Exploring the Whitewater of Arkansas

Wister Wave Goodness

2012-01-13T11:58:00.005-06:00

Despite my supreme neglect of the blog the end of Fall and start of Winter have been really good for boating. With some luck Eric Chitwood and I were able to get out to Wister Wave and then Dan Daniels, Ryan Spanke, and Eric Chitwood were able to get out there again the following week. Below are some photos that Eric Chitwood took from both trips.

As I close in on what will likely be my last season in Arkansas I hope that the rain gods provide!

Stinger on Richland Creek

2011-12-12T22:04:00.004-06:00

As the end of the semester has drawn near we have finally got some good rains, and over the last few weeks been lucky enough to get several runs on Richland and a low water Osage Creek scrapedown. Battling an ice and snow covered Hwy 16 through Madison and Newton Counties I was finally able get my new Liquid Logic Stinger out on the creek. The leaves are off the trees, there is good water in the creeks, and the forecasts are looking good.

Rendevous 2011

2011-09-22T01:59:00.005-05:00

Rendevous is an annual get together put on by the Arkansas Canoe Club at Rockport in Malvern, AR. This year Ryan Spanke and I made the trek down to Southern Arkansas to do some boating and see a lot of good friends. It was a great time and a lot of credit is owed to Ouachita Outdoor Outfitters and Jeremy Mackey for organizing a great event. I took some footage at Rendevous and put together this short edit of what I got. Sorry for the shaky hole footage!

Hope to see everyone out there next year and that we get some rain!

Colorado Weekend Trip

2011-09-20T23:27:00.000-05:00

Towards the end of August Ben Hoffman and I met Kyle Johnson and Chris Mowry in Colorado for a long weekend trip to the Poudre and Bailey. I haven't been using the GoPro a lot lately so it died halfway through Bailey (actually both Ben's and mine did).

Hope everyone is well and surviving the summer drought.

Summer 2011

2011-09-19T22:00:00.002-05:00

I was lucky enough to get to spend a significant portion (all of this one) of my fourth summer out West this year. Despite hardly any media to show for it, it was by far the best summer I have had to date. On my way out to Idaho I was able to stop in on Colorado to do some boating with Ryan Spanke and Noel Parker. A few days in the Ark Valley and Clear Creek of the Front Range was followed by a quick jaunt down to Durango to meet up with Jeremy Meyer (which unfortunately resulted in a serious bout of food poisoning).

Noel and I heading up for some Pine Creek/Numbers.

Outside Moab on my way West!

My summer job started a little later this year, so I ended up spending nearly two weeks boating and crashing with my Utah boys (thanks Craig!). It was an epic water year for most of the Rockies, but Utah was one of the hardest hit. This resulted in an opportunity to get out and explore some new runs (most of which I had never heard of). Over Memorial Day weekend a big crew rolled out and we got Joe’s Valley, Ferron Creek, and Muddy Creek.

Utah crew cooking up some breakfast before Joe's Valley.

Sun setting on Ferron Creek.

Day ending view of the San Rafael Swell

Muddy Creek was by far the most memorable Utah run of the season despite it being largely flatwater. It is a classic slot canyon cut through the San Rafael Swell of Central Utah that offers up narrow passages flanked by 300 foot cliffs. Apparently runnable flows are very rare as there are several diversion dams upstream that keep it de-watered except for the wettest of years.

View from our camp at Muddy Creek

Some shots from the amazingness that is Muddy Creek.

The scenery was never ending

Following Muddy Creek my buddy Zach Schuster from Utah and I made our way through southern Idaho hitting an epic run down the Murtuagh stretch of the Snake River at over 21,000 cfs and a 3-day self-support kayak mission on the Jarbridge-Bruneau. I really wish I had taken my camera with me on the trip because the Jarbridge and Bruneau are distinct canyons that words do not even come close to describing. A perfect few weeks of boating on my way out to Idaho led up to a couple week lull while I got situated with my summer job. My stationing could not have been better as I ended up in the South Fork Payette River valley between the take-out for the Canyon stretch and put-in for the Staircase stretch. I was in a perfect position to boat something really quality every day (and I did!). And while I stuck to the Payette system for the majority of summer I still made it up to Little Salmon, Hazard Creek, and (my favorite run) East Fork of the South Fork several times.

Boof #1 in Slalom Rapid on the SF Payette

Hit it!

Sweet boof on the Canyon stretch of the SF Payette

Duck Pond boof in Staircase on SF Payette

Working down Staircase

Boof #2 in Slalom Rapid

Plugging a hole on SF Payette

Parting view of Garden Valley and some thunder heads

I pretty much stayed in Idaho till the very last possible moment and even then it was hard to leave. Luckily with a huge snowpack in Colorado I was able to meet up with Noel Parker, Pat Zimmerman, Stan Brown, and several other Colorado boaters for an August run down Big South. My last time to on Big South was three summers ago and it was a really tough day due to a very bad set of circumstances playing out. So with a lot of respect and an extremely solid crew we worked our way down Big South having one of the best days boating as a group I have been a part of.

Setting safety below Starter Fluid on Big South

Run-out of Taco Bobs

Cool World

Firing up Cool World

The big daddy! Double Trouble.

Battling

Following an epic summer I was able to make one last hurrah out West over a long weekend in August. Ben Hoffman and I met Kyle Johnson and eventually Chris Mowry for some Poudre runs, Bailey, and quality Ft. Collins partying (video in the following post).

Must Boof on Lower Poudre Narrows

Working Down the LPN

It is hard to sum up this summer and even more so my year to date, but kayaking has really taken me to more places than I ever could have ever imagined visiting, resulted in some of my best friends, and afforded me experiences that are irreplaceable. I am really greatful for the opportunities I have had.

Far Past Due Chile Photo Dump!

2011-09-18T21:54:00.000-05:00

This update is long past due, but with a really busy Spring semester and full Summer I am just getting around to posting it. Here are a bunch of pictures from the trip Cole Bailey and I took to Pucon, Chile in December/January of this year. Enjoy!

All credit for these photos goes to Cole Bailey and Tzak Leevers.

Upper Chickalah Creek

2011-06-05T19:53:00.004-05:00

A really busy semester, a ton of water (and boating), and a lot of travel to get back out to Idaho for the summer has led to the supreme neglect of my blog. Towards the end of April Arkansas got rains of epic proportions, a bunch of groups fired off some really cool new runs. A few of us were lucky enough to get the opportunity to nab the First (known) Descent of a creek Noel Parker and I cleared out in 2010 on Mt. Magazine. Upper Chickalah Creek is a fast and fun Class III-IV bobsled ride down 200-300 fpm for the first mile. I don't have the beta worked out for the run, but directions and general information was posted on the ACC message board.

Hope to get my trip out to Idaho posted sooner than later.

Rio Vista Short

2011-03-28T21:24:00.005-05:00

With exception of a few days on Richland and a failed trip to Cheoah (only got 1 day of boating since they hardly released any water on that Sunday) this semester has been boating poor. I forwent my normal pilgrimage to the Southeast for Spring Break because receding river levels only to find out that it went big this past weekend. No, instead I took myself down to Central Texas to spend time with the family, catch up on an insanely busy semester, and get some playboating in. I did take a little video with the GoPro and tried a couple different things I haven't messed around with. The following short video of Kyle Johnson playboating and me boogie-boarding at Rio Vista is the result.

Still have a ton of pictures from Chile that Cole took with his 7D that I would like to post up. Hopefully I will get a chance to upload them in the coming weeks. Do your rain dances!

Chile Trip Video Part 3

2011-01-25T00:58:00.015-06:00

This is the final bit of footage from our trip to Chile. This video includes the Lower Fuy, Rio Laja, and the Veintidos section of the Rio Claro at low water. The Laja was a fun and continuous, keep 'er straight kind of run with only a couple of eddies in the 1.5-2 miles. Unfortuantely it was a sketchy put-in, to micro-eddy, to immediately in the crux 200 meters of the run, so needless to say I forgot to turn the camera on and the video only shows the second half of the run. Despite low water on the Claro the Veintidos gorge is one of the most absolutely insane places I have ever been, it was incredible.

Getting back into the swing of school, praying for rain, and starting to scheme for the next adventure.

Chile Trip Video Part 2

2011-01-17T15:07:00.004-06:00

Here is part 2 of the footage from our trip to Chile. This video includes the Rio Llanchaue, Rio Palguin, and the Rio Nevados. Of all the runs we got to do the Llanchaue was very high up there for me because it has a classic waterfall and three or four really good drops all within a few kilometers of each other.

Check back soon for video part 3, tons of pictures, and hopefully some stories when I get a chance.

Chile Trip Video Part 1

2011-01-15T14:13:00.006-06:00

Cole Bailey and I have been talking about going to Chile for nearly two years and right before summer agreed that it needed to happen. After a busy summer for the both of us we committed and bought our plane tickets in August. On December 27th we were on our way to Pucon, Chile for 12 days of boating. This video is Part 1 (of 3) of the footage from our trip. It includes footage from the Upper and Lower Trancura, Maichin, and the San Pedro.

The San Pedro was an unreal Class III-IV big water run with water so clear that the flatwater stretches looked like the ocean. Unfortunately it was bitter sweet as the run is in the process of being dammed and will not exist in the near future. Stay tuned for part 2.

October Ocoee

2010-11-09T13:54:00.006-06:00

Back at the beginning of October a bunch of us from Arkansas met up with a bunch of friends from Texas and some from Tennessee. Three days of delirious driving infused boating ensued at the Ocoee and Cheoah. My buddy Harrison Rhea from Memphis, TN put together a video from his helmet cam footage of our day on the Ocoee (posted below).

Unfavorable conditions have persisted since mid-Summer in Arkansas, making boating impossible. I am trying to cope.

Wausau, Wisconsin Labor Day

2010-09-15T18:06:00.009-05:00

Brian Gibson and I had been kicking around the idea of going up to Wausau, WI to check out the Wausau Slalom Course for Labor Day for a couple weeks. When it came down to crunch time we both decided half the fun of kayaking was in the journey itself, so late Friday afternoon with our junior senses of adventure (my colloquialism for playboats) in tow we headed north. A few missed turns and 14 hours later we rolled into Wausau, WI at about 6AM on Saturday. We playboated all day Saturday and Sunday, then set a course for home after our last session, only stopping to be tourists and camp along the way. Our original curiousity in checking out the course was sparked after I read a blurb somewhere online that said they had upgraded a few features to be pretty good playspots, thankfully this turned out to be true.

Overall it was a lot of fun and a great mini-adventure, it is a bit of a drive for a three-day weekend, but than again far water is better than no water

Kelly's Whitewater Park

2010-09-05T12:27:00.001-05:00

The KWP is a whitewater park on the North Fork of the Payette in Cascade, ID just below Cascade Reservoir that was opened in June this summer. Luckily I was stationed about 30 minutes from the playpark, so even after getting off at 6:30 most days I had time to get some play in. It is a top notch facility, the water is warm, and the features are all pretty good depending on the level. I made a short video of a weekend in mid-July I spent out there playboating in (mainly) the second feature, which was super friendly, but dynamic enough to offer up a ton of tricks.

Drive Home

2010-08-30T14:29:00.001-05:00

On August 10th my stint in Idaho came to an end and I had to head home to get ready for the start of school. I had the opportunity to try and make it to Colorado for a weekend run down Bailey, but I decided that I was too close to so many American institutions that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some exploring. In roughly 5 days I drove from Warm Lake, ID to Fayetteville, AR stopping at Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming, Bighorn Mountains National Forest, Devil's Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, and Badlands National Park. It was one of the best journeys I have embarked on. Since I am strapped for time, I am just going to upload a couple of my favorite pictures from the trip.

July Idaho Update

2010-08-10T22:12:00.006-05:00

After the 4th of July summer got really busy, so I once again neglected posting anything up, but after a week of adventure and exploring I got home on Sunday the 15th (that will be saved for another post though). Standard operating procedure, just going to upload pictures and give the details (this update covers July 5th to the end of July).

After meeting the guys from Utah for the 4th of July weekend in Garden Valley, I headed towards far SE Idaho to meet up with them for the following weekend release on Black Canyon of the Bear. On the way out to meet them (since it was a bit of a drive) I spent a day exploring the Sawtooth Mountains as well as Craters of the Moon National Monument. The Sawtooths are simply one of the most beautiful places I have been, especially along the Redfish Lakes (pictured below).

AW negotiated releases on the run a few years ago, and we were lucky enough to catch an unscheduled release on Saturday in addition to the scheduled release on Sunday. The Bear is a lot like Cheoah not only because it was a dewatered stretch of river that finally saw the return of flows, but because it is similar to Cheoah from Bear Creek Falls down (although more challenging and with a big Class V thrown into the mix). The constant action and fun nature of the whitewater makes this run one of my all-time favorites.

Following a short work week Ben Hoffman, Brian Gibson, and Chris Mowry from Texas all flew out for a long weekend rally boating trip. A great time was had by all even after Ben had to get some stiches following a blue angel bomb through Staircase mishap that got him and and Chris a "little" close. It was also awesome because I had a chance to finally get into the Canyon on South Fork of the Payette, a classic Class IV stretch with some unreal scenary. When it was all said and done around 40 miles of Payette River system miles were paddled.

July was a great time and offered up even more great kayaking, including a ton of time spent at the playpark. However, I still had two weeks in August to go before heading home, and I made sure to make my trip home a memorable one. Check back in the next few days for the final chapter of my summer and return trip home.

June Idaho Update

2010-07-09T02:07:00.013-05:00

Since arriving in Idaho I have hardly had the chance to sit down and collect my thoughts let alone try and update what I have been up to. Nonetheless I have been having a great time and my summer job is going very smoothly. If you are curious though, here is a quick recap of what has transpired since arrival; snow, rain, work, more rain, even more rain, lots of work, scary huge flows, huge flows, and now normal flows. With just a chaotic first few weeks training in Boise and dealing with the monsoon like rains I didn't have a chance to get out much, but after moving up to Warm Lake, ID around the second week of June I started my summer boating binge (even with scary high flows). Thanks to the great new playpark, and I mean great because they really put a lot of work into the park, in Cascade, ID I am able to boat nearly every day. Anyways, I am going to keep the jabber to a minimum and just unload some pictures from my last month out here. All pictures were taken by me, so not much for self-promotion this time around, but thankfully I have obligatory summer trip update rainbow pictures.

These are all pictures of the areas I have worked in this summer, the real smooth tree-less mountains are on the Idaho-Oregon border, and the rest are in the Boise National Forest.

Kelly's Whitewater Park in Cascade, ID has been my after work relief for the summer, and during the few weeks when the North Fork of the Payette was really high (the park wasn't officially opened yet) some waves formed randomly that the designers didn't plan for, as the pictures show. The wave in the pictures doesn't look to amazing, but it is hands down one of the best I've ever surfed. It was tall, steep, and fast, and I was very sad to see it go as flows subsided. Since the NF is down in the 3000 cfs range from the 9000 cfs range the park has transformed into more hole features, but is still a ton of fun.

While I have been doing a lot of boating, it has been a lot of the same runs (mainly the Staircase section of the South Fork of the Payette), but Drew Armstrong came out the last weekend of June and we got to run the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon (ESFS for short, and I got to run it on July 3rd). It is hands down one of the best runs I have done, 15.5 miles of non-stop Class IV with a few V's for good measure.

When I was in Utah all the boaters told me I had to meet them in Crouch, ID for the 4th of July celebrations, so after a Saturday run down EFSF I met Craig Waddell and the rest of the crew. Crouch sure did deliver, it was just thousands of people setting off fireworks in city limits, and craziness ensued.

Summer is going well, but quickly closing in on less than a month left out here. Hope everyone is doing alright and having a good summer. Expect several July and early August updates. If you would like to check out all my pictures from the month of June than feel free to go to this LINK (click LINK).

Leg 2 - Utah

2010-05-22T22:21:00.007-05:00

My Utah portion of this trip began with a stop at Arches National Park on Tuesday (the 18th) after driving up from Farmington, NM in the morning. I tried to see as much as you possibly can in half a day, did a couple of the trails, and took a lot of pictures. It is an absolutely incredible place, and the scale of the landscape is just so massive it is almost hard to comprehend. One thing that was really cool about the day was it stormed for the first half of my time out there, so it really helped to clear out the crowds and give some cool skies to an already beautiful place. Anyways, here are some of my favorite pictures I took.

After a great day at Arches I headed up to Price, UT for the night to set myself up for a few days of boating. On Wednesday I met up with Utah boaters Craig Waddell and Zach Shuster as well as a few others. We ended up doing two laps on the local play run Bridal Veil before Craig and Zach took me over to Big Cottonwood Creek on a hunch that it may be running. Sure enough it was in, and we had the time to run three laps on a really fun fast creek. Pictures of Big Cottonwood Creek by Craig Waddell below.

Thursday we waited till later in the afternoon to make our decision, and it totally paid off. For some freak reason Riverdale Wave, apparently the best feature in Utah, came in at a low level and after an hour or so out there it came up to a really fun level. Pictures of Riverdale Wave by Craig Waddell below.

Friday Zach and I had planned to get up early and run Sixth Water Creek than meet Craig and others for an afternoon run, but ended up sleeping in. It was still a great day because I got to check out Scrambled Eggs Bend (that is actually the sections name), another Salt Lake City metro area run that was a lot of fun. After the run I headed up to Boise for the weekend to prepare for the start of my internship on Monday, unfortunately it was cold and snowed part of the day.

Anyways, Utah is a beautiful state and I had a lot of fun. Craig was gracious enough to let me crash at his house for a few days and show me the best water Utah had to offer. Between Craig, Craig's wife Becky, Zach, and everyone else I met in the Salt Lake City area it was really a testament to how stand-up people paddlers are (for the most part). Everyone I met was incredibly nice and made my few days there.

Summer Begins. Leg 1 - New Mexico

2010-05-18T00:01:00.007-05:00

This summer is a little different than the previous two, instead of working in NE Arkansas for the summer I am going to be working an internship in Idaho, and since said internship does not start till May 24th I have a little time to boat and explore. On Tuesday the 11th Ryan Spanke and I headed out to New Mexico, since he is working in Colorado this summer, and were met that night by Noel Parker who is also going to be working in Colorado this summer. Following a few days of boating Brian Gibson and Ben Hoffman from Texas met up with us on Friday.

Look down at the Rio Grande and Rio Pueblo de Taos confluence.

Grand Bridge over the Lower Taos Box.

Noel getting a good boof.

Noel in Powerline Rapid.

Our setup in the rain.

Double rainbows over our campsite.

On Saturday the 15th the EddyFlower Vertical Challenge started, and a couple of us from Fayetteville (Noel, Spanke, Josh Rogers, Brian Gibson from Texas, and I) signed up so we headed to the Santa Cruz. Noel, Spanke, and I ended up logging 5 laps and a lap down the Racecourse section of the Rio Grande in the dark.

Running shuttle on one of our laps on the Santa Cruz.

One of the drops on the Santa Cruz.

Sunday the group decided to run the Upper Box, but because of a number of circumstances I decided to hang back and playboat. Those guys all had a great day on what is supposed to be a beautiful run. Today we all went our separate ways for the summer, and I pushed west to Farmington, NM (where I am typing this from). Hwy 64 across Northern New Mexico was beautiful and I took some time to check out the Aztec Ruins National Monument (which was actually mistakenly attributed to the Aztecs by early settlers, but is an early Pueblo Indian remnant).

Looking back on the Taos area as I head West.

Aztec Ruins National Monument.

Tomorrow I am going to kick-off "Leg 2" of my pre-internship trip out to Idaho by checking out Arches National Park in Utah then spending a few days boating out that way. New Mexico was a lot of fun, and it is always great to travel with friends. Just wish levels would have cooperated a little bit better for us (everything was either low or high). Hope everyone in Arkansas is getting the goods.

Cheoah/Tallulah Weekend

2010-05-09T18:00:00.003-05:00

I have been really busy with school since we did our mad dash weekend tour, so I haven't had a good chance to upload pictures. Not a lot to say other than Cole Bailey and myself met Drew Armstrong in Memphis on a Friday afternoon, we then drove to the Tellico (where we arrived at 3:30AM), woke up bright and early and met Randy Jackson from Oklahoma. 1 Tellico lap, 3 Cheoah laps, and a Sunday Tallulah lap and Cole and I were headed back to Fayetteville for a 5:30AM Monday arrival. Whirlwind tour, a couple pictures are below (all shot by Randy Jackson);

Know a lot of people have boating plans for the summer, so I hope everyone stays safe and has a good time out there.

Spring Break Update (Three Weeks Later)

2010-04-14T14:00:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago Brian Gibson from Texas and I headed out East for Spring Break with the intentions of playing it by ear. An overzelous decision to try and nab Johnnies Creek in Alabama and the subsequent skunking left us with a single state trip (minus the few laps we did on the Tellico the first day). Noel Parker and Ben Maguire from Fayetteville met up with us for the majority of the trip. Anyways, I have been really busy lately, so I finally just got around to putting together all the footage we got.

The footage was taken by Brian Gibson, Noel Parker, or myself, but most of it is from Noel's headcam. In total Spring Break consisted of 3 Tellico laps, 3 South Sauty runs, 1 Suicide Section and Upper Two run, 1 Big Scirum run, 1 Graves Creek Park-N-Huck, and 1 Short Creek run. It was a great time, and a well needed break from this semester.

In a couple days I should have a trip report and some pictures posted up from our trip this past weekend out to Cheoah and Tallulah.

Fayetteville's Finest

2010-04-13T11:01:00.002-05:00

Josh Rogers made another video of the Fayetteville crew from the Fall 09 boating season, so check it out below!

Another Video of Arkansas

2010-03-31T11:50:00.004-05:00

Josh Rogers put this video together featuring a lot of footage from the fall and some from the beginning of this year. Most the video is from Noel Parker's headcam as well as some video from Chuck Bewley on Barberry Creek.

Spent last week out East for Spring Break, and all but one day of boating in Alabama. Was a really good trip, got to check out a lot of new creeks and runs, but never could catch Johnnies Creek. Ended up not taking many pictures or videos, but I will be posting what I did get in the next week or so.

A White Richland

2010-03-05T11:59:00.002-06:00

Chuck Bewley put together an awesome video of three different trips he took down Richland over the last few months. Lots of different paddlers from all over the state, and some footage of one of the days a couple of us (Fayetteville crew) made it out there.

Should have a review up on the new Pyranha Molan in a few days. Got the chance to test it out all last weekend at Dierks. Enjoy!

Weekend in Texas

2010-02-17T21:05:00.008-06:00

With all the cold weather and likelihood of a little snow in the forecast for Fayetteville, and most of Arkansas last weekend I decided to head down to Central Texas. It was a pretty easy decision, runs up from all the rain, 60 degree forecast for the weekend, and avoiding the cold in Arkansas. The drive wasn't so easy, what is normally a 9 or so hour drive took around 12 hours, and I ended up driving through one of the largest snowstorms in DFW area history.

Friday, still groggy from the drive and 5AM arrival, I met Brian Gibson and Chris Mowry in South Austin for a late afternoon run down Barton Creek. I am ashamed, but this was my first trip down Barton Creek. Even though it was a low level it was still a great time. Hard to believe this gem is almost downtown Austin.

First two drops of Triple Drop on Barton Creek.

Chris Mowry surfing Triple Drop.

A huge bluff on Barton Creek.

Sun setting on Barton Creek.

Saturday I met Brian and Chris late in the morning in Kyle, TX to go try and get a Park – N– Huck session on Teardrop Falls on Onion Creek, once again a new run for me. Kyle Johnson, Gabe Steger, and a boater that just moved to Texas from Colorado ended up catching up with us just as we got up to Teardrop (I say up because it is a combination of paddling and portaging up-stream from the takeout to get to it). Bret Franson and Joel Sears ended up meeting up with us at the falls as well.

Teardrop Falls on Onion Creek from downstream.

Gabe Steger styling Teardrop. Photo by Brian Gibson.

Kyle Johnson droppin' Teardrop. Photo by Brian Gibson

Picture of me running Teardrop by Brian Gibson.

Picture of me at the lip of Teardrop by Bret Franson.

With a good day by a big crew we called it a day after about 3 hours of waterfall hucking. What an awesome drop and day. I ended up spending the rest of the day hanging out in San Marcos. Sunday I met once again with Brian and Chris in Wimberley, there was talk of trying to get a run down the Narrows, but I was just not feeling it for a number of reasons. I made the choice to bail and made a b-line for Rio Vista in San Marcos. Instead, I spent the majority of the 60+ degree day playboating with a ton of boaters at RV in my shortie top.

Great weekend over all, and hopefully this one is filled with water as well.

First Descent of Lake Wilhelmina Spillway

2010-02-09T17:00:00.006-06:00

Jeremy Meyer, my friends Jerry Fant, Bret Franson, and Richard Harris from Texas, and I ran this spillway on May 10th of last year (2009). I figured I would put the beta up online in the same format I did with the Haags Hollow First D, for ease of use. Don't think anyone has attempted this run since we gave it a go.

Lake Wilhelmina Spillway
Class IV
Put-in: Polk County Rd 125
Take-out: River right below the last drop (it is a big pool)
Length: .1 mile
Put-in Elevation: 1000 ft
Take-out Elevation: 970 ft
Total Drop: 30 ft
Average Gradient: 300 fpm

Map of Lake Wilhelmina basic area.

First off, this is definitely not a destination run, so don't plan a day around it. It is right outside Mena, so if you are coming from Ft. Smith or NWA to the Cossatot than it may be worth the detour. This spillway is probably Class III+, but would likely be harder if it is really cranked. There are 5 drops, the first of which is the concrete from the spillway actually dropping 6-8 ft on to rocks, so you need good water if you want to run this one (not for the landing, but so you don't get hung up on the concrete).

Drop 2 from below.

The second drop of the run is a boxed in high angle pourover with a boof, not a big deal, but the third drop below it is tricky if you mess your line up in the second drop. Drop 3 is a chute on the river left where you just sort of try to avoid two rocks at the end of the drop. When we ran this last year two people got pinned here, one was kind of bad. Everything else is good to go, my favorite part is the last drop because it is a 10-12 ft low angle slide that you run, then surf the hole or ferry the pile from the hole directly into a Zoom Flume esque chute.

View of Drops 2 and 3 from below.

Drops 1 through 4; 1 being the drop off the concrete slide, and 4 being the first of two low angle slides.

View from above of us playing follow the leader down the 5th drop.

Enjoy and stay warm!

Better Late Than Never

2010-02-04T01:50:00.006-06:00

It has been a cold winter so far, something I am still not so used to, but even worse there has been great boating everywhere but Arkansas or at least that is how it seems. Since we last left off in 2009 the last time I had gotten in the creek boat was the awesome Beech Creek – Richland Creek – Twin Devils Falls triple crown at the end of October, and for the most part we had all been counting on lots of playboating at Wister and Dierks to get us to Christmas Break. Ended up spending the whole break in Texas, and at least I got to playboat most the break.

Fast forward to a week and a half ago and I was super stoked to just see the Cossatot running at a good level on a Friday and the chance of rain in the forecast for the weekend. Loaded the boats and headed to the Tot on Friday to get some falls laps then a trip down to 278 with a crew that was out there. Brian Gibson from Texas met up with us at a rowdy Sandbar Bridge Campground that night and we were set for a full day on the Cossatot on Saturday.

Saturday night after another Texas boater, Ben Hoffman, met up with us at dinner in Wickes we decided to make the move to Mena for the night in case Richland ended up running. Sure enough we were lucky enough to wake to a good Richland level around 3.8 feet or so. We rallied to the put-in from Mena to meet Fayetteville crew for a run down at about 3.6. It was a decent size crew and lots of fun by all; Brian Gibson and Ben Hoffman from Texas, Ryan Spanke, Noel Parker, Josh Rogers, Cole Bailey, and myself. It was extra cool because Ben had never run Richland, making it just his second different run in Arkansas beside the Cossatot, what a lucky dude!

Alright, enough catching up, all photos are by Cole Bailey, big props to him for breaking out the new camera on Richland.

Spanke throwing his paddle off Richland Falls, and then trying to catch it.

Brian getting the stroke on Cindy's.

Cool time series of me on Upper Screw-Up

Lower Screw-Up Boof

Josh getting it at Lower Screw-Up

Josh and I sitting in the eddy below LSU. Good day!

Hopefully this is only the start to a good end of Winter start of Spring boating season.

November Playboating Pictures

2009-12-03T15:24:00.003-06:00

Back from Texas just in time for finals and papers, got a little bit of boating in while I was down there, and had a good Thanksgiving with the family. I just wanted to post up a couple pictures from Dierks and Wister Wave from November. They are really high quality pictures from Cole's new camera, I am also trying a new hosting site for pictures, so you should be able to click on the photos to see them in the full original size.

Level Sixe over thruster, Dierks 2nd feature, and a beautiful day.

Trying to look like I know what I am doing in the 2nd feature at Dierks. Photo by Cole Bailey.

Cole Bailey in the air. Photo by Eric Chitwood.

Perfect! Photo by Cole Bailey.

Two of my favorite things, Wister Wave and Beer. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

A time series of me blunting Wister Wave by Cole Bailey.

Been pretty slow the last month or so on the boating front, still wishing I could have made it down to Mexico this year, but hopefully everything is just getting setup for an epic Winter-Spring rain season.

Wister Wave Part 2

2009-11-16T12:16:00.008-06:00

Made it back out to Wister Wave on Friday to catch the one day boost in flows from the dam, lots of fun, but a bummer for everyone hoping for it to last through the weekend. David Morring from Texas made a video of Wister last weekend, there is some footage of Eric, Cole, and I from Friday, but more importantly it is an awesome video!

David Morring's video of Wister from last weekend.

Going to be heading to Texas for Thanksgiving towards the end of the week. Maybe if I am lucky, and Texas gets some rain I can pull off a day of Hill Country Creeking. Still working on getting those pictures up from Wister.

Wister Wave

2009-11-10T13:10:00.006-06:00

All the rain the last few weeks filled up Wister and Dierks Lakes, but kept flows high enough downstream that they could not start releasing till last week. This means lots of water and lots of fun. Was able to get out to Wister on Friday and Sunday (the 6th and the 8th), and Dierks two weekends ago. Cole got lots of great pictures with his new camera, so I will be putting those up later this week. Here is a quick video I put together of our trips out to Wister.

Fayetteville crew out at Wister.

Get out while you still can!

Hucktoberfest!

2009-10-31T14:33:00.005-05:00

Heavy rains early Thursday evening brought lots of doubts for a good day of boating Friday (we were way wrong). With a large crew in tow the regulars and I rolled out of Fayetteville early for a long, great day of boating. We started it off with a run down Beech Creek followed by a run down Richland at a good level, and a huck session on Twin Devils Falls. Twin Devils Falls are where Big Devils and Long Devils Creeks confluence in the form of twin 18ft waterfalls, that are both runnable, and are just a short hike up from their confluence with Richland Creek. We didn't get a ton of pictures of the day, but got some really great photos of the falls. Enjoy!

Crew hiking out of Beech on a beautiful day!

Lucas looking on the waterfall.

Cole Bailey with an awesome line on the falls.

Running the waterfall. As always photo magic by Jeremy Meyer.

Check out photos of the rest of the crew hucking the falls HERE if you are interested.

Thanks to Josh Rogers for letting me hurl his boat off Twin Devils and not the boated I rented from school. Great day of boating with some good friends to cap off another month up here in Arkansas. Hope everyone is getting on some water this weekend.

First Descent of Haags Hollow

2009-10-28T19:25:00.004-05:00

So I have been really busy this week with school, I haven't had much time to get all the beta hammered down, so please just use this as a basic outline to any attempts down Haags Hollow. Jeremy Meyer, Cole Bailey, and I ran this on Monday after the area received around 1 to 1.5 inches of rain (it was dropping on us throughout our run down). It was a low level, but the slides could be run lower. Here are the basics on the creek:

Haags Hollow
Class III+ - IV+
Put-in: County Rd 434 (Mountain Spring Rd.)
Take-out: Hwy 27 bridge crossing Chickalah Creek
Length: 4.5 miles (2.5 miles on Haags Hollow and 2 miles on Chickalah Creek)
Put-in Elevation: 710 ft
Take-out Elevation: 340 ft
Total Drop: 370 ft
Average Gradient of Haags Hollow: 140 fpm
Max Gradient of Haags Hollow: 390 fpm

Go to my album for more detailed and larger versions of these maps, and a few pictures from our run down Haags Hollow by clicking HERE.

Map of the roads with Haags Hollow and the paddle out on Chickalah Creek outlined.

Topo map of the run with the breakdown of sections, put-in, take-out, and hike out points.

This creek was a lot of fun in the section with all the slides, could have used water in the boulder section, and no matter what is going to be rough in the run out section because the creek braids out and there are a number of willows and downed trees (that have to be portaged). The slide section only had two trees down in it, both in the same pool (one you could go under, and one you could go over). I would say the major hazards of this run are a landbridge you will encounter in the first half mile or so, and a number of strainers in the bottom of the boulder section and all throughout the run out of the creek. Basically this creek needs to be approached as a first descent every time it is attempted because the upper 2 miles are fast and somewhat continuous with lots of blind corners and a hazardous landbridge (which may possibly be runnable at high flows).

Landbridge in Haags Hollow. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Cole admiring the huge scree pile. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

There is a possibility of hiking out of the creek if you want to just run the slides, but don't want to deal with the hassle of the run out (which is super strenuous) and the paddle out on Chickalah Creek. I marked the best place to hike out on the topo map (above), once you run the second mini-gorge slide, continue down the creek a couple hundred yards until the river right gorge wall starts to close in and become very tall. Get out before the wall on river right closes in, hike up to the top of the ridge line, which isn't bad, and hike out the next 3/4 of a mile or so until you reach private property (these people are very nice so please respect their land). You can either then hike to the put-in and grab your rig and come get the boats or hike your boats down the road to the car another 1/2 mile or so.

Video of our Haags Hollow run from Monday (the 26th).

This run is not super challenging although the mini-gorge slides will likely become more difficult at high water, however since it is a remote run with a number of hazards I would definitely recommend Class IV creeking skills if you are interested in attempting it.

Enjoy!

Northeast Trip

2009-10-21T14:40:00.003-05:00

This trip came together after a flight I had booked this summer was canceled and I ended up with some ticket vouchers, and Arkansas local Zach Williams deciding to go up to Connecticut for work. After hammering out the details over a couple months I headed out Thursday (the 15th) for Boston to meet Zach. Didn't end up arriving till 2ish in the afternoon, and with some snow in the area and freezing temperature we decided that 4 hours of daylight and not much running in the area would best be countered by heading back to Zach's place to crash (much better then camping in the cold).

Friday morning we got up with a decision to make, head to Watertown, NY for a guaranteed release on the Black River or chance it and drive half the distance to Fall Creek in Otis, MA. Fall Creek is a sweet mile long steep New England creek (don't let the 91 fpm average fool you) that runs a couple weekends in October annually. According to the paddling message board up there the dam operator has been willing to release some water for boaters the Friday before the first weekend of releases for a couple of hours in the afternoon in the past.

On our way to Fall Creek!

We ended up stumbling upon the run by luck after we just sort of skimmed the beta and took off. After a little bit of hiking, two other boaters showed up, who told us there wasn't enough water in the creek, followed by the dam operator who was happy to crank it up for us. Score! A quick shuttle setup Zach, John, Derrick, and I put on for a sweet run. It was a great creek with lots of hazard potential for swims, and unfortunately not conducive to picture taking because it was pretty continuous.

Derrick stoked to be putting on Fall Creek. The run starts out at the base of an unrunnable waterfall.

Zach running one of the first few drops on the run.

Lots of continuous water leads to this manky drop.

Zach coming out the backside of one of the culverts.

Video I put together of some clips shot by Amy. Thanks for the clips Amy!

Since it was around 5ish when we put on and 6ish when we got off we opted for a run down the Upper New Boston and New Boston Section of the West Branch of the Farmington River knowing that John and Derrick paddled them frequently and knew that paddling the bottom of it in the dark wouldn't be an issue. I think we ended up paddling 5+ miles in something like 45 minutes. Getting off in the dark, Zach and I made it as far as we could for the evening, which wasn't very far.

Derrick and I waiting for the others at some point in our night-time race down New Boston.

Saturday we woke up stoked to head to the Moose in New York pulling another skim of the beta and hoping in would be relatively easy to navigate around since they were after all having a paddling fest at it. Unfortunately this turned into showing up at the Moose by 2, finding the put-in by 3, and trying to catch somebody putting on for a late run down the Moose. To no such luck we scouted out the area for Sunday realizing our chances of an afternoon run were pretty much shot. This ended up being a good deal in the end because a.) we were still able to find Agers Falls and park and huck it for an hour or so and b.) meet up with some Zoar Outdoor Center raft guides that had rented a suite in town (Old Forge, NY) that were extremely cool and offered up their floor space to us for the night.

Zach ready to give Agers Falls.

Zach sending it.

Zach running Agers Falls during our Park and Huck session.

Cool angle of Zach running the drops below the falls.

Running Agers Falls. Photo by Zach Williams.

Zach and I checked out the Moosefest party for a while Saturday night, which seemed more like a pub crawl, and ended up staying up way to late. Sunday we woke up not so bright and early hurting from the night before, but with Eric, Rowland, and Jeff are new buddies from Zoar who were rafting the Bottom Moose we made it to the put-in. The Moose is simply amazing, great rapids and beautiful scenery. It was nice running the Moose with the Zoar guys because it gave Zach and I a chance to get out and scout everything and not have to bomb down the run on verbals, plus it is always nice to have extra safety. We didn't give Crystal or Magilla a go, but had a great day on everything else nonetheless.

Old Forge, NY, home of the MOOSE.

Rowland trying to feed the deer before we head out.

Fowlersville Falls from below. Shows the slide and the not so give me of a lead-in.

About to get buried in the bottom of Fowlersville. Photo by Zach Williams.

Zach getting ready to run Fowlersville Falls. Shows a better view of the lead-in.

Zach giving Fowlersville a go.

Jeff, Eric, and Rowland running Fowlersville Falls in a raft.

Just one named rapid down, and this is the scenery looking back upstream.

Kayaker scouting Funnel.

Zach Williams running Funnel, trying to avoid the HAJ.

Flatwater usually means something good is coming.

Zach and Rowland scouting out the entrance of Knife's Edge.

Zach on the lead-in to Knife's Edge.

Zach falling off the boof on Knife's Edge.

Zoar guys running the left line at Double Drop. Photo by Zach Williams.

Setting my line on the right line on Double Drop.

In the thick of the drop. Photo by Zach Williams.

Running the left line at Double Drop. Photo by Zach Williams.

Zach executing textbook form on the portage around the dam.

Shot of Agers Falls and the rapids downstream of it.

Boofing Agers Falls. Photo by Zach Williams.

Running the drop below Agers. Photo by Zach Williams.

Big thanks to Zach for making this whole trip happen, being an all around good dude, and saving us from a wreck that sent a car spiraling towards us. Thanks to John and Derrick for running down Fall Creek with us, and Eric, Rowland, and Jeff for letting us crash and putting up with Zach and I scouting everything on Sunday. Definitely a BIG thanks to Jeremy Mackey at Ouachita Outdoor Outfitters for helping me out gear wise in time for my trip, these guys are straight up the best outfitters in Arkansas, hit them up for your paddling needs.

Got back in Monday evening and have gone straight to student cram mode for the rest of the week, maybe month, but it was so worth it.

Barberry Creek and EFLB

2009-10-14T10:49:00.010-05:00

With heavy rains Thursday night in to Friday we knew there was going to be some prime Ozark creeking. Jeremy Meyer, Lucas Wicker, Josh Rogers, Cole Bailey and I loaded up to head out towards Newton County early Friday morning, deciding to forgo the Beech Creek run we headed towards Barberry Creek. Jeremy and I got to run Barberry in the spring, with the not so fun hike-out at the end, so needless to say we set shuttle at the bottom of EFLB on our way to the put-in. Ended up meeting up with the king of Barberry himself, Chuck Bewley, and were all set to roll. Barberry was on the lower side, but still a fun level.

Chuck Bewley filming the first drop on Barberry.

Cole Bailey running the top drop on Barberry. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Running "Give Me 3 Steps". Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Chuck getting a sick boof.

Lucas Wicker getting a nice boof off "Give Me 3 Steps". Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Josh Rogers running Monday Morning Surprise.

Jeremy Meyer running Monday Morning Surprise.

Unfortunately Barbarian Falls has a massive tree down at the base of it, so it was a mandatory portage on this day.

Tree down at the base of Barbarian. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Josh Rogers lowering his boat down the portage. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Cole and Chuck both had things to do later in the day, so they opted to hike-out at the end of Barberry, leaving Jeremy, Lucas, Josh, and I to continue on down EFLB. Although I have run the 2nd and 3rd gorges around 5 to 6 times this year I had still never made it in to the 1st gorge on EFLB. The 1st gorge has some fun rapids that aren't quit as notable as the rapids in the 2nd or 3rd gorges, but still good, and then the most notable drop of the whole run Johnson's Squeeze. I had only seen a couple of pictures of the drop itself, and didn't think it was supposed to be very big. However, it was much more impressive in person, but we were feeling good so Lucas, then myself, then Jeremy all decided to fire it up. Jeremy easily had the best line and cleaned it up pretty good (unfortunately just video of him in the run-out), Lucas also had a pretty nice line, while my line was a little more interesting. In the run-out I tried to lean in to a pile coming off the right side of the drop, but it surged down when I went to lean into it, so I just ended up flipping over into it, luckily just some elbow scrapage avoided by my elbow pads and a quick roll and all was well.

Video of Lucas running Johnson's Squeeze by Jeremy Meyer

Video of me running Johnson's Squeeze by Jeremy Meyer.

View of Johnson's Squeeze from down-stream. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Photo of Josh Rogers doing an awesome rock grind in the 2nd gorge of EFLB by Jeremy Meyer.

We made it to the take-out by about 4, and with some water still coming down Stepp Creek we considered giving her a run, but satisfied and exhausted we packed it up and headed home for the day. All in all it was a great day of boating, and was topped off by a fun, albeit low-water, run down Richland Creek on Saturday.

Enjoy the water while it is here!

Late Summer Relief

2009-09-28T05:32:00.005-05:00

Arkansas has been lucky enough to get some really good rain the last few weeks, and hopefully as the leafs start to change and fall it will bring a good season of Ozark creeking. With the exception of some people getting on a few select creek runs (including our run down Gum Creek) there has not been much to talk about on the creek front. However, over the last few weeks a few of us have had the pleasure of getting on some of the best play Northwest Arkansas (NWA) has to offer as well as some of the best play in the state and the state of Oklahoma. Some of the play I have had the opportunity to enjoy includes Jack Creek, Sugar Creek, Lee Creek (around 10ftish), Middle Fork of the White River (Middle Fork), Fishers Ford (on numerous occasions and at a variety of levels), Dierks, and Wister Wave.

Cole Bailey and I were lucky enough to catch both Sugar and Jack Creeks several weeks ago with good water on them with some of the Ft. Smith guys.

Running the hole line on Sugar Creek Falls. Photo by Max Caruth.

Nick Hobbs surfing a random hole on Jack Creek.

One of the local playspots that runs fairly often is Fishers Ford. We have been experimenting with the levels, and have gotten a lot of different results. A couple of really sweet days at sort of in-between levels, and some lower quality days at some transitional levels.

Jeremy Meyer at one of those not so great levels, but the sunset was awesome.

Lucas Wiker surfing while Josh Rogers looks on at a sweet level (4.5 on the gauge and rising)

Josh Rogers getting his surf on.

Good ender spot at this level to. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Could back surf the wave all-day if you wanted to. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Josh Rogers pulling off the sweet around the neck paddle spin while surfing. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Cole Bailey and I got up really early last week to check on local creeks, but to no avail we were stuck playboating Lee Creek at a great level. Poor us. We did get on right as the sun came up, so we had most the day to find other opportunities. No pictures of the Lee Creek trip down...sometimes it is hard to mess with the camera when you are having fun.

Cool view of some low clouds on the ridges right around Lee Creek.

Cole and I ended up meeting Jeremy Meyer, Lucas Wiker, and Ryan Spanke for a fun run down the elusive Middle Fork later that morning.

Party wave! Spanke, Lucas, and Cole surf some on the fly wave on Middle Fork.

Cool shot of Cole Bailey surfing a random on the fly wave.

Planned on meeting some of the Texas boys down at Dierks for the weekend, and after a late start I made it down to Dierks late Friday afternoon to the news they had bumped the flow down for the weekend. Ended up leveling out at a decent level for the very top wave, and the first hole. Was able to get a quick play session in late Friday afternoon while I waited for the guys from Texas.

One of my rides Friday afternoon. OK loop followed by BAD loop.

Awesome sunset Friday evening out at Dierks Lake.

Brian Gibson, Chris Mowry, and Ben Hoffman ended up arriving late Friday night, but we were set to play all day Saturday down at Dierks.

Chris Mowry with the nice ender in the first hole.

Brian Gibson with a good loop attempt.

Ben Hoffman getting ready to try something crazy in the Outlaw!

Throwing some ends in the top hole. Picture by Brian Gibson.

Loopin' the top hole. Photo magic by Brian Gibson.

Nice campfire to end the day with.

So my intentions were to head back to Fayetteville early Sunday to study, but those tend to fall through when the calls of water are coming in. Decided to head over to Wister Wave after talking to Heath Day and finding out him and Bobby Bohn were headed that way for some play at one of the premier (if not the) playspots in Oklahoma. After a couple of sessions and as those guys were heading back to Arkansas Jeremy Meyer, Ryan Spanke, and Cole Bailey met me down at Wister for some more surfing and beatings.

Jeremy Meyer surfing the Wister Wave. Photo by Cole Bailey.

Spanke throwing something sweet on Wister. Photo by Cole Bailey.

Just trying to hold on in Wister. Photo by Cole Bailey.

Jeremy Meyer in one of the many chunderings of the day, the only one got on camera by us though. Photo by Cole Bailey.

The day was almost over until we bribed Ryan Spanke to take my C1 on Wister Wave. We weren't certain he would be able to get in, but he did work!

Ryan Spanke showing us how he can get down on the C1. Video by Jeremy Meyer.

There has been lots of fun had over the last few weeks, but I am ready for creeking season!

Gum Creek (III-IV)

2009-09-16T23:49:00.005-05:00

Gum Creek is a rarely run mini-gorge just South of Paris, AR on Hwy 309. In fact, I only really know of Fish (Bill Herring) running this creek at one point, and haven't heard of it being run since (not that it hasn't). Since we don't make it down to the Jack and Sugar Creek area often and there was so much water in the area we decided that a quick rundown Gum could be in order before going over to Sugar. The crew consisted of Jeremy Meyer, Lucas Wicker, Josh Rogers, Noel Parker, and myself.

The section of Gum Creek that offers the best whitewater is the mini gorge, it is located off the first road on your left past Greasy Valley going south on 309. According to AW the Max Gradient in this .75 mile section is 250 FPM (feet per-mile). There are a couple really fun drops in a really awesome gorge. However, we made the terrible mistake of trying to paddle down to the next road crossing Gum Creek instead of hiking out. It was an extra mile or so of bony, strainer, and fence littered creek (portage fest). This creek is fun, but it is not a destination creek, if you are in the area and it is running then by all means give her a go (plus Paris Lake Spillway is within 10 minutes and Gutter Rock Creek is literally across 309 from this creek). Whatever you do, don't try to paddle out!

Josh Rogers in one of the rapids above the mini-gorge.

Ledge drop above the big one. Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Running "Gum Drop". Photo by Jeremy Meyer.

Running Gum Drop. Video by Noel Parker.

Noel running Gum Drop. Video by Noel Parker.

Lucas Wicker running the drop below Gum Drop.

Looking back up the gorge.

After Gum Creek we tried to go get a run down Gutter Rock Creek, but ended up putting in on some small, manky tributary that made us miss all the good stuff. Followed by more strainer dodging. Still a good day regardless.

Hope everyone has a chance to get out the next few days.

O(h)coee Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

I am not a huge fan of making trips most places with intentions of only doing one or two stretches of river for four days, especially when it is guaranteed to be pretty crowded out (there are a couple exceptions). However, I found myself making the annual Ocoee Labor Day trip with some of the good old boys from Texas (Brian Gibson, Chris Mowry, and Ben Hoffman). Those dudes were kind enough to meet me in Little Rock, so I wasn't stuck making much of the drive solo.

We departed Little Rock around 1AM Friday morning (night) and made it to the Ocoee around 2PM Friday mainly because we took a couple wrong turns. Ended up hooking up with my buddy Ryan MacMurdo and getting an afternoon run down the Middle and some camping at Cascade. The rest of the trip was Upper and Middle laps and a bunch of tomfoolery until Monday afternoon when we headed back.

I was pretty stoked because I got to run into a lot of paddlers from Arkansas I don't see on a regular basis even paddling in the state, got to do some playboating, and got to see some of the dudes from Texas cruisin some sweet lines (been almost 4 months since we boated last).

Crew running down Tablesaw, sorry about the blackout for a second.

Chris was asleep, there was a doll readily available, I had to.

Chris running Alien Boof.

Brian boofin' Alien Boof.

Ben getting down.

Shoulder Boof. Photo by Brian Gibson.

Alien Boof. Photo by Brian Gibson.

Testing out Chris' Jefe going into Humungo, it works. Picture by Brian Gibson.

I love that wave. Photo by Brian Gibson.

All in all it was a great trip. The Ocoee is one of those rivers to me that regardless of all the variables (crowd size, level, weather, etc..) once you just get out there you end up with the "Oh" effect. Oh man! I forgot how much fun this run is...

Summer Update #3

2009-08-28T00:08:00.008-05:00

I got home around daylight on Tuesday (28th) and immediately crashed after unloading my car, I somehow turned my drive home from Colorado into a 20 hour trip.

Not even 48 hours later the Cossatot area got hammered, and I was on my way down there to meet up with Drew Armstrong for some runs down the tot with some Memphis locals. Met up with that group as they were at the top of falls, so I got a run down the falls at a good medium level, then went back up top to run from Ed Banks down. Level had rose quite a bit because it was raining and the tot was now around a good low high level. Group from Memphis had to head back to Memphis, so Drew and I headed over to Baker Creek to get a quick run in. Took us about 45 minutes and ended up meeting up with James, Jason, and a couple others at the Take-out and decided to head back up for a second run.

Level of our second run down, still a fun level, but not as good as the level of the first run down.

Drew Armstrong in an in-between drop.

After a couple laps on the falls and two laps on Baker Creek we headed out. Got back to Fayetteville late, and decided to start packing since I was supposed to be up at camp on Friday. Drew and I were headed out to a national boy scout convention at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana to teach kayaking.

Huge cross in Illinois, they sell liquor at gas stations there. Need more Jesus?

We had a bunch of people run through the instructional program over the course of half a week, and for the most part it was a great time. Indiana University is a beautiful campus and Bloomington is actually a pretty neat town. Crazy enough one day while we were in Indiana it poured, Drew was busy, but my buddy Ryan MacMurder from camp was with us in Indiana teaching kayak as well. I had been reading throughout the week about the whitewater there is in Indiana and it turns out there was some near the Bloomington area, although not much. Ryan and I grabbed some boats (well I grabbed Drew's) and headed out to search for the local goods in Indiana. The first place we checked out was McCormick's Creek, which was supposed to have a cool fall on it. We found the creek pretty easily because there was a state park centered around it, unfortunately there were a lot of people around, and the legality of running it was in question. Opted not to run it, but it looked like something that would be on Barberry Creek.

McCormick's Creek Falls, it is about a 10 or so foot drop onto a shelf.

Since I was hell bent on running something in Indiana we decided to head down the road a bit and check out Cataract Falls. Cataract Falls is two 20' fters and some other smaller drops in the stretch of about a mile. Unfortunatley the upper falls was not running, and the lower falls was low, but after checking it out we found a line.

Hiking up to the top of the drop. One of my favorite pictures. Photo by Ryan MacMurdo

It is pretty straight forward but at this lower level you could only really run it on river right.

Running it. Photos by Ryan MacMurdo

Ryan landing a bit of a different line.

So on that note Drew and I departed the convention and headed out East for a quick round of boating. We were able to get on Watauga for a second time this summer, which was awesome. Ended up the next day trying to catch a run down Whitetop Laurel Creek in Virginia, but due to us getting lost, not reading any beta on the shuttle, and just a general lack of knowledge of the run it turned into a day of site seeing. I almost got us stuck on some cool back road though, with all our camp boats.

Some random back road I thought would get us to the creek. Wrong!

That area of Virginia was awesome, there were creeks everywhere, and some big drops literally right along side of the road. One more night out East and we headed back to Arkansas because I had to meet my family the next morning for family vacation and the end of summer.

Summer Update #2

2009-08-28T00:04:00.006-05:00

With the last of the group gone I decided to head back down to Clear Creek to get one more run in on Black Rock. Once again I met up with Ken Wealty and another local, and we cruised down for a good day on the river. I got a little revenge on Rigor at low flows, so that was nice. That night we went to the Eddyflower Vertical Challenge party in Golden for some good times.

Since I had only gotten to playboat twice in over a week in Colorado, and my creek boat was still banged up I decided to take the next day off and just playboat. I spent most the day out at the Golden WWP (most of which was spent down at the Library Hole), and had a blast meeting some locals and getting a good day of surfing in. I stayed in the Denver area for one more night and in the morning started to make my way down to the Royal Gorge where I was to meet Zach Williams for a late day run. Zach and I got on the gorge around 6 or so right as an afternoon shower was finishing up.

Nice setting to put on the gorge to.

Had a great run down Royal Gorge, but ended up hanging out in the gorge for a little to long and had to paddle out in the dark.

Like I said, we hung out late in the gorge. Zach and I trying to find our shuttle vehicle.

Luckily we were passed all the rapids or we could have had an interesting time on a relatively easy run as there was much moonlight in the gorge on this night. Stayed down in Cotopaxi for the night, and ended up by luck being able to hook up with some more Arkansans the next day. I called Nick Hobbs as I was driving through Salida, and found out that the group was planning on running Browns Canyon in the afternoon. This was to cool an opportunity to pass up, seeing Hunter make his first run down Browns, so I booked it to the Ark Valley to meet up with the group.

Upon meeting everybody and the group solidifying the plans Dennis Buccela saw that I was fascinated with one of his boats (Pyranha Z.One), so he graciously let me give her a test drive down Browns Canyon.

Pictures of the Pyranha Z.One. Picture from Pyranha website.

The Pyranha Z.One is kind of a throwback to the older InaZone Pyranha design with Pyranha's latest outfititng and some modern features (elevated knee position). It is deceptively long at 8' 5" (longer then a Jefe), but still has the ability to do all the fun down river play you want. It was a really fun boat and would be great for the Tot, Richland, EFLB, and some of the other Arkansas classics that also offer some play.

While Browns was on the lower side, it was still a blast to paddle, probably due to the fact that I was able to see Hunter make his first run down. The group was great and nobody had any troubles and fun was had by all.

Max Carruth coming through Zoom Flume. Funny thing is this picture kind of resembles my Triple Drop picture from Pine Creek in my earlier update.

Video of Nick and Hunter Hobbs and Michelle Jackson running Zoom Flume.

The whole crew running down some rapid in Browns

All in all it was a great day on the river and even a better evening hanging out with some great people.

Beautiful evening in Buena Vista Colorado.

I was in a dilemma on whether the next day would be my last day in Colorado or not, but I was going to play it by ear and see how things went. The plan was to wake up early in the morning to run down Numbers with the group from Arkansas and then meet the legendary Bruce Litton from Houston for an afternoon run down the Royal Gorge. Everyone woke up relatively early the next day because of storms in the morning, and unfortunately this kind of slowed us down a bit getting to the river, but nonetheless we still made it on by a good time. As we were unloading boats and gear I was able to convince Nick and Max to go up and do the Triple Drop put-in with me. Met up with the rest of the group and made our way down Numbers. Hunter killed it!

Video of Hunter killin' it on Numbers.

After a really special run down Numbers with a great crew I loaded my boat quickly and headed towards Royal Gorge to meet up with Bruce. The drive down the Ark was pretty ominous because there were some heavy storms down stream. Met up with Bruce and got the shuttle worked out, but ended up having to hang out at the put-in for about an hour because it was storming pretty heavily.

Never looked at gauges down stream, but the rain definitely kicked up the flows in the gorge and the brown water gave it a real desert run feel. It was really a unique experience because there were no trips in the gorge or any other private boaters besides Bruce, a guy we hooked up with, and I. There were waterfalls coming in all over the gorge.

First waterfall we saw coming into the gorge.

Waterfall coming in right next to the bridge, it was HUGE!

After another really unique run I decided that this would be a good day to end my trip on so I headed towards Pueblo, but that is about as far as I got for the night. Since I was not looking forward to driving through Kansas I decided I would avoid the interstate and check out Dodge City and some small towns on the way home.

Some storms building over the plains on my way home. Little did I know they would be giving me some paddling in Arkansas a few days later.

So I took far to much time screwing around getting home, and partially decided to stop in Oklahoma to see if something would run, but then decided to drive all the way home. Anyways I learned a major lesson on the way home;

Toll roads are worth it.

I did not have any cash, it was late, and I didn't feel like stopping so I figured I could take back roads and just avoid the toll roads. Well...

This is what Ponca City looks like at 2AM.

Summer Update #1

2009-08-16T21:40:00.001-05:00

This summer was hands down the coolest, most fun, exciting, thrilling, adjective filled summer of my life, it can easily be summed up with one word; whirlwind. For the second summer in a row I took a position working in the high-adventure program at Kia Kima Scout Reservation in Hardy, AR. So a week or so after school had wrapped up for the spring semester Drew Armstrong and I set out for a quick East Coast trip before we were required to be at camp. Got a couple of great days of boating in, and we were able to hit up the Tellico, Watauaga, then a couple days on the Upper Yough. Most people that have boated with me know I have an unnatural and unhealthy obsession with boofing so getting on Watauga and Upper Yough back-to-back-to-back was just what I needed to get some type of fix going into camp. After a quick trip to Yellow Springs, OH from the Yough to pick up some equipment for camp I was on my way to my 7-week job.

Fast forward a couple weeks into camp and Drew, Anna (the kayak instructor at camp), and I were on our way to the Cheoah for the weekend. Right as one week of camp was finishing up we were heading out just to paddle two days then drive 12 hours straight back just in time for the next week of camp. A quick fun weekend of Cheoah laps on Saturday and an Ocoee lap on Sunday ended with an early morning arrival and brutal day of work Monday. Fast forward another couple weeks to the morning of Sunday July 11th, and I was on my way to Little Rock to drop the bro off at the airport then straight to Denver to start my real summer.

Before I get into my Colorado trip I would just like to say most the pictures of people kayaking were taken by Allen Ligon or Logan James...I really suck at getting pictures of people in action, so most my pictures are of sceneary (lame, but I am working on it).

So I rolled into Golden early in the afternoon on Monday the 12th, and met up with my buddy and former Texas boater Ken Wealty to go get a run in on Black Rock and Lower Clear Creek. Was a great level and fun was had by all, we both passed on Rigor since it was just us two, but we got our revenge the next day. Tuesday we were met by the group of Allen Ligon, Logan James, Scott McCorvey, and Newton Tilson for another Black Rock/Lower Clear Creek session.

Just what we were looking for. Photo by Allen Ligon.

Picture of Clear Creek Narrows by Allen Ligon.

Rigor Mortis is by far the biggest rapid on the Black Rock section, and was sort of looming at me since I didn't run it last year and Ken and I walked it the day before.

Picture of Rigor Mortis by Allen Ligon

Allen routing Rigor.

Everybody that ran it before me cleaned it up, and then it was my turn. So I caught a micro eddy at the top, had no speed, and got back looped in the first hole. Luckily I hung on and back paddled out through the bottom (it is okay I got my revenge and routed it the next week).

My not so pretty line through Rigor Mortis, I held on though. Photo by Allen Ligon.

Video of Black Rock from Logan James' helmet cam.

Wednesday, I joined Allen and the rest of the guys from the Southeast and we headed for the Ark Valley. They were all gung-ho about checking out Lake Creek so I obliged and figured I could at least give her a look.

Cauldron, the bottom most drop.

Paralyzer, not much explaining needed.

After some discussion the majority decided we as group would have more fun running the classics, so we set out to run Granite, Pine Creek, and Numbers. Granite had a couple cool rapids on it, Pine Creek was still fun even though it was pretty low, and Numbers is still good no matter what.

The group heading to Pine Creek. Picture by Allen Ligon.

Group coming down through Triple Drop the bottom of Pine Creek.

Video of Pine Creek from Logan James' helmet cam.

After a good dinner at Quincy's and some play at the BV park we headed back to camp to get ready for our day of exploring Thursday. Let me start by saying the Crystal drainage is worth a visit if not just for it's sheer beauty. We got the idea that it would be cool to try and get up to the SF of the Crystal (Devil's Punchbowls) to try and run the two big waterfalls and maybe check out the drops up above the Punchbowls. The following pictures of the road in should be self-explanatory why there are no pictures of us running the Punchbowls (we took the 4x4 way in).

Newton driving the rental hard in search of the goods.

Lizard Lake, one of the coolest places in Colorado, but the mosquitoes are unreal.

So after hours of driving and hiking we abandoned our search for SF of Crystal and decided to head back down. On our way back down Scott and Allen decided they were going to try and give Crystal Gorge a go (it was pretty high), so Newton, Logan, and I helped them on their way and headed down to Marble to meet up with them when they were done. After some touring of Yule Creek and some BBQ at Woody's we started to make our way back to wait for the guys. Long story short, lots of water and wood turned their run into an epic portage fest turned hike out all the way down to Marble from Lizard Lake. I was able to convince Allen to hit up the Crystal Narrows with me on the way back to camp to at least salvage the day (kayaking wise).

After a long late night of antics we rolled out of base camp for the rest of the groups stay in Colorado to an undetermined location. Everyone was split between SSV, Joe Wright and Spencer Heights, or Poudre Narrows and Upper Mish combo. Once we got to the Poudre area and our heads had all cleared a little (at least most of us) we decided on running the Poudre Narrows and then Upper Mish as well. They were at a great level (around 3ft) and were pretty continuous.

Scott and I in an eddy below the crux move at the top. Photo by Logan James.

Following Scott down Lower Narrows. Photo by Logan James.

Allen, Scott, and I working our way down the bottom of the Narrows. Photo by Logan James.

After running down through the Upper Mish we all went to the Mish for some dinner then headed to our camp near the Spencer Heights section of the Poudre for an early bedtime. We woke up early on Saturday with intentions of trying to pull the triple header; Big South, Spencer Heights, and Joe Wright. Due to a mix up in who had the coolers Allen, Scott, Logan, and I were left scrambling to throw breakfast together before the run. After some waiting we met up three more boaters (Randy, and two guys from Durango whose names I can't recall) and headed up for the putin.

Due to a number of circumstances we only got a run in down Big South and we sort of slacked on the picture taking. Anyways, Big South is an awesome run, and actually the part of the run that I honestly thought was the coolest was not even on Big South proper. We putin on Weird Creek, a brook of sorts that runs through this high elevation field that is just incredibly beautiful. After a mile or so into Weird Creek the action starts to pick up until the bottom drops out and you are dropping good gradient on this creek in the middle of this field that just doesn't gorge up.

Group in an eddy on Weird Creek above "Rock Lobster". Photo by Allen Ligon.

After confluencing with Big South proper there is some more chill water until you get to Starter Fluid a sweet 8ft or so boof the signifies the start of the goods. None of us took on any of the four big ones on this day.

Picture of Starter Fluid by Allen Ligon.

Picture of Bar Room Brawl by Allen Ligon.

Picture of the group at Meltdown by Allen Ligon

Picture of Double Trouble by Logan James.

Ligon and I hiking out at the end. Photo by Logan James.

We all ended up rallying in Denver Saturday night since Newton, Scott, Logan, and Matt B. were all flying out in the morning. We threw down...end of story. So Sunday morning there Allen and I were in Denver with a crew about to fly out, not much really running in the area, when Scott gave us the most perfect news ever, Baileys was in, and in at a good level (it ended up being 400+). We were set...after running around downtown a little more and a detour to Red Rocks we were on our way to Baileys.

Cool picture of Red Rocks by Allen Ligon.

To our surprise not only was there nobody at Baileys it was raining pretty good in the area so the water was a little chocolaty. After a good run down we grabbed some Chinese food and set up camp for the night just down the road from Bailey. The next day we got news that Baileys was even higher (500+ range), so we met up with Ken and decided to run it again.

Running the top drop in Four Falls. Photo by Allen Ligon.

Getting my boof on in Four Falls. Photo by Allen Ligon.

Ligon running the top of Four Falls.

Ligon getting his boof on in Four Falls.

The whitewater from the top of Four Falls down to below Deer Creek Rapid at really good flows has to be some of my favorite whitewater. It just offer quality drop after quality drop although Supermax still scares me.

Ken Wealty in the crux of Supermax. Photo by Allen Ligon.

Ken Wealty in the "runout". Photo by Allen Ligon.

The next sequence of photos is of Allen Ligon running Supermax taken by Ken Wealty.

Unfortunatley I somehow punched a pretty bad hole in the bottom of my Jefe in the runout of Baileys, but it was still two good days on a great run. Allen and I made our way to BV so we could spend the evening playboating. Lucky enough we were able to hook up with my buddy Charlie from college who let us join him at the weekly raft guide dinner, put on by one of the churches in BV. That night we hung out and had a few beers as we watched an extremely impressive light show over the Eastern mountains of the Ark valley. I later found out that we really lucked out hitting Baileys when we did because that lightning was a pretty severe storm on the Front Range that led them to shut off Baileys for a couple weeks. The next day was going to be Allen's last day in Colorado so we decided to go to Gore.

Gore was the one run I really didn't care to hit during my stay in Colorado, but was also the one run I really wanted to get back on after my swim on it last summer (I got smoked in the pourover at Scissors near 2000 cfs and had a bad swim). So after some major gorilla tape work to the boat and poaching a group for the run we got on Gore. We did not really take any pictures on the run because the guys we hooked up with had places to be.

Kevin from Fort Collins and I as we start to enter the gorge. Photo by Allen Ligon.

We all had fun on Gore at a good level (1300 range)...and with a good week of boating under our belts Allen continued his voyage westward. I was still in the prime of my summer in Colorado so I forged ahead and decided to head back to the Clear Creek drainage to get one last run before it finished off for the summer.

More updates to come on the rest of my travels in Colorado, a quick day of boating in Arkansas, waterfalls in Indiana, and a short stint out East.

Hello

2009-08-15T15:24:00.007-05:00

So I have long been opposed to starting a blog about kayaking for a number of reasons; I am by no means pushing the limits of the sport or redefining it nor am I some major exploratory guru firing up new stuff all the time. Plus blogs are so cliche, boater starts running some cool stuff, boater needs blog to let everyone know.

However, after the crazy summer (been home for about 4 days all of summer) I had I thought it would be a great way for family and friends to keep up with what I am doing (more then just in the kayaking world). Beyond that I was lucky enough in my first 6 months as a resident of Arkansas to bag some of the best goods in the Ozarks and surrounding areas, so I thought this would be a cool way to profile some creeks, hopefully tell some good tales, and just all around disseminate badassness.

Hopefully I can bang out my Update #1 of summer tales in the next few days.