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 EG
Merlin gettin some at the top of one of my favorite rapids in the world, photo Lane
Rush boofing the top of the biggest drop on the creek, you should see the whole gorge you have to run!! photo LaneThe 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 cameraWe 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.
2 comments:
Lookin good there boys; Just looks like yall are lakin a little direction thats all. It not all about waterfalls, huckin, epic rivers and 1st Ds- well maybe it is; but still- Yall have a bright future and there is a big world out there; so get off the dope and do something with yourselves. And rember; only trust your friends as far as they can throw a bag.
Tyler
Damn you've been getting around. Dinkey and Cherry look sweet.Nice to see that you've been going HUGE. I've been doing a fair amount if boating in Idaho. Ran the Blackfoot canyon, A really manky sieved out creek an hour away from my house, ended up running kamakazi a nasty class 5 backwards blind. but it was killer anyway. spent a week up on the payettes, was on the salmon for 15 days,Ran some manky shit on the Little Salmon, and headed out for the Murtaugh next week. see ya at World Class.
the one and only
~Davis~
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