Yangtze: Great Bend

Ahhh... The Great bend. A great adventure indeed. We set off for the Tiger Leaping Gorge with great glee for the 14 day trip down the Yangtze. After an hour and a half in the bus we arrived at the mouth of the Tiger's gorge. The section of whitewater within this chasm is quite impressive. This canyon is very similar to Grand Canyon of the Colorado, with class VI rapids.The heart of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Butter silky silky smooth!!!

After spending the night in a guest house with in the gorge we drove down stream and hiked 20 minutes to the put in for the GBY where we met our rafts and gear.

Over all the river was very flat with some fun Grand Canyon style big water rapids. The amazing part of this river, was that we found a good play spot everyday, but the last 2 days, which were basically like paddling upstream for long periods of time with upstream wind pounding your face, very fun stuff.Floating deep in the lime stone gorge with the normal WCKA crowd... A bunch of white turkey's infesting China, the mother land.

The trip normally takes 7 to 8 days, but with the WCKA school aspect added in we took 14 days to finish the 120 mile trip.

Carnage?? not alot but we did have some swims, a flipped raft, a broken oar, and a good eddy ride in Wall banger by Scott. Oh and the wrath of khan, the 24 hour puke sessions which I shared with many others.

Along the way we found many a good play spot. The main and best feature was a joyous huge wave we dubbed Kim Jong wave... cuz it's so ILL. Rerry ill!! Kim Jong your my lady... I'm ridin' dirty on the beast ready to throw nasty air.

We only surfed the wave for a limited amount of time but we threw down some big stuff, it improved the vibe of the trip greatly. The other play spots included savage waves like Dropshot, The Curler of Justice, The Pillow, and many fast surgey waves and holes.
The Curler of justice. Glenn Daggle showin' it who's el Jefe del rio.

This river was a great way to kick off a China trip. The culture surrounding the river was cool to see. the people who live on the river depend on it for everything. On day 9 we hiked up to a bigger city high on the cliff walls named Bao Shon. We spent the night in this city and got to see first hand how the river people live. On a sad this place is in danger of dam projects. The Yangtze is already blocked with dams but the Chinese government has plans to dam the Tiger Leaping gorge. That would destroy one of the most amazing places I have ever set foot, and give no one else the opportunity to see this same river canyon. The group at the last camp. The 07 WCKA crew + Travis Winn, Adam, Tashi, and Chen. Cheers Bra!!! look forward to the Kim Jong Video... coming soon as I can get a computer to edit on.

Later E.G.