Bridal Veil Falls

Jeremy kayaked Bridal Veil falls this last week.  He was followed shortly by the first ever raft decent of the falls by Dan Mccain.   Here is a teaser of the event taking place on the final day of my winter break.  Full footage will be in Ryan scott's new NWVS that will be coming out before too long.  More information on this can be found at gorgehits.com    

Enjoy the clip 

 (but pardon the whistling, its an inside joke)

Bridal Veil from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

-Jacob

Henline Creek

Ran Henline creek today with Chris Arnold and Ryan Cole. Level@mehama was ~3300 dropping to ~2900. This was a good level, but we could definitely have used more water. I think 3500 and rising would be perfect and not too hairy, definitely cleaner. We all had great lines up top, with some collisions with rock occurring farther downstream. Scout the entire section ahead of time. The best part in my opinion is from where we put in, to the drop just below the bridge. I would just take out there and do another lap if I were to run it again.  Though it was nice to see the entire section of creek.        If you go in there, you might want to bring a small handsaw for the put in drop, especially if there was more water, but we had no problems at all getting through there. Really no wood to be cautious about at this time, although it might be convenient to get rid of a couple branches here and there though. I had a blast on this small creek. If the levels are similar to what we had, you might want to bring your rock boat. Scout everything before you put on (not hard to do), and hike out on a trail on creek right (though this is not the best place to scout from below the bridge). Pretty tame hike to the put in on Creek right though, and you can scout on the way up. -Jacob

Ohane/Roaring River attempt

This last week I was able to head North to the Mt Rainier area with Ryan Cole, Chris Arnold, and their friend Shawn (didn't catch last name, sorry). We were able to spend two days running the Ohanepecosh river from secret campground down to the Clear Fork confluence. The first day I loved the river, and by the second day, it had become one of my favorite runs. It is super clean for the most part with a plethora of great boofs and boulder drops.

Nothing mandatory was super challenging, but if you wanted to get your gnar on, their is definitely a couple drops that fit the bill, with one definitely being a class above the rest. Even the seal launch at the put in was awesome and a great way to start the day. Also, with no boring sections, I couldn't have asked for much more.

There were a couple portages. There are three, and they all kind of sneak up on you if you aren't scouting. The first is the log slide, you cannot see the log until you are directly above the ledge, and its not an easy place to get out at that point. If you haven't done the run before, be watching out for a slower section at the downstream end of secret campground where you are running a few hundred yards of class two. When you see a headwall downstream and a small horizon, get out on the left. Another is in what I have heard referred to as "Triple Drop" You will see some wood piled up, portage on the left. Below this a ways is a shallow drop with a small slide on the right that piles into a boulder. The next boulder garden has wood clogging the bottom. Make sure to catch an eddy on the left to scout, and probably portage. It looked like far left would have gone though.

The hole above the falls produced one flip, but this flip pushed the boater left and he was able to have the best boof of the day off the left side slot on the falls(noone else was able to make it left). At this level gutting the hole was the only way to make it left, but there was enough water to take the sneak route as well (~1000 cispus@randle). The final drop has changed noticeably. Definitely worth a scout now. We all ran the main line the first day, but the second day Chris and I decided to try the right side because it looked pretty fun. It was, but unfortunately Chris pitoned on a hidden protrusion in the first drop. If anyone tries this side, make sure you stick your nose on the right wall and keep it there as you slide down while keeping you bow up. The left side goes really well too, just don't get stuck in the hole dominating the center of the river.

Last week we tried running lower Roaring River, we never found the put-in even after three attempts. The upper would have still been accessible in the right vehicle, but that is probably no longer the case. The lower is probably even snowed in for awhile at this point. Here is the video.

Ohanepecosh and Roaring river attempt from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

-Jacob

~1000 Cispus at Randle

just over 2000 cowlitz at Randle

Slick Rock Creek

Photo by Nate Merrill

Nate, Matt and I ran Slick Rock Creek off highway 18 on the way to Lincoln city back when we had water a few weeks ago.  I had found the creek by chance last year and had wanted to go back to check out what was in there.  Strangely enough, you can drive right to the put-in for this creek on an old forgotten looking gravel road.  The take out we used was right under highway 18, but I would suggest taking out higher up, given Nate and Matt's report that there is 100 yard long section of really braided, shallow creek at one point.  At the put in there are boulders on bedrock, and immediately enters a section with gorge walls.  We put in and were swept downstream quickly through many class four boulder gardens.  We boat scouted all the boulder gardens, so we didn't get many pictures except where Matt hopped out once. 

(photo by Matt King)

Somewhere in here was an island with some bedrock.  We took the left and it was a fast slide ending in some mank, but the right side looked better with a slide and ledge, just watch out for some wood in the bottom right of the ledge.  

       At one point I was in the lead and came across a steeper drop with bedrock on the sides of the walls.  I hopped out to look while Matt and Nate caught up and bashed through some devils club to see a nice double drop.  Not very tall, but a good drop nonetheless.  I signalled Matt through, and would have got my camera to film, but it wasn't worth all the Devils club so we only have pictures from Matt, but those turned out well and give a good indicator of the drop.  Nate went next off verbal beta, then I came down.  This was a nice little drop.  A nice break from the boulder gardens and I bet the bottom hole would get juicy with more flow. 

Myself in "Twist off"

(photo by Matt King)

Nate crashes through the bottom hole in Twist Off.

(photo by Matt King)

Reason for the name from Matt- "cause it's sometimes nice to get a beer that you can crack easily, but them easy crackin' beers don't taste as good as others."  It also was sort of a twisty drop.

 Below here there were two spots we portaged for wood, and eventually the creek tapered off down to class II-III for the last quarter mile.  In this section Matt found a rope swing and tried it out, in the video it is obvious to tell it was created for low water use :)

            Before too long we passed a building with "park ranger" or something like that on the side.  I decided to hike out here because I was jogging the shuttle, the guy in this building is only there in the Spring.  Nate and Matt continued downstream (where they discovered the braided section) and reported more class II-III and a surf wave on the way to the highway take-out.  

          The people in the area were very friendly and were interested to see kayakers.  I jogged back to the car, evaded our car alarm (Oakland the dog), and headed back to the highway within 5 min. of Nate and Matt arriving.  I found the run to be fun, and If the same situation arose, with the coast range having water and not a lot of time, I would go back.  It is always fun running something you have no idea what is in there and discovering it for yourself.  Video is not very indicative of the drops, as I mentioned before, there is no footage of any rapids except the class III+ stuff at the put-in.   At high flows this run would be rockin'.  Really its a mini version of lower Roaring River.  It's about half the length, the shuttle is 5 min. instead of over an hour, no hike, and the wood situation is better.  Maybe a good way to warm up for Roaring River.

             level of the SF Yamhill should be around 2000, but can probably go all the way down to 1000, but I wouldn't recommend that. Not sure how high you could go safely.  We had about 1500 and there were a few F.U. rocks.  From Pat Welches site. we ran it 11/18  

A couple weeks ago Ben Sigler and Dan McCain fired up the put-in drop on Butte Creek Oregon.  There used to be wood in there but its good now.  The rafters cleaned up on "The Watermelon Chute", so I guess it goes.  Here is a video from these two trips.

Slick Rock Creek/Butte Creek from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

And I forgot to credit it on the video, but the photos in the video are by Matt King

-Jacob

Rafting the Little White

I didn't get to be there today, but Dan McCain and Ben Sigler from ORT ran the Little White today.  They had a great trip, and cleaned almost everything.  They chose not to run Stovepipe or Island, but they went for everything else.  Including a clean run of Spirit! 

 Check out this photo taken by Paul Thompson of ptnature.com

More photos from this trip will be on that site in the next week or so.  As well as video on Ryan Scott's website http://gorgehits.wordpress.com/

          -Jacob

Copper Video

Here is a video from Copper Creek along with some other trips from this month. 

 

Kayaking in Oregon Fall 2009 from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

-Jacob

Copper Creek

After getting foiled by high water on Eagle Creek, we ran Copper Creek again.  It has become our go to creek.  We had a decent flow with 1500 on the EF Lewis and rising.  This was a great level, felt pretty full for the creek.  Once again we used the upper put-in for the run.  This is definitely the best choice in my mind.  The Upper has a couple solid drops, and a lot of really fun boogey stuff.  To eddy out at the Weir, I would suggest eddying out on the right at the lip, then ferrying to the left.  Getting directly left is not practical due to wood.   Matt was the only one who ran the Weir this day,  it had a tree limb in the center that he avoided, but everyone else decided it wasn't worth the trouble.  He missed the log, punched the hole, and paddled away upright.

Matt on the Weir.

(photo by Nate Merrill)

From here to the lower bridge was just a fast bombing session through lots of class IV sections that were super fun.  No real wood issues in this section.  Once below the bridge, you will run a narrow ledge on the right, then eddy out immediately on the right to portage Certain Death.  If you want to run it I guess you could go a bit lower, but we all knew we weren't going to run it before we got there.  Then find somewhere to seal launce.  There was a log in the water , but Matt fixed it so it isn't much of an issue anymore.  Below here, the really clean class four continues for awhile.  Eventually it tapers off, before too long you come to Triple delight, one of the sweetest drops in the area.  It starts with a two foot ledge that you want to run leftish, because the right side funnels strongly into the slot on the right that is hard to stay upright through.  I took Matt over blind his first time, and I just said make you are left, left, left.  In the second(crux drop) Two of us hit the boof on the left, one hit the boof pretty far right, and one of us got sucked into the slot, resulting in a pretty interesting line down the rest of the drop...  So take the lead in seriously, and stay left at the top!

Here is Eric Foster-moore dropping the final drop in Triple delight.

(photo by Nate Merrill)

Below here were a few more bedrock drops, some fun slides, ledges, and flumes, all with good sized holes at this level.  One sent Eric airborn!  He was able to pull off a catlike move to keep it upright though.  This section was lots of fun and before too long we rolled into the eddy above Final Five.  After taking a look at the headwall drop, I decided I wasn't in the mood and joined Nate, and eventually Eric in the portage.  This left only Matt, who decided to fire off the entire canyon.  To complicate things, the landowner was firing off gun shots.  Not sure whether he knew we were there, we kept a low profile and seal launched in above the final double drop to keep out of his land, but the gunshots were still a little unnerving given the problems that have arisen here in the past.  Matt didn't let the nerves get to him and fired off the entire series, with a roll in the third drop against the undercut wall in the left eddy.  Then finished off the series with an awesome line in the final double drop.  

Matt attacking the headwall.

(photo by Nate Merrill)

Matt in the Canyon above the final double drop.

(Photo: Nate Merrill)

Myself seal launching below the headwall drop, pretty interesting photo I thought.

(photo by Matt King)

After the seal launch, Eric and I decided to take the easy line and ran the final double drop left, left.

Eric driving left at the first ledge of the Final Drop in Final Five Canyon.

(photo by Matt King) 

Myself ducking some branches while getting where I want to go in final drop

  (photo by Matt King)

 I might add that the bottom hole on the right side of the final drop was looking like it could do some serious damage, so consideration of that would be wise.  

    Below here we joined the EF Lewis, which was really fun at this level.  We cruised down to Horshoe falls and scouted to find the funnest line.  We decided to do the triple bounce on the left and it was actually pretty exciting!  We all went deep into the really airated landing.  We were moving fast and didn't have time to set up any intricate safety techniques, so we all just cleaned the drop instead :)

Below here was uneventful, and we finished the run happy with another great run on Copper Creek!

  -Jacob