Summer of Lars on the South Yuba

May 25, 2009
The 49 to Bridgeport run on the S. Yuba is a classic. We caught it with around 900 cfs, a dreamy level if you don't mind a few big holes. The river is characterized by big powerful drops usually in committing canyons.




Ryan at an early scout.

Ryan and I did this one after running the Edwards to Purdon's section with Sarah and Heidi. The "E2P" is a fantastic run in itself, right up there with Chamberlain Falls on the N. American. Anyways, we opted to do it over the more difficult Purdon's to 49 section due to high water, lack of a guide, limited daylight, and the fact there was only two of us. In the end, we were happy with our decision.




you get quite a few of these on the S. Yuba






There's also plenty of cool ledges




The S. Yuba is such a pretty river! All sections considered, (and I haven't done them all), it's one of my favorite rivers in California. And now there's the Yuba Gap run that's as hairy as they come. Yeah, there's something for everyone. I look forward to hitting that one next year.





Ryan coming into Cornerpocket



Towards the end of the run you come to a couple of serious rapids. The first isn't pictured, but it's a slide with a giant hole. The slide is not straightforward and it prevents you from gathering any speed whatsoever. I was happy to discover that the hole flushes quite nicely despite looking horrendous. Just watch out for dead opossums floating in the recirculating eddy at the bottom.



The second is called Cornerpocket. It consists of a deceivingly pushy entry into a horseshoe ledge that feeds into a nasty undercut cliff on river left.



The ledge that wants to feed you into the undercut wall that I'm standing on. There's about a 15 or 20 foot boil line that adds to the intimidation factor.




The "cornerpocket" is to Ryan's left in this picture



Where you don't wanna be


One more sweet ledge


We blitzed the run in a little over two hours, arriving in Bridgeport around 6:30 to meet the ladies who were happy to see us with so much daylight to spare.
You just gotta hit the S. Yuba.
Peace

Summer of Lars, Part III

Fordyce Creek

May 23, 2009

Fordyce hike-in
After Canyon Creek we had plans to run Fordyce Creek the next day. I'm not sure if I'd say Fordyce is an all out classic, but it's pretty damn close. I only say it's not a total classic because there is definitely some mank in there that alot of people don't like the looks of. With that said, while on the river I met up with an old timer who informed me that "everything on Fordyce is runnable", so there's that. I think what he meant was everything has been run and I believe him but there's one or two in there that are really manky.

The length of the hike-in on Fordyce depends on the condition of Fordyce Lake Rd. Traditionally, Fordyce releases in late summer when the road is free (or almost) of snow and you can drive directly to the dam with a 4WD. This year, Fordyce released a good flow the entire month of May which meant we were goin' in, snowed out road or not. We made it to within about four miles to the lake before the snowbanks began. Luckily, only the first mile is uphill and then you start descending down to the lake which makes for some fun kayak sledding.

Portage #1. It's overexposed and hard to see, but it's manky. Not to mention all the flow slams into the rocks I'm standing on.

Jordan at the top of a cool drop early on. The scenery up there is beautiful high sierra country. Lars was right when he wrote that it's a must-do for anyone with aspirations of paddling the harder high-sierra stuff.

You wanna boof this one for sure.

Speaking of boof..

Shortly downstream we came to this beauty of a boof. It reminded me of the flying squirrel move at the pencil sharpner just bigger and better. That's John-boy finding the sweet spot.

Steve in a cool walled-out rapid.

More scenery

There were some big boys in there that I don't have pics of mainly because of the need to set good safety. One rapid, I think it was rotatercuff, took Jordan for a lengthy underwater geology lesson. He was under for so long he actually pulled his skirt and began swimming before him or his boat resurfaced. Scary.

When things start to get really manky on Fordyce you know the lake is near. At this point, you can either shoulder you boat and take the trail to the lake, or just bomb down that shit. Whatever you do, don't bomb into a sieve cuz there's a couple of those.

Here's an entertaining little clip of East meets West falls on the S. fork of the Yuba. I don't recommend running it backwards, but that's exactly what I did.

Getting ready to throw up some S. Yuba 49 to Bridgeport pics and then it's on with Royal and West Cherry, I swear they're comin'.

Keep it downstream upright.

Summer of Lars, Continued

After the UMC trip we returned to Camp Lotus to spend a couple days on the S. Fork of the American before we shot up to the North Yuba area. There the plan was to run Pauley and Lavazolla creeks and then to hit the Goodyears Bar section on the N. Yuba with the ladies.

John running a ledge on Lavazolla, it think.

Well, guess I only have some pics of this drop on Lavazolla and nothing on Pauley, thought I had both. Anyways, both proved to be fun runs and a nice warm-up for Canyon and Fordyce creeks. But, first these pics.

Ted Cookson


John

Ryan Marquart

Steve

Canyon Creek (S. Yuba trib.)

May 21, 2009

The boys at the put-in

Ryan running the first good double drop that had a pothole on the bottom left. Our buddy Ted Cookson found out about that one after getting stuck in the hole.

Ted on the first drop. Right after I snapped this pic Ted spun out and ran the second drop backwards.

Overall, Canyon Creek was a good class 4 run with a few class 5's thrown in to spice it up. The releases are part of a flow study that AW helped negotiate. I'd estimate we had no more than 300cfs, which, felt pretty darn low in a lot of places. I'd definitely say 250 is the min. with 450 or 500 being really good.

One of the dicey rapids

finishing it up

Shortly before the confluence with the S. Yuba the creek gorges up and there's a serious of 4 or 5 drops. Each one is manageable in itself but the proximity of undercut rocks and the committing gorge make it very memorable.

Jordan on the second to last drop in the final gorge

check out the MJ

It's hard to tell when this one will have water. Check out the AW page and dreamflows to find out when they're releasing and then go get it cause it's fun one with easy logistics.

More Cali pics and video on the way along with in depth TR's of Royal Gorge and West Cherry Creek. Go kayaking fools.

peace

Lars Holbek Memorial Summer

Some West Cherry scenery

On May 8th we went to California for what became the Lars Holbek Memorial Summer. I never had the pleasure to meet Lars but through his writings and list of first descents I gather he was one of the greatest explorers our sport has ever seen. I won't say much more, simply because I didn't know him, but I really wish I had. Rest in peace, Lars, you'll be missed.

The Lars Holbek Memorial Summer began far away, on the east coast actually, at a place called the Linville River. It was May 7th, the day Ryan, Sarah, and I were scheduled to depart and the rain was falling. The morning saw me tying up loose ends quickly in the hope to boat in the afternoon. A quick chat with Billy confirmed it, Linville is going off and must be hit. Unfortunately, our afternoon departure became a late afternoon departure as we left the Ingles in Swannanoa at 3:30. We got this. Paul gets a call from Wilson who apparently serious doubts the feasibility of our plan, but who wouldn't? Once at Babel we hurriedly geared up and scurried down the trail. It felt good to be on the water and paddling but the time on my watch made my stomach turn, it was 5:30. Lucky for us there was good water and we had a great day with only one misshap when Paul opted for the plug line at Cathedral. We arrived at Conley with daylight to spare for the hike up and outta there. Everyone was stoked to not be stranded on Linville in the dark and I was really stoked knowing the next day I departed for Cali. And that we did.

Thursday, May 14th-Upper Middle Cosumnes River

notice the gorgeous granite canyon

Ryan at the put-in

This is a great spring run just southeast of Placerville. If you plan to hit it and don't have a guide, check out Darin's blog at http://www.jscreekin.blogspot.com/ for directions cause you'll probably need em. Once on the river you get some cool warm-up until you come to a portage, shown below.

There's one or two more portages in the first mile but then it really cleans up and the rapids become very high quality.

We were delighted to see this drop. Ryan about to air it out.



I love that feeling.

Jordan at the same drop.

...and from below

Skatepark comes shortly afterwards and is one of the funnest rapids around. Be sure to boof the top unless you wanna go real deep.

There's a ton more rapids, some of which are documented in the video below, check it out.

music by wu-tang

check back soon for Pauley, Lavazolla, S. Yuba, and Fordyce Creek pics
peace

My God, it's better than I remember

That is, the Green River. Today ended a ten day stretch of no kayaking that began way back on June 21st @ the West Cherry Creek takeout in the high-sierra of California. We got good visiting time in with family (love you guys) but would you believe it, by the end of our trek cross-country, we just couldn't wait to get some of that Green River lovin..

Jordan @, well you know

We all loaded up in Jordan's rig to do it blitzkrieg style. Here's how it went: I dropped the ladies and J-Fiz off at the upper Green river lot then meandered my way to the narrows putin, always minding the Henderson County fuzz who's numbers seem to multiply by the day. Once to the river, there was a small waiting period for the crew to show up, but once they did, the ladies were off up the trail and we jammed on downstream. We beat the ladies to the takeout despite going up for a second lap on . .

da monk.

So, what can I say besides it's great to be back in Asheville. Because as much as I loved the rivers in California there's something to be said for warm water, easy logistics, and some good-ol'-fashion southern hospitality. Besides, bare-chesting the Green on a July day is about as good as it gets.

Anyways, I'm new at this blogging shiz-nit but am going to try my best to keep up and post some cool stuff. For now, it's on to posting a recap of California, which will come in a few different parts. Now, I realize blogs normally don't go back through time, but that's exactly what I'm gonna do for a minute.

Check back tommorrow for the first Cali trip report post. In the meantime, I leave you with a short video of some goods on the Middle Tule River.