Epic Highs and Epic Lows

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.