EPIC weekend

This weekend was EPIC to say the least. It didn't go quite as planned but that's what made it so good :) Josh Mckeown and I drove up from Bend, Oregon to the Northwest Creeking Competition on Canyon Creek. I have my Microbiology lecture and lab on Friday so we ditched town around 5:30 pm and got to the creek at around ten pm. We arrived to find roughly 85 competitors! This was a HUGE turnout and people were stoked for the race. The race included raft, I-K and K1 divisions.

Saturday

Photo: Dave Gridley
One of the many boulder gardens

Photo: Dave Gridley
Big Kahuna

Josh had never raced before, let alone seen the run so we thought heading up early to get a practice run in was a good call....
we hopped on the river with John (I cant remember your last name Im sorry!), Conor Ross, Todd Baker, Kim Russell, Josh, and myself. A good solid crew and guess what? The weather was perfect! Crystal clear skies, temps in the high 70's and a juicy flow! YAY!

The creek is characteristically narrow and gorged up. The rocky walls are covered in moss and when the sun hits the canyon just right, you feel like you are in a jungle. Get the idea? Did I mention that the creek leaves the roadside for about half the run? Ok so the drops are ledgy and sticky. At 565 cfs, there were some holes you did NOT want to hit.

We bombed through swizzle sticks and upon our arrival at Thrasher, Kim and I eddied out. However, this was NOT Thrasher. It was in fact Prelude to Thrasher. A manky, sticky, undercut hole thing.....and Josh was being worked in it. Thirty seconds ticked by, a minute went by and still no Josh. His boat was long gone. Finally Josh managed to resurface and grab a hold of Todd's boat where he was pulled to safety.

At this point, Josh's boat is unavailable. Kim and I volunteer to walk out with Josh because A. we were a bit spooked by the event and were concerned about the possibility of a dry drowning. This meant there would be no racing for the three of us but Josh's safety was more important. 2.5 miles of bushwacking later, we are at the take out and shocking bikers with our white, fresh out of winter skin he he he!

The race didn't happen for us this year but we will be there next year! Congrats to all the racers! There was a turnout of about 80 people total and the after-party did not disappoint.

Sunday- Copper Creek and EF Lewis


We got up early to get on a creek that is not even fifteen minutes away-Copper Creek. I kid you not, we drove up over the hill and were at the put-in. Copper Creek is a Northwest gem. It's short but absolutely gorgeous. There are a couple solid drops and this Sunday, we spent our morning dropping waterfalls and sunbathing.

The first drop on Copper is called Certain Death. Ha. Encouraging name huh? Check it!

Photo: Josh Mckeown
Scoutin' Certain Death in my incredibly cozy dry pants...thanks Peak UK!

Gettin' ready to run safety for Mr. Todd Baker...
Photo by: Christina Russell

What makes Certain Death so nasty? The ginormous rock that is in the middle of where you are going. It is completely backed up by a manky hole and that flows into an undercut wall...not so nice.

A little ways downstream is a drop called Big Falls. It's a small ledge into a six footer into an 18 footer. If you mess up, you are goin' over a big drop onto a VERY shallow landing.

Josh and some dude Scouting
Photo by: Christina Russell

I decided to fire up the drop after watching Todd and Conor go off. I shot video for a while and then jumped in. Having a broken tail bone alters how I run waterfalls. My best attempt to avoid a painful landing means not boofing anything too big. With a firm landing in sight at the bottom, I decided a 45 degree entry would feel pretty nice...

Photo: josh Mckeown
Me on the first drop

Photo: Josh Mckeown
Me finishin' up....

Ryan Scott always makes things look easy so I cant base my lines off of where he goes lol. Ya know, this top drop reminds me of Lava Falls....oh the horrible memory. Redemption will be mine I tell you!

Photo: Josh Mckeown
Ryan Scott on the top drop

Photo By: Keel Brightman
Conor Ross on the 18 footer

Photo by: Conor Ross
Looking back at the big one

About a mile downstream of Big Falls is the Final Five- a series of ledge drops in a narrow gorge. Everyone fired these up but my sis and I decided we just didnt like the looks of the third hole in the gorge....the one you couldnt avoid. yah....twas a portage filled with thorny bushes, rotting logs, and a very angry landowner....we were told to be quiet to avoid getting shot. "Portage looks terrible! I think I'll just run it!" ha ha that's what we were thinking after we heard that.

Photo by: Christina Russell
Todd on the gorge with Ryan Scott

Photo by: Keel Brightman
Josh Mckeown showin' us how it's done...FYI that hole is the one we didn't like

Photo by: Christina Russell
At the base of the gorge

From this drop we basically floated into the EF Lewis. Our plan was the later run shuttle and hop on the class 4 section of the East Fork of the Lewis. Todd and Conor came back from a late Saturday evening run with huge smiles cuz they found a sweet gorge on the EF. We all wanted to check it out.....

Come back later and see how the EF went for us!

Vancouver Island- Part 1

This spring break, we went on a mission to end all missions....one to Vancouver Island, Canada. I had never been paddling North of Washington so with some convincing from Christie Glissmeyer, we loaded the truck and were driving to Canada.

Josh Mckeown and I joined forces in his vehicle and welcomed Kim as well....yes in his bench seat Tacoma, we were very cozy. We met up with Todd Baker in Portland where Kimmers left us. From Portland it was roughly a four hour drive to the port just outside of Bellingham, WA. That was four hours with limited music and lots of Wheat Thins!

Photo: Christina Russell
Crossing into Washington


We finally arrived at the port around 10:00pm. It was a LONG drive but we knew it was worth it. The decision was a unanimous one to camp out at the port. Josh and I crashed in the TAcoma and Kim and Todd squeezed into the back of his Subi. We were told by security that we would be woken up at 4:30 am to drive up to the loading dock...from which we would load at 7am. Yep. That was early so we waisted no time in gettin' to sleep.

Early the next morning, we boarded the ferry as an over sized vehicle.... If you are over seven feet high you count as oversize...just FYI.

Photo: Christina Russell
Team Aldercreek happily parked in the cargo hold on the ferry to Victoria



Being that it was very early, we all took our time in waking up. Todd went on a mad search for real coffee, Kim consulted with Todd on said "real" coffee and I walked around in the VERY brisk air on the upper deck. Yep, it worked and dang it was cold.


Photo: Christina Russell
The author enjoying the cold Canadian air


The ferry ride was about an hour and a half long which meant we arrived at our port destination around 8:30 ish. Austin immediately declared we were going grocery shopping so off to the nearest "Canada Costco" we went. Did you know they have "Gas Bars" in Canada. Not kidding.

Our ultimate destination was in Port Renfrew just five minutes from the Gordon River. Austin set us up well at two cabins WITH a hot tub....yeah we felt awkward going paddling and coming back to the hot tub....aren't expeditions supposed to be rough and tough. Not necessarily :) But don't worry, we certainly had a bit of roughing it in the days ahead.

Photo: Christina Russell Attempting to follow Austin Rathman in the infamous FJ cruiser...more on that later



Our first look at what Vancouver had to offer came in the form of a park and huck known as Bugaboo Falls. It is the put in for the lower gordon which we decided to hit on the first day. Check it out!

Photo: Christina Russell
Bugaboo Falls- 30 feet


The falls was perfect and it let directly into a 25 footer! Too good to be true we thought, and we were right. Smack dab in the middle of the second waterfall was a log making all paddling on it impossible.
Due to the wood in the second falls, we were unable to run the waterfalls and decided on paddling the lower Gordon. This section is mostly class 3/4 and ledgy. The canyon walls were steep and smooth as we would later realize is a characteristic of BC paddling.

Photo: Christina Russell
The put in for the lower Gordon


Ah yes....the put in for the Lower Gordon is a good one- steep and slippery as ever. The locals have set up a bomber system of ropes to get ya about half way down...the rest is up to you. DONT slip and fall on ur bum- ya might just break your tailbone (this comes from personal experience. I have now officially broken and rebroken my tailbone three times)

Photo: Christina Russell

A look at the canyon walls on the lower section reveals the thick foliage that lines the creeks. Bring your machete if you want to hike out! he he he the one time I forgot my machete, I really needed it. Of course, that's how it goes.



Photo: Christina Russell
Josh and the author checkin' out a spring


None of us realized how tired we were from the two days of travel but by the time we got to the bottom of the Lower Gordon, we were pooped. Ryan Scott and crew met us as we were hiking out and provided fantabulous refreshments. Thanks guys! Off to the hot tub we went.....

Part two coming soon...Stay tuned!