Call it Progressionalism

High Water Green and a FullOn Weekend

2009-11-15T23:26:00.004-05:00

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

2009-11-11T17:24:00.011-05:00

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

2009-11-03T22:35:00.011-05:00

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

2009-10-19T13:17:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-05T23:18:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-23T16:12:00.008-04:00

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

2009-09-16T01:05:00.008-04:00

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

2009-09-16T00:06:00.008-04:00

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

2009-08-02T23:56:00.008-04:00

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.

Essential Colorado Class V: The Big South Fork of the Poudre

2009-07-19T01:00:00.007-04:00

I've had my eye on the Big South for some time now and everyone has been telling me that it's the one "must do" run in the state. So I finally gave in to curiosity and headed to the front range last weekend to check this river out.

We started the trip by driving from Buena Vista to Boulder to check out the scene there. It's been a while since I've partied in a college town. Being in downtown Boulder made me miss Columbia SC quite a bit, but I'll be heading back there soon so I'm not to concerned about it.

We woke up late Saturday morning and headed up to the Poudre Canyon. At the time, it was just me and my friend Tango, so we ran the Middle Gnarrows and Lower Gnarrows while we waited for the rest of the crew to show up. The Upper Gnarrows looked good to go, but pretty burly (hiiiiiiigh water on the Poudre) so we opted not to run it because we weren't able to set effective safety. Anyway, the middle and lowers were good and the rest of the crew pulled up right as we reached the takeout.

big holes...

After the Gnarrows mission, we drove further up the canyon and a few of us ran Joe Wright Creek. It was a little low, but Carnito Canyon was awesome. It rained pretty much the whole time we were on Joe Wright, so no pictures...

After Joe Wright, we continued down to the confluence with the Big South and we ran the Spencer Heights section of the Poudre. I really like Spencer Heights. It gives you that "big water creekin" feel, its easy to read and run, and it's still Class V. It was still raining on Spencer Heights, so no pictures from there either.

So after a crazy night in Boulder and 300 miles of driving, we were able to paddle 4 different sections of whitewater before heading to camp that night. While we were driving around looking for the rest of the crew, we saw a few giant mooses hanging out and it really made me feel like we were in the backcountry.

Sunday morning we woke up early and started running shuttle for the Big South. By the time we organized at the put-in, we accumulated a crew of 11 people. None of us really knew the run that much, but one or two of the guys had done it once before, so we were able to figure most of it out.

the whole crew at lunch

The Big South is the only federally designated Wild and Scenic River in the state of Colorado. It makes me wish that there were more federally designated rivers, but this one really gave me that 13 mile full day wilderness experience.

fantasy flight, one of my favorite drops on the run

backender in Meltdown, one of the tougher drops

Cool World, the most difficult rapid on the river. Hint - you don't want to be as deep as that guy above

my line through Cool World. It was a little scary when I rolled right above this part

The rapids were a lot of fun. We ran everything except Double Trouble. It's hard to believe that out of a crew of 11 Class V boaters, no one wanted to pony up for that thing. When I looked at it, I got that feeling I get every time I look at Gorilla on the Green: I want it sooooo bad, but it just doesn't feel right, so I tuck my tail between my legs and walk it. I think I'll definitely run DT next time I'm on the Big South, and hopefully I'll be able to fire up the monkey in a couple weeks when I'm back in the southeast.

After Work Gnar: Lake Creek and the Secret Spot Huckfest

2009-07-18T20:00:00.008-04:00

Now that Lake Creek is at a manageable level, it's my new after work Class V fix. I was able to get up there a couple times last week and we had a blast. I'm really looking forward to running the bottom four drops (brains, paralyzer, kiss the wall, and cauldron) at higher flows. Here's some pictures:

Gordon, dropping into the cave drop

some boogie above the cave drop

me, lining up for the boof on paralyzer

Gordon (above) and Fil (below) hucking their Brains out

Somewhere in an undisclosed location in the Ark Valley there's a perfect 12 footer which is about as good as it gets in terms of clean drops. We've been hitting this thing after work as a mellow cool down to a long day. Just don't ask where it is.

Fil, Plugging hard

me and sky, tandem boof

me, setting up for a simple bare hand boof

me and fil, flying solo

This little drop has handed out a couple beatdowns and broken boats. Just try to keep your bow up mate.

inspecting the damage after a poorly attempted wavewheel

10 Things I Learned in Pandora's Box

2009-07-15T18:20:00.005-04:00

I recently had one of the best river experiences of my life. Pandora's Box (formally known as Baker's Box) on the Animas River is by far the most beautiful river gorge I've ever been in (including the Grand Canyon). The river has a high volume character with gorge walls that come straight out of the water and shoot 400 feet to the top of the canyon. This run is committing to say the least. Big water Class V rapids with thrash the uninformed boater. Access is illegal. The lines are tight. And here's the kicker: You can't scout or portage any of it.

(the put-in. that rapid on the left drops about 20 feet.)

Here's what the guide book (Whitewater of the Southern Rockies) says:

"...The whitewater is pushy and the walls overhang the eddies for the first four major drops - including the unportagable, unscoutable Swollen Member. Actually the entire first 1/2 mile or so if of this nature - but Swollen Member is the largest of the bunch and can be downright terrifying. Even your guide will be scared. Swims here have resulted in expert paddlers literally swimming down the ensuing rapids until they could escape the walls towards the end of the run...

...Despite the poop floating around in your boat, and as long as you're still in your boat, this is one of the most enchanting and intimate river stretches that I have ever experienced..."

So on my 2 runs through the box, I learned a few things.

1. You don't hike in - you jog. Hiking is an afternoon activity that involves water breaks and granola bars, not trotting up and over rocky mountains for miles to get to an illegally accessed river. When "hiking in" to Pandora's box, you aren't allowed to stop and switch your boat over to your other shoulder, if you do - you will be left.

2. You don't scout any of the rapids. All of the rapids must be run solely on verbal beta. If you don't like running Class V+ blind, stay on the Upper Animas.

3. You DO NOT swim. If you are getting the beatdown of a lifetime (I did), you stay in your boat and stick it out. Coming out of your boat requires that you swim through the remainder of the rapids until canyon walls recede near the takeout. Luckily, after my 4th or 5th recirc, I was able to rally out of the boxed-in hole that handed my ass to me. Others weren't so lucky.

4. You don't go in there with anything less than a super solid crew of local boaters that know the hike and the lines like the back of their hands. If you try to do it without a guide, you will likely get caught on the hike or take a bad line (remember, you're not scouting in there) into a sieve.

5. Just because you had clean lines on Vallecito (a nearby Class V+ creek) doesn't mean you'll be ok in Pandora's Box.

6. Unless you run everyday, you won't be fast enough to keep up with your guide on the hike in.

7. There's no talking allowed until you're in your boat at the put in.

8. If you don't like sketchy 200ft rappells (without your climbing harness), you won't make it to the put in.

9. You aren't allowed to take pictures of the rapids, the locals don't allow it.

10. You DO NOT swim. Period.

I hope whoever reads this will someday get to experience this gorge the way I did last week. Pandora's box is by far my favorite section of river I've ever paddled and I'll never forget my voyage through there.

(the scene above the rappel at the put-in, don't slip - it's a long way down)

4th of July in the Tiny Valley: The Vallecito

2009-07-13T19:38:00.007-04:00

I spent my 4th of July in Durango paddling the Vallecito. This is by far one of my favorite rivers I've ever paddled and this little creek brings a new meaning to the words "gorged out." We were able to run it once on Saturday and then two more times on Sunday.

The river started with a sketchy 18 foot waterfall, where if you botch the line you go into a cave where you have to take your PFD and helmet off to free climb through a small crack to get out. We ran this rapid blind, so no photos.

After Entrance Falls (the blind 18 footer) comes Trashcan, one of the nastier looking drops in the gorge. I really wouldn't want to swim through this thing. Bad things happen to people that swim through this thing, so try to keep it upright.

Another great rapid on the creek is called "Fuzzy Little Bunny" which is a difficult 15 foot boof into a highly aerated slot with several curtains of water pouring in from different directions. I imagine it's kinda what it's like running Gorilla on the Green River Narrows

Our guide, Eric, launching off the Bunny

Chris Menges, Plug and Pray

One of the last rapids is the toughest, it's called "Paddle Bitch" and if you screw it up, you get surfed in a hole that slams you into a rock that's shaped like a giant penis... Here's my line:
I ended up "getting dicked" at the end of the rapid, but I was able to surf out with some minor shoulder rape.

Overall this is one of the best rivers I've ever paddled. It is truely a unique experience being down in the gorge with the walls coming out of the river on both sides and going straight up for hundreds of feet. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.
After paddling the Vallecito, I was fortunate enough to experience the hospitality of Eric Parker and his wife Lisa in Durango. They hosted Chris and I for a few days and put on one helluva barbaque, complete with a late night float down the Animas through downtown Durango to watch the fireworks. Thanks a lot guys, you made this one of the best paddling trips I've ever taken.

The South Fork of the Crystal and the Devil's Punchbowls

2009-07-10T19:45:00.005-04:00

(Schofield Backcountry)

I recently took a day off work to run some drops near Crested Butte on the South Fork of the Crystal. I always thought that the only runnable drops on the SF Crystal were the Devil's Punchbowls, but we drove up Schofield Pass from the Crested Butte side and found some great runnable vert in the upper part of the drainage.

At the top of the pass, we were greeted by a clean 12 foot drop into a short pool that moved into a manky lead-in to an 18 foot drop. These were a lot of fun to run, so much that I walked up and did it twice. That's me in the photo above, and my friend Chris Menges below.

After these fun drops, we continued down the SF Crystal to the Devil's Punchbowls. The photo below shows my friend Ethan Passant scouting the landing after the first drop.

The level seemed really high and the lag time between the 2 drops was only a couple seconds, so if you messed up the top drop, there wasn't much time to set up for the second drop. Normally this wouldn't be too much of an issue, but the first drop has a very tricky entry, and if you run the second drop on the wrong side, you drop about 25 feet onto a rock. This whole situation really only appealed to one of the guys in our group, Eric Parker. He was the only one of the four of us to run it, and his line was a little less than pretty...

Eric ended up running the top 30 footer backwards, which resulted in a hard landing and a sketchy recovery. Luckily he was able to pull it together and style the second drop. Big Props to Eric for "sackin' up" and running that thing.

Clear Creek Season Wrap Up in the Arkansas Valley

2009-07-02T23:11:00.005-04:00

This year I fell in love with Clear Creek, a tributary of the Arkansas River. It's about 20 minutes from my house and it runs through one of the most beautiful valleys in Colorado. I had the pleasure of running this creek about 20 times this season at many different levels ranging from super low, to really high, to flash flood.

Since I moved to Buena Vista, Clear Creek has definitely become my favorite run in the area. It's just so nice to be able to get off work, drive 20 minutes, and then run a few laps of fun/low stress Class V.

Over the past couple weeks, I've adopted a one shuttle vehicle policy which forces me to do a little jogging after kayaking. I'm by no means a "good runner" so 2.5 miles at 10,000 feet can make me start sucking wind pretty quickly. I also am not a big fan of running, but if I have to, the Clear Creek Valley is the most beautiful place to do it.

This creek is a little over 2 miles long and it's only one rapid the whole time. Any single 100 yard stretch of this creek would be considered Class IV by itself, but due to the lack of eddies and recovery zones, it gets a Class V- rating. I think no matter how good of a boater you are, if you flip over on Clear Creek you have a 50-50 chance of swimming. I watched several really good kayakers swim and pin/break their boats up there. It is definitely not a good place to be upside down.

We didn't take many pictures just because it's such a chore to get out of my boat on this run, but here are a couple shots I managed to take last week:

(the crux of the second gorge)

(the end of the first gorge)

(put-in bridge, as you can see - the creek is not very wide)

(I got boofed on about 1/2 second after this was taken)

(myself on the fun one in the second gorge, photo by curtis england)

(dropping into the crux of the 2nd gorge)

I soloed my last lap today after workf. It was pretty nice to go in there alone and have the entire valley to myself. I've found that jogging the shuttle afterwards can be pretty rewarding, it gives you that "earn your turns" mentality that backcountry skiers always brag about.

Now that Clear Creek is too low to run, Lake Creek will be coming down to a more manageable level in the next week or so. Hopefully I'll fall in love with Lake Creek soon and be able to have a new after-work favorite.

Oh Be Joyful Triple

2009-05-22T22:36:00.004-04:00

On my day off, my friend and co-worker Bobby drove up to Crested Butte with me to do a little creeking. Bobby wasn't up for running the big stuff, so he covered photo detail. I ended up running the creek 3 times, and we didn't see a single other person while we were up on the creek. It was pretty cool getting that high alpine wilderness experience with beautiful scenery and fun waterfalls. Bobby ended building a harness out of a piece of webbing and did some rope work to get some pretty good shots, here they are:

The Crested Butte Quadruple Crown

2009-05-21T01:16:00.008-04:00

I've temporarily left the southeast for the summer to work as an intern for Colorado Kayak Supply, so I'll be living in Buena Vista Colorado for the next 3 months.

This past weekend, I was able to do something I've wanted to do for a long time. I left Buena Vista Saturday morning and drove up to Crested Butte to run what's called the Crested Butte Quadruple Crown: Oh Be Joyful, Daisy Creek, The North Slate, and The Upper East River.

It was really cool to hang out with the CB local crew. The paddlers that I met in CB represent what kayaking is all about with their help and hospitality. Here are some pictures from the day:

(upper gorge on Daisy Creek)

(the slightly continuous nature of Daisy Creek)

(Crested Butte backcountry)

(my new facebook picture)

(zach springer running "rip your head off" on daisy creek)

(big wood falls on daisy, unfortunately our camera missed us here due to the lack of eddies)

(ethan passant dropping in)

(eddy party)

(zach on the big one on OBJ)

(Chris Menges running the put-in drop on OBJ)

(the fun snow hiking around OBJ and Daisy)

(ethan passant contemplating his line before dropping in)

(menges dropping into the maw)

After the quadruple crown on saturday, I hung out in CB for the night thanks to the awesome hospitality of CKS Squad member Zach Springer. We woke up a little earlier on Sunday and ran the north slate and Oh Be Joyful one more time to end the weekend.

Overall, this has been one of the best weekends of kayaking I've ever had. I was able to paddle 4 new creeks in one day, most of which were class V.

So far Colorado has been awesome, and I've only been here for a week. Check back soon for details and pictures of what I call the BVAK (Buena Vista Ass Kicker)...

"Teamwork"

2009-04-19T19:17:00.000-04:00

The Road To Aintry: The Tallulah Gorge

2009-04-05T21:55:00.008-04:00

This has been a great week of whitewater. The beginning of the week was loaded with tests and other schoolwork, so after all the hard stuff was over, Don and I ran the Green River Narrows on Thursday morning at a nice juicy level of 10 inches (which was the highest I had ever seen it). Then on Friday, I played a relaxing game of disc golf before loading up for the Road To Ain'try.

Don, Bo, and I drove from Columbia up to the Chattooga River, and found it to be at a burly level of 2.2 feet, so we decided to skip section 4 and head for the Tallulah Gorge. On Saturday morning, after a frigid night of sleeping outside under the stars, we paddled the Tallulah twice.

On our second run, bombed down the gorge in less than 15 minutes, which turned out to be a looooot of fun.

We came back to Columbia on Saturday night and then on Sunday, Matt Porter and I had a nice relaxing run down the Green (still at 10 inches). I'd say it was a pretty good weekend. Here are the Tallulah photos:

(this is how you should live your life)

(Don Lowry - Tanner's Boof)

(Bo McDowell - Tanner's Boof)

(The Ocean)

(Me @ Oceana - Photo By Don Lowry)

(Don Lowry @ Oceana)

(Bo McDowell @ Oceana)

(Racist Gas Station)

"Dude, in that last rapid, I punched a hole, and my entire mustache went in my mouth, it felt like I had a mouth full of leaves..." - Mr. Bo McDowell

Spring Park-n-Huck: Whiteoak Creek, Dupont, Blind Date

2009-04-01T16:26:00.009-04:00

Here are a couple pictures from a few park-n-hucks I did with the crew last month. I'll throw some North Fork of the French Broad pictures in as well.

DUPONT STATE PARK - TRIPLE FALLS

(photo: don lowry)

(don lowry)

(matt porter)

WHITEOAK CREEK FALLS - THE MEAN MISTREATER
(don lowry - photo: Andy Rossway)

(photo: Andy Rossway)

(photo: andy rossway)

(living my life as a probe - photo: andy rossway)

(feeling around for rocks - photo: andy rossway)

NORTH FORK OF THE FRENCH BROAD
(I wanted to go on a blind date - photo: dennis)

(photo: rob siegel)

(me at boxcar - photo: rob siegel)

(rob siegel at boxcar)

HORSEPASTURE

2009-03-31T09:44:00.010-04:00

Leland wasn't kidding: "This ultra classic bedrock shelf style run is a must do for serious creekers who want to experience the best the Jocassee drainage has to offer. The 1.5 miles of river that comprise the heart of the run between Rainbow Falls and Windy Falls averages well over 400 feet per mile with all drops runnable. Take your camera, because the clean huge rapids of this river are some of the most photogenic in the East."

I ran the Horsepasture with a crew of 5 other people on Saturday, and it was by far the most remote wilderness experience I have ever had, and the entire run is barely 3.5 miles. This run takes some time and some skills, as one of the guys said on the water "This makes the Green River Narrows look like Wilson Creek." If you are interested in running this river, we should talk first so I can give you the beta, because it's pretty hard to figure out on your own. Here are the photos:

(Ty McNeely at Turtleback Falls)

(Chris at Corner Pocket aka Raven Fork Rapid)

(Josh Wall at Thrasher Pike Ramp A aka Sidepocket A)

(Matt Porter at Thrasher Pike Ramp A)

(Matt Porter looking over Windy Falls)

I'll add more photos after I get them from the rest of the crew, this was an amazing day, I learned more about teamwork and paddling while running this river than I ever have before.

(that's me on stairstep falls - photo by josh wall)

(Jonathon at turtleback falls aka warmup ledge - photo by josh wall)

Incident on Upper Big Creek

2009-03-14T01:57:00.004-04:00

A few months ago, I was involved in the most full-on rescue I have ever been a part of. Here's the full story:

Don and I left from Columbia on January 16^th 2009 with the intention of paddling the Upper section of Big Creek, a river in Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We stopped a couple of times on the way up there, once at a friend’s house in Greenville SC, and once in Saluda NC to check the level of Big Hungry Creek. Eventually we arrived at Big Creek around 1:00am and found the level to be just over 4ft. 4ft is extremely high and not many people run the river that high. This would be our first time on this river, and we would be running it without anyone to guide us, so we shrugged it off and decided to check the level again in the morning.

We slept in the car in the Big Creek parking lot, and when we woke up, we drove back down to the bridge to check the level again. The creek had dropped to just below 4ft, I would guess around 3.8ft, which was still way too high for our unguided first run.

We decided to drive over the mountain pass and paddle a nearby river called the Ramsey Prong, which we found to be at a perfect level. The plan was to run the Ramsey Prong, and then return to Big Creek to run the Upper section in the afternoon, under the assumption that the level would drop about a foot by the time we made it back over there.

The run on the Ramsey Prong was great. We scouted the entire run and paddled the whole river unguided. This was a cool experience for both of us, only because we get so used to people showing us down every river we run. This mini-expeditionary feeling was a really good experience and it seemed like an awesome warm up for Upper Big Creek.

After a problem free run down the Ramsey Prong, we drove back over to Big Creek and we found the level to be just over 3ft, perfect. We pulled into the parking lot around 4:00pm and I told Don that I think we should just run the lower section (which is much easier) because we were losing daylight and we had a big challenge ahead of us.

For anyone that doesn’t know the setup at Big Creek, here it is: You park your car in a parking lot that is right next to where you will finish paddling, and then you hike your boat about 3 miles upstream to get to the put in. Once at the put in, you have a three mile class IV-V paddle back down to your car. Now since this creek lies in the bounds of Great Smokey Mountain National Park, it is extremely continuous, with a reasonable amount of eddies, but not any flat water. This means that if you come out of your boat on this run, it could take a while to swim to shore and recover all your gear.

Anyway, I told Don that we should just run the lower section because we were losing daylight and we didn’t want to hike off the river in the dark. When we got to the parking lot at the take out, we met two other guys from Asheville, Thomas and Jeff. Jeff had run the Upper section earlier that morning and offered to show us the lines. I asked him if he thought there was enough daylight left, and he told me that we are only going to run the last mile, starting below a section of the river called Action Alley.

This offer sounded pretty good to me, we had this guy offering to show us down the last part of this run, and I was thinking to myself that we could hike up again in the morning and run the whole thing the following day.

We started the hike, which can be uncomfortable with a 50lb kayak on your back, but it was so nice just to be walking through the Smokies on a beautiful winter day. Eventually we made it to where we were to start paddling back down, just below Action Alley. As we were getting in our boats, another group was coming through Action Alley and continued paddling past us. This was a fairly large group of paddlers, probably around 6-8 people. Anyway, we put our spray skirts on and pushed into the water.

The rapids were pretty reasonable class IV drops with sufficient eddies after each drop. The river did not seem incredibly difficult, but it was a major advantage to have that guy that had just run the river earlier that morning with us, because he knew the deal on strainers and other hazards, as well as giving us an accurate description of each drop before we ran them so that we did not have to get out and scout every 30 seconds.

After we had paddled about ¼ mile, I looked downstream and noticed several boaters on a big boulder in the middle of the river. I immediately signaled to the rest of my group to eddy-out and we grabbed our throw ropes and started casually walking downstream. To me, it looked like someone had taken a swim and they were currently trying to recover the swimmers boat off a log or rock or something in the middle of the river.

I waved to them and gave them a sign asking if they were ok (a pat on the head) and they started shaking their heads back and forth and waving at us to come down quickly.

At this point everything started happening really fast. We all immediately started running downstream to see what was going on and when we arrived, we were told that there was a guy trapped underwater, under a log, in the middle of the drop, and he couldn’t get out.

Let me describe what the scenario looked like. The river was probably about 30 feet wide. There was a drop in the middle of the river that was about five feet in height, comparable to the size of Soc-em-dog on the Chattooga. There was a large tree draped down through the middle of the drop, parallel with the river. This log had a couple branches sticking off of it and the victim was trapped under several different branches, completely underwater. This log looked incredibly heavy; it must have weighed over 1000lbs. There was a large boulder in the middle of the river, to the right of the log and it was situated just a few feet upstream of where the victim was pinned. I crawled out on the boulder and looked down in the water and I couldn’t even see the guy because he was shoved so far under the tree.

Now, keep in mind that it was January, it had snowed earlier that day, and I would guess that it was around 30 degrees outside, and the water was probably about 35 degrees. This guy is going to have hypothermia soon, so we need to get him out as quick as possible. Keep in mind that he was underwater, so air was also a major concern as well.

In taking Swiftwater Rescue courses, I have been taught that if a victim is stuck underwater, there is a chance that the water will hit him in the back of the head and then splash over him, creating a pocket of air right in front of his face. This meant that even though our boy had spent a little bit of time underwater, there was a chance that he could still be breathing. Even if he did have an air pocket, we still needed to move quickly because that pocket could disappear at any second.

I looked at the log and noticed that there was a saw mark where someone had begun cutting the log. I’m not sure why the sawing had stopped before I arrived, but that didn’t matter. The first thing that we tried once I arrived was having everyone stand on the boulder next to the log and we tried to lift it. This idea didn’t work, so it was time for plan B.

Several boaters ferried across the river and sent us the end of a rope that they were holding onto, from the river left shore. We attached the rope to the upstream side of the log and they started to pull on it. There was an attempt to attach another line to the downstream side of the log, but the rope was not caught, and then the idea was put on the back-burner. At this point, the upstream line on the log was being tugged on, but the log still wasn’t moving, this is when I decided to try to go in for him.

I clipped into another person standing on the rock and was lowered into the drop by the leash on my Rescue PFD, which was about 5 feet long. When I got as low as the leash would allow me, I tried to reach under the log and grab the guy, but I couldn’t reach him. I then tried to stick my foot down there for him to grab, but he couldn’t get hold of me. At one point, he stuck his hand out and started waving around, so we knew he was still breathing.

I was pulled back up on the rock and we decided to give ‘er one more go with trying to lift the log. There were about 7 people on shore pulling on the line and about 5 of us on the rock in the middle of the river trying to vertically lift the log. Miraculously, the log shifted for a brief second and all of the sudden, the body floated free.

My friend Don jumped into the creek and swam the victim to shore, about 100 yards downstream. Luckily, the guy had stayed conscious the entire time and was only suffering from hypothermia. We all immediately started rubbing his body to get his blood circulating again and we sent a runner ahead to call 911 and heat up his truck. He had spent over 10 minutes underwater.

We started the evacuation and the victim (I think his name was Scott) was able to walk and talk. At one point, it was only the two of us on the trail together and we walked and talked about what had happened and I basically just drilled him with questions about where he was from, how his love life was going, how long he had been paddling, etc just to keep the guy moving and conscious. Eventually, some of his other friends (who were already at the take out) got word of the situation and came running up the trail to make sure he was alright and to help him walk out.

We reached the parking lot and changed him out of his wet clothes and had him sit in the warm truck for a while until the redneck fire department showed up and later the paramedics. They checked his vitals and looked him over, and he seemed to be fine, so I guess Scott just went home after that.

I haven’t talked to the guy since then, but I have run into some of the other people that were involved around town and on other rivers. These guys all seemed to be pretty “on-it” and knew what they were doing, but it just goes to show that shit happens, and it takes a good crew, quick thinking, and the knowledge of what to do when shit hits the fan to make sure everything turns out alright.

I have to give huge props to everyone involved with this rescue for their level-headedness and quick thinking, because I can assure anyone that this guy would have died if the rest of the crew had a panic attack.

Other than that, I still think about this incident everyday. Every time I push my boat into the water I think of what could go wrong and what is necessary to do to get out of these sketchy situations.

After reading this story, I would like you to think of a few things:

Are you Swiftwater Rescue certified? If not, I suggest you get your certification before the next time your boat touches the water.

Is your crew certified? If not, don’t paddle with them until they are.

What kind of gear do you carry? You should carry at least 4 carabineers, a string of webbing, 2 prussic cords, and a rope on your body at all times while you are on the river, as well as additional gear in your boat if you are taking things to the next level (like a beefier rope and a saw, which was useful this day)

What kind of whitewater are you paddling? Don’t paddle stuff above your ability, because shit will happen, and you won’t be ready for it.

That Dam Water

2009-03-05T21:39:00.006-05:00

Due to the current drought situation in the southeast, I have had to paddle mostly dam-released rivers for the past few weeks.

We started running the Green every weekend, but the dam hasn't released in almost three weeks due to maintenance. Here are some pictures from the whitewater we used to run...

(how many people does it take to strap a backpack to a boat?)

(Don Lowry)

(Rob Tompkins - Go Left and Die Sequence)

(Rob Tompkins - Sunshine Falls)

(this is what I did to my boat at Rapid Transit)

(Hand Carnage - From Col. Dick's)

Since we live in Columbia, we always have the playspot on the Saluda river, but even that has a super low level, so my friend Matt Porter and I went out there to practice some swiftwater rescue skills...

When the Green stopped running, we headed all the way out to the Cheoah, which reminded me of the Ocoee on a mid-summer Saturday. There was so much carnage and it was such a mad house, that I didn't even bother taking any pictures, until we got off the river...

(Bo McDowell)

(the bone dry southeast)

(the moon - from outside my apartment)

There was a little bit of natural flow on the Saluda and Wilson creek last weekend, but it has been a pretty mellow semester so far. Hopefully the rain will come soon.

3 Days in Tennessee

2009-01-19T11:33:00.008-05:00

After heavy rains last week, Don and I headed west to look at river levels. We stopped in Hendersonville around midnight and checked out the Put-In slide for Big Hungary Creek, which looked good to go, but we continued rambling until we got to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Once in the park, we found the level of Big Creek to be just under 4 Feet, which seemed a little high for our first run down the upper section.

The next morning we drove about an hour through some God-forsaken roads to check out the Ramsey Prong, which was at an optimal level.

(that's me at the put-in boof - photo by Don Lowry)

After a successful expedition style run down the Ramsey Prong, we returned to Big Creek to find an ideal level and we hiked about a mile up the trail to run the lower part of the upper section to scout it out for a top to bottom run the next day.

While we were on Big Creek, I participated in one of the most epic rescues that I have ever seen or heard of. There was a guy stuck underneath a tree in the middle of a drop and he spent about 20 minutes underwater. We used Swiftwater Rescue Skills to pull the tree out of the river and free the victim. While he was under there, he had a pocket of air in front of him, so he was able to breathe most of the time, but he was also very hypothermic. We hiked him off the river and then hiked back up after dark to recover our boats.

The next day, we decided to skip Big Creek and we headed to the other side of the Smokies to paddle the Little River. Our good friend, Matt Porter joined us this day and there were good lines all around.

(Here's my line at The Sinks, the put-in rapid for the Little River - Photo by Matt Porter)

(Matt's sweet line through The Elbow, the take-out rapid)

(a little Sink's montage I put together - photos by Matt Porter)

After two laps on the Little, we called it a day and headed to the Tellico that night. The following day, Don and I ran 4 laps on the Tellico, with one huck of Bald River Falls (Tellico Trib.)

(lots of bad boofs that day, Baby Falls, Tellico River - Photo by Don Lowry)

(Don setting up for a nasty hole ride and swim at Baby Falls)

(myself at Bald River Falls - Photo by Don Lowry)

(Don at Diaper Whiper with Baby Falls in the background)

Adios Costa Rica, Hello USA

2008-12-25T01:47:00.005-05:00

Ok friends, I am now back in the USA. After 3 months of studying and running the sh!t in Costa Rica, I have finally returned home to the southeast. Costa was a great experience for me; I learned a lot and had some really good times. The day before I left, I snuck into the La Paz Waterfall Gardens for a peek around. Here's some pictures:

(el templo, the top drop, around 90 ft)

(magia blanca, 2nd drop, over 100 ft)

(encantada, 3rd drop, about 40ft, sketchy - leads directly into La Paz waterfall)

(La Paz Waterfall, prob around 80ft - I'm going back for this one)

(la paz with encatada in the background)

I arrived back in the states on Sunday night, and I was finally able to paddle back in my mothercountry for the first time yesterday, on Wilson Creek. I paddled the creek with my good friend Don, and his cousin. There were good lines and good times as Don and I showed his cousin down the creek for his first time.

There is something about Wilson Creek that will always make it my favorite river. I think it might be because of the first time I went there when I ran it at 9 inches and witnessed the same person swim twice in less than a half mile and then walk off the river. I guess that just seemed so epic to me and that is what really got me into creeking and exploring.

The creek was low yesterday, somewhere between -4 and -6, but I have run that river many times at many different levels, and I always have a great time no matter what.

(summer butterflies on the creek)

Another thing that was cool about our run yesterday was the bike shuttle that we utilized. I think I am going to start bringing my bike on every paddling trip so that we can save gas (as opposed to bringing 2 cars) as well as the cardio workout after the running of the shit. It's also good for the environment, or so I hear.

Merry Christmas, keep your bow up.

Epic Highs and Epic Lows

2008-12-11T20:39:00.001-05:00

Over this past weekend, I had some strange experiences with one of my worst ever days on the river and one of my best ever days on the river. Here it is:

Trip Report: Rio Navarro

Dec. 5^th, 2008

Paddlers: Me and Ferdinand Steinvorth

Epic Highs and Epic Lows

Ferdinand picked me up from my house after class to run something in the Orosi Valley. For the past few weeks it has been raining and flooding a lot here in Costa Rica. All the rivers have flooded out their banks and the water has just been way too high to run anything. Because of this, Ferdinand and I haven’t paddled for about three weeks.

We decided today to drive into the valley and take a look at the Upper Orosi and see what the level was like. When we hiked down into the gorge, we found over 5000 cfs of water, where the target level is between 300-700 cfs. So it was a little high and we opted for something else.

We then drove up to the take-out on the Rio Navarro (a nearby micro creek) and the level was about half a foot higher than the one other time I had run it, so we headed to the put-in expecting to find some burly conditions.

When we put on the river, I immediately flipped in the first rapid. This caught be a little off guard, and since I had not been paddling for the previous three weeks (and I had not actually rolled in the previous two months), I missed a couple rolls.

We continued downstream and I was feeling really shaky. The character of the river is continuous Class IV(+) boulder gardens. I kept missing/falling out of eddies and rolling. Not one of my better days on the water.

Eventually we came to the second significant drop on the river, which we found to be full of wood, so we walked it. Downstream there was bound to be more wood, so we were trying to be careful.

As we rounded the next bend in the creek, we saw a strainer that choked up about half the river on the left side. Most of the water was moving to the left side of the river, so we had to make a modest effort to get to the right. Luckily it was only Class II, so it wasn’t that difficult.

Unfortunately, I was a little nervous and bumped into a rock and flipped. I was getting pretty frantic at this point because I knew that I was upside down in my boat and heading towards the strainer.

Steve Fischer once said “There are two types of fear: The first type is when you are scared looking a big drop or a big rapid and you are doubting your skills before you drop in, and the other type is much worse. There is a second type of fear that occurs when you are already in the rapid, if things don’t go the way they were planned, and that type of fear is much, much scarier.” I think it is safe to say that at this point, I was experiencing that second type of fear. I tried to roll one time, no dice, two times, no dice, three times, I muscle up to the surface just in time to see my body moving towards a tree pretty quickly.

I threw my arms up over the tree and my boat went under the tree. I screamed out to Ferdinand, who was about 25 feet downstream of me. I was stuck on a strainer in the middle of the river. This scared the crap out of me. Luckily I had a good hold of the tree and I was able to keep my head above water, and Ferdinand had eddied out and was already wading back upstream to rescue me.

I have to give Ferdinand major props here. He instantly noticed I was in trouble, exited his boat in a mid-river-eddy and waded back upstream to pull me off this log. If he were not there for me I don’t know what would have happened.

Ferdinand ended up pulling me up and over the log and the only damage done was a 5 inch tear in my drytop (which was actually free, courtesy of Subaru). I was a little shaken up for the rest of the day and ran bad lines and missed more eddies.

Overall, it was one of the crappier days I have ever had on the water. The plan was to run the Pozo Azul the next day, which is a run I’ve been bugging Ferdinand to take me to since I met him. After the incident with the log, I told him that I would not be joining him on Pozo the following day. Luckily, by the time we got back home, he talked me into going.

Trip Report: Rio Pozo Azul

December 6^th, 2008

Paddlers: Me, Ferdinand Steinvorth, Miguel

Pozo Azul is by far my favorite river in Costa Rica. I came to this river one of my first days here to do a hike and huck on the rivers namesake waterfall, Pozo Azul Falls. After that hike and huck, I found out that there is an entire run upstream of there that has two other good sized waterfalls, and some other Class V stuff.

After a really crappy day on the Rio Navarro the day before, we left at 6:00 am and headed up to Sarapiqui to have a look at Pozo. We picked up one other guy named Miguel, who I had met one other time, it was actually the first time I ran the Pozo Azul Falls all those weeks ago.

When we got to Sarapiqui, we hiked out to the confluence of the Sarapiqui and Pozo Azul for a level check and it look on the higher side of good, WOOHOO! We drove up to the put in and started the hike. We actually hiked for about 2 miles across this farm down to the river. It was really muddy and I was really happy once we reached the river, I think that is the furthest I have ever hiked with a creek boat on my shoulder.

(this hike made me really dislike farms and all the animals that crap all over the place)

(the put-in was a sight to be seen, que bonito)

When we got to the river, we were greeted by a 25 foot waterfall that was asking us if we could please paddle over it, so we gave in to its wishes. The drop had a pretty straightforward entrance with a little 3-4 foot boof and then about 8 feet of slackwater, and then the 25 ft drop. I guess the crux was not messing up the little boof at the top. It was a little squirrelly but there were good lines all around.

(miguel rolling in to the first drop)

(the biggest thing I have ever boofed, ouch)

After the first big drop, there were a couple more difficult rapids including a really cool box canyon (my first time in a gorged out, walls straight up for the water) rapid. There was another rapid called Swiss Cheese (named by Ferdinand when he did the First Decent four years ago) which I ran half of, and then decided mid-rapid to walk the second half because I was about to drop into this nasty horseshoe shaped hole filled with potholes and other nasty stuff.

(Ferdinand dropping into Swiss Cheese)

After a little boogie, we came to the second significant drop. This thing was somewhere between 20-30 feet and also had a 4-5 boof with a little slackwater and then the main drop. The thing that was crux about this drop was a piton rock in the landing of the entrance boof. Ferdinand pitoned there and lost all his momentum, sending him penciling in, over the handlebars. He hit the bottom and hurt his shoulders, but he would be alright for the rest of the day. Miguel went next, his line was a little better but he still plugged hard and hit bottom. I went last, and luckily I entered at about 45 degrees and resurfaced upright without hitting the bottom.

(miguel on the second drop with safety in place)

(me, trying not to plug too hard)

There is a little more Class III-IV boogie until you get to the last falls, which is the biggest. This is the falls that you have probably heard me talking about before, this would be my 5^th run of the falls after a few hike and hucks.

Ferdinand fired it up first, with a beautiful line, plugged, went deep, and came up without problems. Miguel went second, good line, no problems. I went last again, and with no speed coming off the lip, I leaned over a little too soon and went over the handlebars a little. It hurt, and I resurface upside down under the curtain, but rolled up fine.

(the best line of the three)

(miguel)
(my less than pretty line)

We called it a day after that and paddled out to the confluence with the Sarapiqui where we loaded up and headed back to San Jose.

Overall, this was by far the best day that I have had in Costa Rica. I am really glad that I decided to run this river, especially after such a horrible experience the day before. Another thing that I’ve been telling everyone is that now, I am finally ready to come home. Another thing that I regret to say is that my friend and paddling partner, Ferdinand, severely injured his shoulders when he landed the second drop and is off the water for the next few months. It has been great paddling with him, and if you ever plan a trip to Costa Rica, I would definitely recommend looking him up, he’s a really nice guy, a damn good boater, and he knows everything about every river in this country, mostly because he 1^st D’ed most of them.

I’ll be home soon, Pura Vida.

Gettin’ Around Costa Rica: Upper/Lower Rio Orosi, Upper Rio Sarapiqui, Rio Navarro

2008-12-09T15:25:00.001-05:00

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a couple great opportunities to paddle some of the best whitewater in Costa Rica. When I left off my last post, I had just made a new friend named Ferdinand. Ferdinand and I have been traveling around and running lots of rivers all over the place.

We have been running the Upper Orosi a couple times per week. That run is getting really fun for me as I learn the river more.

(Here is a really cool little cave that Ferdinand found below Dinosaur Gorge)

(the scene from the cave below dinosaur gorge)

One afternoon, we decided to go past the takeout on the Upper Orosi and we ran the Lower Orosi as well. The Lower O is pretty much one long class III/IV rapid for about 2 miles and the entire run takes only about 10 minutes. This was really fun because when we ran it, it was at flood stage with high water coming in from the Upper Orosi and screaming high water coming in from the Rio Macho.

Another run in the area is called the Rio Navarro. The Navarro is a low volume creek that is super continuous class IV for about 2-3 miles. This is one of the most fun runs I have ever paddled. I like to compare it to Lower Big Creek with double the gradient. Here are some pictures:

(the road to the put in)

boogie boogie

(afterward, Ferdinand explained that I was supposed to boof forward, not backwards)

(serenity at the take out)

Another really fun river I was able to run is called Rio Sarapiqui. The part that I ran was called the San Miguel Section, or the Upper Sarapiqui. This trip was a lot different than any other paddling trip that I had ever taken for several reasons.

When I went to the San Miguel Section of the Sarapiqui, I went with my new friend Mauricio, and neither of us have vehicles, so we took the bus. We took a bus from San Jose to San Miguel at about 6:30 in the morning and walked down into the river valley with our boats and dry clothes in dry bags from where the bus dropped us off. We then ran the river to the town of La Virgen (luckily the river meets back with the road when it gets to the next town). Another thing that was difficult about this trip was that Mauricio didn’t have a paddle, so I gave him my stick and I used hand paddles (which I haven’t used since a low water Chattooga Sect. IV run in early May). Also, I had never run this river, and Mauricio had only run it once, a long time ago.

Overall, everything went alright, but not necessarily well. It was a great trip, but it had a lot of hiccups. If you want to hear the entire story, ask me about it, because there are way too many details to list here.

While we were on the San Miguel trip, I decided that I wanted to run the waterfall at the Pozo Azul again (Pozo Azul is a tributary of the San Miguel Section of the Sarapiqui). When we got to the Sarapiqui/Pozo Azul confluence, we hiked about 2 kilometers upstream to where the waterfall is. This was a grueling hike/swim/attainment, and it took over an hour. But it was all worth it.

After a few good weeks of paddling with Ferdinand, it rained, and it didn’t stop raining for 2 or 3 weeks. Ferdinand told me that this has been the worst flood since 2002, and that says a lot for a country where it is normal if it rains every day.

Entonces, since it rained so much, the rivers have all been way too high to run. Commercial rafting has been put on hold and the few kayakers here have been trying to find other things to do. I’ve started running and sleeping a lot more, which is probably really good for me, but I have been itching to get back on the water.

I hope all is well for everyone at home, I am starting to miss my friends in family, but I will be home soon enough. Pero todo bien. Pura Vida.

New Faces, New Places, New Boats, and New Facial Hair (?)

2008-11-03T17:18:00.000-05:00

It was just about the best thing in the world when I was able to get out on the water on Saturday afternoon. I went out to the Orosi valley with my new amigo Ferdinand to paddle the Upper Orosi River.

I got Ferdinand's phone number from a friend of a friend and just randomly called him last week to see if he was paddling over the weekend. The Answer was YES and he also told me that he lives pretty close to me here in San Jose, he has an extra boat that I can paddle, and he can drive to the river. So I guess everything kinda fell into place.

We got to the river to find a medium flow and a big Class V rapid at the put-in. The first rapid is called the Dinosaur Gorge. I don't know about you but whenever I hear something refered to as a dinosaur, I automatically assume it is pretty cool, lucky I was correct in this assumption.

The Dinosaur Gorge drops about 150 in half a mile. There are about 3 or 4 main drops with lots of other little stuff in between. I like to compare this section of the river to The Five Falls section of the Chattooga River, except bigger. There were all kinds of sieves and undercuts to dodge and lots of boofing to be had. It was a lot of fun, but since I haven't been in a boat in over a month, my lines were a little shaky. I was only able to take pictures on one of the last smaller drops coming out of the gorge because I was busy following Ferdinand through the upper sections.

This rapid was pretty cool because there were two different lines that you could take, so we ran one line, then got out and walked back up to run the other line. Think alien boof and mikey's ledge on the upper o...

Here's Ferdinand on the left line:

Stylin' it as usual

And goin deep in the hole...

Rockin' out in the Pink Rocker! (enlarge picture to see additional facial hair)

Ferdinand stylin the right line

The scene at the take out, check out the pink boat, hell yeah...

I was pretty lucky to be able to borrow a boat from Ferdinand. It is a very broken, but still functionable Pink Jackson Rocker, with three cracks in the hull. The boat held up better than I did on this run.

I'm really stoked to have gotten on this run. I've heard people compare it to the Green Narrows of San Jose. Ferdinand and I are going to make a habit of getting out there about twice a week for the rest of the time that I'm here. Pura Vida mi'e.

Stayin' Dry with the Tico Styleeee

2008-10-31T19:10:00.000-04:00

It's been a good while since I've posted last because I haven't been able to get out on the water at all this past month. It's been kind of a bummer staying dry but I've had some time to see the country and try some other stuff.

I've been going to classes for five days a week and doing light traveling around Costa Rica on the weekends. During my first week of classes, I was able to try something I've never done before.

I don't know if you have ever jumped off a bridge before, but it's kinda scary looking 280 feet down into a canyon knowing that you are about to free fall towards a river for a few seconds.

This was my first time bungee jumping, it was definitely an awesome experience. It was cool because we were able to go just after class one day. There were about 5 of us that went and everyone had a great time. I didn't bring my camera with me because it was raining, but here's a few more pictures that one of my friends took:

One of the weekends I was able to go up to Monteverde, a national park and cloud forest here in Costa Rica. This turned out to be a pretty cool trip with a couple exciting events.

We arrived in Monteverde on a Friday and spent the night at a hotel and on Saturday morning, we did the typical Costa Rican Zip Line Canopy Tour. I had done a canopy tour previously when I was in Panama a few months ago, so I wasn't as stoked as some of the other people, but once we started rolling, I found out that this tour was waaaaay better. There were long lines, fast lines, rappels, swings, all kinds of stuff to keep it interesting and keep the adrenaline pumping...

The girl in this picture couldn't figure out how to slow down on the wire, so she needed a little help.

Here is the really long line, click the picture to see the bigger version and you can see how big it really is!!!

The Tarzan Swing

My friends got a little scared when we started shaking this bridge, they all eventually fell off. They were clipped in though :(.

After a great morning of ziplining, I returned back to my hotel for lunch. Outside the hotel, there was a sign that said "Catarata - 1 Kilometer" Catarata means "Waterfall" and since I am a kayaker, I am naturally drawn to waterfalls, so I decided I would go on an afternoon hike to check it out. I went by myself because I didn't think it would be that far away. After walking a good distance, I was pretty secluded on a gravel road on a mountain pass. I saw a lookout point and snapped a few pictures before continuing my hike.

The view was pretty, but nothing special. Just as I finished putting my camera away, I heard a loud noise. I figured it was a truck coming so I got out of the road and tried to walk along the side in the grass. The noise got louder. Ok, that must be thunder, I guess it's going to rain soon. So, I stop to get my raincoat out of my pack. When I turned around, I saw an entire mountain crumbling 50 meters away from me. There was no truck. There was no thunder. There was a LANDSLIDE. This was no petty landslide either, there were full size trees being thrown off the mountain. This was one of the scarier moments of my life. I immediately started running and screaming and occasionally looking back to see if it had ended. When all the dust settled, this is what I saw:

If you ever have trouble trying to contemplate life or the meaning of your existence, try to witness a landslide and it will definitely get you thinking. What scared me the most about this thing was that if I stopped to pee or if I left 10 minutes later or something, I would have been right under that thing and no one would have know...

After the landslide, I walked a little farther but then decided to turn back because where ever this waterfall was, it wasn't worth it. Here's a few more shots of the carnage:

This guy rolled up on his 4-wheeler shortly afterward, he also gave me a ride down the mountain and back to town, huge thanks bro...

The next weekend we went to La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano. La Fortuna is a big waterfall and is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. When we hiked down to the falls, we decided that we needed to further investigate behind the curtain, so we went for a little swim, it was really cool.

Arenal is also one of the most active volcanoes in the world, so we figured it needed further investigation as well.

That sign pretty much says, "Don't walk past this point, or you'll probably die." We kinda think like elementary school kids, so that sounded really cool, and we definitely went past the sign. It was well worth it, until it started raining and then we had to walk about 5 kilometers back to the hotel.

This brings me to about 2 weeks ago, when I tried to make another attempt to go kayaking. My study abroad program was supposed to go to the beach, but due to tropical storms and hurricanes and flooding, the trip got rained out. I took this as a sign that I need to get on the water. I took a bus up to Turrialba on Friday afternoon when I got out of class and met up with a few locals and also a couple boater that were in town from Alabama. We had a good night of partying and planned on running the Patria section of the Rio Reventazon in the morning. When I woke up, I couldn't move my head. I guess I slept in a weird position because everytime I tried to turn my head to the right, it was shot with excruciating pain. Running class V without being able to move your head is never a good idea, so I caught the next bus back to San Jose and had kind of a buzz kill of a weekend. I was able to catch up on sleep, which proved to be pretty useful.

The next week went by smoothly, and the coming weekend we had planned a fairly large undertaking. My friends and I decided that we wanted to give Nicaragua a try, and we had a three day weekend, so why not?

This was our last week of our first term, so since we were starting a new term the following week, we got a little break. We left San Jose at 4:00am Saturday morning and headed for the border town of Penas Blancas.

Since we were leaving at 4am, we thought it would be a good idea to stay up all night Friday night and party and then just pass out on the bus for seven hours in the morning. This actually worked for a while, but we started the party a little too early and ended up wanting to go to sleep around 1 or 2am. Luckily someone remembered to wake up and we all made it to the bus station downtown on time.

When we arrived at the Nicaraguan border, there was a lot of chaos, everywhere. There were merchants and homeless people and people trying to get you to exchange money with them and all kinds of other shennanigans.

We went through customs, and then realized that we still hadn't decided where in Nicaragua we wanted to go. So we asked some girl, "hey where should we go in this country." And we took her suggestion: Isla Ometepe en Lago Nicaragua.

Its pretty much a big volcanic island in the middle of a giant lake in the middle of Nicaragua. We got off the bus in a town called Rivas and from there took a taxi to a town called San Jorge and from there took a ferry to the island and then from there, about 15 of us got in the back of pickup truck (he said he was a taxi driver) and went to a hotel.

We ended having about a 12 hour transit time from San Jose to the Island. Good times. I guess. We chilled at the hotel until dark and then chilled some more. The next morning, we decided to climb one of the volcanoes, "Madernas."

For me, this was the third country in Latin America that I have climbed a volcano. It was pretty fun at first until our sandals started breaking. Mine broke first, the straps seperated themselves from the soles and I had to finish climbing barefoot. Not so bad for a kilometer or two, but then when you get to like kilometer 7 and 8, it really starts to suck. Two other people had footwear issues as well, so we didn't end up coming off the mountain until after dark. We came back to San Jose the next day (another 12 hours) and started classes again.

Overall, I'm happy that I went to Nicaragua, but I would not recommend it for the wandering tourist, there isn't much there, it isn't a very safe country, and it's kind of a pain in the ass to use their transportation. Thats just my two cents.

This brings me to today. Today I am very excited because a lot of things are going on right now. Tommorow, I am going to get to paddle the Rio Orosi for the first time. On top of that, I get to do it in a Pink Creek Boat: The Jackson Rocker.

I have started to talk to some other kayakers here in Costa Rica, and we are starting to make plans, and everything is starting to fall together.

Tommorrow we are going to fire up the Upper Orosi, which is kinda like San Jose's answer to the Narrows. So it should be pretty cool. The first part of the run is called the Dinosaur Gorge, which for me, if anything is named after a dinosaur, it has to be awesome. After that, I am trying to decide between going to Turrialba for the night to run the Peijibaje or going back out to Sarapiqui for the night to run the Poza Azul again on Sunday.

More is soon to come, check back next week for an update on this coming weekends adventures. Also, good luck to everyone in the Green Race tommorrow, I wish I could be there!!! Keep that bow up!

My First 30 footer - La Poza Azul

2008-09-30T14:56:00.000-04:00

My journey to the Poza Azul began on a dreary afternoon here in San Jose. It was raining, I had nothing to do for the next few days, and I wanted to go kayaking. I got my gear together (which was still wet from the Pacuare the day before) and set off to the bus station. The first bus I took was to a town called Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. Once in Sararpiqui, I then took another bus to a nearby town called La Virgen. Once I was in La Virgen, I took a taxi to Sarapiqui Outdoor Center, where I stayed for the night.

La Virgen is famous for two things: the first is a chuch just outside of town where Ticos from all over the country gather on the first of every month to see miraculous appearances of the Virgin Mary. The other point of interest in La Virgen is the sicko whitewater.

The Sarapiqui river runs right through the center of town, and a major economic stimulant for Gringos that go rafting every day on the class III-IV river. Besides the Sarapiqui, there are several smaller creeks that fuel the main river, and these little creeks have some of the best whitewater in Costa Rica.

My plan was to stay at the Sarapiqui Outdoor Center (SOC) Friday night and do some creeking on Saturday. So when I arrived at the SOC and found that I was currently the only customer, the owner, David Duarte offered to show me around town. This was great chance to experience the Costa Rican nightlife with a native Tico, it was a world different than the American nightlife. I found myself really tired and returned to the SOC to wake up in the morning to the smell of breakfast.

After breakfast, David and I went to La Cataracta Poza Azul (Blue Pool Waterfall). This was the closest thing to a park-n-huck in Costa Rica. Except it wasn’t a park-n-huck. It was more like a drive-n-payafarmertousehisland-n-hike-n-scramble-n-climb-n-huck. But when we finally arrived at the Poza Azul, I was awestruck by its beauty.

I had never seen such a beautiful, straightforward, clean, 30 footer in my life. When you look at this drop, it just begs you to run it. After a scouting for a few minutes, I jumped in my boat and above the drop and for a second, I just sat there taking everything in. This was definitely the biggest drop I have ever thought about running, and to be sitting in the eddy, about to peel-out, I had a crazy feeling. I thought back to when I used to go cliff jumping at an old rock quarry, when I would stand there looking down, wondering if I should really jump or not. When you peel-out of that eddy, you don’t have much of a choice to stop – you’re going to do it whether you like it or not.

David went to the other side of the river to take pictures, and when he was set up to go, I peeled-out.

When I went over the lip, I was suspended in the air long enough to process a couple thoughts and take in the experience. It was such a great feeling.

When I was about to land, I remembered that I was supposed to put my paddle to the side of the boat to plug it, it was a good thing I remembered at the last second…

After I resurfaced, I yelled a loud “PURA VIDA!!!” and I was all smiles

After I climbed back up to the top, I gave David all my gear and he suited up and ran the drop as well. When I took the picture of him, it looked like he was inside the waterfall, so it’s a little hard to see him.

Right after he ran the drop, four other kayakers showed up and they ran it as well. I ended up becoming friends with those four guys and I found out that they live really close to me here in San Jose. I also found out that they run a rafting company on the Lower Pacuare River and they offered me a chance to go with them for free anytime I needed a shuttle. This was a good offer because the Lower Pacuare is one of the most beautiful runs here in Costa Rica.

We ran the drop again and took lots of pictures of our new friends and before we left.

(pulling the gear back up)

After we left, we paddled from the Poza Azul out to the Upper Sarapiqui river and had a short paddle down to the take out. At the take out rapid, there was a slalom course set up for a raft race later that day, we changed our clothes and watched the race before I returned to San Jose.

Overall, this is by far the best thing I have done so far here in Costa Rica. This was such a fun trip and I felt such a good vibe coming from the Rio Sarapiqui area. I am definitely going back soon.

Also, I have to throw a muchas gracias to my man David “Sombrilla” Duarte at Sarapiqui Outdoor center for setting safety and photography, as well as hooking me up with a place to stay. I would also like to throw a big PURA VIDA out to my new amigos that I met at the waterfall: Miguel, Daniel, and Albert.

Bienvenidos a Costa Rica - The Lower Pacuare River

2008-09-26T12:44:00.000-04:00

So I was finally able to go kayaking yesterday for the first time in Costa Rica. I have been here for about 5 days now, so I figured I would start out easy on the Lower Pacuare. This river is similar to the Ocoee in the southeast. It is the most commercially rafted river here in Costa Rica and the rapids are not super difficult. It is also that "one run" that you need to do if you are kayaking in Costa Rica.

My day began around 5:30 when I woke up to take the bus to Turrialba (Costa's version of Asheville). I arrived in Turrialba around 8:30 and I went over to Rainforest World, a rafting company owned and operated by West Virginian, Phil Colman. I met up with the crew that was going rafting and Phil let me use his Wavesport Forplay to run the river. For those unfamiliar with the forplay, here it is:
This superslicy playboat was a revolutionary boat of its time, but that time was a long time ago, so there were a few surprises when I tried to play around with the boat. This thing was a lot different than the boat I'm used to (the Fluid Solo), so it was a little shaky at first.

Speaking of things that were shaky, you should have seen this shuttle ride. It was pretty sketchy, especially in a truck loaded with 7 ticos, 2 kayaks, and 3 rafts. Imagine the shuttle on the Cheat river, but much rougher...

Anyway, once we got underway, I found myself in a beautiful gorge with endless whitewater and scenery. It seemed like I noticed a waterfall pouring into the river midway through every single rapid, it's a great way to get distracted.

The river itself is 16 miles long, so it made for a very long day. We stopped for lunch near an indigeonous village and dined among the wild pigs and chickens that were trying to eat our food...
From the river, I was able to see a lot of thatched roofs and indigenous dwellings, and I felt like I was alone out there in the middle of nowhere in this deep gorge, but it's a little erie when you know you are being watched...

The rapids on the river were not too difficult. I like to compare this stretch of river to a mix between the Middle Ocoee and the Lower Gauley; easy enough to have fun (and paddle a throwback boat), but difficult enough to keep your attention.

The best part of the river was a section called Canon Dos Montanas (Two Mountains Canon), this is a box canyon that is almost as deep as it is long. The indigenous tribes say that the spirt of the river lives in these walls. The best part of the canon is that there are multiple waterfalls dropping hundreds of feet into the river and you are able to paddle up to these waterfalls and get a little refreshing shower.

After a long day on the river, we arrived at the take out, where we were greeted with lots of native wildlife.

Las Mariposas (picture just for Emilia)

I guess the iguanas here just chill in the sun the same way we do, this guy had to be 3 feet long!!!

More is yet to come from Costa Rica. I have started to make some plans to run some more serious whitewater in the coming weeks. Hopefully I will get to do all the runs I want, but if not, I guess I am just going to have to come back again!

Pura Vida Amigos!!!

Pura Vida Costa Rica!

2008-09-11T02:01:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends,

I still haven't posted much on this blog yet, but that is soon to change. In a week, I'll be jumping on a plane and flying south to San Jose, Costa Rica,where I will live for the next three months. I'll be studying the Spanish language at a university in San Jose. I'm hoping that to take this as an opportunity to learn about a new culture as well as paddle some great whitewater.

You'll hear from me soon, but for now, I'll leave you with some pictures of what I've been up to this summer...

Matt looks on while Brandon Nessler stays dry on the Saluda River in Columbia, SC

Matt Porter looks for answers on the Saluda Riverbed

Don Lowery boofin' big at Boatbuster, Wilson Creek, NC

My little bro Chris, stylin' the French Broad

Matt at the US National Whitewater Center

Adam Johnson cleaning the falls at Big Splat, Lower Big Sandy Creek, WV

And one more shot of Matt below Gorilla on the Green River Narrows... what a day! (Photo by Rob Tompkins)

A Year of Paddling... In Pictures

2008-06-08T22:44:00.000-04:00

So they call it Progressionalism

2008-06-08T22:30:00.000-04:00

To me, the progressionalism is a journey. It means starting a trip that may never end, but will have lots of good times and great places along the way. This is the story of the journey that my friends and I embarked on about a year ago when I started kayaking. Here's what we've been up to...