High Water Green and a FullOn Weekend

I started the weekend with my friend Matt on the Lower Rocky Broad. When we got to the river, we ran into my friend Corey and his buddy and the four of us paddled together. The river was really fun, a first time for all of us except Corey who had run it once before.

The rapids we a little on the mankier side and there was a bit of banging around, but we all made it down the river safely. Corey took some pictures, but I haven't been able to get them from him, so I'll post them whenever they become available.

After the Rocky Broad, Matt wanted to head to Linville to see old friends, so he dropped me off at the put in for the Green where I met up with my friend Jonathon and his friend Clayton. We put on the river with about 30 minutes of daylight and found the level to be very high. Normally when we run the Green in the summer, the gauge reads around 5.5 inches or 7 inches in the winter. On Friday, the gauge read 18 inches, or 250%.

We bombed down to Gorilla, we all three of us portaged in the interest of time. Gorilla looked insane at that level and I really wish we had more time to scout and set safety so we could run it, we'll get it next time.

After Gorilla, the slides all went pretty quick and the Nutcracker-Groove Tube-Sunshine combo was awesome (also my first time running Sunshine!).

By the time we got to Col. Dick's, it was pitch black out and we had to run the rest of the river in the dark. Hammer Factor is really scary at 250%, especially in the dark. I wish we could have at least scouted that one...

We didn't take any photos on the Green because it was waaaay too dark, but I'm looking forward to getting in there again with good light and high water to showcase some of the 200% lines.

When we arrived at the takeout, I jogged down to Wilderness Cove campground where I rendezvoused with some other friends who gave us a shuttle ride. I stayed with those guys at Wilderness Cove that night and we did some bouldering over in Rumbling Bald on Saturday.

It was really fun to explore the east side of the park at Rumbling Bald and analyze all the different problems out there. Here's some pictures of me in the boys playing on the rocks:

My First Green River Race and Video

There's not really any experience quite like boofing over Gorilla with 1000 people watching. This was my first time racing the Narrows and it was one of the most action packed moments of my life. It was so much fun to get out there and race alongside all of the biggest names in kayaking.

Racers meeting - Photo by Jakob Kafer

Preparing for the race was really difficult. I wasn't very confident about my lines and I didn't have very much experience with running some of the rapids without stopping to set up or catch my breath.

I think the best part of the race was getting over the mental hump of running Gorilla. I ran the drop for the first time in August and had a terrifying experience when I flipped in the notch and barely got it back upright before going off the launch pad.

While training for the race, I mentally forced myself to get over it and build my confidence with my line. Before race week, I had only run it four times. During race week, I ran it another 9 times (4 of which were the day before the race). It wasn't until the day before the race that I felt confident about charging into that thing direct after sprinting the top half of the race course.

Deep Concentration just above The Notch - Photo by Matt Porter

When race day finally came around, I watched all the best kayakers in the world take off and spring through the first few rapids. When my time came, I just tried to tell myself to focus and concentrate.

When I heard the announcer say 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - GO! my adrenaline pumped and I pulled as hard as I could all the way to the finish line. I fumbled around in Frankenstein and ran some unconventional lines through Go Left and Die and Zwick's Backender, but everthing else went pretty smoothly.

A few people hiked in to watch - Photo by Jakob Kafer

When I got to Gorilla I dropped in with 1000 people standing on the shore cheering me on and it made me feel really good. I caught the notch eddy (by accident) and peeled out for a good line through the flume. A second later I was dropping into the next set of slides and a few seconds after that I hit the finish line.

Ahh yes, the monkey - Photo by Matt Porter

After the race I hiked back up and found my friends that had hiked and paddled in to watch the race. It really meant a lot to me that all my best friends were able to be in the gorge with me that day.

I ran Gorilla a couple more times after the race and did my first ever "notch gun" (run the notch, eddy out, shotgun a beer, run gorilla) and that got me really stoked. On my third run of Gorilla, I went for a long ride in the hole at Scream Machine but somehow after a minute or so I was able to rally out of that thing.

I paddled out mostly by myself and met up with Matt and Bo towards the end of the river. When we arrived at the takeout I felt as if I had just conquered the world. It was a really good feeling and now I can't stop thinking about doing it again next year!

Check out this video Matt made during the week leading up to the race:

Green Race 2009 from Matt Porter on Vimeo.

Officer Bonads - nice stache

The Squirl

The People that taught me to paddle

?

I guess it's starting to become a popular event?

Southern Fried Overflow

It was Thursday night. Matt and I were sitting at my house watching Golden Eye and we were about to head to the bar downtown. Before we left, I checked the rainfall data and noticed a huge spike in water levels. We didn’t go downtown. We started planning and organizing. At 2:30am, we left Columbia with the greatest of intentions and pointed west towards Brevard NC.

We arrived at Headwaters Outfitters at 6:00am and slept for about two hours in the car. We woke up at 8:30 and drove up the valley to the West Fork of the French Broad.

The West Fork was a lot of fun. There's 3 sizeable slides and a couple other easier rapids. It was our first time and we didn't have a guide, so it was pretty fun to do the ol read and run. We took some video, and I might upload it on here later if Matt ever gets around to editing it.

We arrived at the takeout around 11am and rallied down to Georgia to run Overflow Creek. This is one of the most classic creeks in the SouthEast. I like to compare it to the Green River Narrows, on crack. The foliage was amazing and had us all completely jaded from time to time.

Luckily we had a decent guide who had run it a couple times, but his descriptions of the lines were sparse at best. We made it down in one piece, and I'm so glad we were finally able to get on this Southern Fried Classic.

Dropping into Singley's Falls

Matt, running Hemlock Falls (I think) - this was a sketchy drop with several sideways and backwards descents. Luckily we got through it safely.

Matt and I at the Put-In

Some sweet little mini gorge that I dropped into blind. Such great scenery.

Overflow was run for the first time by a guy named Alan Singley, and he did it by himself. I think that man deserves a beer for that undertaking. Oh yeah, he did it about 30 years ago, before the invention of the modern creek boat. Thank you Mr. Singley.

It's been raining quite a bit here in the SouthEast. With the Green River Narrows Race quickly approaching, it's difficult to stay focused on dialing those lines in. I'm finally feeling more confident about my line over Gorilla and I'm getting really excited to go out and race this coming Saturday. Meet me at the Monkey!

(all photos by Rob Siegel)

the best place to enjoy the fall foliage is from the lip of a big waterfall

After the skunking of a lifetime on the Green, Jonathon and I drove over to DuPont State Park in Brevard to run Triple Falls. There were quite a few leave-gawkers watching us, but I think we put on a good show. The leaves looked really good and jah was praised.

where's waldo?

jonathon, givin'er

Happy Fall.

Rain? What? - Cullasaja/NFFB/Horsepasture Redemption

After one of the largest rain events I've ever witnessed in the southeast, Matt and I hit the road to run some fun drops in Western North Carolina. We got to run the Upper Cullasaja and the North Fork of the French Broad last Friday, and then we had a spectacular day on the Horsepasture on Sunday.

The Upper Cullasaja was cool, but I don't think I'll ever run it again. The first drop (Triple Drop) was awesome, but could very easily work as a park-n-huck. The rest of the run is kinda junky, and punctuated by one giant portage about 1/4 mile through, and then the run ends with some flat water.

The NFFB was fun. I haven't run it since last spring, so it was nice to get back out there. I ran the left line at Boxcar Falls (Blind Date) and it went a lot better than I was expecting. I think they call it Blind Date because you just sorta melt into it and you don't really know what to expect.

Finally on Sunday we went back to the Horsepasture River for a redemption run. Last spring, Matt, Jonathon, and I went there and didn't have the smoothest of days. This time the three of us went back and it was much better. Matt did however end up pinning in a sieve in the first rapid and destroying his boat, but Jonathon and I had a smooth day after Matt hiked out.

There's something about the Horsepasture: Every time I go there, it's incredibly painful between all the hiking, portaging, and scouting, and I always beat the hell out of my body, but whenever I leave all I want to do is go back. The next time I go back in there, I'll take more photo/video, but until then check out this video that Matt made from last weekend:

Horsepasture/Culli/NFFB from Matt Porter on Vimeo.

East Bound To Cola Town and my first experience with Gorilla

After an excruciating 30 hour drive from Buena Vista to Asheville, I met with my good friends Matt and Jonathon for a little AVL husk sesh. We left Jon's house near UNCA around 1am and hucked the middle drop at Triple Falls in DuPont State Park. Running waterfalls in the middle of the night is quite a bit of fun, even if it's not really flowing. The next morning we woke up and did a hike up double on the Green and then I pointed east towards Charlotte. I was very tired when I got home.

Over the next few days, I relaxed at my parents house in Charlotte, and then eventually moved into my new house in Columbia SC for my senior year at USC.

We had a few days before classes started, so me and Matt started bringing my new roommate Bo to the Green for his first runs. Bo did really well out there and was very smart about what to run and what not to run. I'm really happy he's out there with us now.

Above, Bo giviner with the straps and below, givener on Frankenstein

On a related note, I ran Gorilla on the Green for my first time. This is a drop that I've fantasized about ever since I started kayaking, so it was a big day for me.

Gorilla is a three part rapid. The first part is an eight foot drop called Pencil Sharpener. After that, you eddy out and run what's called "The Notch," a four foot drop where the entire river constricts through a slot that's about 3 feet wide. This is where the scare factor comes in - after The Notch, there's about 3 seconds before you go over what they call "The Flume" which is what is generally seen when looking at a photo or video of Gorilla.

the author in utter awe

I ended up flipping in The Notch and I had a pretty terrifying several seconds. When I flipped I knew I had one shot to hit my roll. Luckily I was able to focus and get it upright just as I went over the launch pad. I was pretty far offline to the right, but I was able to keep it upright and safe through the flume. Not a day goes by that I don't think about running that drop. Now I'm super stoked for the Green Race and the rest of the dam release boating season.

rollin into scream machine


(all photos by matt porter)

GOAAAAAAR Canyon: Some Photos From My Last Day of Paddling In Colorado

The day before I left Colorado, I took a day off work to run Gore Canyon with my friend Gordon from CKS and Ashely from MRP. When we arrived at the put-in we were greeted with a nice four mile flat water paddle in to the canyon. I couldn't even tell which direction the river was flowing. It's a good thing both of those guys had been there before because I probably would have started paddling upstream in the wrong direction.

It was a great day out on the water and I'm really glad I was able to snag one more Colorado classic before heading east.

(me in the meat, photo by ashley watts)

(Gordon)

(Ashley)

Verbal Beta in The Crystal Gorge

It seems that the summer boating season has finally ended. All the snow in Colorado has melted and the rivers are running dry. This is a great time of year to wind down and take advantage of the late season favorites.

I went to the Crystal Gorge with my good friend Eric Parker just a couple days after our Clark's Fork Mission. Neither of us had ever run the Crystal Gorge before, so we made sure to get lots of verbal beta.

We met in Marble and started driving the horrendous shuttle ride up the mountain to get to the put in. I was actually impressed with how mellow the shuttle was compared to the runs in the upper drainage (like the North Fork and South Fork of the Crystal).

We finally put on and started scouting our way down the upper part of the creek. It was LOW LOW LOW. We had to scrape over a lot of rocks and such, but we figured it wasn't necessarily such a bad thing considering neither of us had ever been there and our lack of a guide.

We eventually worked our way down to the big daddy rapid of the upper section, Corkscrew/Pinetree Falls. I think I ran it first after an extensive scout and I climbed back up the bank afterward to watch Eric run it.

There is some kind of sketchy broken dam or something right next to this drop on river right, so I was standing on that thing trying to set safety. Eric ended up getting pummeled against a rock in a swirly eddy in Corkscrew but he was able to get it upright and hold it together to style his line through Pinetree. Here's the shots that Eric took of me in Pinetree, unfortunately I didn't get any of him because he ran off with the camera before I could get it from him.




After the beating in Corkscrew, Eric wasn't feeling good about running the Inner Gorge, so after a lot of scouting I decided to drop in solo, while Eric ran ground support from 200 feet above me on the gorge rim.

The entrance to the Inner is a 40 foot waterfall called Zhute Chute. There have been several broken backs here, so it's not to be taken lightly. Luckily I didn't land too flat.

(camera mode accidentally got switched, so the photo is a little blurry)

After Zute Chute, you're incredibly committed to running about 7 more drops deep within the inner gorge. It's pretty intimidating being down in there alone. It made me feel a little better that my ground support crew (Eric) was a very experienced climber, so he could rap in pretty quick if I needed anything. Eric took a couple more pictures of the inner, but the camera setting was still messed up, so they didn't come out very well. I'll put them on here any way.



This was one of my favorite runs in the state (I would say it's tied with Pandora's Box for #1) and I'm so glad I was able to run it just before heading back east. I can't wait to get back out there next summer and run the Crystal Gorge again!

Aspen Trees in Independence Pass, just outside of Aspen CO

Clark's Fork Box

The Box Canyon on the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River is an experience of a lifetime. The whitewater is big, the portages are long, and the gorge walls are massive. So massive that The Box is the 3rd deepest canyon in the United States (just behind the Grand Canyon and Hell's Canyon). It's committing to say the least.

The run is about 25 miles long and takes 2 days to complete (if all goes well). It's also in the middle of Nowhere, Wyoming, so it take a whole day to drive there and find it and do the shuttle.

The run starts out with a 3 mile Class IV/V warm-up called The Honeymoon Section, but then the walls gorge up and the honeymoon is over. Once in the box, you're greeted with the mile-long Green Monster Portage. It's a mile of bushwacking around in the woods, but it isn't nearly as difficult as the other 5-6 portages downstream.

After the Green Monster, there's about 4 miles of moving flatwater, but it's one of the most scenic flatwater floats I've ever done. Northern Wyoming is a spectacular place.

(lunch after the flatwater)

(here's what Tom thinks of flatwater)

After the flatwater, we ran some drops, did some portaging, and did some boat recoveries after a few swims. The best rapid of the day was Balls to the Wall, it was also probably one of the more difficult rapids on the run.

(Tom, opting for the rightside line in Balls)

(Sticking my line in Balls)

After an epic swim and an ensuing epic recovery, we made it to camp. The thing that's cool about this run is that you're able to hike out to the canyon rim and car camp between days on the water. The only catch is you haave to make it to the hike out gully before dark, or you're spending the night at river level. We luckily made it on time, with all 4 boaters, but only 3 boats. One of the group members (the only one of us who had ever been in there before) lost his boat after swimming at Balls to the Wall and we weren't able to find it.

So we were able to car camp after day one and hike back down and run the rest of the box on day two. The only difference on day two was that our crew of four became a crew of three and none of us knew the river at all, so we had to go in there 1st D style and scout everything.

Day two has much more difficult whitewater than day one, including 2 mandatory (and kinda hard to scout) Class V drops. Day two has some pretty burly portages as well.





All the above photos are from a rapid called Deliberation Corner. It's one of the mandatory drops that you absolutely can not portage. It's intimidating, especially since you can't really set safety for it either.

My favorite drop was called Leap of Faith, a blind/mandatory 20 footer near the end of the crux of the box.

After lunch on day two, we had 2 big portages and I was realllllly dehydrated. Halfway through the 2nd portage, my body shut down and I had to load up with sugar quickly and rehydrate because there was still 7 miles to go before the take out and it was getting late. Luckily the crew I was with was able to help me out and they were able to help me refuel before paddling out.

(Dave's Chasm - kinda reminds me of Pandora's Box on the Animas)

Finally, we reached the takeout and drank the appropriate post-paddling beverages. The scenery in this canyon is second to none. If you ever have a chance to get in there, jump on it.

It's not to be taken lightly, our guide swam twice and lost his boat and paddle on the second swim. This resulted in some sketchy exit procedures that I wouldn't ever want to repeat. Luckily, another crew found his boat a day later and he was able to hike in and get it out. Talk about good luck.