Mamquam Falls: Welcome to B.C.

We arrived in B.C. late in the afternoon on Tuesday after driving 12 hours frm Bozeman MT. After stopping by the golf course and looking at Furry creek we drove to the town of Squamish and looked at the massive Mamquam falls at 22 meters or like 60-70 feet tall. With the water being at a slightly low flow for the drop to be prime Myself and Cheese hucked it the next morning with some of the YGP boys running saftey for us, they ran it two days before us at a higher flow.

Photos by Tyler Bradt

60-70 to fall at this point it was mighty huge!

Cheese correcting his angle about 10 feet down.

I ran first and slightly piched imploding on impact and paddling safely away from the cave. Cheese ran right after me landing about 60-70 degrees getting ripped from his kayak and beat down in the base of the falls. He resurfaced away from the cave and retrived his boat by attaching it to himself and paddling out with my boat. I think that a bit more water would have made the drop better but the cave worse, we both had good lines off it but the landing was a bit less soft and the lip less forgiving. This is a big one and it rarely runs due to the dam upstream. What's next for us who knows. Later E.G.

North fork of the Payette

The six hour drive from Hood to McCall Idaho blazed by with a pound bag of penut M&M's. I paddled the North fork twice on this visit and partied down for the 4th of July. The river is a true classic 15 miles of really good whitewater that is all visable from a hi-way. We only ran the top 10 miles both time which packs all the hardest rapids. Cheese lead me down the first time and we switched out leaders the second run. We dragged a Daggle of the Glenn out of his cave and got him on the water with us. After completing this leg of my journey I was ready to get home and relax before heading to canada. Later E.G.

Attack on the Hood

After the dreamyest California trip of my life I left the state heading north on I-5. Stopping in Mont. Shasta we hunkered down with my good bro Shon Bullock and had a nice couch to crash on before hopping back in the car to drive across the entire state to White Salmon. A lunch break in Ashland with my aunt and uncle brought us through Eugene and Portland all the way across the Columbia river to a small logde on the side of the White Salmon river.

Wishbone Falls at lower water when the left line is pretty dried out.

Cheese taking the melt down line at Sprit falls.

I would like to thank LJ Groth along with Mike, Max, Monica, and Marshal for letting me and Cheese crash at thier pad it was very comfortable. We had some good eats and nights hanging out with a cool crew. Tyler, Andy, and Lane also came up and did the little white and trus with us a few days in a row.

Boof to Stomp was my line 4 runs on the L.W. 4 run on Sprit.

5 days in Hood River, 4 Little White runs, and 3 Truss runs. It was a good time even though the water was low and I broke my Jefe I still had a real good time. We drove away from Hood to go down to the North Payette instead of going to northern Washington to spend the 4th of July. Later E.G.

Good Bye California

Mt. Whitney tallest in California

After a month and a half of the sickest kayaking of my life I am saying good bye to the golden state. It's been one of the most epic times ever and I could not even falthom that I would be lucky enough to hit all off these rivers on a low snow pack year. Travling with the Kiwi's was one of the funnest and best times of the summer and I hope to see you guys soon maybe in BC. So off I go to Oregon and the Columbia gorge for some more good creeking.

Yosemite Valley

Some stats for the summer trip of 2007:

Favorite river: tie Middle San Joaquin/Dinky Creek
Favorite drop: The Thing/Cherry Bomb/boof-a-matic
Best Camping: Flinstones Upper Chery/Cassidy Crossing San Joaquin
Miles driven: around 4500 miles
Worst time: West Cherry Pothole beating
Best time: Almost Completing the 7rivers expedition
Favorite food: Chedder bratwurst
Funnest time: Sam puking @ In n' Out bender/Sam's galicer challange/anything Sam did.

Land of beautiful slides.

Good bye California until next summer. Later E.G.

Middle fork of the Kings

DAY 0:
We took off Devil's Postpile late at around 6:00 pm and made our plan to go run the Middle Kings. Ben and Jared drove us back to the put in near Mammoth Lake and left for the L.A. airport to go fly away to Europe. We spent the majority of the day hanging out in Mammoth until Lane's mom picked us up and drove us all to Bishop just south. We met the UGC crew and picked up my good buddy Cheese (Ian McClaren). We drove up to South Lake after getting food for the 5 day adventure. We sat at the lake and packed our boats and rigged our backpack systems for the hike while talking with Tommy and John who were about to do thier one day decent of the river. We started hiking around 7:30pm and stopped at the base of the actual bishop pass around 9:30-10:00pm. I was out in front of the group so I caught a few more zzz's. No real dinner just a few snacks on the hike up the hill.

All Photos by Tyler Bradt so no copying

Hiking on top of Bishop Pass 12000 feet and 7 miles to go 6 behind us.

Real Day 1:
We woke up at 5:30 and started to hike over the steepest part of the pass and made it to the highest point before stopping and eating some quick B-fast. We watched the sun rise over the mountains and it was glorious. That place is amazing and unique to anyother river in California. We walked the rest of the way down the hill to the last overlook before the final drop to the rio. 1600 verital feet and two miles later we were at the side of the river but not ready to put on until we had a nap time. The river starts off very small with an incredible amount of mank and sliding drops. At the end of a small valley the rapids start. The log drop and a cool slot boof lead us to a steep slide.

Cheese boofing the slot drop on day one.

We got some air time off the center left and ran some steep boulder rapids brought us to the famous squeeze play. This is the drop on the cover of the 7rivers DVD. It was late and we were all tired so it was time to call it a day. We made a nice fire and enjoyed being in the Kings where not may kayakers have been before. We all feel asleep early due to the level of fatigue from the hike.

Day 2:
This was my favorite day of the entire river. It started off with the squeeze drop and a manky cascade, which were very exciting and crazy to wake up to.

Lane squeezing it trying to get the boof off.

Me boofing into the mank cascade ready to get barried.

Some fun boof and slides that flowed into the "Money drop" a two tiered sliding falls that is in every Kings video ever.

Rush at the bottom of the Money Drop ready to film.

More big slides and continuous boulder gardens lead us into the first gorge of the Kings. There are a few boofs with big holes that we mad bombed through. It leads into another section with steep boofs that pushes hard into the big slide gorge.

Me at the bottom of the big long slide.

At the end of the slide there is a tight section of whitewater with lots of cool moves around rocks and wood when all of the sudden you reilize your in a canyon named the "Devil's Washbowl". This is a classic section of rapids that ends in a nice 20 foot freefall. No picture of this but we did get some quality video. There is a portage right after the falls that puts you at the top of the good morning gorge. This is my favorite single part of the Kings. The Willie Kern melt down drop is at the top which I probed blind and found out why it has that name, taking my Jefe deep. Two sick slides spit you out at the top of a steep continuous boulder garden that goes and goes. Fun as boating right there. Showing up at a crazy looking 30 footer we portaged on the right. The extent of the drops are inexplanable but there was a cool 10 footer and a shity slot I broke my paddle in, but Ty found a paddle at the 10 footer that I ran back up and got. Luck was on my side. We made it to Cartrage creek and the enterance to a huge valley. More fun stories and a good night of camping brought us swifty to manana.

Day 3:
This is the most mellow day of the river. With only one true big drop and a big valley to pass through our day three was a happy and fun day to love the river and scenery. This was kind of a nice warm up for the bottom 9, because there were no more major tributaries to come in, and the boulder gardens are similar. We all walked the BIg Bad Bever that Cheese and Boomer ran the week before which is a burly drop that scares me to the bone. It was good but being 100 miles from a hospital and 30 miles from any roads sends me walking this one. We ran all the way into Tihipiti Valley and camped on a nice sandy beach over looking the massive dome.

Tihipiti Dome with our humble fire in the foreground.

A nice view to chill and eat to before the malstrome of the bottom 9 miles of the Middle Kings.

Day 4:
Tihipity Valley looking upstream at the day three canyon.

The bottom 9 miles is a super fun and continuous section of whitewater. It is one big rapid so I can't tell you about any drop in particular but it was all very fun. Cheese had another swim out of a pocket hole that beat him good. There are twobigger rapids one being a double drop the other being a river wide pourover. We found Katie Hilieke's burn at the bottom of the pourover drop and scavenged some dry food out of a dry bag. At the confluence I reilized what we had just done and shed a tear of joy......... NOT! But it was one of the best rivers I have ever done and one of the coolest place I have set foot and paddled in. We were not done yet we still had Garlic Falls.

Day 5:
Garlic Falls or Kings Canyon is a classic run that reminds me of Lower Cherry but maybe a bit easyer. There was one sick drop that has a crazy 10 foot lancher boof in it. Anywhoo Ben Brown ran our shuttle and I guess I told him the wrong spot so we ran the 10 mile run and had to paddle another 9 miles of class II. Actually it was only me and Andy Maser the rest of the crew got a ride with a raft company bus... luck was not on my side that day. We all made it to Ty's truck safe and sound. We drove stright to Fresno pumping Journey and eating mexi food. what a trip!!! later E.G.

Devils Postpile of the Middle San Joaquin

Nervous as hell we got to Mammoth Lakes early in the morning at 2:00 am after meeting the crew and running shuttle. To run shuttle you must drive down to Mammoth pool reservoir, go back to the hiway drive through Yosemite and over Tioga pass, meet hiway 395 on the east slope and go to Mammoth. We woke up and checked the level by hiking to Rainbow falls and the put in of the run.

I don't have any photos of this run but there could be some coming soon...

For tons of good photos and more stories go to Derin's D.P.P. Upadate

The level looked lower than the 7 rivers expedition but still a bit high. We all were in and excited to get on the river but due to drive time we had to wait for the rest of the group and stalled until the next day when we put on at 7:30 am. The run starts off slow by gains momentem off a cool drop with two tiers. The next bit of the river was ricter steep and a big portage. High and dry on the right bank just keep walking for all most 1-2 miles. You can run some drops in between sieves and rocky portages but it is fastest and easy to just walk down to a nice looking gorge with a fun boof at the bottom of it. After that the run pick up, cleans up, and has some great drops in it. The sick double drop is tossed in there somewhere and some sketcky boulder drops are very abundent. We had a crew that was on fire and ready to make good time down stream so we were having fun walking and running cool mini gorges and drops. Charlie ran a big set of drops with a boxed out hole and mank sieves in it but made it through with style.

After this gorge is where the run is one of the best in the world. There is a small portage and then big drops lead up to the pothole drop to slide that Tommy ran in 7rivers. We opted out of running the enterence and sea lanched in above the slide. Everybody made it threw fine but Darin who had one of the worst bits of carnage I have ever seen. He went down a 60-70 foot long slide on his face and hit a huge wall-fan rock upside down, caught air and landed back on his face. When I saw him roll up I was surprised that he was not in pieces. All the body armor and full face helmet payed off this day.

Below that drop comes a nice set including Clay Wrights death pin slide. Rush had a close call there thanks to me, I was in the eddy at the top and it looked fine like a simple six foot slide. I sat and told him the first one to come down that middle looked good and he melted a seam deep. It looked wired so I sent everybody else left. Then I reilized below that it was in fact the same drop that Clay screwed himself on.

From here on is kind of a blur to me but there is tons and tons of sick drops. There is a gorge with a big rapid we walked into a nice 20 footer. After that there is a cool mini gorge with a tripple boof with some sticky holes that was very fun. A few miles of class III-IV and a log portage later the river pinched down into an insane commiting gorge. There was a team work style portage around a rock mess that lead into a couple cool drops. Boof-a-matic comes next. This is my favorite drop of the run. It is as classic as Cherry bomb or any other drop in California. It was also way bigger than it looks in videos, great lines all around and we were off.

The next drop in this gorge were some of the most stout drops I have ever run blind. This is also where I reilized how crazy and good Taylor Robertson is at kayaking. Charlie scouted the first drop and gave the g-t-g paddle hard. Tay went and we followed. This rapid is insane. A big stompy 10 boof in to the tightest slot canyon I have been in over a fast sluce slide off a boof into a big hole. We then found ourselves in a moving pool above a scary horizon line. Scoot told us that Charlie had a lready looked at this one too, but when he came down he hadn't! Being the monkey Charlie is he found a way to get out and climb to where he could see it. 2 boofs and one massive hole that almost everyone got spanked in. Relieved to be out of the gorge we passed Fish creek that was putting in tons of water making it not so much of a creek any more. We made incredible distance on day 1 and slept in a nice woodsy area with a nice fire and mountain house's to fed us. Portage total for day 1: 18.

Day 2 was very short and the most relaxing day of the run. There were some good drops and a few mandatory portages that lead up to the confluence of the north fork. That was when we encountered the first fake Curcible. A few of us ran down stream and saw that we were wrong and it was just another commiting canyon. We continued down stream until reaching Miller's crossing and met a few hikers that gave us solid beta about the whereabouts of the Ballon dome gorge. We floated some good rapid down to another crossing and the site of a massive umportageable gorge. We stopped there for the day while I ran 1-2 mile downstream to scout the gorge. We were scared that the water was high and the Curcible would be terrifing so we were not just dropping into any gorge. I found out that it was the second fake C-gorge. But I did get a good view and could easley see where the C-gorge was. We still called it a day and had a sick camp site and enjoyed the coolest river canyon I have ever been in. We munched out on good food and called it an early night.

Tyler and I floating mid air below the Crucible. Photo by Scott Liage fluidlightimages.com

Day 3: I will give the short story of. We started out doing a few long portages and made it down to the C-gorge. We were all mentally ready for the challange and dropped in. There is no way to scout or portage this section so if your going to do this run accept the fact that you have to do this gorge. It starts off with some bald rock style drops then goes off the hook steep over a few portages. The next rapid has never been run all the way through but I think we ran it from as far up as possible. There was a tight slot at the bottom with a log blocking it, we boofed over the log and went through a boily hole. There is a nice sloper boof that leads into the famous last drop of the Curcible. Left Left Right.... thats all we knew. Thats what we did. It was pretty scary and I was peaked out. Every one made it through and we were happy to be out of there. The runs not over not even close. There was tons of portages and big rapids, and gorges that were just as scary as the C-gorge. I'm going to shorten this up a lot... lots of miles and walking sessions later we were at the lake and man was it good to see the lake. It normally takes 4 days to complete but with Tay and a huge 1st and 3rd day we were out of there. It was a sunday afternoon so most of us caught rides on fishing boats with families but Rush and Ben paddled the entire 7 miles out with an angry uplake wind. We met injered Jered at the boat ramp and the plan were in action to do the Middle Kings!!!!!

This is one of the best trip and rivers I have ever done. It is the most serious run I can think of. A small mistake could be bad news so if you're thinking of doing this stay on your game and work as a team all the way down the river. Scout all the time becuase the style of river bed is mostly sievey. It is amazing and quite doable and with 30 total portages is it perfect for the right group of paddlers. Later E.G.

Back to Upper Cherry

After a few days off the water I drove back down to the Cherry creek. I got pulled over by a copper for the first time in my long 18 year life because I had the brights on driving through a city, smart dog. Well this time I went light and mean on the hike and river. completing the 12 mile hike in a short and tiring 4 hours had me stoked for a nap waiting for the rest of the crew.

Photos all by Scott Ligare (Fluidlightimages.com)

Scott doing his nasty air screws off a 10 foot waterfall.

Me boofing the center line at gorilla rapid.

Ben and EG hanging at the bottom of Dead Bear

Ben Brown, Jared Meehan a cool kiwi dude, Rush, Scott Ligare, Katie Scott, Charlie Center, and Me. We went down the river at a quick pace, had a nice camp, and got out in time to hit the Taqueria in Sanora. With out any time to lose we went back to Coloma to pick up Tyler Bradt and prepare for the epic journey down the San Joaquin. My love for this run grows by the day it's just too clean and good to not fall for it. Later E.G.

Upper Cherry

Hello everybody and I know that all of you know what this update intales. Yes the ultra classic Upper Cherry creek. This place is a granite play park of beautiful joyous slides and waterfalls. All of you kayakers that know about this run it needs no explanation or details. I will only give the tale of oooo's and ahhh's that we encountered up there in the Emigrant Wilderness. We started to hike on a Monday night in the begining of June. We knew the water was still raging high because of the rescue crew that got off West fork the day before, so we packed for 5 days on the river hoping the level would come in for Chery Bomb Falls to look good.

Halfway to Lords Medow (the putin) we camped at around 9:30 after the hellish blood suckers went to bed. The next day we woke up at 5:00 and walked the rest of the way to the river. The day was looking grim the clouds were moving fast and filling the canyon went darkness, I knew we were in for rain and maybe snow. We sat and rested at the river stright chilling with the birds. We put on and instantly froze. Taylor took a cold ass swim out of a harmless ledge hole at the end of the first slide section. By this time about 15 minutes into the two day run I was ready to get in my sleeping bag and go to bed. We stuck it out as long as possible through heavy rain, hail, and fierce winds that reaped my hands of life. Basicly I think it would have been alright if we had packed for the situation, not 90 degree weather.

Sam peacing out at the top of Mars slide with the dark storm brewing.

After getting through some good fun big water slides and holes we came upon a random gorge that happens to be named class 4 gorge.

Class 4 gorge with some dark clouds.

At this point the group was cold to the bone and decided to call it a day and go meet our other two Kiwi buddies that hiked in to Flinstones camp due to a stolen boat issue. Anyways we ended up chilling at our camp for a night warmed up by the fire and slept 7 deep under my small tarp while the cold rain pelted the ground.

Looking at high water C-bomb walking down to meet Josh and Nik at camp.

The next day we woke up late and hiked back up the massive domes back to the top of class 4 gorge and ran some really fun rapids including gorilla rapid down to the enterance of cherry bomb.

Dropping in to class 4 gorge with the hommies. Still cold.

Gorilla drop with Sam running the middle line.

The sun was almost out for part of the day but the wind and chilly air made for another freezing time on thr rio.

Me and B-unit with numb hands above C-bomb.

C-bomb was still high and I was too cold to fire it up big time. Basiclly we hung out another day and met tons of people at our camp and tuffed out the snowy blizzard.

See the snow sticking to the ridge it was a blizzard.

Yes it snowed hard for a few hours. We stuck it out slept hard and were ready for some good hucking the next day. With Cheese, part of the Idaho UGC crew and a former World Class amigo, along side us we went and ran the bomb at a nice beautiful level. It was very good and more fun than anything else, I was fired up.

EG on the Bomber

Joshy in the gorge tea cups on his run. He hike the boat back up and ran the gorge with the Chris's while we sessioned the camp drops.

We continued down river at a mellow pace and camped at the bottom of Dead Bear falls. The next day we fired off down to the lake and took off.

Nick Wimset freestyling on Jedi training slide above camp.

The possie on the camp drops.

Sam Morgan on perfect 20 below Cali grove tube.

Double pothole falls.

Kiwi in a pocket scene.

Sam the dredy Kiwi on Kiwi.

Camping on a nice soft grassy patch below Dead Bear.

Sam on an early morning Huck:Dead Bear Falls

The bottom gorge is one of the if not the funnest part of the run:The Nozzle

Jack in the box what a wonderful thing.

This was the best trip of the summer up to this point not only because it's sick whitewater but just camping and being in that sort of a place was one of the coolest missions ever. If you have the time to do longer trips and take your time down rivers like this it makes it all so much more complete as a trip. Oh yeah we went to Jack in the Box after this one and ate like kings before going back to Coloma for the first time in two weeks t'was joy in my heart. later E.G.

West Cherry Wild round 2

After such a fun and clean first round on West fork of Cherry creek I was very excited about reliving it a few days later. We had the same group minus sick Brendan and Devin and Gharett. (Sam, Josh, Me, Sean, and Taylor). We completed the hike in from Bourland mountain in 45 minuets to our previous camp site. This time the mosquitos were terrible so we ended up going to bed early but not before we had a nice picture taking session.

What a place it is good old west fork.

We got up and had a nice early start to our day. We were having a great run down collecting all sorts of cool pictures and new angles. The big ramp slide was excelente...Sammy S. doing what he knows best.

The big boof section was still oneofthebests...
Bonning it out off the top boof you can see how shallow it is in the shot.

The rally alley was still fast and fun. Then we arrived at the big pot hole waterfall! I had been thinking about this one since the last time we were here and wanted it. The water was a bit lower from the time before so that was a plus, and we were feeling the fire to go big. We scouted it for a while and decided how to set safety on it before Sam was ready and willing. He walked up to the top and looked at al the moves in the enterence rapid. That is truly the most difficult part about this rapid, the lead in is big, fast, and blinding, you are at the lip of the falls before you know it. Sam ran the exact line we were talking about and came in to the falls left moving right but not too far right. He stuck the hell out of it and was pumped to be away from the pot hole and the rapid. I felt that the drop was also good to go so I ran up sattled up in my boat and took off into the drop. There was abit of hesitation at the top but that is normal for a drop like this. I came perfectly through the enterence and started moving right. I dropped off the lip and reflected off the right wall just enough to send my bow with a little left angle. Plugged in deep and rolled up in the terrible pot hole. I was very scared in there but stayed cool and talked with my saftey crew as I clipped my self and boat to ropes. At first I tried to paddle out of the caved out room but there was no chance in hell. If I would have imploded my skirt I would die swimming back there. I waited for the team to get ready and they started extracting me vertically out of the pot hole. I was clipped on to a rope getting pulled up towards the sky from the depths and darkness of the scaryest place on the river. Glad to be out of there I hugged my Kiwi compadres and thanked them for the rescue.

You can see the river left eddy pocket I was stuck in and had to be pulled out of.

Lessons are learned the hard way some times but this was one I would not forget. Lucky for the good safety set on this type of drop. I was laxed for the day I was going to just make it down stream and chill the rest of the day until the next drop where more shit went down.

That nasty looking tiering slide that we ran off the flake in the middle last time was a bit lower and much more dangerous. I was in a meelow mood but still figured that it was good to go. I sat in the eddy and swept the group other than taylor who was walking. Right before I went Taylor told me to fall a bit to the left because they were having funny looking lines in the middle. When I got to the bottom there were people everywhere in pain. Sean pitoned and hurt his knee and feet. Josh pitoned and broken his nose and gave himself a concussion.

Josh with a broken nose spiting non-sense at us.

Sam, Taylor, and I talked about what to do because Sean couldn't carry a boat but could walk and Josh needed to get off the river. Sam and I continued down stream to Cherry Lake to get our other car and met them in Sanora. The rest of them hiked back upstream and out of the canyon back to the car at Bourland mountain. It worked out well because we got the car and met them back near the trailhead. This adventure was not done yet we had to go back in there and get their boats out.

The next day Sam, Brendan, and Nik Boise went back in and paddled their boats out to Cherry lake where we waited with food. We needed rest and some relaxing days befor Upper Cherry so we chilled at the lake for a day before our next mission into cali's pride cherry creek. Later EG

East Fork of the Kaweah

The kayaking bender continues. We had the choice between doing West Cherry again or going down and hitting the last weekend of the Kaweah drainage. To Three Rivers we went. Free camping on the Mineral King road over looking the East fork canyon. We saw some other boater that had done the run and said the level was till good so we were relieved to hear that we drove for a good cause. The East fork is a classic water park style run. There are tons of cool slides and falls and a fair share of boulder gardens as well.

What is this, a baby watermellon??? Oh how tasty!

The biggest and one of the first drops you get to is called Skyhook. Skyhook is a nasty drop with a stout leadin that has you ready to hit or miss the crack of doom. Sam ran this one after three of us were trying to convince eachother that we would be fine going down the tilted slide.

Going right after the 10 footer see the crack!

He fired it up good and tried to make it right away from the wall but slipped down into the crack like evryone else who runs this does. He tagged his elbow and shoulder and came out the bottom. There are tons of good drops on this run and some cool Dinky creek like slides. Here are some of the bigger better rapids of the day.

EG on Dead mans alley or tripple drop is a sick set of falls that is very hard to portage so you might as well run it.

B on the third slide of deadmans.

B on a cool 20 foot slide. There have been some funny stories to come out of people not know the enterence rapid is tricky and getting jacked in the falls. Kiwi's!!!!

Sam on the Fugly Falls near the end of the run.

Me on the same drop, it looks nasty but it goes.

We did some sifting in three rivers then we got fired up as always and we were back on our way to Cherry lake for more action. East fork is a sick one day run that doesnt get to much trafic epicly clean and fun. Later E.G.