more new york

Patrick Rogers sent me a CD of pictures from the Labor Day weekend Adirondack releases. He takes great photos. See more at kayakingphotos.com.

The Raquette is short but it packs a punch. 100 yards below the putin Colton Falls rips down the mountain. It is a long, complicated drop that causes a lot of short days.

A chunky entrance leads into a slide with a large hole at the bottom. The river mellows out briefly, than twist through the narrows before spitting paddlers out above the Tubs. The Tubs is probably the crux of the run. I contributed to the carnage on my second run.

A little too far left.

The last rapid is called Particle Accelerator. It is intimidating, but straight forward. We blue angeled through in good form.

At the bottom of Particle, I hiked out while everyone else paddled to the takeout. A trail parallels the river. The 25 minute hike allowed me to get six laps in a day.

Toxaway lovin!

Ahh the Toxaway. I suppose best described by many as the California of the East Coast, but really it can just be described as epic. Its chocked full of huge slides, a few mighty big portages, and with all the recent rain, a touch of new wood and boulders (that’s right, boulders)

Anywho, Fergus Coffey and myself arrived to the guage early in the morn to find the river on the high side of good, but luckily the rest of our crew wouldn’t arrive until later that day so the river had plenty of time to drop down a little bit more.
So in order to get ourselves really fired up to run the eluslivly flowing Toxaway we went to a coffee shop and waited.

So, finally, the rest of the crew made it over from Asheville. Fergus and I were accompined by Daniel Stewart, Chris Gragtmans, and Geoff Calhoun. The river had dropped in to a hefty and more acceptable 0 inches and we headed on to the put-in for a late put in.
The put-in is even sweet. You walk right up a hill and drop into the first big slide of the day.
SICK. Goeff and I were in there for our first time so we were quite excited and didn’t really know what we were in for, but pretty much just a nervous feeling and slight look of , well, nervousness above the bigger drops and then at the bottom you are stuck with a ridiculous wide green of sheer euphoria.
The river is great. We encountered new rock/tree jam in Minigizer and walked it, but apparently a few folks seal launched in off it the next day and were just running the last part of the drop. We also were greeted to a new landslide at the bottom of land bridge, which would appear to be runnable at lower flows as long as you make the eddy with out running into said landslide.
Then after quite a big mission of stout rapids and two fairly big portages we finally made it to the take out just as the day was drawing to a close and we began our hike out. Armed with a few head lamps and much talk about the infamous “turn” we started off. We finished off the hike in the dark and no one missed the turn as it has been done before and resulted in an unexpected night out in the woods. I wisely hiked with Daniel Stewart knowing he wouldn’t make that mistake again. I’d just like to say a big thanks to Chris Gratmans for showing us Toxaway n00bs down. What a great day!

Fall in Oregon

Hola amigos y amigas! I just got back from a fantabulous trip to gorgeous Costa Rica. It is such a relief to be home to Oregon where it is butt cold and there is NO humidity! Hallelujah! The leaves are changing and the nights are getting chilly...and as usual...the rivers are low. This is that in between time when nothing much is happening. I am happy to report however that the local run "Riverhouse" that only runs in the winter has FINALLY come in. Ran it the other day and there is no new wood. All clear. The flow is about 550 now so it's technical and shallow but hey, I sure am stoked to have some paddling five minutes from my house. :) Between baking tons of pumpkin spice bread and running Riverhouse, I am loving being home.

For the time being, here are a few photos from my trip. I didn't have the budget to get to paddle on the trip but surfing worked out great! Investing in a new board this Christmas for the Oregon coast. Now I just have to watch out for those pesky Great Whites....

Here are a few photos from the trip: