Thursday, May 30, 2013

Valley of the Giants

 All photos by Emile Elliot


The NF Siletz drainage has provided a wealth of exploratory style boating.  The main stem itself is fun and roadside, but then you get Boulder and Warnicke which are great trips too!  The last section for me to try out was the Valley of the Giants section which is mentioned in one of the guidebooks.  I tried to solo it one day, but got to the top of the big boulder garden (Golden Egg) and having just promised my dad I wouldn't do anything stupid while he was in the hospital decided to hike out and come back with others.

Emile Elliot and Ben Mckenzie decided they would take a risk to check it out and I'm glad they did!  It was great to finish up the stuff I wanted to check out in the NF Siletz zone and see this section of stream.

The scariest part of this run for me was hiking across the broken bridge on my initial attempt.  This time it was a lot less scary as I knew it would hold.

If care is taken, its not too bad.



There is a short hike in before putting in just above some tantilizing bedrock.  

This class four rapid goes around the corner to the right. 

Its a fun sliding affair.

 When a small waterfall came in on the left we got out to scout on the right.  Locating our next eddy on the left got us to a position to scout Golden Egg.

Getting left towards the small eddy above Golden Egg. 

 It was an easy scout on the left.  This was a good class IV/V boulder garden, but wood in the runout required scrambling into an eddy on the left.  I was not up to the task this day so agreed to catch Ben and Emile as the came into the eddy.  Everything went well and the rapid looked fun, I may have to go back and run the Golden Egg some day.

Ben enters on the right.

Ben takes his navigates his yellow egg through the rapid.


 Below here the run is more like what you expect from Oregon streams, bouldery class IV with intermittent log issues.  All the portages were easy and there was enough whitewater to keep us entertained.  Soon enough we went under the hiking bridge for the valley of the giants hiking trail.  The confluence with Warnicke was shortly after this and we splashed our way down to the take out before walking back to Emile's new truck.

While there are higher quality runs in the drainage, this one is still probably worth the trip for the adventurous boater.  For the right person, it could be a fun full day getting both the Golden Goose and the Golden Egg by doing Warnicke, then follow that up with Valley of the Giants down through the NF run.  I'd suggest considering doing the quick Valley of the Giants hiking trail too if you like that sort of thing.

Here is Emile's video of the trip.  He assures us the song in no way indicates male affection towards one another and in fact was chosen for the reference to a valley :)


The Valley from Difficult E on Vimeo.


   -Jacob

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Little White Video Scout


I put together this quick video from our run down the Little White Salmon last weekend. With over 20 people assembled at the take-out on Sunday morning, Jacob and I made the decision to break away from the larger group and take a slow lap down while showing Emile Elliot and Michael Freeman the lines. Both Michael and Emile had done the run once before and were fired up get back on the ldub. The level was 3 feet at the master blaster gauge and the sun was out, although it doesn't look like it in the video. Unfortunately  the battery died shortly after S-Turn, however, I kept it rolling throughout Getting Busy and some of the 'in-between' stuff that doesn't usually get caught on film. The idea being that this footage can serve as another resource for those looking to 'video scout'. I know that I combed the internet for every piece of footage I could find as I was learning the run and maybe some of you have done the same? Some of my lines are better than others.. And I do take a couple sneak lines that work for me. Enjoy!



Until next time.
Nate

Friday, May 10, 2013

Lots to write about, no time to write


  ...so here are some pictures



All shots by our friend Paul Thomson of "on the wildside photography".


He took a lot of shots at the creeking comp, so be sure to check out his website for shots of yourself in the next few weeks if you were there.   Also, he has entered a couple pictures into the bombflow contest.  If you like what you see, give him some love by liking his shots on the facebook.


If I get around to doing some writing, I'll tell the story of after the raft hit the pool.

This rainbow had ambitions of being somewhere over Lucas Reitman, who obliged.

Jeff can get it done in all sorts of craft, he just has to remember to secure the thigh straps next time.

  Have a great weekend, Into the Outside will be on the road to Rainier.

       -Jacob


Friday, May 3, 2013

NWCC 2013

The team has been busy as of late! With trips to California, the Illinois, and Leavenworth in the past month, I'm swimming (not literally) in media. And with Jacob and I both starting new jobs within the last 2 weeks, time has been short and we've been spending most of our free time actually kayaking, rather than writing about kayaking.

However, I did find time to throw together a quick edit from the 2013 Northwest Creeking Competition:
Northwest Creeking Comp Video

Good turn out this year.

The festival saw record attendance this year and was highlighted by perfect flows on the EFL to induce maximum carnage  DNF's tallied into the double digits and more than a few paddlers found the bottom of John's Swimming Hole. The safety team was busy. Let this post serve as a sincere thank you to all those who volunteered to rope folks out of the river on Saturday and Sunday.

John Edwards showing off at Sunset Falls

There were over 120 racers on Saturday (I counted) and at least twice as many spectators. The Sunset Falls campground was abuzz with activity throughout the weekend and was capped off with a excellent BBQ (provided by Next Adventure) and an even more excellent dance party (unofficially provided by Ninkasi).

Some random hero going for a ride at John's Swimming Hole

Into the Outside ended up with a pretty good showing in the EFL Expert Division with Jacob earning 3rd place and Matt and I rounding out the top 10. With the higher water level, times were fast this year. My time of 8:35 seconds would have only been bested by one competitor in the Expert class from 2012. I'll chalk that one up for the increased flows and not so much for the average overall progression of paddlers ability from year to year...


Mike Gotlieb. Ready, Steady, Go.

Sunday featured a much smaller group of racers (due to the difficulty of the river and ALSO the aforementioned festivities) Still, the canyon creek portion of the festival was a great success! Shout out to Lous Geltman for setting a new course record! Less than 5 minutes from Thrasher down to Tobey's. Pretty impressive.

Kahuna is one of the crux moves on the Canyon Creek Race. 


This is not a test!

The NWCC is one of my favorite weekends of the year and like aways, I'm wishing that the race came around more than once a year.


Boofing away on Hammering Spot with the finish line in sight!

We'll start to roll out more stuff as the Spring winds down and we progress into the low water dull-drums of summertime.

Full results can be found here:
http://northwestcreekcomp.blogspot.com/

Until Next Time,
Nate

All photos provided by Eric Adsit.