After a lot of hemming and hawing, only Nick was still interested in giving Mosier Falls (10 minutes east of Hood River) a go. The rest of us set up for safety or pictures as Nick geared up and paddled down from the bridge. The concern was the abrupt transition in the middle of the drop. Nick deflated his seat so he could lean all the way back (the IK tuck) to protect his back and subsequently paddled over the lip, safely reaching the pool at the bottom before being pulled out of the boat as he resurfaced (which we chalked up to no back support due to the deflated seat). Ben roped him to shore, then the safety team and Nick paddled out of the gorge down to the next bridge. We were all excited, and on our drive towards an afternoon lap on the Wind, were already making plans to return to this drop Nick opened up for all ducky-kind.
Nick Hymel runs Mosier Falls on March 20, 2016 at 107 cfs
This is one of those runs a lot of people talk about doing, yet few actually do. The logistics are more challenging than your average boating trip with snow conditions, hiking, daylight and flows all weighing in to the equation.
I kept putting it off but after hearing from Jeff Compton, Scott Michael, Nick Hymel and others that this was a special run I decided that I would give it a go when the next opportunity presented itself.
A couple of the videos that got me excited about Siouxon Creek.
A couple weekends ago I got that chance, others also wanted to see it for the first time (Priscilla Macy, Ben Mckenzie, Jake Brown) and two were happy to go back (Scott Michael and Matt King). We met in Jantzen Beach at 6:30 and decided to do the shuttle this time around. Utilizing a spur road we reduced the hike to 1.5 miles of easy downhill or flat hiking.
The shuttle is not for everyone, it requires modest navigation skills and adds a big chunk of time at the end of the day. Those I have talked to who have hiked from the bottom say its pretty darn easy as far as 6 mile hikes go, plus when you finish the run you are done and can head home instead of having to retrieve your car. That said, I might still do the shuttle next time.
Oregon kayaking has accurate shuttle directions and a good description of the run.
Hiking in
Below is the hike that we did, including an easy 5 minute bushwhack to meet up with the trail.
The run starts off right away with fun bedrock features, these are all pretty straight forward but keep an eye out for wood.
The first twenty footer (Upper Siouxon Falls) is really fun and clean. Matt sent us all off blind which was a fun way to do it, a couple of us even went back up for seconds.
More high quality intermediate bedrock rapids with an occasional wood hazard continues until a big and obvious horizon line presents itself, scout/portage Middle Siouxon Falls on the left. We thought we were in trouble for daylight at this point as we had been moving very slowly so we all portaged what looked like a good drop without giving it a good look.
Downstream more excellent intermediate bedrock whitewater continued, broken up by stretches of class II-III.
Eventually after an extended class II stretch an obvious horizon presented itself at the double drop. We scouted right, Ben went middle off verbal beta because he was chilly and didn't want to get out of his boat, but also didn't want to miss out on the big boof in the middle. The rest of us scouted right and three of us ran left while a couple others walked on the right. The left side was fun and more friendly than it had looked from the right bank.
We paddled a ways more to the horizon line at Lower Siouxon Falls, again the scout/portage is on the left. We looked at it for a short bit and I decided it was too doable to leave it unrun so gave it a go. I was where I wanted to be from top to bottom, but was tossed nearly 180 degrees by the big feature at the transition resulting in a descent that ended up being more spectatorially amusing than technically proficient.
More class II broken up by some III+ continued a little less than 1.5 miles to the West Creek campground where we took out. This take out is not obvious and we only knew it was there because Jake Brown had hiked there before and recognized the spot. West Creek is the second creek to enter from the left below Lower Siouxon Falls, if you pass that creek you are in for a long day. The preferred take out is about 100 yards above that confluence on the left at a clay bank. I would suggest following Oregonkayaking's advice and scope out your take out before putting on.
We did the short hike back to our vehicles and set about running the long shuttle with half hour or so of light left, finally meeting at Nick's Diner in Amboy for dinner around 8pm.
The downside of the car shuttle; once you finish the run you still have over 2 hours of driving before you finally exit the Siouxon drainage.
We were there November 15 and thought flows were good. Could have gone higher or lower.
We set off from Salem heading north, the opposite direction to Yosemite. This was because Priscilla had a presentation to deliver in Cascade Locks which would complicate logistics further, but proved to be worth the effort. I traded vehicles with my mother for the week to maximize gas mileage (IK's don't need roof racks!) and we set off south with plans to drive through the night to get to Tuolumne Meadows in time to secure a permit. Things looked to be falling apart when we had to take an hour long detour near Bend, but persistence prevailed and we crossed the California border around 2:30 AM, arriving in Tuolumne Meadows around 9:30 AM. We got in line at the permit office, excited to see we were first in line. We were willing to take any permit we could get, but had a desired route in mind. Come 11AM we walked up to the counter and secured our permit to hike from Glacier Point to Merced Lake. We had a day to kill before we were allowed to begin our hike, so headed down to the valley for our first horizontal slumber since we had awoke at 5:30AM the day before.
The drive to Yosemite Valley and our campsite was over an hour and just as we were getting ready to unload our gear the first thunderstorm of the weekend hit. We continued to unpack but as the water piled up and gumdrop sized hail began in ernest we yielded to the weather and retreated back into the car where the large amount of gear prevented the seats from reclining. We spent the next hour waiting it out, we were then able to get camp set up and finally rested our eyes at 3PM.
Evening in Yosemite Valley
The next morning saw us up at Glacier Point around 8AM, we intended to camp at the end of the whitewater section today and with 7 miles of trail in front of us 9AM seemed like a reasonable time to begin the hike.
Near Glacier point, looking up the Merced headwaters
Two hours of packing saw us hitting the trail after 10AM. The hike in really isn't too bad, but that much weight on your back for that long is going to hurt.
Stuff for our back
Stuff on our back
The thunder returned in the afternoon and this time we found it enjoyable. We made camp around 5PM near Moraine Dome at the upstream end of Little Yosemite Valley at the base of a large cascade.
We got camp set up just as it started raining, the rain ended an hour later and was the last precipitation of significance for the trip.
The next morning saw us hiking between 8-9AM, covering the 6 miles to Merced Lake by 2PM. We had left our camp set up near Moraine Dome and were hiking "light" with just our boating gear. By the time we reached Merced Lake we were tired but happy to be paddling. The run starts off in top form with a fun, straight forward slide.
It was so fun that even sore from all the hiking we had to walk up the granite sidewalk to do it again.
The gorge the slide started off lasts about a half mile and is as fun as it gets. There were back to back 5-10 foot slides the whole way finishing with a 50 foot tall slip and slide. Unfortunately, one of the limitations of the IK's was brought to focus when Priscilla hit a hole in a small rapid, filling up the boat with water just above an eddy we intended to catch. The couple of seconds of having a heavy boat before it drained were enough to cause her to miss what otherwise would have been a simple eddy. She turned to face the next double drop while I yelled the line to her from shore. I jumped back in my boat when she did not pop out from the second drop in the series right away, as I did I saw her boat rocket unmanned into the air. I still couldn't see her as I resurfaced from the first drop, as I crested the second drop I saw her rise from the depths and into the pool below. We both got out on the left side with her recovered gear and took some time as she was understandably shaken up.
Good stuff in the first gorge
We talked it out and assessed that the combination of being tired and having IK's would likely mean we wouldn't be running some of the class V sections we had seen on the way up.
The next rapid was another double ledge/slide and she chose to hop back on the horse. We finished up the gorge shortly arriving at the exit drop (the 50'+ slide) We saw a sweet line on the left that could be done if we skipped the lead in, so only ran about 30-40 vertical feet of the slide, but it was a blast. As we were finding out, this run is full of the largest class III-IV rapids either of us had ever run. Below this large one was an island we ran on the left and then a short meadow.
Assessing the exit slide to the first gorge.
At the end of the meadow is a foot bridge marking the entrance to the largest gorge on the run. We ran/portaged the series of rapids leading up to the point where the walls became vertical and large on just before a right turn and found our predetermined take out on the left. This gorge is full of good rapids, but the entrance and exit didn't really go in IK's and portaging the exit would require setting up rope before dropping into the gorge so we decided to let it rest, confident Pat and Steve had likely already unlocked that particular piece of whitewater. We deflated the boats and walked around the trail on the left. Half hour or so later we arrived at the end of the gorge and stashed our gear (minus the IK's foam floors we were using for sleeping pads). Planning to finish the run the next day, we walked back to our camp. We ate ravenously that night and the joy that comes with adventure in the wilderness started setting in.
Good stuff before getting locked into the main gorge.
A taste of the goods.
Exit rapid
Exit to the exit rapid.
The next morning we were back to our gear and paddling downstream before noon, likely a couple hours earlier but I wasn't paying attention. The day started with a few steep bouldery rapids with good boofs and a quick portage or two. This section ended in yet another long slide, this one was lower angle but had a neat pillow move off a boulder in the middle.
Another island followed, then we were back into steep bouldery rapids, one of which created a clean drop between 10-15'. We portaged the gorge above Bunnell Cascade, the entry drop had three boofs in quick succession and would have required not getting any water in the IK in order to execute said boots. I thought it went for sure in a hardshell and likely went in an IK, but decided against running it. We both ran Bunnell Cascade, which I thought was one of the funnest drops I have ever run. Its tall and fast and low difficulty! The exploding mess at the top had me a bit worried, but after further study I was confident there was a line on the left and indeed there was.
Bunnell, so fun!!
Below here was an island and a meadow with an easy log portage or two before a couple of class IV rapids leading up to the final large cascade just above our camp. The lead in rapids were fun and the cascade was divine; tall, fast and all it required was lining up and keeping it straight, resulting in a skip across the pool at the bottom.
Walking up for round 2.
We then took a nap and a swim before deciding we may as well paddle/hike out that afternoon. One more island below camp and then a few miles of pleasant meadow floating through Little Yosemite Valley.
This section had a few easy log portages. We took out just before the whitewater picked up again, below this point the stream enters a gorge which concludes with Nevada Fall and is not legal to paddle. We were going to take the Mist Trail, but weren't sure where it branched off from the trail we were on (John Muir). We made it to the lip of Nevada Fall before realizing it had branched off back near the bathrooms. We were glad to have made the mistake as the view from the lip of Nevada Fall is incredible. We backtracked and began the knee/back busting descent down the Mist trail. The Mist trail is breathtaking and should be done by anyone capable, but not with a kayak on your back. If you are carrying a boat, use the John Muir trail. This trail is a little longer but not as steep. For us, the Mist trail turned out to be the most difficult part of the whole trip and our bodies were pretty beat, the trail flattens a bit before Vernal Fall which helped ease the strain. As the trail descends from the lip of Vernal it gets rough again and we were really feeling the pain. The next hour or two was challenging for us, but we made it out to the bus stop shortly after dark and it only took us a little stumbling around in the dark to locate our camp and flop down for the night sans dinner.
The next morning we ate a harty breakfast of all our left over
camping food and I took the last seat on a $25 dollar bus shuttle to
return to our car on Glacier Point. I expected a dull ride, but it went
quick as the driver told stories of the area and how things got their
names, it was nice being a tourist after many days of effort. Upon
arriving back at Glacier Point the adventure had one more trick up its
sleeve in the form of a dead battery. After figuring out the tricks of
jump-starting a Hybrid I returned to Priscilla and the Valley where we
loaded up and began the 10 or so hour drive to Grants Pass.
The trip was long and full of trials, one of my favorites yet.
Pat and I visited our friend in Rainier for a weekend. I decided to poke around on the maps and internet to see if there was anything worthy of exploration. I came up with this backyard adventure involving a 2.5 mile hike into a forgotten park. A short but rewarding gorge was the ticket for the day.
A seven and a half mile hike into Thomas Creek was the perfect adventure for last weekend. The next day I found out how to drive all the way to the falls though!
My dad has been interested in checking out Opal Gorge in his IK recently. Initially it was off his radar for the same reasons many boaters choose not to run this section. From what I have gathered many people are turned off by the commitment factor of the Unscoutable, Unportageable rapid guarding the entrance as well as the fabled portage at the Undertaker.
I had run the creek a week or so before, so knew the Un-Un was good to go and it was a sunny day so the Undertaker portage would not be an issue. We decided to see how IK's would fair in the gorge! The day being Father's Days, I decided to also take an IK for this father-son trip. It has been a long time since I have run anything significant in this type of boat so I through the crack in Thor's to get back to the top of the last segment of that rapid. I came through smooth to a cheer from the many swimmers and sun bathers lining the shore.
We headed down through the mile or so of class I and II leading to the gorge and I was quickly reminded of traits the IK possesses that are superior to hardshells, topping that list is comfort! I relaxed in a reclined position curious as to the effectiveness of the Bomber Hydrogen neoprene pants that I was relying on to keep my now exposed legs warm. I gave my dad verbal beta for the boulder garden, but the resulting tailstand caused swim #1. After a more thorough description of the Un-Un we both had smooth lines. One more class three and we were in the heart of the gorge just above the Undertaker. Oddly enough, the portage eddy gets much trickier at these low flows and the stress level is increased. We made quick work of the river left portage (less sketchy than right in my opinion) and were pleased by how the IK's handled the seal launches back into the river. The low water exposed the true nature of this rapid, where all the water goes under either the finger of rock on the left or the boulder on the right. The boulder garden (Unicorn) was the only spot the river felt low, but there was still enough to float on down. Next was the Sierra slot, which I think is harder at these lower flows. I was surprised to come through with only a small squirt, at this point there was a breakdown in communication and I sent my dad right into the rooster tail that always results in a flip. We checked out the line at fish ladder which was looking only slightly marginal today and we took the usual line along the left bank, putting back in at the beautiful pool below. From here to Salmon I tried some fishing but was unsuccessful.
It was at this point that I realized I had been totally comfortable the whole trip with only a drytop and neoprene pants from Bomber.
In the pool near Evans creek a group of onlookers jokingly asked if they could watch us run the falls. When they realized we were serious about running it their eyes lit up and they rushed downstream to watch us meet what was sure to be our demise. We scouted from the left for awhile and decided to run the falls via seal launch on the left. My dad went first and was pushed to the right where the power at the base of the falls got the best of his attempt at a dry run. I followed with a near identical line. Unsatisfied with this result I solicited the help of the onlookers and went back, hitting the kicker on the left for an upright and refreshing line! My dad finished the day with a scooter shuttle and we rejoiced in our IK descent of Opal Gorge.
My second lap over the falls this day.
-Jacob
side note: Someone got shoved under the river left finger in fishladder falls a few weeks ago. They resurfaced in an underwater cave, pushed themselves down and flushed out. Take what you will from that information.
The week after school got out I headed up to the Lewis River to camp with my family. My sister's boyfriend was there and was talking a lot about how he wanted to try out kayaking. I happened to have my boat and an IK in the back of my car so offered to take him from the pool below Upper Falls to the pool above Lower falls.
Ready for John's first kayaking trip.
Most of this section is pretty tame class II with some III. However, right in the middle of this section is a chunk of bedrock called Middle Falls. This drop is incredibly easy, but does drop close to 30' over a long slide. He was game, so I taught him some basics within the put-in pool and soon enough we could see the steam shooting up from middle falls. I told John to follow right behind me and keep the boat straight and all would be good. He followed me right over the intimidating horizon line and greased the slide. The fire in his eyes hinted that this would not be his last time in a kayak. I let him lead the rest of the trip, learning to read the water and play around.
I love that rivers can offer so much. Even a class III river can be as stimulating as class V if adventure is present. I still think of the Lewis River as one of my favorite rivers, whether it's sailing off lower falls, repelling into the pothole atop Upper Falls, or showing the beauty of the stream to a novice the experience is rewarding. This is a river I will return to time and again.
My good friend Nick just sent me this trip report of a run down near Salt Lake City he has been talking about for a few years. He finally got the chance to run the stream and it looks like it was a great trip! Here is his account...
For the last three years I've been trying to get on one of Utah's only steep creeks and have be turned away by lack of water and road closures. However, this May things finally lined up and I was able to throw together a trip. The creek only runs for about one week a year and you need an average amount of snowfall on the year. If its too high the snow melt happens too late and the creek turns into a monster. Too low and the road won't be plowed before the creek turns into just a trickle.
Although I have plenty of boats to borrow out here I only had one day notice that the trip was actually possible. I took the best option I had; an IK rental from REI with no thigh straps or foot pegs. I'm plenty familiar with IK's (look some of the archived footage from 2007 on this blog) but hadn't paddled one in two years.
The creek was a bit low at 700 cfs, I would have preferred around 900 but hey, beggars can't be choosers. The run is only 1/2 mile and can be scouted in its entirety from a trail running along side it. Thankfully my roommate wanted to check things out so he said he would take some media.
The first 1/4 mile is all 3-5 ft drops similar to the one below. I instantly realized that without thigh straps I would not be attempting the lower two drops, which both have very narrow lines.
After the warm up drop are three slides that provide a good warm up for the steeper drops. I am in the middle of slides 1 & 2 below:
Three main drops make up the 50 feet of vertical drops that this run is known for. The first is a 15-20 ft slide that ends directly above the main double drop. At higher levels it would be almost impossible to eddy out above the main drop.
Since I was using a rental boat without thigh straps I chose to run the bottom half of the main drop. The line for the upper part is to run river right, which worried me because the deposit I would lose on the IK if it were to tear was $500. Needless to say the bottom tier was straightforward and I ran several laps to please the onlooking families.
Below are the two big drops below the double drop. They both land in waist deep water. The larger of the two has seen 3 broken backs in the past few years.
Overall it was a great trip. It felt great to get back in the water and get some vertical in-even if it was as straight forward as they come. If anyone reading this ever ventures to Utah in May I would highly recommend getting on this creek and checking out the surrounding areas. In my opinion it is some of the most impressive country close to Salt Lake.
There was talk about Ik's on the Portland kayaker forum recently and instead of ranting there, I figured I would do it here (which is what blogs are for). Not that I have anything bad to say.
I started in an IK and I for one am very happy that is how I started. My dad has always been an IK'er or rafter and didn't have hardshells, so that was my ticket into the whitewater world. How this benefited me (besides being taught by a very safety conscious father), was I was able to learn to read the water and figure out what the water was doing on an intimate level, without having to worry about edge control as much. I think this is very important because it is critical in my opinion to have your water reading skills a couple notches above you staying upright ability. There are plenty of places where if you stay upright, you could still be in a very bad situation, yet, had you gone where you needed to go, and flipped, you would be rolling at the end of the pool, instead of swirling around a nasty pocket, or pinned. In some cases it is a necessity to stay upright, in this case if you read water well enough, you know not to run that one because you know what it will do to your boat.
You still learn edge control though, you feel when current is sucking a tube under, but you have time to recover.
On many of the small woody creeks in Oregon, these are the perfect vessels. David Saquety on Gordon Creek Oregon.
Coming around a rocky, fast, blind corner, only to see a logjam across the current, no real eddies; this is the time to paddle to shore, leap to shore, and then if your lucky grab your boat. In a hardshell this would not work. I have a couple experiences like this where I was happy to be in the IK and my dad has quit a few more and this is his strongest argument for why he likes IK's. If the boat floats downstream, it is ok cause its not full of water so it is much easier to recover.
My dad with his Ik where Ik's belong.
Also, I know some IK'ers who can boof, including myself, so I know that is possible and I have to say some of the boofs are smoother and it is more controllable I think. Its harder to land flat, but you can ride a stroke and keep the nose up for a long time without it dropping out from under you. I talked to one guy who landed flat off the second tier of Shipperds, anyone who has been there knows this is difficult. I have never done it (not counting the delayed boof), he boofed from the top and cleared the sloping drop to land flat.
During the shooting of "Two Kids and a Duck" I think I was upside down more often than Nick, granted I didn't swim that year and he probably had 3 or 4, but he more often than not self recovered and there were times I wish we would have traded boats.
If you have seen that film you have seen him clean some gnar. My favorite clip is him stomping Upper Falls on the Lewis like it was noones business. He planed away from the drop and had a perfect tuck without getting water in his boat... I broke my nose.
Nick tucks up at Twin falls.
Which brings me to my next point, they are less painful, your not going to break your back as easily landing flat, you won't bonk your elbows on the sides, you won't crack your face on the rim of the cockpit, if you pin you are not as trapped.
And I for one can vouch for the fact you can brace IK's, first you highside, then you brace, this combo can work, watch Nick dropping Taitnapum falls at ~1:30 on this video, now that is some secondary stability. (you will notice this is one of those times he was upright and I was upside down).
The number one biggest reason I don't paddle IK's very often is they fill up with water. Running the Roaring River in the Clack Drainage felt like class five in an IK because you couldn't miss a single stroke because your boat was always full of water and wouldn't respond well. That said, it was one of my favorite trips of the year and the Ik's made the portages much easier. Throw and go's are way easier with Ik's too.
In this video we run the Lower Wind. As you can see Nick cleaned the Flume better than all the hardshellers.
In this next one you will see some real clean IK lines. Also, you will see two flips resulting in swims back to back on the second tier of Shipperds around 30 seconds in. Guess which boater reunited himself with his boat and was ready to drop over the third tier in 10 seconds, and guess which one took 15 minutes to get back in his boat and didn't run the third tier for another 10 minutes?
This next video has some recent clips of my dad doin some IK stuff that I talked about. First clip is an example of him running a class V-ish drop. Second is an example of a boof, not the biggest Iv'e seen but still got the nose up. Third is something I didn't mention which is Ik's are great for shallow drops cause they don't go deep. I hit bottom off that drop, in the summer it lands on rock, thats how shallow it is so its not very deep and he didn't hit bottom even though he pencilled because the volume brought his nose up so fast, before the tail was in the water even. Third is the Iguana move where there is not much of an eddy but he just hops out.
Now all that said, I still paddle a hardshell :) No doubt you can run bigger stuff, and I am a fan of the boof stomp. I will always run the biggest stuff I run in a hardshell. My point is there is nothing wrong with Ik's, you can go big in them and they are a great way to start. Check out Bryan Vogt's IK blog if you want to see them run some of the biggest stuff in the PNW which is under my links on the right side of this page. And check out all the stuff from '07 on my blog for Nick tearing some stuff up. Ok, thats all for now.
