Little River Canyon Self-Supported Trip

Last week it actually rained in the South East when I was here and had time off. I was beginning to believe that I would never paddle any natural flow here again, but alas it happened.

I started off the rain event paddling with a group of friends on the North Fork of the French Broad and followed that up the next day with a nice padded out 9.5" run of the Green. I had forgotten just how much fun the Green is with a little extra water in it and couldn't help but smile the entire day.

After getting off the Narrows, Gareth and I started contemplating how to spend the next day. With some more rain on the horizon, we were apprehensive to leave Asheville, but inevitably decided to go with the sure thing and drive over to Alabama to hit up the Little River Canyon, which was guaranteed to have water for us.

We spent all evening making the 4.5 hour drive into Fort Payne, AL and set up camp at the put-in. Bottle of wine in hand, we sat out by the water and with our head lamps shining on the river, discussed the line down the first rapid of the run- a 35 foot, two tiered waterfall.

The next morning started off with a little frustration considering it took us about two hours to get Gareth's bulkhead in the stern of his boat, but eventually we got it in there and started to set our shuttle for the day. After stashing our boats and gear, we drove down to the take-out and started the 10 mile road bike ride back to the put-in.

Checking out the canyon from above

Taking a break from the biking to catch a view of the waterfall

Gareth riding up the road towards the put-in

Almost to the put-in... One last view of the drop....

After arriving back to the put-in, we switched gears, stored our biked and prepared to start the kayaking portion of our day. It was quite a commotion as all the tourists started to realize that we were actually about to run the 35 foot waterfall. After taking some pictures and signing a few autographs, I took one last look at the drop before hoping in my boat and going for it.

Video of me running the Little River Falls

Thats me in the middle of the first and second drop of the falls

Gareth's line at the Falls

We both had great lines at the falls and were fired up to get started on the rest of the run. It turned out to be a beautiful day with great weather and good lines.

Gareth in the S-turn rapid

Gareth boofing a random drop

Gareth in another rapid I don't know the name of (Humpty Dumpty maybe?)

The new dry suit in action

After a short, but steep hike out of the gorge, we stopped off at a sweet taco stand before hitting the road and heading back to Asheville.

Everglades National Park Sea Kayaking

A few weeks ago I decided to get out of the North Carolina winter and head South to where its warm. Unfortunately,I couldn't make it all the way down to Ecuador, so I had to settle for some beautiful days of sea kayaking in Everglades National Park.

The trip turned out better than I could have imagined. We spent the week paddling anywhere from five to fifteen miles a day and made sure to always squeeze in time for relaxing and fishing. The evenings were spent on the beach watching the sunset and drinking wine. Doesn't get much better than that....

Earthquakes and Dam Breaks in Costa Rica

I consider yesterday one of the luckier days of my life. Had any small part of the day gone different I might not be alive right now.

I arrived into Costa Rica on Monday and spent the past four days guiding a group of NOC guests down various sections of the Sarapique river. Yesterday we had talked about putting on the highest section on the river, the San Miguel section. This is (or now was) a really fun section of steep class 4 water in a fairly remote section of the Sarapique. After discussing it with my clients, some of us ended up deciding to put in a little lower at a farm just a couple miles above the La Virgen bridge to give them a little more of a warm up before possibly returning to the San Miguel section the next day.

Part I: The Earthquake

We had a great morning on the water and eventually got down to Superman rapid, where the rest of our group was waiting to put on. While part of the group stood on the side of the river and watched, my guests and I ran through the rapid. One of my guests swam at the bottom and while I was recovering the boat from the river left wall, I heard a large noise, like a train rumbling. Before I could even reflect on what the cause of the noise was, basketball sized boulders began falling in only feet from my boat. I paddled away from the wall as fast as I could while the guests on the bank scrambled up to higher ground. Thankfully I got away from the falling boulders before any of them hit me.

Part II: The Broken Dam

After the earthquake stopped we all took a second to reflect on the event. We were all thankful that no one was hurt and after having a few snacks at the van, decided to continue on with our plans to head down river. We all got into our boats and were doing some ferries back and forth across the river before deciding we should get a move on. Just as we began floating downstream some men came running down the riverbank yelling at us. I paddled over to one of the men who quickly told me that the dam was broken due to the earthquake and that we needed to get out of the water very quickly. As we carried our boats up the road away from the river we could hear the water roaring behind us and getting louder every step. There were police and emergency vehicles driving up and down the road announcing on the megaphone that everyone needed to get as far away from the river as possible. We eventually made it up the road a good ways from the river and felt relieved to have been waved off of the river just in time. We suspect that the wall of water arrived about 10 minutes after we got off.

Part III: A View of the Destruction

After an evening of watching the news and hearing from others about the destruction that took place upstream of where we took out, we decided to go check it out this morning. What we found was quite unbelievable. First we stopped at the bridge at La Virgen and found that the rapids that we paddled just yesterday morning were gone. If you are familiar with the Sarapique, you'd remember an island with a large tree in the middle of the river looking upstream from the La Virgen bridge- that is completely gone now and all that is left is silt and debris. That is pretty much the case as far as you can see looking upstream and downstream of the La Virgen bridge.

Next we drove up to check out the put in to the San Miguel section of the river- the section that we had considered paddling yesterday. The destruction there was even more difficult to believe. The bridge that once spanned the river at the put-in is completely gone. We had been told that when the wall of water from the dam arrived at the San Miguel section it was approximately 40 feet tall. This was confirmed today when I saw first-hand the high water mark 45 feet above river level at that section. I am sad to say that the San Miguel section of the Sarapique officially no longer exists and it will probably take many many years before it is in any kind of shape to be paddled.

I am extremely thankful that everything worked out as it did yesterday and that no one was seriously injured due to the dam breaking (though there have been at least 9 causalities as a result of the earthquake). Had my group put on the San Miguel section yesterday, or had we not been waved off the river when we were, there is simply no way we would have survived.

Below you will find some pictures I took of the river this morning. I also included one picture of the river taken a couple years ago to add some perspective.

Looking upstream from the La Virgen bridge

Looking downstream from the La Virgen bridge

This used to be the San Miguel bridge

Another view of where the San Miguel bridge used to be (check out the trees piled up at the road)

Looking upstream from where the San Miguel bridge used to be

Looking downstream of where the San Miguel bridge used to be

Another view of the put-in rapid on the San Miguel section of the Sarapique

A view of the put-in rapid of the San Miguel section taken in 2006

A crack in the road resulting from the earthquake in the town of San Miguel

Me straddling the crack

Also check out this news video that has some good river footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRKF_BqB1Qc&feature=related

I have another group of kayaking guests arriving in tomorrow and I can only imagine what the next week here in Costa Rica might bring. While I do not believe there is any way we will be able to paddle any section of the Sarapique, we're still planning to have a great week on the rest of Costa Rica's amazing rivers. We will be heading through the Sarapique area however and I will try to take some more pictures to give a better idea of how well the river is repairing itself. Until then, Pura Vida!

Project Dominican Republic

With the relentless drought pounding the once mighty southeast into a dry, arid, dismal, desert of despair in September my good friend Jon Clark and I got to escape for a while back to the Dominican to teach a first aid and swift water rescue course and to do a little kayaking as well. September is a great time to be on the Island due to the abundance of water thanks to the Hurricane season. Although the primary focus of the trip was to teach courses we managed to sneak away either early in the morning or late in the afternoon to get our fix on the river.













It can't be all work though, we built in a few extra days to explore some new runs to continue to work on Project DR. Although the runs we did were not first descents one of the sections of river we paddled may not have seen kayakers since Tao and Sam Drevo were there filming Twitch 2000. Thanks to the daily deluge of rain we had plenty of water for the run. The only down side to all this rain was some of the gorges were pretty remote and the constant threat of rain made for some uneasy moments on the river. Also running challenging water with just a team of two means you either get a picture or a rope, it's a tough decision.

The DR continues to deliver quality whitewater and great adventures. It's always a great time when paddling class V whitewater is the mellow part of your day, the shuttles and act of getting to the river are the things that keep you on the edge of your seat. We will be returning to the DR soon, I can't wait to see what we turn up next.

BC Mission 2008

A view from the road in British Columbia

Last weekend I decided it was time to get out of Oregon and head to the mountains of British Columbia to do a little kayaking. I started out the trip with Swain County local Joe Barkley who has been living in Truckee for the past couple months working hard and saving up money to embark on such an adventure. We started on the road together (but in separate cars) just south of Portland and began our journey north around 5pm on Thursday afternoon. Joe had just been hooked up with pounds of fresh salmon from the Oregon coast so we stopped at the Mount St. Helens visitors center later that evening and cooked up the salmon right there in the parking lot. It was one of the best meals I've had in a while.

At some point during the drive just south of the border, Joe had to deal with a few things and I decided to take off towards Squamish on my own to find us a place to sleep and get to bed. I arrived to my resting place sometime around 4am and was surprised that I had yet to hear from Joe. After calling him multiple times he finally called back to tell me that Canada would not let him in! Basically they told him that since he did not have proof of a job to go back to or proof of residency (he lives in his truck) that he would not be allowed to enter Canada, even with a valid US passport. Eventually we decided that we both needed to get some sleep and that he would try again in the morning.

I woke up that next day and could not get a hold of Joe, so I decided to head slightly further north to Whistler where I was told there was a camping spot that I might find some boaters. At this point I was still expecting that Joe would make it across the border and that we'd be kayaking together by the afternoon. That was not the case. They again told him no and that he would have to wait 24 hours before he was even allowed to try again. With no kayakers at the campground and Joe still stuck in Washington I ended up spending Friday in a coffee shop in Whistler getting some work done.

I camped that night at the Cheakamus takeout hopeful that some kayakers would show up at some point and let me tag along. Saturday morning just as I was giving up hope, a huge group of boaters showed up and invited me to join them on the river that day. The group consisted of BC local, Bryan Smith, a number of Seattle boaters and their friends in from Colorado and Maryland. We started off the day paddling the Upper Cheakamus, a short class 4-4+ big water style run located just outside of Whistler. It started out with a pretty sweet significant class 4+ drop. I'm not sure if I was more nervous about the drop or the 12 guys watching me run it- I felt the need to prove I was a solid paddler so that they'd let me continue to paddle with them. I ended up having a great line off the drop andclean lines the rest of the day.

A picture of the first drop on the Upper Cheakamus (Photo taken from Professor paddle website, Author: Heather)

After a successful run of the "Upper Cheak," the boys decided to head over to another local run, Callaghan's, and invited me along. Seeing as that was one of the creeks I was really wanting to paddle, I quickly agreed to join them and within 30 min. we were all back in our boats on Callaghan's. The run starts off hot with a 20 footer followed fairly quickly by the most perfect 25 foot waterfall I have ever seen.

We had a minor epic at the waterfall when one of the guys in the group (an out of towner who had never been on the run before) missed the last eddy above the drop and ended up plopping off the lip backwards on the wrong side. He eventually swam and with his kayak quickly floating downstream we all ran back to our boats to run the drop and help in the rescue. I had never run a waterfall that big before and was a little nervous paddling up to the lip especially since I was in being rushed to get downstream and didn't have much time to scout. I hit my line perfect and had one of the softer landings of my life. I couldn't stop smiling while racing downstream to help catch the abandoned boat.

Matt from Colorado below the first 20 footer

Looking upstream at the 20 footer from the lip of the 25 footer

Bryan Smith stomping the 25 footer

That's me running the waterfall- the picture is definitely not great but I wanted to give some proof that I actually did these things

The rest of the run was great and involved a number of sizeable drops. At the takeout loading boats the guys were all discussing their plans for the next day. While originally I was planning to go biking with some friends in Whistler on Sunday, I could not help but listen in on their talk about the likelihood that the infamous Tatlow Creek was running. I had been told by numerous friends that Tatlow was the best creek in BC and a must do if I had the opportunity. I was not sure if these guys would feel comfortable taking me along on such an expedition, especially with just having met me, but at some point Bryan looked over at me and told me I was welcome to join them if I'd like. There was no hesitation from me- I was in.

I spent that evening hanging out with the group and hearing stories about Tatlow. It was unclear just how many of the guys would decide to run it the following morning, but we were all in for making the journey to the takeout to find out if it was even running. That night I stayed with Bryan and his wife at their place in Squamish and after some conversation learned that I was in the company of "The Range Life," a group of kayakers made up of Bryan Smith, Todd Gillman and Shane Robinson, who are most known for pioneering a majority of the runs in BC. That definitely made me feel a little more comfortable about what I was about to embark on.

Sunday morning we all loaded up and made the drive up the Ashlu valley towards Tatlow Creek, a tributary to the Ashlu. Just getting to where you can check the level of the creek is pretty epic. You have to drive about an hour up a very rugged 4x4 road that requires a large truck (my outback wouldn't make it) to get to the takeout, as well as the gauging area. From what I've been told, Tatlow is pretty much either in or its out, and that decision is made based on how much water is flowing over a rock in the last rapid. The Tatlow veterans quickly made the call that it was in and everyone started getting pumped for the run.

After a quick walk/ride up a forest service road, we were at the start of the hike in. The final group that decided to paddle that day consisted of Bryan, Todd, Shane, Kelsey, Matt, Ned and I, with last three of us being newbies. The hike in was epic in its own right and involved hiking up an overgrown logging road before dropping down into the gorge by bushwhacking through the thick, bear infested forest. An hour later we all arrived at the put in psyched to be done with the hike and ready to get moving downstream.

**** Disclaimer: Throughout this run I had very little time to take any decent pictures of the drops, so take them for what they are then check out the links at the bottom of the post to read more and see lots of awesome pictures of the creek****

Gearing up to start the hike

Checking out the scenery partway through the hike right before dropping down into the forest

The view from the put-in

One of the biggest things I was told about Tatlow prior to deciding to run it was that it is extremely committing and left no room for questioning your abilities. The guys explained to me that there would be lots of unscoutable, unportagable drops that I would have to run and this definitely turned out to be the case. It was the first time that I experienced the sensation of getting out to look at a huge drop and realizing that the option to walk simply did not exist. That certainly simplifies the scouting process since it eliminates the need to figure out if you want to run a drop and instead you just have to see the line and go.

The first series of rapids involved three back to back drops in the 10 foot range that lead directly into a sweet money boof 20 footer. The second series of waterfalls involved a very vertical slide (referred to as "plugger") in the 25 foot range followed quickly by two 10 foot drops. I managed to plug the slide well, but found myself off line after the second drop and quickly plopping over the final ledge without much speed. Before I knew it I was side surfing the ledge completely locked in. I tried everything I knew to get out of the hole upright, but could not seem to make my boat budge. I finally realized that my last option was to flip over, reach for green water and hope that I'd come out. Three attempts at reaching for green water and about two minutes later, I finally managed to claw my way out of the hole. I was pretty psyched to have just battled my way out and in the amount of time it took me to catch my breath, I turned to see that someone else was surfing away in the same hole. He did not have the luck I did and ended up having to swim out.

Kelsey running "plugger"

A view upstream

A surreal view from the lip of "plugger"

Todd with the rope assisting in the rescue after the swim

After a couple more minor rapids and one major one, we ended up at the big portage. The portage was probably the most full on one I have ever been involved in and required carrying the boats on the edge of a cliff above an unrunnable rapid. It finished with lowering the boats and repelling down a slippery rock wall back to the water.

The rope and rock wall we repelled down (its steeper than it looks)

Immediately after completing the portage I was above the next unscoutable (at least not without some sketchy rock climbing moves), unportagable, huge drop. This one involved a 30 something foot slide that slams into a rock wall making a 90 degree turn. Its called "Wall drug" and is definitely appropriately named. I was one of the first people through the portage and ended up in position to be the first one to run this drop. It was the hugest rapid that I had run totally blind, but also one of the most fun rapids I've ever run. (Please check out the other sites for a better picture of this drop)

The bottom part of "wall drug" as it slams into the wall

After a 10 foot, "glory boof" below wall drug, it was time to eddy out and check out the rapid that is considered the crux move for the day. It seemed to be called different things, but "The Big One" was probably what I hear it referred to most often. "The Big One" involves a 10 foot drop with a nasty looking hole into a mini walled in gorge which ends with an unrunnable death drop on the left and a clean 40 foot slide on the right. My heart was beating out of my chest as I got out to scout the 10 footer. It is impossible to walk this rapid and nearly impossible to scout the slide. We were told there was an option to seal launch in next to the 10 footer to take that out of the equation, and while the two other newbies chose to take that route, I inevitably decided that I felt confident about drop and wanted to run the rapid from start to finish.

A view upstream from the scout of the 10 footer- the top drop in this picture is "wall drug" followed by the 10 foot "glory boof"

I watched a couple people go through before I walked back to my boat to line up for the drop. While I knew that that was by far the most committing, intimidating, and nerve racking rapid I had ever decided to run, as soon as I got into my boat, my focus turned to the must-make move I needed to hit and all the other thoughts were gone.

Matt scouting the 10 footer that leads into the 40 footer

This was the only view I had of the 40 foot slide before entering the rapid: notice the gorged up walls and the rock that splits the flow at the end- to the left is a death zone and to the right is the lip of the big slide

I ended up hitting one of the most important boofs of my boating career perfectly and after a quick breather in the slack water in the mini gorge, I lined up to take the big slide down the 40 footer. At the bottom of the slide I felt a quick pop to my face and realized that I managed to hit myself in the nose with my paddle. I did not have much time to deal with the blood streaming down my face because I quickly found myself up against the nasty wall at the bottom of the slide. I tried to ignore the pain while I aggressively worked to get off the wall without flipping. The scary part about the wall is that it leads into a huge strainer above a big highly recommended portage. Eventually I was able to work myself off the wall and take a second to stop the bleeding from my nose and admire the drop.

A photo of "The Big One" (again- please see other sites for a better picture of this drop)

After the big slide its time to do the "chuck and huck"portage, which involves chucking your boat over the edge of a cliff and then jumping in 20 feet down after it. There are a few more significant drops through the final section of the gorge before it opens up and dumps into the Ashlu.

The final 15 foot boof of the run

After taking out and reflecting on that run, I can definitely say it was the biggest most committing section of whitewater I have ever run, but at the same time one of the most memorable andexciting sections as well. I cannot wait to get back out there again.

Check out these sites for more (and better) photos of Tatlow Creek:

http://therangelife.blogspot.com/2007/08/more-tatlow.html
http://therangelife.blogspot.com/2005/08/sauce-bc-trip-part-3.html
http://mediocrekayaking.blogspot.com/2006/03/tatlow-creek-squamish-bc.html

That evening I decided to head back to the United States to meet back up with Joe and spend some quality time hanging out with him. We met up around Bellingham, WA and drove a few hours south before stopping to sleep for the night. We spent Monday morning trying to decide how to spend our day and after realizing that kayaking was not really an option, we chose to head to Seattle and check out the city. My friend Keta has been living in Seattle for the past year and gave us beta on a nice park to hang out and hike around in. We spent almost four hours simply hiking around with our dogs checking out the Washington forest and ocean.

Joe and Daisy hanging out at the beach

Kiwi and I hanging out in the park

After a great sushi lunch with Keta, I started my drive back to Corvallis so that I could be home in time to get a good nights sleep before another day of pebble counting.

I cannot wait to return to the clear waters of British Columbia and am already getting psyched for Team Swain BC Mission 2009!