Middle Alsaseca Mandatory-Truchas

Up early in the morning, we arose and anxious and ready to get into the canyon and fire it up. We picked up our local shuttle driver buddy and headed to Base Filobobos for some good old mexican breaky. Eggs, beans, fresh tortillas, salsa, and some Jameica water ummm.

7:30 we were at the ranch on the side of the road ready to drop in. Hiking through the forest we found the right anchor point got set up and started the prosess of getting every one 70 feet down to the base of a big falls with their boats and paddles. At the base it was still cold from the nights dropping temertures, that and the amazing amount of mist and spray coming off the waterfalls landing only 30 feet away. After a bit of a project we were now very excited to get away from the mist and down by the big falls. We portaged the first slide, it was pretty much a no-go the hole in the middle was too tall to get over, it looked like going into a washing machine with no exit.

Anyway we got around that one and got out to look at the two main drops. A pretty sweet but desiving auto boof into a boily small pool, then off the mandatory 50-55 footer. We looked around a bit and Todd ran into the woods to see if he could get closer to the drop. It turns out you can get close, really close. We all went around and took a look at the lip and pool. There was a boil coming up right before you hit the lip so it made for a unknown aspect to the drop.

Well we sat, Todd got his boat, jumpped off it, Charlie threw his boat, and then Ian went. Made it look like a pot of gold. Hit the boof, went over the boils, and slid off the beast looking good, but thats all we could see, about 5 feet of the drop.

This is Ian running the enterance drop of the 50-55 footer. This added another element to running this drop because you changed style from a big sliding boof stroke, into a nice gentle stroke off the big drop. You gotta be on it.

Ian on the Lip of the 50-55 footer.

Cool we then took turns running the drop. What a sick set of rapids. The prefect waterfall, a hard lip to predict but clean as it gets.

Me at the top of the Falls. You can see the falls we had to rapel around in the background of the picture.

Paddle gone starting to fall towards the pool.


Lj and I threw our paddles, I pulled a classic bouched handroll rally and came ashore to hoots and holler about booties. Damn but we still had a ways to go and we had only made it a few hundred meters down river.

Lj running last on the (kind of) Mandatory Falls.

As we paddled down stream past the actual trout farm trough some fun class III boulder drop I pictured what we had next on the agenda, "Trucha Falls". This was probaley the drop I was most pumped about from seeing what was in these gorges last year when we walked down and caught a peak of it. It looks and is pretty darn good. A crazy seeming folding 20ish footer that lands in a small pothole. After the Pothole it squeezs down and flys off a 50-60 foot conected falls. I say that because it is a bit too steep to be a slide and not steep enough to be a waterfall. Anyway I will shut up so you can check it out.

EG in the first of the two drops creating the Trucha Falls.

You see what was going on was, we boofed the hell out of the top hard right landing headed into the wall. We then were in the crazy pothole and turned around paddled through the boils and off the biggen.

Todd Steppin' it up on the big Trucha double drop.

Ian went last and didn't want to run the first drop. He sealanched into the hallway and went stright off the big part. He clipped the left wall and spun almost upsidedown hitting his head and hands on a ledge at the bottom of the falls.

Ian on the Trucha slide. If you can see he is starting to twist right towards the nasty flake at the base.

He came out right away and swam right to shore. We just thought he pulgged and lost his paddle or something but when we saw his helmet we knew he hit rocks. His helmet was smashed from the top down, it looked like someone hit it with a sleghammer as ahrd as they could. His boat was also pitoned to the extent of mangled after a piton of roadside that week. However he was not the only one to contact piedras. Charlie, who went first pulgged in, flipped underwater and tapped his head on a rock or something. Todd also said he felt some rocks with his hands when he was under. A very strange occurance, my thought was that the walls at the base were close to the landing and did not just cut downwards with the water. Making the shores a bit more shallow. Maybe??? LJ and I didn't feel a thing just a hit with the water. Who knows?

All we knew was that there was a 100 footer around the corner and our climbing rope just sunk to the bottom of the pool when Ian swam. If I ever carry a big rop it will be clipped in to the back of my boat fo-sho. Anyhow we scouted the scene and Lj, Todd, and I decided we were going to jump it. A 100 footer, I was scared but knew we had no other option. When we went back to our boats to set it up Charlie and Ian decided to hike out. We didn't want to seperate so we prceded to do the most hanus hike out of a river I have ever done. Climbing, roping boats, beating our selves up in the jungle. It was horrendous and hot. We made it up to the Trout resturant and went down the road to get our driver. At our planned take out Awacate. It was still one of the best days of kayaking of my life along with my first real rapel like that. Some good times without doubt are those when your stuck with 4 good friends out in the wood lost and tired, it's all about the journey they say.

Charlie right about to slide off the lip of part two on Trucha, he ran this one first.

This is one of my favorites of the trip. Lj lining it up for the perfect line down the middle.

A job well done, I say. This has got to be my favorite river ever. It has so much and such a varioty no other river I have seen contains. We then went for some daily Al Pastor Tacos and Tortas in Tlapacoyan, my personal favorite food of Mexico. That's where we met back up with Raffa after his week of school. All he could talk about was firing up Second Tomata, but it was Charlie's last night in Mexico.

Later E.G.