Jocassee Double Video

Here's a short video from yesterday's session on the Whitewater and Thompson rivers. Check out previous post for pics and short write up.

safety first,

D

Jocassee Double Header

I am totally stoked to have gotten to run the Whitewater and Thompson rivers today. None in our group (Baker, Drew, and I) had ever done either of the runs so we enjoyed an entire day of exploration. I was blown away by both the runs and I can't believe it took me this long to explore these rivers for myself. We had perfect flows, the whitewater was top-notch, and the scenery is a notch above the top. We hit the Whitewater first, putting on around 8:30 and with a level of 1 foot, which was really nice.

The "mini" gorge comes quick and it was stout in there. This picture is looking down towards the 3rd drop, which is actually hidden by the cliff. But as you can see, it's tight.


This is looking up at the landing of the first drop (big slide with boof on right). Once again, the drop is hidden.

This is the second drop, the meat if you will. It was really rompin' in there. We spent over an hour scouting the gorge before dropping in. Drew went first and slicked the entire series of rapids. He then came up and played safety/video guy for my run which went equally as smooth. We got a little video but it's so tight in there we could never get the whole gorge. That would take multiple camera angles.

The rest of the river was super-cool with a handful of huge powerful rapids like 55mph and ...merge lane?. The only thing we had (mandatory) to portage was the sieved out drop directly above the mini-gorge.

I enjoyed the hell out of the Thompson River. Instant classic in my eyes. Beautiful paddle and rapids with huge slides. And, you get to paddle into Lake Jocassee, which I've never done. Below is a sequence of Drew running a big slide. This one was sick. Complete with a sieve, shrap metal, and plenty of places to piton.

He's already dropped 20 feet

Catching some air in there. At this point, directly to Drew's left is some dicey shrap metal extending out from a log/rock sieve combo that could cut you, if not kill you.

He's right where you wanna be

nice!

This is the second half of a big slide rapid. The top portion is out of view but drops 30 feet into a mean hole. Then you get to run this down the right. Once again, I got some sweet footage but I'm having tech. difficulties getting it to save in edited format, so I'll post it later.

Check back for video,

D

More Toxaway

So I'm writing about the Toxaway again. I do paddle other rivers, but right now, I've just fallen in love with the Toxaway. Ryan bagged his first trip down a couple weeks ago and came away stoked. Here are some photos from my last couple trips down.

Ryan did the Toxaway! From the grin on his face, he liked the put-in slide. Sorry I didn't get you in action bro, I was dealing with the "piece" camera that day.

Nick in action on the put-in slide (non-piece camera)

Will Pruett engulfed in the first half of Wintergreen Falls

Second half of Wintergreen

Nick catching some air off the big exploder in Landbridge

Ryan finishing off Landbridge. It doesn't look as big from above.

Drew Duval sliding into Energizer

Warm up slide blue angel

Drew and Joe touch down

Check back soon for more Jocassee area goods.

Later,

D

Toxaway River, 9-23-2009

Went to the Toxaway River on Wednesday. We got an early start which ended up being a good thing because there we had to scout everything due to the potential for new wood.

Put in slide


Will getting some of that put-in slide

Series of Adam running put-in slide

This is the bottom of the first part of the put-in slide. It goes on for another 100 yards or so and drops another 50 feet.

Below the put-in slide we encountered some new wood in the little flatwater section, easy hop out and back in. The warmup drop that lands on a shelf on the right was clean, as were the slides below that make up the "Cali" section. However, it was rompin' in there. If you ever get to the "easy, warmup, Cali section", and every hole looks like it could eat you alive, you know you're in for an exciting day. I believe the gauge said 2 inches, but speculation has begun on whether or not the gauge has changed.

Everyone hopped out at minigizer to have a look and it was a good thing because shit had changed. Minigizer is now officially mini-landbridge as you can see from the pic. A big landslide from river right deposited a giant boulder and some trees right on top of the river. It was crazy to see such change, it will never be the same. But, there's good news, just like landbridge, it's feasible to seal launch in off the rock and finish off the slide.

Looking downstream from mini-landbridge. I'm sure I wasn't alone in wanting to seal launch off that rock, but in the end, everyone decided it wasn't worth having to deal with the horrendous hole/whirlpool pocket at the bottom. Not to mention the pungee stick, which is still very much in play.

Here's a series of me running energizer, the next big rapid. Thanks to Will for taking these shots.

still going

and going. Energizer is one of my faves out there, right there with Landbridge and Wintergreen.
Below Energizer Indian Creek comes in on the left. I was happy to see it wasn't kicking in a ton of brown water, but it still added some extra flow.

The first 40 of 40/40.

The second 40. I cannot believe this thing has been fired up, low water or not.

We found another landslide on river left below Landbridge. Landbridge is clean but the small rapid directly after had wood from the landslide. We opted to keep carrying around Landbridge, but with a little less water I think it wouldn't be too stressful to eddy out in time. From there, we got to run Wintergreen, which was off the chain as usual.

Overrall, the Toxaway is a bunch of work. Yes, it's not Disneyland, not even close. If you go in, go prepared and with the right mindset and you'll have a blast. Enjoy those monster drops.

Will got a bunch of video but I only got this one clip of him running Energizer, backwards!

Be safe,

D

Big East Fork Baby!

Today, September 22, 2009, is the day I experienced the Big East Fork of the Pigeon river for the first time and I freakin' loved that shit. We had what seemed to be optimal flow, 2.5 on the gauge, and what turned out to be a beautiful sunny day.


The scene pretty much all day on the East Fork.


Brad Kee at the crux of a significant rapid early on.

Final drop of same rapid

Billy Murphy's doing it, too.
You can't really see in the picture, but all the water on river right crashes into the undercut rock on which I'm standing creating a nasty sieve. It was very ugly, but everybody smoothed this one.

The "baby gorilla" drop towards the end of the good stuff.
This rapid is a name taker, most everyone in our group was forced to take an underwater geology lesson here.

After "baby gorilla", the big stuff's over, but I thoroughly enjoyed the continuous paddle out. What a run! And what a badass place to be with a good group of friends. We took our time with a big group and I still found myself back in Asheville by 4:30.
Check out the short East Fork video below.



Later,
D

Broken Bones suck!

I thought it not fair that my homeboy Jordan be with a broken back and sidelined, so figured I join him by being stupid and breaking my hand. Damn, I went from an "it's on" attitude directly onto the disabled list. One day I'll wisen up for good and these damn idiot relapses will cease to exist.

I guess for awhile this blog will become a place to rant about the world we live in and shit like that. Then again, I could go back and cover a few of the runs I skipped over from this summer in California. What I do post will probably end up being a mixed bag of whatever.

West Cherry Creek. Cherry Lake can be seen way in the background.

D

Rio Verde all day

We're into August now and that means it's officially Green River season. It's been running everyday (literaly) for the past few weeks at a respectable seven inches. Which, as Billy Murphy illustrates, is plenty of water to soar off the Monk.

Super-orbital

It's been downright crazy on the Green lately. Swims over Gorilla, lost shit, broken shit, even a broken back. The Green doesn't care if you're new to the run or a seasoned local, it'll just beat you down sometimes. Use your head out there, just not to break your fall.

Drew Duval rolled in hot at Sunshine

and sticks the line.

Here are a couple clips featuring the Birthday eddy.

It would've been nice to edit those clips together and add some other stuff too, but, the software i'm using sucks and pc's suck worse. Can't wait to get a mac.

have fun out there.

D

Summer of Lars Finale on West Cherry Creek

After finishing up the Royal Gorge we drove Ryan and Heidi into San Francisco and dropped them off at the airport. There, Sarah and I spent a day exploring San Francisco and even got to watch the St. Louis Cardinals (hometown) play the Giants in the evening.


It was a gloomy day in San Fran, but we loved it

We left San Fran and made our way south to see Sequoia/Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks. These places were a must hit on our vacation and it was really nice to take some time off kayaking and enjoy the spectacular scenery.


Sarah at the "Tunnel View" lookout in Yosemite.


There was still some boating to be done on the Merced river through the park. By far, this was the most scenic section of water I've ever paddled.

After visiting Yosemite for the second time, we began to make our way to the Cherry Creek area where we had plans to paddle/camp on West Cherry with Natalie and Chris Harjes. In between Royal and West Cherry we paddled South Silver, the Silver Fork, and Bald Rock Canyon, all of which are excellent runs and I may have tr's on those later. But for now, onto West Cherry.

West Cherry Creek
Thursday, June 18

The ladies hiking in to West Cherry

Here's the lowdown on our West Cherry adventure: We hiked in with the ladies, dropped boats off at put-in and proceeded to hike downstream a mile with the girls to camp. Dropped gear there, then we hiked back up to kayak down to camp that evening. Next morning, hike back up to get the first mile of goods again, then we ran down to the lake, hopped in the car and drove back to the put-in so we could hike back in with boats and make it to camp by dark. The next day we relaxed by the river all day and rested. The third full day we woke up, hiked the girls back out, hiked back in and did another one day West Cherry trip.

Chillin' at the put-in.
On our first lap the water was high, although, high is good in West Cherry. I guess it's important to note that we did the 3-mile hike that leaves out the Graceland slide and some other stuff, so I don't know, that stuff might get scary when it's high. West Cherry starts quick with three or four big rapids in the first mile.


These pics are from the first evening we were in there. Anthony was looking good...


until he flipped, lost his paddle, and had to swim out of the hole.

The next morning we hiked our boats back to the put-in to start a full lap.

The top drop of the rapid Anthony ate it at the day before




Chris finishing up the same rapid


This beautiful double drop is right downstream. You gotta boof the top due to shallow waters in the landing, but the boof is easy to lay out and a bunch of fun. There is the danger of being too far left and clipping the shelf halfway down.



Chris demonstrating the left line. It's hard to see, but he's in there.


Anthony on a fun kicker boof right downstream of the double drop




white-out at the bottom

Below the kicker boof comes some cool sliding rapids with big stompy holes. Make sure you grab an eddy above the gnarly pothole drop. It's seen some traffic before, but I think only at lower flows.


Sarah and I posing below the nasty pothole drop

Below the portage are some fun rapids



Me at the lip of the Charlie Beavers rapid. This one was my fave on West Cherry. It starts with a sliding entrance with a ton of folding creases that end in a big hole. Then it's on to the main part of the drop which is the double falls you see here. After the double drop you have another substantial drop that you gotta run on the right, then there's a couple small lead out drops. It's a hell of a drop.

It looks like I'm about to eat rock


working on it



there it is




And then the rapid keeps going.






Two wild and crazy guys on a portage near the confluence. I didn't think the portaging on West Cherry was all that bad. It has a bad rep for not being very classic and having too many portages and I can imagine that if you catch it with low to medium water this may be true. But with good water, West Cherry is well worth it.






Anthony running an awesome rapid on Main Cherry

Chris on the same. this one had the huge curling thing that Chris is in front of and then behind that it drops a few feet into a stomping hole.

Running Cherry Creek after the confluence with high water was a bunch of fun. There's a ton of cool rapids in there that get full on with high water. We portaged the last gorge due to high water and small group size (2 on the second lap) and Main Cherry was still the shit.

Chris, Natalie, Sarah, and I at the Cherry Lake boat ramp. Anthony, we missed you on that second lap. Somethings telling me I'll see you there next year. Well, that's it for West Cherry and the Cali trip. From here I'm gonna post local updates and maybe a couple flashback posts to the Cali stuff I skipped. For now, it's on to praying for rain in the southeast, lets go hurricane season.
Over and out.
D