Northwest Creeking Competition: East Fork Lewis River extreme race

The second year of the newly-reincarnated NW Creeking Comp went off with a bang April 11-12, 2009. The race, party, huckfest, and camaraderie were sick, as expected. The Columbian wrote an article about it, featuring a photo of me doing an old school pirouette whilst waiting at the hole by Oly's house for some other kayakers to come down:

East Fork Lewis run, testing the Magnum 80

With a freshly-broken MAC-1 and a Cali creeking trip coming up, I find myself in the market for a new boat. I grabbed Next Adventure's demo of the Riot Magnum 80 and headed out to Oly's after work for a demo run from above Sunset Falls to his place.

I like this boat! It punches holes extremely well, and resurfaces predictably. While it doesn't hold speed well, it tracks to a line while also turning easily. I feel like the slight V-hull at the stern makes the rear-end more stable and the boat easier to boof. This will be my boat for the Cali Gnarr Creeking Roadtrip 2008. Big thanks to Luke and Deek at Next Adventure for working with me to get into it on such short notice.

On the way to Oly's I ran into the folks with the mongo conversion van and a bunch of Pyranha boats. I said high again, and continued up the road. As Brenda was shuttling Oly and I up to the put-in in her sweet Model A Ford, we ran into them again -- they were headed to Oly's to camp for the night. We doubled back, Oly gave them a quick tour and a bottle of wine, and we were back underway. After the run, I got to hang and chat with these two lovely North Cackalackans (pretty sure that's how you spell it). It was Leland Davis and Andria Baldovin, of River Gypsies. Leland wrote the flyfishing and paddling guidebooks for North Carolina, and Andria is behind the Yoga for Paddlers DVD, among others. Dang, they are nice people! Hoping to meet up with them again for some boating when they swing back through Washington after their British Columbia leg. It's very inspirational to see people making whitewater work well enough for them that they can be on the road for 6 months out of the year. Someday...

mellow East Fork run

Paul M., Kourtni, and I headed up to the East Fork Lewis for the good ol' waterfall run. Steven joined us, and we ran into Adam 12, Jeremy, and Kevin on our way down. Swims and good times were had, but I stuck to just the good times. ;)

3 runs, great day: Canyon Creek twice and East Fork Lewis

Luke and I headed up on the morning and duoed Canyon Creek lickety-split and were met at the takeout by Johnny O. and some newly-met Seattle boaters (Chris B. and Nick S.) for another lap. I almost got munched in Hammering Spot the second time down, but managed a hole escape before the real beatings began. Level was about 3 inches under the unit. I used the ol' Frankenboot (patched MAC-1).

Johnny had to bail and Chris and Nick wanted to see more area streams, so we popped over to Oly's and Steven joined us for a nice East Fork run. We put in a few miles above Sunset Falls and I got to run that section for the second time...it's pretty nice. I was in Steven's 5-year-old Jackson Fun, which is a very undersized boat for me. We had a clean run, except for Luke properly pulling an abdominal muscle that he'd torqued escaping from Prelude to Thrasher on our second Canyon Creek run. A minor, but painful and disabling injury that forced him off the river for the day.

Nummy fish tacos (halibut and ling cod sent from Alaska by Mike!) with Brenda and Steven had us almost nodding off on the way home. A great day.

weekend update - spring begins to arrive

Sunday. Two laps on the Clackamas, Sunstrip to Bob's. Paul M. and I had a good time bombing down. We stopped at Toilet Bowl during the first run, and I was able to catch and carve the monster bronco wave at the bottom -- a breakthrough for my surfing ability, for sure. The nice weather during the previous few days had all sorts of people out enjoying the river. Cat boaters, commercial rafters, IKers, and dirtbag hardshellers, boating in (im)perfect harmony. Awwww....

Saturday. Two laps on the East Fork Lewis's waterfall run -- one in the morning with Luke and Dave B., and one in the afternoon where Oly and I suited up and launched from his house to join Kourtney, Kim, Paul, Grace, and Dave P. for the last half of the run. Oly and Brenda made a big rib dinner that everyone was late for, but were gracious enough to pull it out of the fridge for us when we arrived. I think I owe Oly some indentured labor for how not-smoothly the evening went off.

Friday. After-work run on the Clackamas, from Sunstrip to Bob's with Robbie V. Ran into Trevor R. and BSed over some El Jimador. Good times.

Thursday. After-work run on the Clackamas, from Sunstrip to Bob's with Luke. Kind of a tweener day for play, but got some nice rides on Teeny Weeny Wave and Bob's. I left my PFD in Ashland after the "Upper Klamath" race, so I rocked the outfit at right. Style. Sophistication. Female attention. Have it all with an old-ass orange rafting PFD!

Northwest Creeking Competition 2008: a great success for the community

We had 80+ racers for the event, and the weather and water level cooperated perfectly. Big up to Luke Spencer for being the lead organizer. I think the turnout this weekend surprised everyone involved. If it's any bigger next year, we'll rival the legendary Green Race. (Photo at right is yours truly boofing Hammering Spot during the race on Saturday.)

Sunday. We had a huckfest on Sunset Falls (video by Cory Morton):


Before it started, Dingo, Jesse, Cory, Neil, Johanna, and I put in a few miles above the falls for a run. Johanna was killing it for her first time in a kayak (inflatable though it was), and doing on a solid Class III/III+ run. I tried out my newly-repaired AT2 paddle (warranty repaired to a 0-degree offset) and was loving it until it broke again. It's true what they say -- nothing paddles quite like an AT. If only they were stouter. I'm told the AT Flexi is not as brittle. Back to the factory with it, I reckon. After the huckfest, it was time to break everything down and load it back in the cars for the trek back to Portland. Oly and Brenda were consummate hosts, as always!

Saturday. We had a stunning turnout for the race! 80+ racers and plenty of spectators and event volunteers made for a fun crown on and around Canyon Creek. The weather and flows could not have been more optimal: 70 degrees and sunny, with the level 3-4 inches below the unit. The higher flows seemed to catch some people off guard, especially those who'd only done the run in the relatively dry weeks prior to the event. Around 8 boaters found themselves swimming out of Prelude to Thrasher, and a few racers found the need to take a quick dip mid-race, probably just to cool off. ;-) Party.

Austin Rathman put together a video of the race:


Cory Morton put together a slideshow montage of kayakers on Thrasher and rafters on Big Kahuna:


Friday. Feeling well-worked from a more celebratory-than-usual Paddler's Pint, I managed to rise early enough to gather my gear and some roadsigns for the weekend, and ended up driving my own car up to the event. More to come...

Northwest Creeking Competition coming April 12th/13th

The first annual Northwest Creeking Competition will be held on Canyon Creek, Washington during the weekend of April 12th/13th. On the 12th is a downriver extreme race with four classes of competition, followed by a simply smashing party at Oly's place on the East Fork Lewis River with video premieres, competitor prizes, a bitchin' raffle, and much good times. The 13th will hold a freestyle waterfall huck competition to see who can run Sunset Falls with the most style.

I'm proud to be helping to organize this event. Our goal is to bring it back to being the community-based and conservation-oriented event that it was it years past. Mad props to Luke S. (in the foreground on the flyer) for being the driving force in making it a reality. If you click the image thumbnail above, you'll see the flyer I made for the event. My longtime friend Bo R. will be heading up from Medford to check it out, and I'm starting to get pretty pumped for it.

weekend update - March 13-16, 2008

Sunday. Afternoon Clack play run with Kourtni went well. I had some sick whirlpool rides at Fish Creek eddy and Big Eddy, and I continue to hone my banzai line at Toilet Bowl...surfing the massive reactionary wave from river left to right, which lines me up perfectly for the Grand-Canyon-sized waves at the bottom. Got a decent wavewheel over the first wave and rode the next two out with my bow aimed at the sky. Ran into A&B folks and their blow-up toys at the take-out and tried to bum a shuttle, but they had already run theirs. Fortuitously, Kourtni was able to shake her hips at a passing vehicle with kayaks atop it, and we were in business in short order.

Saturday. Nice day playboating/creeking (in the playboat) on the East Fork Lewis River, with Luke, Oly, and Ken K. Level was 2300cfs or so, which makes this run a sweet-indeed blend of creeking and playboating. Highlight for me was the melt line on the left chute at Horseshoe Falls. I stuck it, went way deep, and emerged upright from the pile about 20 feet from the base of the falls. Pure bliss. Those guys think I'm a bit nuts, though. When I came up, I was about 5 feet off the bottom left corner of this marked-up photo:

Friday. Made it out to the Clack after work for a short run-and-play. Luke and I put in at Armstrong and ran down to Bob's Hole for a bit over an hour of good play. Joe Bob's seems kinder to me each time I try it. I'm gaining ground in the areas of wave-catching and front-surf stability. Level around 2800cfs.

Thursday. After handing Apple their own ass by presenting Linux thin clients to a local school district, I hauled my playboat out to the Clack for an after-work run with Diana. It was a perfect level for most of the rapids (~2600cfs), and we had an awesome run.

East Fork Lewis headcam video

Ran the East Fork Lewis on this day with Oly, Weaver, and Andy S. Weaver edited up a short video from his helmet cam footage. I appear to do something akin to a wavewheel at 1:30: