Paddlin’ Ed

Well, the rains finally came after a long dry summer and fall, and after several days of rain,  many of the regional runs including Wilson Creek have begun to hold water for few days at a time now.  So Sat. morning Dec. 20th,  I was looking to paddle and contacted John H. about a Wilson Creek trip for SRVCC, and John welcomed me to join.

Meeting up with the SRVCC group which had John H. OC-1,  Mike C. K-1, Marc K-1, Mercer, Mick K-1, plus myself (Paddlin-ed) K-1.  John was our only canoe and the rest of us where in creeking kayaks.  Richard H. had come intending to run but did not feel well and so opted to do some pictures and shuttle for the group.  The Akado bridge gauge read about -5″ at 11am (-6 by the time I left at 4pm that evening).  This is modest but decent level,  enough that there is little scrapping and key boofs are still adequately covered and good for taking 1st timers with reduced push to the flow.  The day was cool with temps in the high 50’s to mid 60’s through the afternoon.  Overcast at times with an occasional sprinkle of rain, and occasionally sunny.  Over all a nice day with doable water for late fall/winter run.

After getting shuttle set John H. informed me, I would be leading as I knew the creek with many runs and several years on doing it., followed next by John with 3 runs.  I had introduced John the previous year during Christmas week to the gorge and he had done well.  There was at one or two more in the group that had each done one run in the past and three “Newbie’s” ready for a 1st run initiation to the gorge.

Well we set off and with John’s help we worked the group down through the 1st couple of rapids setting up in eddies between and discussing the lines and what was below.  Along with going over lines,  John and I did a bit of coaching on a few points concerning spacing out, creek eddy hopping protocol,  basic boof,  paddling through drops and bottom holes,    as many in the group had limited creeking experience.  With group this size it is pretty important to keep the group working as a team so they don’t log jam up in the tight steep rapids.

Next down we where at a long run down river right, through and around chutes and boulders,  here everyone got a first hand picture of why spacing out and group coordination where important.  All made the run successfully.  After that we where at ”Little Woodall” rapid, where we chatted about the need to paddling through the bottom and what to do if caught in the bottom hole hydraulic as well as the basic line.  Everyone made it clean through,  though one or two got stalled at the bottom,  hence in the eddy below we reviewed a bit on paddling all the way through.

Next we arrived at the top of the run through 10′ falls rapid.  Now 10′ falls really does not begin to describe this rapid in my opinion.  From the road above all one can see is the actual 10′ foot fall that finishes this rapid, what you do not see is much more complex and more difficult above the final fall.  The entrance to 10′ falls rapid is choked up boulder garden dropping rapidly to a short pool below.  Myself,  being a big guy,  I do not like to do the normal tight line around a pyramid rock at the top and into a narrow offset slot below about -4″ as it gets shallow,  so I opted to do what I call the “bang down” line over on left.  Down below I set up for safety and pictures in the left eddy of the pool.  On this one John H. lead and demo’ed the normal line, after which each one followed one at a time.  We did have a couple of OBE’s in the choke plus one flip and  hang to a roll below. Fortuately we where able at this flow level to snag both OBE’s into eddy before they washed over the drop below.  Once we re-assembled our OBE’s with their boats,  I gather the newbies up in top of the eddy and went over the rest of the rapid run below, requiring a boof over the drop below right of center, angled a bit right,  then down through the next drop,  driving to just left of the huge flat rock beyond sitting right of center on the lip of the final falls, and keep stroking over the drop and through and out the bottom hole.

Well,  John headed out in his canoe to demo the line described, and I followed leading the kayaks down,  emphasising before I left the eddy to keep plenty of space and time between paddlers.  Once below the falls,  we  set up for safety and watched the others come down one by one.  Most came down fairly clean,  though 2 or 3 moved far left over the bottom of the falls which made for some hairy drops down the boulders at the edge of the falls, and put them almost sideways into the bottom hole, where fortunately they kept paddling through and out the right end of the hole upright.   Mercer O. came down last, upright but after a long delay, as he somehow gotten caught in an eddy or two above,  Mercer finish out ok, though sputtering and a bit out of breath at the bottom, as did several others, all wide eyed from their first experience dropping into the meat of 10′ not visible till you actually drop in.

Down a bit from 10′,  I called a break and we got out and stretched a bit.  With several newbies I wanted to make sure they caught their wind with plenty more creek coming up and not become exhausted early.  Once back on the water we worked down through the ledges below here.  Then down to two ledges with hydraulics that should given proper respect.  These develop, especially at a few inches higher, hydraulics and have guard rocks at the ends.  I gathered the group into an eddy above the first drop (known by some as “no-name ledge”),  and talked the line but mostly emphaised being on line and angle, boofing and stroking through, then demo’d the line and set up just below for safety.  Most did the line ok,  but afterward John and I again emphasised the need to paddle through.  The second ledge I pointed out the far right end behind a rock just above and demo’d,  this time all followed and the message on paddling through seem to have stuck,  which was good as Boat-buster was next, just around the bend.

In the eddy below  the last ledge drop we went over what was coming up in boat-buster, then    I pulled those in the group with no or little experience on the gorge, up into the a “semi-eddy” area at the head of the entrance run.  There I could point to and they could at least get a visual on the rock formations guide points I had explained before and watch me run down to the drop.  John,  moved down stream a bit and set up safety just above the drop.  I reminded the group to paddle over the drop and be sure to plant a last boof stoke as they set up into position for boof, and paddle through the bottom, then turned and made my run.  Down below I worked into the eddy immediately right and then ferried over to the large eddy below river left to set up for safety.

Our group followed, one by one,  well spaced,  good stokes off the top, and nice boofs, all stroking out the bottom.  We had a brace or two in the outflow below while working left to enter Thunderhole below,  only one had to roll and did Thunderhole tucked (not a pretty sight) but rolled up nicely just below in the sluice of Thunderhole.  Mercer,  took a bit of a detour on his way down and with help of a rope from John above got to the left bank just above boat-buster he re-assembled with his kayak and ferried over and hit the line over the boof river right and made a nice run out of it.  I got a good picture of “mystery man - Mercer” dropping through the bottom below the boof,  with just his helmet visible - cool picture, it’s in my picture gallery.  Mercer finished out down through Thunderhole just fine.  I ran down and gather the group below Thunderhole,  while John made his run down and joined us.  Richard H. was down near the eddy doing pictures of the run through the boat-buster and thunder-hole for us.

Moving on down to the double ledge below (I believe some call this “Dental Work”),  John set up on a dry spot at the left end of the upper ledge while I opted to run down the slot entrance on river right and along the base of the ledge to just below John.  From there we aimed the group at the boof middle left end into the small pool below,  everyone dropped through in good order and then down and out around the left end of the 2nd ledge/boulder line.  Below here we ran a couple ledges and chutes and on down to the hooked tongue move on river left (which everyone seemed to enjoy ) before the long pool above triple drop.

Above triple drop we gathered up in the pool well above and went over the basic line and moves for triple drop.  I lead off demoing what they could see of me entering the top.  Then each followed one by one,  all entering nicely and staying loose and stroking.  We had some braces in the group and one flip and OBE at the bottom (gotta keep stroking in these rapids till your clean through).  While our OBE drained and rested we all found a beach on river right and pulled out for a quick break.

Back on the river,  we where immediately above “Fat Mama’s Squeeze” (among other names give to it).  In this rapid I advised that I would drop into a top eddy using the left of middle slot and that this eddy was only good for about 3 paddlers. The rest of the group was to hold above and watch till space opened up for one at a time to move into this eddy to stage for their run of the rapid below.  This one is pretty much a rock garden boulder jumble at the top and requires some careful and aggressive moves and boofing into a tight and boulder strewn hooking turn to river right, then makes a turn left turn over drop along the right gorge wall, into the last half of the rapid below and out going down the final ledge slide through a bottom wave hole.

I dropped into the top eddy followed by John.  Turning and running up high along the boulder line above I moved toward river right and turned into the left turn and boofed and banged down the drops below slicing diagonally across the final boulder ledge going right into a eddy on the right gorge rock wall.  Here I held up to make sure the others saw the route.  John moved out and got into an altercation with the upper boulder garden and had to retrieve his boat before it washed down.  I went after his wandering paddle and caught up with it below the wave hole, and set up there for safety.  John meantime had ended up over to the right bank on a line of boulders.  From here after John pulled out his rope and set up safety midway down the rapid.  The group worked down in good order keeping only 2-3 in the staging area up top at a time, and running one at a time down below.  All went well except on of our kayakers got tripped on a rock in the top rock garden and did an OBE down the boulder drops and the run below (it hurt to watch,  he told me later it did not feel to good either doing it and fortuately was ok).  Below myself and another paddler caught our wayward companion and his boat.  The rest of the group came down with relatively good success and some braces, and at least one roll coming out of the bottom hole.

Once our OBE was re-instated boat wise we head on to “Maytag”.  Above this one we held a brief chat about the running it.  Specifically how to run clear of the recirculating hole at the badly undercut rock sticking up from the ledge left of center and making sure to stroke through the bottom.  I ran the line to demo, followed by John.  The rest of the group made the drop one by one. 

From here we ran several ledges and down to hidden eddy (aka billboard to some).  I explained and demo’ed the boof move on the left side of river right, hit the eddy and signaled as each additional paddler cleared.  Most made the drop ok a bit right of the boof,  we had two kayak roll-ups off the rock wall immediately below (fortunately both good), and one of the kayaker made a most excellent boof on the line I had demo’ed.  John came down last and got wanged in the hydraulic and did a re-entry along the rock ledge in the eddy river center.

From here we gather the group in eddies above the next two sections of ledges and I just lead off to demo.  These where pretty much watch, then read and run.   All of the group did well with these.  Everyone seem to really be loosening up and getting into the “creeking mode” paddling wise by this point.  Then we where in the circulating eddy above “Razorback”,  where I review what to expect below running the rock chute down the right side and the dogleg run-out hooking left at the bottom.

I lead off down “Razorback” and and had a nice clean run down, and through the turn and out.  At the bottom I set up for safety and gave each paddler a paddle up signal to come down one at a time.   All of our group had good runs and stayed focused and paddling through the bottom.  I got a particularly nice picture of John in his canoe at the top of Razorback with the gorge walls and blue sky in the background -it is in my picture gallery.

Next we ran the Boulder pile (reminates of what used to be Huntley Retreat just below Razorback till the floods a few years ago erased that rapid and deposited this new one further downstream).  As the level was low enough we opted to take the group down the left of center run out the bottom of the bounder garden.  This involves dropping high and tight to the line and hammering hard right down a diagonal through the final boulders to river right.  Most everyone got through ok with a few bumps and braces here and there,  only one flip (fortunately near the bottom) with a roll up immediately in the pool below.

From here we worked the ledges immediately below working back to river left and back across to far right for a slice across and down the tongue at the right bank off the bottom ledge.  Just below here we came to “Railslide”.  I took the group over to far left and described the options, and then demo’ed the slide.  The group followed some doing the slide,  some hopping the slide into the eddy,  and some running the slot and turn below.

From “Railslide” we played the remaining small rapids and played holes to the take-out.  We had spent several hours working the run,  but it had gone well overall and all seem to have enjoyed it, especially our newbies had good day and a new run under their belts.   Good time had by all.  I enjoyed getting to take some first timers down. 

Pictures in the Picture Gallery - SYOTR-Paddlin-ed