Celestial Falls

Height: 50-55 feet

Gauge: 235-260 cfs on February 1, 2009

Last Sunday, Josh and I headed to Maupin, OR to huck Celestial Falls.  Neither of us had run it yet but we had seen PLENTY of photos.  It isn't called "Celebrity Falls" for nothin'!  We have both been actively planning lots of paddling trips this year and we thought Celestial would be a kick in the pants after a few heavy weeks of school.

We left early on Sunday morning and picked up Tyler Roemer who is a fantastic photographer.  Check out his work at http://www.tylerroemer.blogspot.com.  After we grabbed him, we headed about two hours North where all you can see is rolling hills and farmland.  We pulled over next to the trail down to the falls- it couldn't have been a stranger place to find a waterfall!  We were in the middle of no where with NO water anywhere and FLAT land.  The trail is about .25 miles down to the viewpoint where you can check out the upper falls (which land on rocks) and see the lower drop-celestial.  The put-in was a bit tricky as the bushes were completely covered in ice (9 degrees the previous night) but we lowered the boats and seal-launched in.    

Once you are in the pool above the drop, it's basically the point of no return.  I guess you could find some way to get out but it would be a real pain!  

Here's the footage of the day-

Anyways, Josh went first while Christie and I waited for the go-ahead from Heather down below.  We were told to wait....wait..........wait......turns out Josh over-rotated and landed upsidedown.  He was immediately ejected from his boat which consequently tore his PCL.  More on this later...we've watched the footage and looked at photos over and over and think had too much left to right mo mo. 

I went after josh and was very happy with my line....and Christie followed me.  All in all the day went pretty well with the exception of Josh's knee :(  When we got back to town, I called the Stahleys who saved the day!  Mike and Joyce graciously agreed to check out his knee and gave him a somewhat clean bill of health.  It's probably just a partially torn PCL and he is already feeling much better.  Thank you for your help Mike and Joyce!  You rock!

Also, thanks to Tyler Roemer who took photos!  We will post some of his work soon...