Rio Panqui first descent

So this has always been a river that has interested me due to its close proximity to the rest of the good here. We woke up one sunny morning and drove to Currarehue where we found a very low looking level at the bridge... do we want to go? Yeah we are already here so... basicly we put on and rode out about 2-3 miles of the worst low volume class II ever!!! what´s up? then all off the sudden we show up at a huge horizon line marking the portage. To our surprise what we saw was a clean 60 footer with a small pool. DANG! we scouted it out and all decided that it goes... one problem safety is a must in there so we needed to return with a climbing rope, and harnes to rappel in to the box gorge with nothing but stouts in mind we portaged the rest of the gorge and proceded down stream to run the rest of a cool pool drop gorge to the take out.

The first day on the last 30 footer below the portage.

Once the Seiler bros showed up and after a huge birthday night out.. we were set on gong back for this puppy. We nixxed the class II and parked at the falls where we ghot ready to watch and run some big big stuff. Jared ended up going down to run safety in a room where most of the outflow went, good to have a bro at the bottom of this thing for sure. After some time Ian and rodrigo Ro-sham-bo´d for the first D... Ian won.

Jared rapping in to run some safety.

Ian at the top of the stout... note his far left possition.

Ian going over... seeing nothing but a pool and lots of rocks.

So the drop was not an easy plop at all... lots of curent at the lip, and a very questionable crack and ledge at the base of the drop on the left. Ian came in hot, no eddy and ran it almost off the left wall. Not having his line of choice he ended up way over and with a few loud !¨BANGS¨! he came out with three pieces of an AT2 swimming.. OUCH! Like always he a tough somofabitch so he just cheered it off. After much conversation Rodrigo decided he was ready to stout...

Rodrigo entered further right on the lip trying to avoid the ledge at the base of the falls.

Looking good buddy.

Going for it!!!! quote chico gerd!

Rodrigo ended up having a good line... still over rotated, but on this drop it was almost a 100%... very shallow where you wanted to take off. He landed with a boom! in the pool and snapped off a quick roll. Knocked the wind right out of him, but he was stoked to be in the pool looking back up at yet another huge waterfall in his backyard. With the two of them safe I said ¨I´m good¨ and walked away from this guy. Coming away from this with some incredible media and a fun day out there I was just happy to have witnessed the huckfest.

Celebration with a Volcamburger, the best of Pucon.

Later E.G.

Upper Palguin ¨Obamamos¨

Our truck with our new rack all ready to go.

On the day of the election for our new prez we all decided to head up to the rio Palguin for a good huck session. With cold rain and wind we were pretty stoked to hold back for another day to get on the Middle so we went all the way up and rallied out the classic Upper section. All the first 4 drops were all good and now totally clear of wood from the flodding of the winter. We were all fired up so when we got to the gnarly portage three of us just sacked up and history was made.

Fredy on the slot drop... it was a bit harder with the higher level.

Ian went first... he hit a big boof off the right wall and bounced off the opposite wall a bit then cruised off the next 20 footer upright. Now this drop has never been stuck before, legend says once upon a time Brendan Guth cleaned it... who knows.

Ian coming in hot.

Boof.... slot... wall.... pillow... hold on!

Ian all up in the hyerp, but upright at least.

Rodrigo went next... way different line but similar results. He plugged in deep, came firing up rolling while resurfacing and then stompped the next part with steeze. Two people just stuck a somewhat impossible drop back to back????

Rodrigo melting in to the top bit.

So then I had to go... after seeing two of my bros hit this up I was next in line. I kind of knew that the probabilty of three in one day was less than two. With that in mind I proceded on ward. I fired a huge boof off the wall.. tail first landing... paddle broke... I flipped... and ran the 20 upside down. When I rolled up I was not surprised at all. Just how it goes. Another day, another portage dropped, and the first paddle of the trip. That night the Seilers showed up and we hit the town with force for Jared´s birthday, the next day we woke and headed for yet another portage...

Later E.G.

Desahue round 2

This has become my favorite river in the immediate area of Pucon. Roadside goods 15 minuets away from town.. can't beat it. We have this bad boy for a backyard huckin' grounds.

The second drop of the run, a tricky one at best.

A scenic shot of this great run.

Ian on the portage yet again.

Me on the portage yet again, not quite as smooth though:)

Stompin' the big boat on Ojos... another sunny day out there.

Stay tuned the Seiler bros get here tomorrow.... De' Stouts will be fired.

Later E.G.

More Pucon Goods!

As the days go by here we just keep going to more and more rivers. The Nevados one of my favorite runs here has been in as well as the famous Desahue. We ran up and got on the Puesco which gave us a morning of excitement on some steeps. Now we are planning out our assault on some of the big boys around the area and waiting for some amigos to show up in town... The Seiler boys should be here in two days more and then our Tour de Stout starts up. Dave Fusili is showing up in 20 days bringing nothing but fire to the plate as well... so keep up to date in your egcreekin and enjoy these photos from the past few days.

Lay out at the last drop on the Rio Plata.. too low to run so we swam.

A great river close to the border of Argentina...Rio Puesco is steep boulder drops for a few miles of action.

One of the best eats in Pucon... Mi Casa.

Me running the Coilaco duck and huck 30 footer with Fred.

Rodrigo on the slot falls of the Nevados on a sunny day out there.

Ian boosting some air on the slide.. Sik line.

More to come soon
Later E.G.

Rio Desahue

So many things have already happened on this exciting trip to Chile... A few days running around the massive city of Santiago, A first descent, and lots of parties. With some good luck Ian found a 4x4 Cheve-Luv truck and bought it straight up! Wam Bam we out!

10ish hours later, after leaving La casa Astorga and the Maipo we arrived in Pucon the best central location for running the shit here in Chile. After some meager sleep we woke up and met up with our good friends Ema and Rodrigo of (kayakpucon.net). Everything seems the same after leaving this place almost 7 months ago... we ate some bread, avocado, tomato, and went straight to the river.

This time it was a new one for me... due to the lack of water last year we were never able to hit this one up. The Desahue was incredible! Start to finish this river impressed me... After hearing of this run time after time from my hommie LJ I had always wanted to lay some treats on it.

A common drop of the Desahue.

Ian ran the portage first... it looked like a grim landing zone.

Hitting a sik line off the shallow 30.

Setting it down.. a cool picture of myself.

Rodrigo on his favorite home section, with style.

Me on a nice log ducker that Rodrigo and I gave.

The entry to the left side of Ojos.

Layin´treats on the left side on her.

Fred getting the huckin dialed in good.

Right side of Ojos de Carburga. Monkey stats.

Fred killing a boof.

It has tons of clean rapids, big boofs, slides, and a few big drops for sure. Ian, Rodrigo, and I fired up the portage drop... a 30 foot boof into like 2 feet of water! Stout but good to go. Then we continued all the way to Ojos de Caburga a two channel 30 foot drop. We dropped both sides with style and had a sicko day no doubt. We did do one portage around LJ's drop due to a wood clog but it looked a bit gnarl anyways. Some new wood in there but it was all bomb and good to go.

After the river we met Ema at their new land on the side of the Liacura river for another Chilean style asado. With chicken, pork, steak, bread, and beer... Ahhh Pucon livin' baby it gets no better.

all photos by Fred (rfkayakers.blogspot.com)
Later E.G.

A lil Chilean 1st Descent

So alright we made it to Chile after a long journey through many different airports dealing with sending kayaks, paddles, and all of our gear we finally arrived in santiago and met up with Fred and some Chilean amigos; Nico, Sergio, and Marcos. I split off from the group for the first 2 days to go visit some friends in the city while they went straight to the Rio Maipo to meet our good hommie Pangal. After a few days of big city life I made it up to the river and was greeted with an big chilean asado and the hope of a promising first descent.

Loading up Sergio's truck to go up to the Rio Coyanco. Checkout his site at kayakpro.cl

The idea was to get horse's to carry our kayaks so we could make it deep into the upper drainage where we knew there was good drops and slides. Otherwise we would have to shoulder our yaks a very far ways up in the mountains.

Loading up the burros with all of our creekers.

The horse's crossing the river in hope of being able to carry our kayaks the rest of the day.

Hiking it up with our kayaks after the horse guy told us he wouldn't take our boats...

So what happened was the party from the night before had us pretty tried and the trail pretty much wne to hell about 3 miles up the river. So our huge group of 10 people stopped. Pangal being the nut he is wanted more so him and Ian went a bit further. I guess it was worth it because they did find some cool drops as the river entered a gorge and the small flow was constricted.

Ian upstream of us finding a sign of the goods.

Ian running the first drop then found after hiking another half mile upstream.

Pangal Astorga our host, running his first descent.

Me dropping the last boof on the only real drop we got to hit up after walking for about 3 miles. 

The rest of the river was just quick low volume class III with some fun small boofers and rock 360 potentials. The first day of Chile this year was a first D... even if it wasn't all to gnarl it was still cool to get out there, we will have plenty of time to scare ourselves soon enough.

After we finished up we headed back to our oasis in Cascada de Animas. A good siesta lead us to yet another big asado/party for Pangal's cousin. Me gusta el pisco huevon!

El Valle de Maipo desde la casa de nuestra amigo Pangal.

Later E.G.

El Rio Baker, Patagonia Chile

Check this out y'all. I went down to this river at the end of my 3.5 month trip to S.America last March. It was so sick I have to make it back there before it is all dammed up. This video covers Myself, Lj Groth, Rodrigo Tuschner, Juanito Urgate, and Swiss Severino rocking the shit on the massive river. This footage never got used for the Flow II or Last Descent so here it is...



Enjoy the video and check back soon for the Helmet Camera edit from the Green Truss. I only have 5 more days until I'm back in Chile so egcreekin is about to blow up!

Later E.G.

Yellowstone National Problem

Yellowstone National Park is an oasis of beauty, animals, geological hot spots, and rivers. The headwaters of the Yellowstone, Snake, and Missouri rivers all start in the highlands of this sanctuary. It is illegal to boat on any rivers inside the boundary of the park. This happens to be a big issue of mine. I was born in Bozeman Montana almost 20 years ago and have had this unlimited source of rivers so close to my back yard, never being able to use it.

Today I went and sat in on a court session for my little brother Nate-dog and 3 of his local friends. Due to their failed attempt of poaching almost 4 months ago all of them were sent to the headquarters of the park for judgment. They were threatened with 5,000 dollars of fines and 6 months of prison time being the highest possible punishment. After a 75 mile drive into the park and a 2 hour session in the court room they were charged with "Intent to kayak". With a $335 fine and 1 year of unsupervised probation they left the Yellowstone today for an entire year.

The Three Criminals left to right- Andy Walker, Erik Johnson, and Nate Garcia.

The gates marking no more kayaking for you.

Mammoth hot springs a huge attraction inside the park.

A nasty 70 footer yet to be hucked.

The epic Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone amazing class V canyons.

Another sick slide just dormant ready to be fired.

A sick set of drops.

Slides for days on end.

A dope rapid on the river they were caught on.

Yellowstone was set aside as a place for people to enjoy the beauty, see sights, and interact with nature. With all that in mind everyday people horseback ride all the way through the areas, leaving piles of shit, and beaten paths throughout the park. Snowmobiles run their loud and unclean engines while ripping paths up and down through forests disturbing all the natural elements within this area.

The reasons why kayaking down these amazing rivers is unable to happen is safety, and ruining a national park???? What's the difference between kayaking there in the park and 2 miles away at mesa falls? or on the Hells Canyon of the boulder? Kayaking is dangerous and we do it at our own risk. This is a very easy challenge to overcome. Put up signs, warnings, and permits? Then the impact of floating down streams? It is the most environmentally friendly sport I have ever done. No crowd, no trails, no building, no burning of Fuels; it is simple.

This is an incredible place, and I as much as anyone else, want to keep it clean and beautiful for generations to come. This is a flawed rule in a book of regulations that govern the park. In such an amazing place with such world class rivers this is a resource that could be used to help the park attract visitors and then bring in more money to use. The law is the law. However laws are made to be broken:)

Keep fighting the good fight "Y.L.A. for life!"

How you know you're in Montucky.

Later E.G.