on river left at the top of the falls with me most of the day, along with a videographer for Fox Sports News. Luckily, Garreth had volunteered to be the dope-on-a-rope, so he got to hang out in the shivering mist at the base of the falls all day, and spare us the suffering.
About half the racers went into the cave at the base of the falls, surprisingly, including local favorite Todd Anderson, who showed clear frustration at his less-than-optimal line. Luckily, there were no swimmers out of the cave. In fact, we had only one swimmer all day -- Dr. Greg had the best line of the day on the drop itself, but got worked against the right wall soon after. After a couple of attempts at rolling on either side, he punched. It was then that we realized there was no one in a boat at the bottom of Big Brother, which we rapidly remedied. Fortunately, his gear was gathered at Double Drop, though we really should have had a better plan to begin with, Sam. After the race was done, we packed up and fired up the rest of the run, after helping folks ferry equipment back across the river. It takes balls of steel to kayak a $10,000 video camera across the river without a sprayskirt, I should think.
Luke fired up the center flake and styled it, airing out at an angle and lightly touching down on the downflow on the face of the manky left side of the falls. He pulled his bow up a bit at the last second and greased across the pile, marking the fastest line I saw all day, and plenty of reason for the other racers to be glad he was on safety and not stealing their thunder. For my part, I caught both the flake and the boof stroke, and aired it good into the pile, landing with 10-15 degrees of upward bow angle. It felt really solid, and I think it was an improvement over my first line down this drop last year. The rest of the run was great. Only Johnny Ott had the cajones to fire up BZ Falls on this day, and he had to fight the tractor beam on the left for a bit before it mercifully let him go.
After we took out at BZ, we enjoyed watching the boatercross competition. Gorge Games staff stopped people from walking down the the shore to spectate after some arbitrary number had already gone down, so it was none too crowded. I only wish that dog would not have licked the scab on my leg quite so much. Here's a brief clip of Tao winning one of his heats:
After the boatercross, as the awards ceremony was starting, I got propositioned for a quick run down the middle section (BZ to Husum), and happily accepted, as they needed another safety boater for the crew. The six (?) of us had an uneventful run, with just one brief and painless swim. Luckily, Miss Adams had been saying at last week's Carnage Run that she was fully qualified to drink booty beers, having solidified her combat roll. I was happy to hold her to it:
She did us proud. If you're wondering -- yes, the booty beer is one of my favorite traditions in kayaking.
I ended up camping out up at Trout Lake with a bunch of PDX Kayakers and new friends, shutting down the campfire with Drs. Dey and Boyok. It was a good day.
You can read Luke's Gorge Games reports here and here.
With a freshly-broken boat (courtesy of the North Fork Clackamas) and a California creeking trip coming up, I found myself in the market for a new boat. I'd always looked at the Riot Magnum 72 and wished there was a bigger version, so I jumped at the chance to demo the Magnum 80 on the East Fork Lewis River before my trip. The East Fork is a great place to test a boat, because there is a little bit of everything. Halfway through the run, I knew I'd found a keeper. I've owned a Magnum 80 for about 3 weeks now, and had the opportunity to thoroughly test it on Class V California creeks.
I was raised on a low-rocker planing-hull river-runner (the Bliss-Stick MAC-1), but as I boated more Class IV and V creeks, it became clear that I needed a proper creekboat. I couldn't stand the pure displacement hull boats I tried, but knew I needed some of their features. The Magnum 80 is my dream creeker -- Riot has managed to bring the best of both planing and displacement hull creekboats into one design.
The wide base means it sits high enough to glide over boogie water, pushy hydraulics, and holes. If you manage to get it down into the meat, the predictable resurfacing and stable side-surf will equip you to handle the situation. The bow design punches well for those times when you just have to charge through. The slight V-hull at the stern makes the rear edges less grabby and helps tracking, while the stubbed stern end works with the rocker to make the Magnum 80 release well when boofing. Boof landings are surprisingly soft, considering the performance of the hull. The stern grooves require a fair amount of boat tilt before they engage and carve, which plays well with how stable it is on edge. Once the grooves are engaged, the Magnum 80 can and will whip into eddies like an oversized playboat.
This boat likes to be driven -- the complacent paddler will find themselves blown around a bit, but the aggressive paddler will find the Magnum 80 very rewarding to paddle. The combination of easy turning and solid tracking to a line has to be experienced to be believed. What the Magnum 80 lacks in top speed and holding that speed, it makes up for in raw acceleration -- this boat leaps from the water when you really get after it, and has plenty of low-end speed to make critical ferry moves a piece of cake. This responsiveness comes in really handy during last-second corrections and other dynamic situations, as well.
Outfitting-wise, the new Riot "big boy" seat should be able to accommodate some of the biggest paddlers out there, and the cockpit is large enough for this 6'0" paddler to pull both knees out at once, even when seated quite forward in the boat. The height of the bow up near the cockpit makes for a comfortable seating position without getting in the way of paddle strokes. The high deck also makes the Magnum 80 pretty easy to roll. Riot's outfitting doesn't disappoint, with an adjustable-height backband and easy-to-shim hip pads, which is good -- paddlers on the lower end of the weight range for this boat will find themselves adding quite a bit of foam to the hips. One recommended addition to the outfitting would be some glued-in minicell foam to cushion knees in case of a piton. Expedition and exploratory boaters will appreciate the balance between sturdiness and running weight, as well as the roomy stern compartment.
Riot have definitely outdone themselves with this boat, and I'd recommend anyone in the market for a big creeker give it a try before deciding. It's that good. My name is Willie Illingworth, and I approve this message.
Hit the Farmlands at just below 4ft on the Husum gauge with Tony Bizone, Joe Stumpfel, and Allen Satcher. This was my first time down, but I can see why they say this is the perfect level for the Farmlands.
Sidewinder is the first big drop on this section:
After some generic Class III-IV rapids, paddlers come to Lava Falls:
Joe Stumpfel making Lava Falls pay (he was a hair right of where he wanted to be, forward to 0:48 for the action, I was too lazy to edit):
Tony Bizone killing it on Lava Falls (he was two hairs left of where he wanted to be):
Off Ramp is the last of the major drops on this section:
I boated well this day, with a flip and snap roll near the undercut on Sidewinder being the lowlight. The more I boat the Riot Magnum 80, the more I like it.
Luke Spencer, Chuck Taylor, Johnny Ott, and I had a blast exploring a steep, Class V, micro-creek in the Bend area over the holiday weekend. There are several gorgeous drops that made all the hiking and scouting worth it. For example:
After the run, asking around on BENDkayaker if this was a first descent yielded a response from James Fredericks to the contrary:
It's really cool you guys did the run! Unfortunately, you don't have the first descent. In June of 1995, my friends Kent Koeller, Chip Hogan, and I first ran the stretch from the upper footbridge (about two miles up from the parking lot) on down. All the falls except the big one were run. So, one of you guys ran the 35 footer? I personally waded out and it was waist-chest deep at the bottom!
I went back again that July with Jayson Bowerman and did the run again.
I do believe that the one who ran the 35 footer has the first on that falls. Thanks for the report, and stop in at Alder Creek in Bend-I work there Mon-Thurs.
Waist/chest-deep is enough to boof into, so I nabbed a first known descent of this chunky 35-footish waterfall (officially named Fall Creek Falls):
Chuck and I in silhouette
As the first person stupid enough to run this waterfall, I dub it Confusion Falls. Reason being, when I was standing atop the falls and preparing to fire it up, Luke (a.k.a. Mr. Magoo) thought I made the sign for "I'm calling it off" when I had actually made the sign for "inner calm". Luke called off the troops, and when I gave a long "I'm firing it up now" blast on my whistle, I took Chuck's "I'm over here, Willie" whistle blast as a "you're good to go". Lesson learned: don't oversign. I almost named it Placebo Falls, since the safety was purely imaginary.
me and my line on Confusion Falls
It's good that I greased my line, as none of my crew were there to provide safety or document my run. I landed in the foam pile a couple feet from the maul, 30 degrees from sideways, and 30 degrees off the horizontal. Immediately upon contact, I lifted my bow to make sure my scoop was shallow. I may have just grazed the bottom. I surfaced without flipping, noticed one of my paddle blades missing (landing in a low brace seemed prudent for this drop), and looked up to see a rather astonished-looking European tourist staring at me with his mouth hanging open. Looking to the other side of the pool, I saw a disbelieving Chuck Taylor sitting in his boat, waiting for me to hike down. I feel lucky that nothing bad happened when I took the quick way down, considering the major miscommunication.
As a bonus, I got to work on my C-1 skills on the Class II runout. It was interesting and fun, but I'll stick to two blades for now, I think.
I'm sure I'm going to be hearing "pictures or it didn't happen" about this one! I'm tempted to go back and fire it up again to get some photos for posterity. This run has enough quality that we'd like to go back and do some wood removal, so I'll probably get the chance. I doubt I'll take that chance, though. In hindsight, it only happened the first time due to a perfect storm of a great water year, a solid crew, and my own lack of experienced judgment. I'm aiming to be a little wiser in my second year of boating. :)
