San Luis Potosi

The next part of our trip took us to the state of San Luis Potosi. This is where the trvertine rivers lay in thick jungle habitats in the Sierra Madre mountains. The rio Micos and Saltos are ture classics. Fun clean waterfalls from put in to take out, ranging from 5 to 20 feet. There is a 70 foot sliding falls at the put in of the Micos and a 100 foot cascade at the take out of the Salto, but both the drops seemed super sketchy to me. Due to the sticky rock and low water we thought the boof-ability was high and hit you would take was not worth running the drops.

Reid on the micos river, The big drop is in the background of this picture.

Me on a fun lofty 15 foot boof on the Rio Saltos, Get her Done!!

Other than that things are the same. I have been sleeping in my hamock over the river, and yes, I'm slighty sick from the water and food of Mexico. Typical!!! We are headed to the Santa Maria and then back for round II of the Alsaseka. The goods!!! check ya later E.G.

Round 1: Rio Alsaseka

The first 20 foot drop on the roadside section of the Alsaseka.

The Alsaseka river in Tlapacoyan is one of the cleanest, steepest, and best rivers I have ever seen. This is where Stooksberry and those boys just went off, for the filming of Hotel Charlie 2. They first D'ed tons of new whitewater and opened up many new sections that had been thought of as unrunnable before. While we were there we met up with Raffa Ortiz, a local boater who was a big part of that expedition, as well as one of Joel's good friends. He joined us on the classic upper roadside run, which is packed full of tons of great drops. The best part about this run is that every drop is clean and good to go.

My man Alex Daggle styling it on a great drop!!

After a day on that we got a taste of what thos boys were up to the 2 weeks before we got there. Raffa took us on 3 sections of the middle Alsaseka. From Big Banana Falls to Puente Tomata. These sections, that had taken them days to complete, took us one long but fun day. We walked the Burning time 40 footer, although it is clean, if you hit the line, we had just decided before we didn't have the time to set the right safety up. Other than that we ran great whitewater all day. The best drop was called the Meat Locker, a double stage 30 footer with a 90 degree turn that went well for everyone. We stayed at a great place called Adventurec in Tlapacoyan, it was sweet they cooked 3 times a day and we all had beds. We are on the move to the Micos, but in a few weeks we are returning to run more of this excelente river.

The beautiful Tomata Falls. This thing is huge, but good to go with a tad-bit more water!!

Alsaseka Movie and Middle Alsaseka pictures coming soon after round II and finals for my first semester of senior year. Later E.G.

Jorge Martinez

This update is about a friend of ours down here named Jorge Martinez. He was an aswsome Mexican boater who joined us on the Xico, Texolo, and lots of good times in Jalcomulco. A week or so ago, Jorge went back to finish the middle gorge of the Texolo, due to his destroyed skirt he hiked out after the big drop on his first run while we continued down stream.

Lj and Jorge Martinez, THE MAN!! scouting on the Rio Xico.

Anyways, he went back with a few good friends of ours and a little over half way down the river he got beatdown in a hole at the end of a steep rapid and lost his paddle. After that he swam into an undercut wall and never resurfaced. His friends went back to the rapid and looked for his body for days after the event and even brought a scuba-diver to try and recover him from the cave. The search was called off unsucsessful. He was a great guy and very positive person, really fun to be around and boat with. I feel privlaged to have gotten the chance to kayak and hang out with such a good person and I feel the loss of a friend and fellow kayaker.

E.G.

El Rio Texolo

5:50 am, Thursday morning we gathered our drying gear and started our drive towards the river. All my thoughts were focused on the run and not much else at that time. We got to the river and geared up quickly, due to the level of excitement in our group. The river started off slow but turned to fun class IV(+) boulder garden drops for around 5-6 km. We kept thinking that right around the next corner we would see the box canyon with the big waterfall at the end, but the top section took us around 2 hours to complete. When we came to the entrance rapid leading into the crack gorge we scouted it and dropped in.
Dave and Karl decided they were going to jump and rappel down to the pool below, while LJ, Jorge, and I sat in the pool ready to run the big drop blind. Getting out of a boat in that eddy, is in my mind, one of the scariest things I can think of, but they pulled it off and set up a rope system to get Dave down. Karl jumped the cliff and gathered their boats and paddles as Dave hucked them off the small sloping cliff. I don't know how Dave set up a system with that little to work with but he got it done and after an hour of waiting in this dark canyon the three of us were more ready to fire off the beast.

Dave rapping down the waterfall, aahhwoo it looked scary!!!

Jorge went first, then LJ, then Me. We all decided that we were going to get rid of our paddles on the way down, and we did. The lip came up fast, I took a small stroke, threw my paddle, tucked to my deck, and took the surprisingly soft hit. I was so pumped up that I have never done such a fast hand roll. I threw my hand in the air for a little celebration then grabbed my paddle.

This is a good shot of the whole drop LJ, Jorge, and I ran and gorge that we were waiting in.

LJ had a great line as well but on Jorge's over the bars impact his skirts exploded in three different parts, I have never seen anything like it before, his skirt was literally in pieces. After we ate a little food at the base off the falls, Jorge started his jungle hike out while we continued into the most unknown part of the river.

The group at the bottom of the big Falls, look at theat place!

This section had some of the most quality rapids I have ever seen. We portaged a huge nasty ledge drop with a possible death hole. By the way with much more water getting out of your boat here would be nearly impossible. Then after that short walk we hit the goods. The three coolest/hardest rapids of this section were close together. The first had 4 good boofs and between them you dogged undercuts, logs, and ducked through a short rock tunnel of rock. The second drop, which I will call LJ's drop, was a steep twisting rapid that dumped you off a 90 degree turn in to a huge hole/pillow in a canyon with slightly scary walls. LJ fired it off first and got beat the F*** down, only to flush into the left wall and swim. After the rest of us ran it we were right above the second best drop of the day. A sweet rolling 9 footer into a maybe 25 foot tall fast slide that took you off a kicker half way down that we aired out off of and landed in a beautiful pool.

Me bombing off the kicker ready to hit the pool, this rapid was sick!!

Karl building up speed ready to launch off the drop!

This was also I think the only must run rapid of the day, but don't quote me on that! After that it was maybe 1 km of rapids similar to the upper part, then the most important part of the day. We made it to a pool and luckily LJ saw the so called stack of rocks that was marking the entrance to the big waterfall. This is where you must take the right channel, putting you in an easy eddy above the 100 footer.

This is the lip of the 100 footer. The river turns into the lip, rolls off the edge, pushes you left, the curtin covers you, and then it's white out from there just hold on!!!!

After we looked at the waterfall for awhile we sacked up and started our hike up to Porfi and the Van. The first part of the climb was through thick jungle and was steep until it reached a cliff. After that we met the main trail we took the day before, and hiked up the massive hill to the car. I think it was the most I have ever sweat in my life, and today my right shoulder and legs were aching. We got ot the car at 5:00pm and loaded slow as we talked about how sick the day was. For next time I would say film from the top of the 50-60 foot waterfall or jump with your camera. I was kind of bumbed we didn't get footy or photos of it, but it's all good. Then I would say spend the night at the bottom of the big falls, after doing the portage. Then the next day rally out the lower Texolo-Sordo-and Antigua. It would make the trip go from creeking, to river running, to play boating. This was an amazing river, I hope someday I will return to run it again. The canyon was commiting and beautiful, one of the coolest places I have set foot in. Now we are going to run the lower part of the Texolo tomarrow (class IV stuff) then we are off to the Alsaseka and Filobobos for awhile. Hope you enjoy the photos by Dave Zinn. Good times!!

later E.G.

Exploring the Texolo

This is the river I have been waiting for 5 weeks, since the day I got to Mexico, to get on. The Texolo drains the 4th largest mountain in North America, so the scenery is second to none. Our crew was none other than; Dave "the brave" Zinn, Lil' Jon Groth, Karzy Karl Moser, Jorge, and Myself. Wednesday morning we left our hotel in Jalcomulco early in the morning. We had gotten enough beta from locals and T-Bone, Seth, and Willie (who did this run a year ago) to know that this river had the goods. We knew that there was a 60 footer, a 100+ footer, and tons of good class V rapids in this gorge. The problem was we had no clue what the water level was going to be and people had said there may be no where to stop above the 60 foot drop, due to the box canyon it was located in.

LJ making his way across the sketchy bridge on the way to look at the 100 footer.

This is the 100+ footer at the bottom of the gorge, that thing is clean, but huge!! For a scale look at the rock left of the lip in the picture, that is 10-12 feet tall!

Our plan was to go hike down in to the canyon to get a look at both the waterfalls and an overall feel for the gorge. That is what we did, with our friends Porfi and local kayaker Jorge, we found the trails and were able to see that there was an eddy above the 60 footer and you could, if necessary, get out and jump to the pool below. We saw the top half of the drop and dubbed it good to go. The other issue was that above the 100+ foot drop the river splits and the left channel is a direct route to set the world record. With these thoughts in mind we decided that the water level was perfect and we would come back at dawn the following day to complete the 2 day river run in 1 long day.

Jorge running the slot drop on the Xico, right about to go deep!!!

The rest of the day was good as well we ate lunch in an awesome mexican town named Xico high in the mountains. After our Mole we went and put on the rio Xico at a low flow. It was still really fun and had some quality drops on it. The gorge that it flows through is more like a half pipe than anything.

The best drop of the run was a slot 20 footer that sent you deep at the bottom, way more powerful than it looks. Photos by Dave Zinn

After the Xico we returned to Jalcomulco ate dinner and went to bed with thoughts of big waterfalls and deep gorges lingering in our heads. Later E.G.

New Happenings in Mexico!

Big Slugger Whitney taking a solid cut at her B-day opponet.

I am still here in the coastal paradise of Huatulco hanging out on the beaches and enjoying the Mexican living. We are having a great time and doing some really unique things down here. First off I would like to start this post with the news of my good friend and mentor, Whitney Lonsdale's birthday. We had an epic run down the Zimatan and then had a Mexican Style fiesta with a pinata and Mexican cuisine. Good times!!!

Joel and I showing our stuff to the Mexican honeys at Puerto Escondido.

After the birthday celebration we had another day off of school and decided to go to Puerto Escondido to check out the Mexican pipe line and amazing beaches. This place fully lived up to all of my expectations. The breaks were the most amazing left hand point crumblers I have ever seen. While we watched local surfers rip it up out in the clear blue waters, while Joel and I had a quality huck session off a sand ledge. Beat from a day in the sun we hung out on the beach until the sun went down and night set in. Joel Kowalski kickin' it watching the sun disappear over the horizon.

LJ Groth enjoying the night time celebrations of Day of the Dead.

We just got back from a mountain town up by the put in for the Copalita where we got to see the Day of the Dead festivals in full action. It was really cool to go into a huge cemetery filled with people and thousands of candles. The place was crazy, drunk men infested the path ways asking for money and beers while families celebrated the life and times of their late relatives. The beautiful Mexican women were also out in full force, once again proving to me how good looking Latinas truly are. This was really the coolest cultural experience we have seen thus far in Mexico. Other than that we are leaving this Saturday to go back to Jalcomulco to get on some possible overnighters and play runs we miss earlier on our trip. Hope you guys are having a good time and enjoying life where ever you might be.

P.S. There will be more kayaking update and pictures coming soon. Later E.G.

Huatulco, Mexico

Yeah,
This is where the trip has picked up some steam, we have been having a sick time here. The AC of plaza Conejos, sick beach and point breaks, and the white water has this place high on my destinations list. I have been in Mexico for a little over 2 weeks and it's just getting better and better. Here is THE VIDEO It's very worthy taking a look at!!!

Huatulco is a big tourist town on the West coast of the country, we are staying right out side of the main city in the town of Santa Cruz. We have some super nice locals cooking 3 meals a day for us, other than Tuesday night pizza that is. After our arrival here we went stright to the beach. A beach/point break called playa Majon. The waves are epic here, I have been lots of places around the world and this place is close to the best it gets for kayaksurf, but let the video do justice.

On the river side of things we have done 2 different rivers here so far, the Copalita, and the Zimaton. The Alamana section of the Copalita is fun class III-IV river running play. It has been so high that all the normal play is flushed out replaced with tall surging waves. The Zimaton is what they say here in Mexico "La Raja". It's a cross between the Lower Palguin in Chile and the White Salmon in Washington. Full of tight smooth granite gorges, stuffed with sick (IV+ V-) rapids and fun boofs. None of the rapids are super difficult but together they make up an epic run. There is one rapid that is by far the hardest of the run, a big chunker at the take out called "El Chorro". It has a stout enterence that leads right in to a 10-15 footer, sounds sick!! The problem with the rapid is that the 10-15 footer lands in a nasty tight gorge with a terrifing cave behind the curtin and undercut walls surronding the exit. We had a few scary moments here in our trip so far but everyone is fine and still smiling. This is a river to set your sights on, if you plan a trip to Mexico, it would be a crime not to do this one.

Right now I have a very swollen finger and a possible ear infection, so I have been kickin' it the last few days. Keep checking in and I will keep updating with our stories and adventures. Later E.G.

MEXICO

Checking in from the Vera Cruz state of Mexico. I am at the Antigua river right now in Jalcomuco doing some fun 3-4 river running play type rivers and it´s been treating me great. Mexico is an amazing place full of culture and beautiful places. The trip getting here was quite long but everything went smooth. Now I´m in board shorts in a jungle running rivers while most people are wearing coats freezing 24 hours north of me. I´m really excited for the rest of my trip here there are some good river lined up for us, including the Zimaton, Tecshlo, and the travertine riverbeds of Ciudad Valles. No good pictures yet but I will try to be on updating as much as I can. Hope all is well where ever you might be. later E.G.

Lil' Green Update

Here is a short video update of a run down the Green River at 100%. It is a super fun river. I only get to run the Narrows a few times a year so it is always good to get on.The flying Swedish kid Mikey on Triple Falls Photo by Fred Noriquist

I also got to run triple falls one day when the dam was being worked on. The video was shot by Karl and the WCKA video class and it features: The brothers Daggle, LJ, Dave Zinn, Karl, and yours truly.The Video There is more HD footy that Joel shot but I will have to get that later. I am back at home for a week now then I'm off to Mexico for 9 weeks of sick kayaking. more updates coming soon. later E.G.

p.s. if you want to hear about my next trip go to (operationraf.blogspot.com) it's not going down until next summer but I will be pre-amping it this winter.

canada update movie

This is it, a sick video of us at the ottawa and lachine. It introduces about half of the WCKA crew for this year. Time is flying by I'm headed to the Green tomarrow for some classic Southeast creeking. Later E.G.

once again im sorry but my link button is not working but here is the site (copy it and paste it)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8307966363663490091&hl=en
enjoy!!

The Ottawa

The Ottawa..... What is there to say? Some sick ass play boating. When your here you will see something that I like to call the "Ottawa syndrome" That is where a person drops into Garberator throws a ride with both Pan-ams, Air screws, and a helixes, then flushes off the wave, misses 5 rolls, and barely catches the eddy. If you know what I'm talking about you will think it's funny but if not don't take offense to anything that I say. Back to my trip here, It has been a trip of ups and downs. I got here and trained hard for the US team trials for 4 days. The competition went well for me I took 2nd behind none other than Dane Jackson, but still made the Team. After I was done competing I tweaked out my back surfing more, I thought, "Oh well I will just take a few days off and be back at it in no time." I took almost 2 weeks off and missed a good chunk of our time at the Ottawa. Now I'm back in my boat and fired up for Lachine.Karl lanching a backside Camel flip to paddle twist!!! he's good!!

We have a week at Lachine coming up soon and I will post a video of that HELL YES!!! E.G.

New Mt Update

Hey it's been awhile since my last post. This is what has been happening in Montana lately, there is not much to paddleon but we still found some good stuff. I got back from OR a week ago and tomarrow I am flying out to the Ottawa to compete and join up with WCKA. I am happy to say that I will be a pure Liuqid Logic boy now, I am picking up a ronin from Shaner this next week and will be sporting for those boys now. As for the movie my link is not working but this is the site,

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-742339472771733986&hl=en

hope it works for you guys its a cool movie with some big drops and tricks. Well later I willl be in Canada the next time I check in EH!! E.G.

Cali Movie

This is a movie by Cali Product and YGP of Upper Cherry and West Cherry. There are some good shots of Lane, Charlie, Merlin, Rush, Ian, & Me. here is the Movie and you should check out the rest of this web site, it pretty COOL!! later E.G.

Hells Kitchen and other stuff...

We drove through dusk heading south on highway 49. After both Dinky and W.C. I was very tired so naturally I tried to catch up on some sleep in the teva Toureg. Contrary to popular belief the luxurious leather interior is not comfortable. After an hour or so of sitting in the back seat sweating we found Ben's van in Bear Valley. We woke him up and made plans to met in the coffee shop the next morning. After another night of sleeping in the dirt on guard for bears (because Rush swore he heard a bear in the woods)We met Ben, checked the level, and drove to the Putin. As we pulled up to the river we saw a few friends (Cheese, his brother, Dave, and Andre) They did the run the day before us and told us we had a long day ahead of us. It turned out to be way more manky than I thought with quite a few portages. Rush ran the 40 foot gorilla on crack (Portage #24), and Astrostar. #24 did not go well he gutted it down the middle disappeared and popped out the bottom upside down after taking a huge shot to the elbow. That was not the only carnage of the day, for those who have run the H.K. before, remember the rapid with a few boofs into a juicy pillow going off a 8 footer? Yeah I decide I wanted to plug the pillow, do a kick flip of the 8 foot ledge, almost tag the wall in mid air, and go into a nice down time. It all was fine I just rolled up past the hole and paddled out, but it made for some good video. The rest of the run went fine, there were tons of boofs and moves to make all the way to the take out. The description says this run is a classic, I disagree but still think this run is a great class V day on the water. Some picture by Ian Garcia enjoy. Ben and Rush blue angling the S#%* on the north fork of the Stan.Rush sticking the crux of Astrostar

After completing this run we drove to Coloma and had a quality CC night. This next day we got our stuff together said goodbye to some friends and took off for Lane house to start our drive home. I wanted to stay for Upper Cherry, and we almost did, but After a day of cliff jumping in South Lake we called our trip good took off for home.

With the end of this trip and a season of boating in Cali we completed a Sierra triple Crown (Royal Gorge, Dinky Waterfalls, West Cherry) and did some epic boating all of which were new runs to me. This has been my first season of kayaking in California and now I know why everyone is so crazy about it. Here is the list of the rivers I did in the 7 weeks I spent in Cali over this spring and summer:Kaweah, NF Kaweah, Merced, SF American, NF american, Webber, Traverse, South Sliver, Sacramento, South Yuba, Paully, Lavenzola, Slab, Dinky, W Chery, Cherry, NF Stanisalus, and a few others.

It was a great experience, I met a lot of cool people ,and had tons of good times. California is my new favorite place to kayak in the world over Chile, Africa, new Zealand, all those places. I hope to spend next summer there adding to my list. "California Gallery coming soon" Later E.G.

West Cherry Creek

West Cherry was a run that has interested me from the first time I saw the LVMer's running it a few years ago. After our epic run down Dinky creek we drove stright to Cherry Lake to met up with our crew: Lane, Ian, Rush, Merlin, Charlie, Ligare, and me. The next morning Merlin thought he was a genius and lead us 30 miles from the put in. Lane corrected him and lead us to a trail head some where close to the creek. I have heard nothing but bad stories (7-8 hour hike) about the hike in: Ben Stooksbery got lost 2 day before us and found the creek 6 hours into his hike at the end of all the rapid at the big portage. we on the other hand just kept walking upstream until we found a a bluff that looked over the whole canyon. We saw the creek and started to hike down the canyon wall. Merlin decided he did not want to carry his boat the whole way, half way down on its speedy decent the boat hit a downed log and stopped. The boat was broken! When we got to the creek we set up camp, Merlin welded his boat, and we started to hike upstream to see if there was any worthy.Ian bombin through the first big drop of the day, photo EGMerlin gettin some at the top of one of my favorite rapids in the world, photo LaneRush boofing the top of the biggest drop on the creek, you should see the whole gorge you have to run!! photo Lane

The hike to the creek only took us around 2 hours, not bad. When we went up stream there was nothing that caught my eye, a manky slot gorge, some portages, a 15 footer, and low angle slides, nothing compared to what was down stream from where we camped. The run took us most of the day and once we got to the confluence with upper cherry we knew our trip was not over. They group estimated 600-700cfs was in upper cherry, HUGE. We made our way down it very slowly, portaged what we wanted to, and ran some huge juicy slide and rapids that were scary but still fun. Once we got to the other side of the lake we started to hike back to the cars, 50 minuets later we were there. This was the single longest day of kayaking I have ever done, a true mission, so don't try it if you are not in the mood to do some work and put in a long day.
The Possie, left to right: Scott Ligare, Merlin Hannuer, Charlie Center, Ian Garcia, Evan Garcia, Rush Sturgus, aand Lane Jacobs. photo Lane's camera

We randomly saw Ben Brown at the take out and came up with our next plan. Meet in Bear Valley and do the Hells Kitchen. Enjoy the pics, Later E.G.

Dinky Creek: The Waterfalls

All photos by Lane Jacobs

A 14 hour drive back to California on another mission to run the shit, Ian and I found ourselves a few hours east of Fresno in the mountains ready to get it. The Dinky creek waterfalls section is one of the most classic pieces of whitewater I have ever paddled. It is an amazing pool drop run that is a tributary of the North fork of the Kings. The run starts off with a huge down hill climb through the infamous California Manzanita. Our crew started off huge: Pat keller, Lane, Ian, Billy Murphy, Billy Jones, Jed Selbey, Andre S.S., Dave Fusilly, and your truley. Lane , Ian , and I took off on the hike earlyer and ended up waiting over an hour at the creek for the others to catch up. By the time they arrived at the put in the 3 of us were amped and started our way down stream. Almost every horizon line we came up to was a big drop so remembering each one is imposible, but there were a few that stood out as bigger or better drops in my mind. Me firin' up Willie's drop which consisted of a 12 foot boof on to a slide right in to a 35 foot cascade "EPIC"Ian jumping off one of the 2 manditory portages. This is right down stream of 2 great drops: a slide into a 20, and a clean curtin 20 footer.Ian on the triple drop that lands in a pot hole, it's BIG but it's GOOD



The big slide lane fired up just down from the normal camp for day 1. In the group behind us Jed Selbey dislocated and seperated his shoulder on the big clean slide above this drop, he spent the night and had to get hellivact out of the canyon the next day. The infamous "Billy Murphy" was also ripped out of his kayak on this same rapid sometime later that day as they passed through.The boys (Lane and Ian) were more than ready for our camp cliff jump after gettin' a little Beam in their system. A little midnight tandem jump.This is another curtin call 25 footer right below a perfect 20 boof.

Dinky creek had so many big clean drops that it would have taken days to get pictures of every one. So these were only a few out of 2 days of good whitewater. This run is at the top of my list for sure I have never been to a place with so many class V drops like this. The weater was hot. Maybe close to 100 and the sun was beating down on us all day. Another reason why Cali happens to be my favorite place to kayak in the world. Lane and I were at the take out for ever waiting for the other group to get down and for the long shuttle. When Ian got back we loaded up and started our drive to West Cherry. Later E.G.

Montana Movie

Hey, here is a little part of my new movie i'm in the making of. It is all my home town waterfalls and creeks. The section features Ian Garcia, Dan West, Cameron Goodman, and I. The movie is about half way done and is turing out super good. It is a video about my last 2 years of kayaking and features drops like the middle line of #9 to the big bird on the middle Palguin. I should be done with it after my next trip to California. THE VID, hope you like it. Later E.G.

weekend with cheese

Brooks and Cheese sleeping on a bridge 4 miles into our huge hike

This last weekend I had a friend come up from McCall Idaho. His name is Cheese, and he also goes to the kayak academy. (or went I should say) But he wanted to do some good stuff around Bozeman so in a short weekend we charged to complete 4 rivers. A play spot on the Gally, A day on Big Timber, a quick run down Hells Canyon, and a 1st decent on a river that has potential to be the best run in the whole state. Hells and Big timber were pretty low but were still fun runs.Cheese firing up the pinch

The 1st decent included a very long hike in and a long scout of a gorge. The main section of the river we went for looked all good, deep in a gorge, a cross between Cali and the Box of the Clarks Fork Yelly. We were shut down on running the main gorge due to a 50-60 footer that was the start of the section that looked way to boofable,The 50-60 footer at the enterence to the main gorge, check it!!This is the 1st D of the top gorge leading right into the big falls Ian scouting the inner gorge

but with a little work you would be at the top of a 5+ gorge where no kayaker or person has ever been before. So here are some pictures of our good weekend. Enjoy. Later E.G.

Royal Gorge of the North fork of the American

An experience that no one will ever forget. This 3 day 30 mile run that starts high on Donner Pass on I-80. We met Pat Keller who had just gotten off the same river 2 days earlier at a lodge close to the put-in. We started to get our boats packed for the run and all our gear ready. 20 minutes later the rest of our group showed up: Jason Hail, Jayson Holman, Josh Bechtel, and Lil' Dave. We loaded Josh's truck and headed for the put-in. I broke the run up into different gorges. The first gorge is boof after boof after slide after ledge, all clean class 5. That leads into Heath Springs gorge. Which has 3 huge waterfalls and a deep dark canyon, where escape is not an option. Then the dark granite of Heath Springs fades into the white gorge which contained countless 8 footers, slides, and waterfalls that ends with Rattlesnake Falls. We camped at the top of the falls and enjoyed the fire and wilderness. The next section has classic California drops, granite slides, and waterfalls. I was lucky enough to watch Pat fire up Scotts Drop and style it. (A 90-100 foot double drop) The rest of the run has a 30 footer, tons of sick drops, and one last portage around Wabena Falls. (70-80 footer) I found out later by talking to Scott Ligare that Rush stomped the hell out of Wabena 3 day before. (Props to him for steping it up) After that you are out of the Royal Gorge, and in to Generation Gap. I can't really tell you much about the next 2 sections of the run other than there are some big hard rapids, some very scary undercuts and sieves, some portages, some must make moves, and some class 3 parts where you can relax. We had a long day 2 and camped at a sandy beach in Giants Gap. We finished the 30 miles early the next morning. All though there were some quality class 5 rapids in the lower sections I was still happy to see the take out and our truck waiting for us at the bottom. In the end everyone had good lines no one was hurt and every one was happy through the whole trip. With one broken paddle (IAN), one swim (Holman), and a split open chin (PAT), our trip was complete and everything went well. The Royal Gorge is my favorite river I have paddled and the second overnighter I have ever done. I have to say thanks to Pat for leading the run and knowing all the portages, he made our trip that much more successful. If the level is right and you feel like going BIG far away from any help the Royal Gorge will always be waiting for you and any one who wants it. Later E.G.

A Sunny Day on South Sliver

Hey just got back from an amazing trip to California. One of the runs I got to do was South Sliver. Yeah the classic cali granite slides and waterfalls. I was told the level was really HIGH but it still looked and felt good. I drove to the top with Lane Jacobs and Travis Winn and put in. The run is classy. Smooth slides and teacups all of it is clean, I followed Lane down the whole run top to bottom. After the run we went to Lane parents nice ass house and had some steak and potatoes, A good day. Photos by Ian Garcia and Travis Winn.
Hope you like the pictures. This is a must do if you are in Cali. Later E.G.