Fall in the South-east #1: The Horsepasture River

Horsepasture River @ 4in, 60 degrees, perfect fall day!

After a couple of great trips down North Carolina's Horsepasture river in the last few year, and a heavy rain coming in, Jeff Clewell, Eric Strittmater and I met Curt Joyce and Rachel Curtis at the gorges state park ready to hike the new 1.5 mile trail in to the base of the 130 foot Rainbow Falls, our putin. The conditions were perfect for this spectacular Jocassee drainage run. Fall colors were at their peak, and water levels were perfect. Thanks to Curt, we have some great photos from the day. Scouting and paddling our way down to the takeout above the 750 ft cascading Windy Falls awarded us with one of the best days of boating we had this fall. Not even the uphill mile and half hike out from Windy Falls could diminish the great felling left by the great drops and scenery of the Horsepasture. Here a few of Curt's photos:

Eric Strittmater ready for one of the big slides.

Photo: Curt Joyce

Rachel Curtis in the middle of Staircase, a perfect set of 5-6 fun clean ledges between 10 and 20 ft tall, with a big horizon line at the top.

Photo: Curt Joyce

Rachel Entering the final drop in Highway to Heaven, this rapid was awesome, and the top slide was four times the size of this one, totally rad.

Photo: Drew Austell

Me finishing up the same drop.

Photo: Curt Joyce

Jeff is the last man standing above one of the coolest drops on the Horsepasture. I think this picture say it all, what an awesome place.

Photo: Curt Joyce

North Fork Payette: BIG water in July

With a couple months of summer time creekin under our belts and levels on the Green Truss and Little White Salmon starting to drop, Curt Joyce, Tyler Houck and I loaded up the truck to head out to Idaho to catch the big water action on the legendary North Fork of the Payette. This fifteen mile run offers nearly nonstop big water class V whitewater. Running top to bottom you descend 1700 ft through some of the longest, most chaotic rapids I've ever seen. Highlight rapids are Nutcracker, Jaws, and the enormous Jacobs Ladder. Many thanks go out to Brian Ward, possible the worlds most hospitable paddler. Putting us up, and showing us around Boise wasn't enough, Brian also ran our shuttle on day 2 and took a ton of photos for us (he was busted up from a hard digger he took on his bike a couple days earlier and couldn't paddle with us). The following pictures are thanks to him.

Drew Austell charging into a one of the endless rapids on the North Fork of the Payette. I think this one is S- turn... so much whitewater the endless glare burns your eyeballs out.

Photo: Brian Ward

Our second day, back at the N. Fork, we met some Germans, Bobby and Wolf, and paddled the run with those guys. They were a blast. This is Curt Joyce bringing up the rear of our day 2 group of five.

Photo: Brian Ward

Me taking a break below Jacob's Ladder, and scared for the Golf course, home to some of the toughest holes on the N. Fork.

Photo: Brian Ward

"It just goes on forever". The intimidating view down into Golf Course. Tyler finally proved he can swim like the rest of us about halfway through this monster, a scary place indeed, but the end result was not to bad.

Photo: Brian Ward

The Green Truss

Camping at the takeout to the Green Truss section of the White Salmon River gave me a new appreciation for the term 'backyard run'. Charging through its massive rapids during the high water of the spring and boofing its drops all summer kept me happy. I couldn't get enough of Zig Zag, Double Drop or Big Brother and the fact that glacial springs gushed delicious drinkable water from the canyon walls only added to the magic. Here's a few pictures from one of my favorite runs of all time.

Passing under the log at Lower Zig Zag.

Photo: Lance Rief

Tyler Houck greasing Double-drop.

Photo: Curt Joyce

Curt Joyce flying off Big Brother.

Photo: Drew Austell

Shot of me running Big Brother taken from river right.

Photo: Curt Joyce

I'm getting a classic 'salmon jump' at double drop, still 'the most runnable, unrunnable rapid i've ever seen'.
Photo: Lance Rief

Pacific North-West

I've wanted to find a place where i could both live, work and paddle every single day. A little research and I decided to head out to the Washington and Oregon's Columbia River Gorge. Camping out on a bluff above the White Salmon River in Washington state i had the takeout to the Green Truss section literaly a few steps away and the Little White Salmon river about a twenty minute drive to the west. With some of the best steep creeking in the world this close and the perfect combo of rain and melt to keep them running all summer i had found exactly what i came looking for. Signing on with Wet Planet, a whitewater outfitter in Husum, Washington, connected me with some great people and great paddlers, and the end result was the best summer paddling i've ever had. Here's a few pics from the PNW.

Punchbowl Falls: Within the first couple weeks of getting to the Gorge, i hiked my way up Eagle Creek to a north-western classic with Lance Reif and Susan Hollingsworth. Sharing the day with students from the World Class Kayak Academy, we got a couple runs apiece and got to watch about a dozen others. The photo above is me peaking over the edge of Punchbowl Falls from the cockpit of my Kayak and below is a the gorge following the falls.

Photo: Susan Hollingsworth

Photo: Susan Hollingsworth

Running a clean drop on the East fork of the Lewis

Photo: Lance Reif

Scouting lower Lewis Falls, too big for me, but beautiful no less.

Photo: Lance Reif

One major highlight of the summer was the Big Air Bonanza hosted by Dave Hammond. We brought back the Old school with big boats and vintage looks. In the photo above Devin goes vertical in his RPM while Curt Joyce waits for a chance at Endomania fame.