East '08 update

This is a retro-posted update of a couple of trips out East in '08. A group of us (Dwall, Chuck, Tracy, Amy, Kyle, Will, Duffy and I) met up with Lazer at the Chattooga River in Georgia for some classic Southeastern boating. Amy, Will, and Dwall all did Section 3 together, while the rest of us put in at Bull Sluice and ran Section 4. Section 4 was gorgeous and the Five Falls were sweet! We had a great day and everyone ran laps on the Soc' em Dog boof until we were exhausted and could barely paddle out! Dwall was on his first trip out east, and after running Section 3 and firing up Bull Sluice, he wanted to do something else that was close and fun. We decided on the Ocoee River because the Upper Ocoee was running. We ran into some other AR boaters at the put in (Ryan Center's crew) and then proceeded down the river. Everyone was having a great time and Dwall was loving the Ocoee. He ran Alien Boof, even though he had never boofed before this trip, and did great. In fact, Dwall only screwed up in the olympic section. Not bad at all for his first trip out east. After the upper section, several of us continued down the lower section as well! Enjoy the pics!

Later in the year, I returned to the east to go boating on the Gauley River and the Upper Yough River. Bryan and I met up with Nate, Ernie, Cody, Scott, and others who were already in West (by god) Virginia. We started our trip off right by playboating on the Upper Gauley the first morning. It was my first time on the Upper G and I was loving it! Big waves and holes were everywhere, and more downriver play than I've ever experienced! After lunch, we decided to finish the day by joining a group of AR boaters down the middle section. We had a blast playing it up until it hurt, oh so good! The next day we met up with Tango (a buddy from CO who works on the river) and decided to do something a little different, so we creekboated the Upper G. It was a little pushy at first, but after getting used to it I loved creekboating the Gauley just as much as playboating it. The boof at Sweet's Falls was especially rewarding in a creekboat! We finished the afternoon by joining the other crew on a playboating session down the Lower Gauley. We had a blast surfing it up in five boat hole and diagonal ledges. Wow, I just realized we actually did the entire Gauley River on this trip! How cool is that?

Bryan and I pulled out of the Gauley with the rest of the crew and headed north to Friendsville, Maryland towards the Upper Yough. We found a sweet log shelter in the forest to crash in and enjoyed a fine gas station meal under the stars. The next morning, we rallied to the put in and were so enthusiastic about boating that we out ran the release for a minute or two. After a safety meeting, the water caught up to us and we boofed our way down the UpperYough loving every minute of it! The river was actually really creeky feeling and had tons of cool maze-like boulder drops. This was more my style than the Gauley and therefore, far more fun for me. At times I would land a boof only to begin charging for the next! What a sweet river run! Our crew all went for the hero eddy at National Falls and all got worked a little, except for Scott. I had the single best hole ride of the day and put on a memorable show to say the least! Bryan and I headed home feeling satisfied with our trip East.

The Ouachitas went off Wednesday(May 6) in a major way. Team Green rallied to the land of the gnar in the vicinity off the South Cedar drainage. We expected some full on boating and quickly realized that things were definitely gonna be BIG in those hills. After thinking about a list of goods in the area we decided to go to upper Mill Creek (Desoto run) and check the flow. Upon arrival Jody and I were stoked to see enough water for a 1st d! We then scouted possible lines while waiting on Greg to arrive. Once he got there, we set safety and I fired up the right of center channel into the main channel for the 1st d. Greg then fired up the main channel. I would say it was at a minimal flow for this run and with more water it will be sick for sure. Next, we went to South Cedar Creek and found it to be HUGE! Joe B and Todd showed up shortly after us ready to huck. We ran the upper drops, but the Chief was 5+ and bigtime burly. The line was there, but the Chief was definitely on the warpath and there were no takers this time. After lapping the other drops we decided to go to the Pineda slides on upper South Cedar Creek and found it at a medium flow. At that level the slides were easy money and a satisfying way to wrap up our day. We experienced sunny skies, huge flows, and class 3-5+ western bedrock style creeking in the Ouachita Mountains. What more could a boater ask for? It was another great day for sure.

Beech & Richland!

Well, I dusted off the playboat a little prematurely I guess. In fact, we just wrapped up one more fine weekend of creeking in the Ozark Mountains. With the perfect timing of the rain event Saturday morning, it turned out to be one sweet day for some Ozark creeking! Team Green rallied to the Ozark Mountains hoping to catch a run on something special. We ended up on Beech Creek, an uber-classic tributary of the Buffalo River. Beech is a long day of class 4-4+ creeking (when phat) and is typically hard to catch with phatty flows. It is the classic Ozark Creek in my opinion. My reasons for this statement are simple, the scenery is gorgeous, the run is quite long, and there are more quality class 4 drops on Beech than any other creek I can think of in the Ozarks! Our group consisted of Don, Shelby, Lazer, Steve, Pat, Riley, Kyle, Tracy, Amy, and myself. I knew we had a good level when Don swam on the 1st drop and hiked out! Shelby was right, it was going to be huge indeed! After the initial incident we had a couple of sketchy situations, but for the most part everyone did great. It was Amy's 1st Beech run and apparently she has now joined Tracy and Jonna as one of only three female boaters to run Beech (according to Shelby aka the Beech guru)! Props to Amy for becoming a "Beech Babe"! Enjoy the pics.

Steve in an unnamed rapid.

Kyle Styling Beech Ball!

Steve @ Beech Falls! below- Lazer @ Beech Falls!

Joe C @ Beech Falls! below- Tracy @ Beech Falls!

Amy @ Beech Falls! below-The gorgeous scenery of Beech Creek!

Sunday morning we awoke to maintenance rain and good levels on EFLB & Richland Creek. After considering a run down EFLB our crew ultimately decided to go for Richland, with hopes of hucking Long Devils Falls. Our crew consisted of Bryan, Tracy, Kyle, Amy, Nate, and myself. We arrived at the put in to see 5-6 inches of airspace under the bridge. We hustled downriver hoping to get in some hucks off of Long Devil's Falls! Upon arrival at the confluence we were stoked to see enough water to run the falls. Team Green joined forces with Ben and Jake, who were taking a break at the confluence, and carried up to the falls for a quick huckfest. Good lines were had by all. The gorge was booftastic and on our trip down, it started raining again! When we got to the takeout our crew was still fired up and wanted another lap, since the creek was on the rise again. On our 2nd lap (0 inches) we bombed down and rode the surge, finishing in under an hour! What a great weekend of boating in the Ozarks! Enjoy the pics. Amy @ Richland Falls!

above-Bryan @ Richland Falls!

Tracy @ Richland Falls!

left-Tracy @ Long Devils Falls! below- Jake & Ben @ Long Devils Falls!

'08 West trip update

This is an update from our trip out west during the '08 season! Amy and I spent a month out west last year for our honeymoon. Three weeks were spent in Cali! Once arriving in CA we met up with Kyle and Tracy to do some boating. We did the Chamberlain Falls section of the North Fork of the American River, the South Fork of the American River (Kyburz & the gorge), South Silver Creek, the Nordi run on the Cal-Salmon River, and the South Fork of the Salmon River while we were there. California was absolute kayaking nirvana! White granite, huge drops, huge trees, and gorgeous mountain scenery. The American River runs were filled with boulder style rapids and South Silver Creek was a granite creeking wonderland dropping some 700 feet in around a mile! The Salmon River is in the far Northwest corner of CA and had an entirely different look and feel than the Sierra's. The Salmon's drops were solid bigwater style rapids and the South Fork of the Salmon had several intimidating gorges with a big water, yet slightly creeky feel. The Salmon River area was simply breathtaking and felt really isolated from everthing, a perfect place to end our Cali trip. We stopped in CO for a few runs on the way through as well. In CO we got on OBJ,Browns Canyon, and the Numbers of the Arkansas. Video of South Silver Creek is located to the right on the video bar. Enjoy the huge photo dump below!

Peace out!