Hopeful scouting.

July 4th, 2008.
Since the bulk of our kayaking season is spent boating in the rain and/or snow here on the west side of the Cascades, many of us look forward to small outings in the hot, arid canyons of the east Cascades. Sunshine, sweet camping and the wonderful scent of pine forests creates a relaxing atmosphere in which to savor the mix of fast clear water in steep, granite-filled canyons.

After a few trips to run the usual Icicle, Lil’ Wen. and the ’snatchee I was getting the itch to check out something new, so, - still wanting to escape the wet-side - I looked to some possibilities of some east-side hike-in options that seem to escape most peoples radars.

With Justin Tatosian just in from Wyoming, he and Andrew Oberhart were up in B’ham, ande we were using some of their vacation time lapping Clearwater when we hatched the plan to make the 6 hr drive to check out this new section of creek that we had scouted on a previous mountain bike ride.

We started out the trip heading east on Highway 20. Most of the time when driving this stretch of road the conversation starts to flow to the de-watered section of the Skagit river. This amazing canyon - and one can only imagine what the canyons above it looked like before the dams filled them in - has been dewatered since some time around 1920. Of all the trips we collectively had taken across the pass we had never once seen water flowing down this riverbed, this was our lucky day.

Definitely lots water and lots of gradient.

We stopped in a few spots to scout and consider if this section would be worth running at these flows. Almost immediately we were sure that putting on was not going to happen. What looked to be between 5 and 10 thousand cfs was raging through the canyon creating some impressive almost unrunnable rapids. We enjoyed scaring ourselves for awhile but the light was waning and we had a few hours drive left ahead of us.

1st half of one of the decent looking rapids.

Second half of the same rapid.

I know what you’re thinking…I thought it too.

The next morning after a quick breakfast we headed for the trailhead to get started on our 4 mile hike. The trail was in good shape and we made good time getting to the put-in. It seems like the first hike of the year is always the worst; your pack isn’t dialed, you carry too much stuff, and you generally just don’t remember how bad it can hurt.

Ryan Bradley looking a bit uncomfortable. Andrew O. photo.

Anyway, we arrived at the put-in around noon and after a quick lunch we dropped in. The creek took off through some class 3 and 4, then almost immediately we encountered a tall looking rapid with a bunch of wood at the top. After quick scout by Andrew and a few hand signals we had a great line through the twisty, ledgy rapid. Below this the creek just kept on cruising through unceasing class 3-4 with tons of blind-corners, small eddies and the occasional 4+ drop.

On the hike up you have the chance to scout the crux mini-canyon with a few stout drops and a waterfall. At first glance the falls looks like a perfect 15′ catwalk type slide with a fun 8′ ledge above it, but, when we got there, and upon closer inspection it tuned out the ledge was beefy, and there was a bad piece of wood just below it. To make matters worse if you didn’t style the first ledge you would have a hard time making it to the left side of the waterfall where the only semi-acceptable line was, acceptable only if you were O.K. with the possibility of falling off the slide and getting an unpleasant stuffing into the undercut below the slide/catwalk. We opted for the pain in the ass portage on the wrong side of the river. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Andrew scouting.

This boof incited feelings of joy for Andrew…

Justin Tatosian on a fun ledge drop.

Ryan scouting the big hole.

Justin about to fly on the great cross-current boof.

Chris from below. Andrew O. Photo.

Just downstream of this mini gorge is one more walled-in series of ledges. The first ledge is full of wood, the second is an 8′ river wide ledge with a BIG boof but an even BIGGER hole. Just below the ledge is the sweetest cross-current boof into an eddy, super clean. After the mini-gorge we were fired up for some more fun rapids, unfortunately we had used up our gradient, and thus only had one more long, fast, 4+ rapid before our take-out at camp.

Cayoosh worn out from a 15 mile bike ride.

Our aim was to go to the Gold River area and explore a few rivers that had, or hadn’t been paddled before. Either way, when we awoke in the morning and started our search for a put-in, we knew that the days would be nothing short of epic.

The camping was easy and pleasing.

Bryan S. starting the day off right. Pamela creek.

After a bit of mank came this fun slide just above a double-falls. Shane R. Pamela creek.

Shertzl stomping out the first of the double-falls. Pamela creek.

Togg G. I think this is the rapid we named “Tommy Lee.”

After “Tommy Lee,” the difficulty eases up to boogie water all the way to the confluence with the Ucona. Just downstream of the confluence we entered a nice canyon with a few fun class 4 rapids untill we arrived at a horizon line.

Let me just say that I love the feel of paddling across a pool, the river all slack and lazy due to some impediment in the river bed, and looking ahead to see nothing but the tops of trees, sky, and maybe some rock. Throw in a log chocked 30 ft in the air and I know why I love the N.W.

So I took a picture.

Bryan from below.

Just below this falls was another fun, stress free falls with a sweet spot that was tricky to line-up for.

Jakub D. boofing the lower of the 2 falls on the Ucona.

Todd. The sweet spot.

Shertzl. U.T.R.

Our stratagem at this point was to paddle the next 4 or 5 km through a lower canyon which we were unsure wether it had ever been run. Most of the group decided that 5 o’clock in the evening was too late to start a exploratory run down a steep, remote, canyon in the heart of bear country. They could not be cajoled, and so a decision was made to leave our boats for the night, paddle the canyon the next day. To be more efficient half of us would hike to fetch the truck at the put-in and the other half were to spend some time hiking downstream for a scout to see what the canyon looked like. Heres how the scouting went:

No scary, class 5 canyons here.

View from camp that night.

Ryan B. finds a clean boof in a dirty rapid.

The next morning as we made our way downstream the nice granite we had been sliding and boofing on the previous day disappeared and some gnarly, sketchy, rock took its place.

We had to get creative to find routes through this.

Big and clean. Bryan stomping it.

From upstream it didnt look like we would make it past this rapid with out going way up and around. Fortunately it turned out to be good. Shane R.

After the rapid with the chock rock the river found its gradient and took off through a total P.O.S. jumble. We portaged -for about 2 or more hours- right down to the take-out basically. All in all the canyon was pretty but the rapids weren’t that clean and portages were to long for me to return.

After the long day on the Lower Ucona we came up plan to paddle the Gold River Trifecta: The Gold river, the Upana, and the Heber. All in one day. This was a pretty audacious goal considering the Gold had only been run once before, and the beta came in the typical B.C. form: “Nice canyon mostly class 4 with a couple 5’s.”

Entrance rapid into the canyon. The must-make eddy is at the top on river left.
The first half hour was fun, boogie class 3-4 until we round a corner and are faced with box canyon and high-speed, wavy, hole filled rapid leading in to it. It was the absolute typical ” Round the corner and barely catch the last eddie,” kinda scene, complete with a micro-pulsing eddy. After a long scout we decided to portage the rapid in the canyon and put-in below it. However the “put-back-in options” sucked.

Option 1: Sketchy seal launch to pinch rapid.

Option 2: 30ft + Chuck-n-Huck.

Decent rapids in the middle of the short canyon. Bryan.

Then a big one at the end of the canyon that was difficult to scout and portage. Those who portaged had to do another 20+ Chuck-n-Huck. Those that ran it made it through but not in style.

We spent most of our day dorking around on the Gold river and knew we weren’t going to complete the trifecta. We were OK with that but we wanted to paddle the Upana since Jakub knew it and it was only 2 km long with a sweet 8 meter falls in the middle. We quickly ran shuttle and made the 10 minute drive from the Gold take-out to the Upana put-in.

The Upana started out manky, then slammed into a canyon and got interesting. We didn’t take alot of pictures here, just the best rapid at the end and the falls.

Todd droppin’ the falls.

And Mr. Bradley.

Todd flyin’ on the super sick sideways boof!

And Bryan.

We go where eagles dare.

Van. Island is absolutely an amazing destination for remote, beautiful whitewater. I’ll be back every year.

SHORT TERM…SINCE I COULD SEE MY BREATH ON THE WAY IN TO WORK LAST
NIGHT I DECIDED TO LOOK UP THE RECORDS FOR COLD JUNES. SURE
ENOUGH…THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE…DEPENDING ON THE TEMPERATURES
TODAY…THAT THIS WILL BE THE COLDEST FIRST WEEK OF JUNE ON RECORD
IN SEATTLE INCLUDING THE FEDERAL BUILDING RECORDS WHICH GO BACK TO
1891.

But a month or more had gone by since we had done some “adventure” style boating and the decision to continue on with the plan to run the upper and lower canyons of Silver creek was made.

In a effort to save fuel and cash during these times of rising costs, Erik S. and I decided put aside his gas guzzlin’, styly’, and comfortable “Man Truck,” to drive my 35+mpg, damp, heater-less, defroster-less, 87 Suby wagon on the way to meet up with Andrew and Todd. However while gearing up in the rain and fumbling with my new boat-pack with numb hands I was beginning to regret our decision to drive my Suby and was left without recourse when everyone began s@*% talking about my squeege-come-defroster.

It was obvious early on what we were in for.

The trail is littered with old mine shafts.

Cold wet shlog.

The 2+ mile hike along the canyon rim of Silver creek provides numerous enticing views of the creek and canyons. With the exception of the scramble across the landslide -and a creek crossing or two- the whole trail is an old railroad grade and is a pretty easy hike. We spent around 2.5 hours hiking and scouting our way up the creek. We could have made better time but with nearly 2ft of snow on the trail and along the rim of the creek our scouting and walking became sluggish. As if the snow didn’t slow us down enough, our few glimpses into the canyons provided us with enough views of new wood to know we needed to take it slow and scout carefully while on the water.

By the time we got to the put-in above the upper canyon we were all pretty wet and cold, so we ate a fast lunch and peeled out into the current and launched off the 1st sweet boof of the day. Almost immediately downstream of the 1st boof we were out of our boats and scouting some semi-manky boulder jumbles, our progress below here was further impeded by large downed trees freshly fallen into the creek from the river banks.

Todd 1st boof.

Erik same.

Todd probing the pinch that used to be a falls.

Deep in the upper canyon.

Todd at the top of the biggest rapid in the upper canyon

And at the bottom.

Amazing water color.

Generally, all the best rapids in the upper canyon were in good shape, but we were careful not to let our guard down and so spent a lot of time out of the boats checking for wood -this did nothing to help us warm up. Our original plan was to run at least 2 of the 3 big drops that divide the upper run from the lower, however, by the time we got to the first pinch falls we were freezing and just wanted to get to the lower where we could hopefully stop “dealing” and just rally through some of the classic drops. So, we climbed up and around the crux zone and seal launched back into the canyon just above the sweet put-in falls.

Erik from one angle.

And from another.

And then Todd.

Just downstream of the put-in falls our plan to rally through the lower canyon was blocked… by an avalanche. Apparently this winters substantial low elevation snowpack in conjunction with a devastating late season avalanche cycle, produced a large enough slide to fully cover the creek with 20+ feet of snow and debris. A quick scout of the tunnel that the creek has cut out of the slide revealed a clean class 3 rapid in about 80ft of tunnel. Todd set up for photos and I readied myself to probe it.

Todd checking out the snow slide.

Andrew from the top.

Andrew at the bottom.

Lucky he made it.

Todd.

Now I am not entirely superstitious but one thing I try to avoid when on the river is to not jinx myself, or the group. When attempting to not jinx myself I may avoid expressing statements such as: “Oh, no one ever gets stuck in that hole,” or maybe “This gorge isn’t as steep as I thought.” The possible ironic action associated with these statements would obviously be me getting beat down in that very hole, or, an unrunnable, unportageable canyon. This superstition was put to the test in the upper canyon when I was told by one of our group that “[what could happen] its only 100 cfs,” and then not 30 seconds later I was boofing over said boater while they were getting a very nasty beat down in a small pocket hole. So when, just before I drop in, Erik says, “If that [snow bridge] collapses on you while your under it, you will know it was your time to die,” I had pins and needles racing up and down my spine. Despite the horrible timing of Erik’s comment, we all made it through the tunnel unscathed, and felt really lucky to have the unique opportunity to encounter such a feature while on the river.

From the avalanche through the crux triple drop -and all the way to the landslide zone- the creek was in decent shape. Unfortunately we had miserable luck below here. Immediately downstream of the landslide the creek turned into a absolute wood-filled mess, on our way to the confluence with the NF. Skykomish we portaged over 10 times and did some creative rock sliding down the side of some rapids just to stay in our boats. There was one good double drop that improved our moral for just a moment but then we were back to dragging our boats around class 3 rapids filled with wood.

Todd in the frothy rapid just below the snow slide.

Andrew dropping into “Dewey.”

Punching the hole.

Todd about to do the same.

This was the best rapid below the landslide.

Lower ledge.

Someday if the wood ever cleans out of the upper and lower canyons, and the main road opens up, Silver creek could really be a classic, but until then its a ton of work for a short stretch of pretty whitewater.

One last thing: Bruce and the kids, Thank you for all your help!

Tri.fect.a (tri-fekt-a)

-(in sing.) A run of three wins or grand events.

Origin 1970’s: From Tri- (three) + Perfecta.

9:00 AM - Mt. Baker W.A., 3 friends drop into “Gordys” on a 25 degree morning with over a foot of new pow, slashing the backside wall and running through thier own “tube” of white fluff before stomping one of the many “diving board” style hits on the frontside wall. The backcountry crew is already breaking track up Mt. Herman; a train of nearly a dozen people with an untouched canvas of white laid out before them, an adventure in the making…

Earning turns with Mt. Shuksan in the background.

Todd Gillman laying one down.

On the way to making turns on the untouched sweetness in the background.

1:30 PM - Snow and sunshine are prevalent at the put-in for the Bend, as is the sound of laughter and people re-living thier accounts of the mornings most epic turns, and epic carnage. The flows are low, but it doesn’t matter, while on the river everyone is busy chatting or enjoying the view of 17 people blue-angeling the “Bender” rapid, “Bench drop”, or “S.A.T.” Bottles get tipped at the take-out, its already been an amazing day, and now we are off to the next leg…

Great showing despite the low flows.

Amy Brown @ the Bench drop.

Don Dickinson in S.A.T.

What is this guy thinking??!!

Jenni Pelc showing the crowd how its done in S.A.T.

There were some “Un-desireables” hanging around the river that day.

Let the beer flow…

3:30 PM - The competition is stiff at the glacier disc golf course. A course well know for punishing a person with a wild throw; bushing whacking, mud traps, and lost discs being the normal penalties. The beer is now flowing pretty well, Donnie and Eric are neck in neck but Donnie finishes out the game in style with a 6 under. Everybody is muddy, tired, and hungry and looking forward to the spread that awaits us at Ryan and Jenni’s house.

Amy showing how its done

Dufay with the proper disc golf implements.

7:00 PM - Ryan’s parents Dick and Bonnie win as cooks of the year in my book. While we were “playing” they were slaving away in the kitchen so that we could come home to a smorgasbord of salmon, chicken, steak, along with deluxe salads and cooked veggies. Many other participants contributed an amazing array of creative desserts to share. The party raged hard and ended fast as the days events caught up with everyone and gave them the proverbial kick in the ass.

Bad photo but you get the idea.

Ryan helping out with the cooking.

I think that everyone involved had a awesome day, and, once again spent the day living life to its fullest. This is exactly what our brother Brent did with his life, and I feel its an honor to experience a day in those footsteps. Thank you everybody for coming out! And thank you Ethan Smith, Eric Mickelson, Hilary Neevel for all the photo’s.
NEXT:

Thursday the 24th, BWW held our annual video premiere in Bellingham. The main attraction for the evening was Hotel Charley 3, an adventure film by Ben Stookesbury and Jesse Coombs. The turnout for the evening was awesome as usual, the stoke was high, the movie entertaining, and a good time was had by all. We raised over $700.00 for AW and signed up 10 new members!

I want to put out a big Thank You to all our sponsors: Yeagers, Johnson Outdoors, REI, New Belgium Brewing, Bandito Burrito’s, Backcountry Essentials, and the Outdoor Center. Also a Thanks to the volunteers who helped make the evening happen. Thanks!

THEN:

Saturday afternoon the first (of many, hopefully) Robe canyon race was held. Racers started just above the Tunnel rapids and finished the race 30+ minutes downstream after Conversation. This section on the S.F. Stilliguamish, being one of the best sections of river in the state, is a perfect host for this type of event, with good, clean class 4-5 in a pushy river canyon, its not surprising the level of athletes that showed up for saturdays race.

Hats off to Ben Hawthorne and Rob McKibbin for taking first place in what may turn out to be one of the most grueling races around. For more about the race and to see some more sweet photos check out The Range Life.

Hilary Neevel stomping out Last Sunshine.

The starting line.

Garbage.

Next years womens team?

Hilary Neevel. Support crew.

Robe Canyon.

AND FINALLY:

With hopes that this will be the first of many fine spring time runs down our favorite local creek, a few of us braved the snow ladden banks of Clearwater Creek on Monday for a “Second D” of the season. The flows were low but good enough, with .5 on the new guage being similar to the old 3.2. Along with sliding and boofing our way downstream, we were hooting and hollering with joy to have the chance to dip our paddles in this excellent stream after along winter hiatus.

Heres some pics from the day:

Rocky Road.

This photo taken on APRIL 29th!!!…????

Hilary Neevel b-low Orange Slice.

Below Orange Slice again.

Ryan Bradley boofing the new line on Owen’s drop.

Hale Hanaway stylin’ my favorite “Tweener rapid.”

Ryan Bradley on Ski Jump.

Our U.T.R. Captain provided us with ample Shertlvision for the day when he forgot the keys at the put-in….

Stay tuned, our next mission is coming soon!

The Rio Jondachi is one of the classic Ecuadorian rivers. In fact, it’s not uncommon for boaters staying in the the town Tena to do nothing but the Jondachi for days on end. This phenomenon is partially due to the fact that it is a friendly class 4-5 run with a bus shuttle right from town. The main reason is, of course, the character of the river. Nowhere else in the surrounding area is there the same mix of gradient, granite boulders, and jungle scenery, which is what really makes it the classic it is.

The first month down here I found myself too busy for a chance on the Jondachi, but finally my day came in December.

With a typical boater start, we were on the bus by 11 o-clock in the morning. I was a bit nervous, as Hilary and I had never paddled the Jondachi and were in playboats, Logan, our guide, hadn’t paddled it since the year before, and that on top of a late start, changes in the river since last year and the notorious afternoon flash floods kept the tensions high.

As the bus drove over the take-out bridge our glimpse of the creek revealed the flow to be just about perfect ¨Sweet, I thought, as long as it doesn’t flood on us and nothing goes wrong, we’re set.¨

The bus dropped us off on the side of the road and we began to suit up for the 20 minute muddy shlog to the put-in. In the future we would play a game on the way to the put-in where the 1st person to fall had to buy beers for everyone, if another person fell they would split the cost, etc..

Jondachi hike in.

Arriving at the river at 2 o clock, we all quickly made the decision to skip the 1st half of the 1st rapid below the bridge and get moving.

Immediately we found ourselves in some great class 4ish rapids with great technical moves. Logan was doing a great job remembering the rapids, though we did have one close call where Logan went under a small log that was just above the water. Logan lost his paddle and went over the ledge nearly upside down, handrolled and got his paddle back before the next drop, luckily. I bought a saw and took care of the tree the next time we were on the Jondachi; it’s a really fun boof now.

The rapid known as ¨Sideways boof.

We worked our way through the crux half mile with a few quick scouts, and a sneak past the undercut-hole combo known as ¨Sticky-fingers.¨

In the crux zone now!

The rapids mellowed out a bit, but, they never stopped coming; this run is stacked with rapids and even when they are not difficult you still can’t always see around the large boulders to know if the rest of the rapid is free of wood or not.

At around 4:30 we made it to the 1st portage, known as ¨Tres Huevos (3 eggs)¨. This year, Tres Huevos had a log in the entrance ledge, making it a difficult move to stick; the out-come of an un-stuck line was to be flushed toward a sieve-crack between 2 of the 3 ¨Eggs¨ with only one chance to catch a eddy above it. This is also near the halfway mark, and with dark coming around 6 o- clock everyday it also meant we needed to start boogieing.

Rail grabs still rule.

Hilary coming thru.

Theres scenery like this in every eddy.

About 20 minutes downstream was ¨Typhoid falls,¨ which had a sneak-portage line down the right. From Typhoid falls down, the river eases up to class 3 plus boogie water with a few decent rapids thrown in here or there. We made good time through here but still ended up at the take-out bridge at 6 o-clock. Close one.

Lucky for us, a bus came by immediately. Hilary passed boats up to Logan and I, and as we were working on tying the boats down to the top of the bus, the driver must have gotten antsy and started to drive off. With no other option, we finished tying down the boats and sat on top of the bus for the hour long ride back to Tena. It was a beautiful sunset that night and we had the best seats from which to view it from.

The ride home…

kayakers on the lower Jondachi.

Here’s a couple images from Feliz Año Nuevo (New Years). The local custom is to make a doll of straw and dress it up with masks and clothing to characterize the change, or habit, you hope to make or see in the new year. Then you burn it!

Decorating…

Dousing…

Burning.

During another week off Hilary and I had a chance to hook up with Pat from the Wesnatchee zone and Marco from B.C. They had a couple of weeks of vacation and were looking to get after it. After a couple laps on the Jondachi and a ridiculously long 28 mile day on the Rio Hollin, we headed back to the Quijos drainage and fired up the Papallacta, a major trib of the Quijos.

The Papallacta is a steep small creek that is roadside if you don’t mind hiking up 1000 ft from the river to the road. The creek starts off mellow enough for a half mile before dropping into a mile long gorge full of twisting ledges, menacing holes, and very few eddies; all of this makes up the crux of the run.

Stopping for some media.

The rest of the run eases up a bit, but continued to challenge us with some complex boulder gardens that had super classic boof moves interspersed with must-make moves. A sick boof into the Rio Quijos marks the end of this run.

Brian killing it.

Another classic run we hit up was the Rio Oyacachi. The Oyacachi has a great multiday upper section that rarely ever gets done. Most boaters head to the put-in 8 miles up from its confluence with the Quijos where the Oyacachi immediately tilts downhill and into high gear, sliding around, over, and sometimes under a streambed of medium-sized boulders.

Hilary in the maelstrom.

When the Oyacachi is running high it is an unstoppable maelstrom of monster hole after monster hole with tight twisting lines between them. It F&$! rules. Highly recommended.

Yup thats a ¨Y¨ boat.

In January the Ecuadorian Rivers Institute holds the annual Napo Fest. This festival is to raise awareness for the Napo river and its tributaries. The main issues of awareness are pollution of garbage, fecal matter, and rising sediment levels due to in-river quarries.

Pat on a Rio Napo tributary. Land of Giants, Rio Misahualli

The festival started in Tena on Friday night with some music and dancing in the town square. On Saturday the festival moved down to Puerto Misahualli for a day full of river games. Lets see, there were free kayaks for kids to play with, which was probably the most popular activity all day. There were also a handful of competitions: raft races, balsa wood boat building race, kayak sprint and of course a rodeo, which was won once again by Jaime, a Tena local who has been winning the rodeo for the past few years. The evening held a candlelight vigil and local indigenous dancing.

Locals on a balsa wood raft.

Chillin in Ahuano.

On the 3rd day anybody who could find something to float on was invited to join the mass flotilla from Puerto Misahualli to Ahuano. In Ahuano there was painting for the children and more local indigenous dancing. All in all it was a great weekend: lots of fun to see the locals so excited about the preservation of their river, and I think they just like a reason to party too.

Don, Darcy, Hilary, and I spent a few days doing some paddling on the Rio Coca and its tributaries. The Coca is amazing remote overnight jungle run with some of the grandest scenery I experienced in Ecuador. A quick look at a topo map will show you the run is in the deepest canyon of the Rio Coca and every part of it is an adventure. First you have a 1.5 hour hike in with a quick side trip to look down into the craziest chasm I’ve ever seen: the whole river (and when I say river I mean like 20-30,000 cfs) gets squeezed down into a chasm 4-500 feet deep and only 10-20 feet wide. It is an amazing scene, and you put in right at the bottom of it.

A really big river in a really small canyon.

The Coca put-in. Above here the river is called the Quijos.

Below the put-in is 4 hours of huge water read-n-run class 4-4plus in a sick canyon. Besides the canyon and the whitewater, this river corridor is infested with tons of monkeys, birds, and other random jungle dwellers.

Hilary floating out of the Coca canyon.

Big water surfing.

Heres a few other random pics from our travels:

This is what happens to you when boating in the jungle of Ecuador.

Chichi monkeys. I would make that face too if I had that much banana to eat.

This is what happens when kayakers have to play with rafts.

Well, that’s it for the Ecuador updates for this spring. Sometime this fall I will post video of the rivers and surrounding area.

Hasta luego.

Make no mistake – I love a proper winter!

But there are some drawbacks. These conditions have not only shut down boating on Clearwater, but have also prevented new, local material from appearing on our web page. Instead, Chris and Hilary have bean able to taunt us all winter long with pictures of happy short sleeved boaters and stories of beautiful canyons in South America, while we remain BOOF-less.

I believe this situation is morally wrong, so I was inspired to take action. Posted below are a few of my favorite boofs from 07. Hopefully it will encourage some of you who take your cameras out more than me to take a break from waxing your boards and post some of yours. Then there will be a fresh place to turn when the Middle Fork gage is reading below 300, again…

Donnie Dickinson celebrating Bert day at first annual Trifecta in April! Bench Drop, NF Nooksack River

Owen Callahan sticking two in a row (actually three, but only two are shown)Rutherford River, BC.

Eric Mickelson, clearly looking forward to the foam pile on this one. The big waterfall, Callaghan Creek, BC.

Justin Cook styling some unexpected air time (photo: Denny Lunge)”First Falls” Middle Callaghan Creek, BC.

Jon Dufay — the Doof nails his boof. Put-in waterfall, Cheakamus River, BC.

Ryan boofing “Little Beaver Falls”. Little Beaver Creek, North Cascades.

Chris Tretwold, stepping up for this 1st D. Trial Falls, Thunder Creek, North Cascades.

This is kayaking in Ecuador.

Boaters on the last half of “Kinda worthy,” Upper Rio Misahualli.

Of the 30 some odd days we’ve been here, we have paddled 26 days on 12 different rivers and numerous different sections of whitewater on the Rio Quijos and Rio Misahualli.

Upper Rio Misahualli.

More upper Rio Misahualli.

Every new section of river has been really top notch, its amazing that there can be so many miles of good whitewater in such a small area. Some are better than others, of course, or maybe I am just a sucker for warm water and huge granite boulders, I dunno.

Ecuador has nearly every conceivable type of boating we could want: from large volume rivers with dynamic surf waves and huge holes (biggest I have ever seen), to small volume steep creeks with tons of sick boofs off smooth granite boulders, and when most of the runs are a continuous 6-8 miles long (many are longer) you get your money’s worth.

Hilary at the lower Rio Misahualli put-in. Tena.

Big water on the lower Rio Misahualli.

The lower Rio Misahualli portage.

So far some of the highlights of our trip have been the Rio Cosanga: Damn good continuous, fun, class 4 rapids, clear water and amazing scenery. Also the Rio Piatua. Just last year a road was put in next to the river, making this run accessible for the first time. This little gem has a very pristine watershed and granite strewn everywhere. I am sure when people start running this more it will become a classic.

Rio Piatua.

Don Beveridge, boater extraordinaire.

Hilary. The Rio Piatua.

Darcy and Hilary somewhere in the land of 2-5 foot boofs.

The upper and lower Rio Jondachi are arguably the most scenic runs in the area. The upper Jondachi has over 80 rapids in six miles, not to mention countless great boofs. Photos coming soon…

No other river in the area has as many quality, navigable river miles as the Rio Quijos. A kayaker could put on the Rio Quijos and paddle over a hundred miles of river with only one portage around San Rafael falls (not an easy portage…).

San Rafael falls.

Even with another month of so of boating down here ahead of us, we are already thinking of coming back next year, and the next…

Me enjoying time at Cabañas Tres Rios.

If you are interested in planing a boating trip to Ecuador, there are a few different ways to do it. One would be to sign up for a guided trip with Small World Adventures. Larry, Don, and Darcy know their sh$&”!$% and offer up a very affordable way to experience boating here. Let them deal with the complicated logistics while you enjoy the boating and the first class accommodations at Cabañas Tres Rios.

That said If you are interested in a DIY trip pick up a guide book and learn some Spanish. Also try to bring a boat down and plan on selling it before you leave, at 15-20 bucks a day boat rental adds up fast.

Some of the many shuttle scenarios:

Right now (Nov-Mar) is the best time to be boating in Ecuador. In just the last week, boaters from all over the world have been showing up and getting on it.

Hasta luego.

After getting back from a paddling trip in Alaska, I received a call from Ryan Bradley, who declared that he had a case of “Little Beaver Fever”. I knew exactly what Ryan meant by this, since Chris Tretwold and I had recently returned from the first reconnaissance trip to scope out Little Beaver Creek.

With three weeks left in July, we figured this was our window to get an ample-enough flow before the creek dropped out.

We rallied Ethan Smith before he left for Portland. With a trio of boaters and a 25-foot fishing boat, we were off to the north end of Ross Lake and the rarely if ever run Little Beaver Creek.

One month earlier, Chris Tretwold and I had explored Lightning Creek via sea kayak. This time we had the luxury and also the hassle of a twenty five foot fishing boat with 250 horsepower. The logistics proved to be a bit worrisome once we reached Hozomeen and realized we had suffered a flat tire on the boat trailer.

With the better part of the tour ahead of us, we ignored fixing the flat at the parking lot, deciding it would be easier to fix it when we got back and without the-two ton fishing boat on the trailer. We loaded all of our gear on the boat, and Ryan, Ethan, and I jetted thirty knots per hour to our base camp.

Arriving at Little Beaver Campground, we all agreed the boat was the ideal transport to get to the take out. Then, out of the sky we heard the loud buzz of a single prop float plane as it roared to a landing on the lake.

The plane approached the dock, and a father taking his kids on a camping trip from Everett moored right next to us. Chatting a bit with the pilot he said it took them about 40 minutes to fly from Everett. Oh the possibilities! After fantasizing about the potential of a float plane, we got the mission underway.

We set up camp and hiked our boats to the put in before dark. Similar to Lightning Creek, the hike out of camp consisted of a series of switchbacks until we had gained 1000 feet, and then leveled off for a nice stride to the put in.

Scouting the creek from the trail was difficult; we were only able to get a couple solid glimpses of the creek to predict the nature of the rest of the run, though it looked favorable to scout from river level. The parts that we were able to see were bedrock with some assorted boulder gardens. Sweet!

After a five mile hike to the put in, we stashed our boats then returned to base camp for dinner, beer, and sleep.

The next morning we convened around bowls of oatmeal, discussed the day ahead, and prepared for our hike up to our boats.

Our hike was cool to start, but by the time we arrived at our boats it was seventy-five degrees and bluebird skies. The water levels that we observed from the bank seemed as amiable as the July weather! Levels appeared to be in the 400-500 cfs range.

The first two miles consisted of braided channels, and a few log jams. Some of the jams we portaged, others we managed to limbo under. After the first two miles we reached “The Beaver Tail”. This was the first significant rapid in the start of the gorge.

This rapid consisted of a sloping ten foot slide, then a ramp that propelled us to the top of an eight-foot slide into a beautiful pool. The day was looking promising!

After the “Beaver Tail” the creek just seemed to get better as we descended. A couple of class IV+ rapids that required a bit of scouting led us to “Little Beaver Falls”.

(Ryan with a nice pull)

After scouting the clean twelve-foot boof, we ran our boats off the lip of this rapid with no hesitation. With smiles on our faces, we continued downstream to see what was ahead.

The sun continued to shine and the white water did not seem to stop. The “Beaver Whip” was a river-wide slide into a marginally sticky hole.

We easily blasted through the hole at the bottom. During a few river discussions we all agreed that with more water these drops would pack a bit more punch.

After such great fortune with the rapids upstream, our luck changed when we got to the “Beaver Lodge” a scary 18 foot waterfall with a nasty undercut on the left side.

(A view of the “Beaver Lodge” from a log)

The undercut was just large enough for a boat and passenger. Most of the outflow from the water fall surged directly into the pocket. Rather than take the chance in getting stuffed like a corpse in a coffin. We decided to do a complex portage, rigging a pulley system for our boats around the cliff wall to the left.

Getting past this crux was a relief, but we still had three quarters of a mile to go before we reached the placid waters of the lake. After the portage, the rapids continued in a beautiful bedrock gorge all the way to the lake with great read-and-run drops, bordering on class IV to V in difficulty.

(Ethan lining up)

Arriving at base camp ahead of schedule, we decided to motor around the lake and scout a few other drainages of interest. The other creeks revealed some potential but as predicted, access was far less than desirable.

With our trip coming to an end, and with Ethan having an important meeting on Monday, we headed back to Hozomeen to deal with the limping trailer.

After installing the spare we noticed one slight problem: The spare was about three sizes smaller than its sister tire. We only had one choice and that was to try driving on it and see what happened.

Eight miles down the 30 mile washboard road, we blew not one, but two more tires. With the only spare shredded, we were stuck.

We managed to get the trailer jacked up, and unhitched the boat to allow the truck the freedom to get some new tires. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and no tire shops were open until Monday. Our only choice was to wait until morning and deal with the tire situation then.

Luckily the liquor store was not closed! We bought a bottle of Black Velvet, returned to the boat, hunkered down in the cabin to avoid the impending rainfall, and drank a little whisky!

The following morning we dealt with the blown tires, re-attached the trailer and headed back to the states.

Kayakers kayaking.

With some of the most reliable flows around Washington, nearly every boater I know has been getting a piece of the action this fall season. I have driven down their 6 times in the last 2 weeks, and I would have went more if I had the chance.

Ken Olivier running Last Sunshine.

Today the scene was typical: Wake up hung-over, get a late start, make some calls, rally a group from B’ham, then meet up with the Seattle boys at the take-out, set shuttle and go kayaking.

Hilary Neevel about to dodge the mitt.

The flow was on the low side today, but one of the improvements with this past winters’ floods is that nearly all of the rapids have clean lines, even when flows get into the upper 4’s. And even when the flows are low you will still find some pushy, continuous sections of whitewater.

Erik Schertzl cleaning up the Garbage.

Todd Gillman stylin’ Mrs. Robinson.

Some bear tracks near the put-in.

Don’t forget to look around and enjoy the scenery on the paddle out. You will probably see a few eagles and if you are really lucky, maybe even some bears.

Sunday also saw Trial Falls get run for what may have been a first descent, and some boys from Colorado made the 1st no portage descent.

For flows on Thunder creek I would say high end maybe 1500cfs with optimal flows being between 700-1100cfs while 900cfs and above would feel a bit pushy, also, you could run it as low as 400cfs but I can’t say that the hike would be worth it… well, maybe if you were really jonesing to paddle.

Here’s a bit more video:

More Thunder creek… from CHRIST on Vimeo.

And some pics:

Boats with legs: the hike in.

Chris T, post 1st(?) D of Trial Falls.

Fred straightening ‘er out.

The cave behind the falls