NickyB Kayaking Log

Knoxville LVM 27 premier

2008-10-12T15:37:00.001-04:00

West Prong of the Little Pigeon

2008-01-09T13:22:00.000-05:00

December 29, 2008
Around 3.60" at Newfound Gap the previous day
Level was 1.3'ish around 8am, 1.1' around closing time, perfect level all day long

I went up to the West Prong to be a cheerleader and take a few photos. It was a pretty typical Saturday for the WP: 20+ boaters I haven't seen since the last rain, several pins, some wood encounters, a broken boat, and all smiles at the bottom.

Rock stall midway in room without a view

Reed charging into the dark room

The chunky line thru amtrack

Picture Perfect...well not really, but that's the rapid...it's looks smaller on camera

Bett giggling on down to the picnic area

A few fired up Dinosaur that day too, much bigger and longer than the picture suggests. This is the largest and final drop of 4 distinct drops in quick succession. I think this dude's name was Parker...

Having fun with sieves

2007-12-28T20:18:00.001-05:00

After arriving at the upper section of California's Silver Fork for some poached camping at the put-in, we found a very entertaining sieve, which happened to be the very first rapid. We killed some time by throwing sticks into the sieve to watch them disappear, and it quickly progressed to rather sizeable logs.

The next morning we decided to put on, and found the run to be pretty low quality and extremely hazardous. The flow we had was way too high, and the run was loaded with sieves, with all the water going into the wrong places. The run's named according to the Stanley Holbeck bible is "Dugalt Bremner" (sp?), after he tragically died in one of the many sieves the run has to offer.

John and Nick debating about whether to continue into a comitting gorge or not. We decided it best to hike out, which was a good decision as we met a crew later who went into the mentioned gorge and was forced to do some scrambling/climbing out.

Some oldies...

2007-12-27T14:15:00.000-05:00

In looking through my old stash of videos, I found a few old ones from around the southeast.

The first one is from the quality portage fest, North Pole. It's not too often those words blend together, but it is a quality portage fest. The rapids you portage are horrible and scary looking, and the ones you run are actually really fun. Just be sure to scout everything, as almost every rapid goes underground somewhere, especially the portages...

The second one is from Alabama, Jones creek. It's another quality portage fest, but with less portages and more difficult whitewater. This was a fun day as it was one of John's first introductions to "creeking," and we outfitted him with some duct-taped foam elbow pads. He of course ran the shit while we walked with our tails between our legs. It was a fun day to run with the Chattanooga boys.

South Merced

2007-12-27T14:01:00.000-05:00

This was our closing run for our trip back in 2005. (I haven't been kayaking lately, so I'm forced to rehash some old kayaking memories of better times...)

South Merced is an incredible run, certainly one of my favorites. Great boogie all day long, for 2 days. Some big slides and looooong boulder gardens. Also some of the best camping available in California

Highlights:

a) Deciding to drive all night from South Silver to catch it the next morning over multiple Sierra Nevadas, bought with scavenged money

b) Firehydrant

c) Johnny Webb taking a fully loaded boat to the back during a portage, amazingly unscathed

d) Waking up on day 2 to 3 broken, shattered, and memberless boats. The group upstream had left their boats too close to the water as it came up overnight, taking their boats on downstream. 2 boats were marginally paddleable, 1 was entirely destroyed. One owner also lost all of her paddling gear and was forced to hike out...oddly enough without a knight in shining armour, going it alone through Yosemite wilderness.

e) Nate McDade eating what he thought was the hiker's food, found in a drybag way down river. Afterwards, he found that he was stuffing his face with a fellow group members lost food, who had to go hungry because he never found it.

It was a great closing to our CA tour. Certainly one of the state's finest runs

Infinislide

2007-12-27T13:55:00.000-05:00

So let's see, in catching back up with this blog from over 2 years ago, we'll revisit Dinkey Creek's Infinislide.

We came back after a scary high water run to find it at and excellent flow, and capped the day with great runs through the slides all the way to the campsite.

I can't remember what the flow was exactly, but I think it was around 700cfs above North Kings, back in early June of 2005.

Again, not too much extra to say other than the slide is incredible and we were all out of breath by the end of it.

Below Infinislide is some quality slides and rapids, all the way to the campground

California's Green River: South Silver

2007-12-27T13:52:00.001-05:00

There's a lot of similarities between California's South Silver and North Carolina's Green River. Both have more people on them on a weekend than you can shake a fist at, and both a "the big one." Only exception is that the Green runs year 'round...
I know everyone has been there and done that, but why not some more video...

The very popular Upper Cherry

2007-12-27T12:34:00.001-05:00

Upper Cherry Creek seems to be somewhat of a cornerstone for California overnighters. Seems as though everyone has at least seen it in videos and pictures, if not in person. Still, with all the hype, it's one of the few rivers that lives up to it.

Overview:

Hike 12 miles, through black clouds of misquitoes, literally...

Good idea: save weight by hiking in booties
Bad idea: listening to randy robberson and hiking in booties which were too small, thinking they would stretch out...

Result: two blackend toenails with a plethora of pain

Paddle a little over 12 miles of stupendous granite whitewater, too excellent for words

The portage route on the lead into Double Pothole...much, much scarier than I thought, but not nearly as scary as when you peel around the undercut below into the main rapid

Pat, sole contenter for the Pocket, as well as the Bear

A nice gift from the California locals...

I don't really have anything else to say that hasn't already been said before; it's one of the best overnight runs I've ever done and can't wait to come back, this time with better hiking shoes...

Some pics from Jerry's Baddle 3/17/07

2007-03-18T10:41:00.000-04:00

A couple of rescuers helping a terminal surfer out

California recap

2007-03-01T11:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a recap of our trip to Cali back in '05, just some eye candy to get you in the mood to go kayaking

BOOOOF!!

2006-05-12T08:40:00.000-04:00

Linville Gorge Video

2005-12-14T22:50:00.000-05:00

I just thought of this a moment ago.

Here's a link to a video I put together featuring the Linville Gorge, NC. Hosted by Lunch Video Magazine.

Middle Fork Feather, Devil's Canyon

2005-12-01T23:03:00.000-05:00

Level: 1,300 cfs @ Milsap Bar
Date: ca. June 15

We decided to hit this classic overnight run after the SF Yuba. This was my second trip on it and the other's first trip down. For them, it was their first overnight trip in their kayaks, and last year this same river proved to be my first overnighter in my kayak.

Adam Griffin gave the commentary for this run:

"The Middle Fork Feather was one of the runs that we had to do before returning to Tenn. After spending a day driving north to Millsap Bar and packing up our boats, everyone was very anxious to get up to the put-in to camp.

Since this was the first overnighter for three of us, packing up your stern was very stressful because you didn’t want to forget anything. After the trip we realized that it is similar to backpacking in the sense that you always pack unnecessary things but never enough booze.

At the put-in we found a guy camping/ living off of his motorcycle. It would be impossible to describe him so I will just say that he made all of us very uncomfortable so we decided to put on and paddle to the closest beach to camp. We found what we hoped for about a mile from the put-in on river left, a sweet beach with tons of driftwood.

After a cold night of rest and an awesome breakfast, we slid into the river we knew would exceed its reputation as one of the best overnighters period.

We paddled approx. 10 miles to our campsite for the night which was hidden by a boulder field. Since we arrived by early afternoon, we spent the rest of the day sleeping, fishing, lying and eating. The water that day was flat with no memorable rapids but the scenery diffused all adrenaline needs. The next morning brought anticipation of quality ww and camping on the platform in the middle of Devils Canyon.

After making it thru Franklin Canyon quickly by shoulder scouting most everything, the weather began to change for the worse. Before committing to Devil’s Canyon, we thought it best to get out and have lunch. At this point the weather was getting very bad; it was overcast, very windy and rainy and the temperature dropped close to 20 degrees in less than an hour. None of us were prepared or dressed for cold weather (Cali in June?) so our lunch turned into a scurry to build a fire before all the wood was soaked. While warming by the fire and eating, I convinced everyone that it was going to be a cold, wet, potentially hypothermic night in there and we needed to make some serious take-out motion.

Warming up by a fire after Franklin Canyon

Photo AG

We guess that there was about 12-15 miles from our lunch spot to the take out, with the last few being 3-4, so we would be fine if we could get there by dark.

We bombed to the take out and seldom looked back. Nick remembering the portage was critical to getting out. Most of it was a blur but a few highlights were: unmatched scenery inside of Devils, John’s pin, me pulling my skirt, Helicopter (awesome rowdy rapid), the platform we had hoped to camp at (compete with prayer flags) and John finally satisfying his position as team probe.

At Millsap Bar we were greeted in the dark by a nice family who shared their fire, hot food and women, oh wait that was only Bryan. This was followed by the Benz, fully loaded making the sketchy drive out of Millsap in a downpour and then heavy snow back to the put in where we ended an epic day warm and dry.

We were disappointed we didn’t get to spend the typical three days in there but we will be back. At the take-out I couldn’t help but think about Bald Rock which we knew would be coming in soon. The M.F. Feather exceeded it scenic reputation although we very seldom looked at anything other than the next boof. "

The only thing I could add to that is that Adam's skirt pull was one of the more horrific swims I have seen in a while. He went upside down thru and entire chunky boulder garden rapid where the rocks were definetly in play. Good to know that the Watershed Drybags kept everything dry as John and Brian chased the boat down.

I guess I could also add that the drive out of the canyon via Milsap road was very terrifying and involved everyone sitting on my hood to balance the weight in the car (to keep from bottoming out) and getting directions from Adam and Brian at the same time, each with their own plan. It was great to be in Quincy buying a beer at the Safeway, a store we would come to know all too well in the next days to come...

South Fork of the Yuba, take 1

2005-11-14T07:46:00.000-05:00

Levels: 1,500 cfs @ SF Yuba

We woke up in the misquito infested area along the NF Yuba, which has lots of poachable campsites FYI, and headed to the very next watershed over, the classic South Fork of the Yuba, 49 to Bridgeport.

I heard before going out there to not underestimate that run, which Stanley and Holbeck give a class IV-V @ 1,500 cfs. Well, I couldn't help but put on passively while looking around at all those huge white granite boulders everywhere around the put-in, definetly one of the prettiest put-in sites I've been to. I quickly found, as did all of us, that the run was much more powerful than we thought, and as eastern boaters, we found the water level really high.

Though the run was pretty much just go with the flow, we still found the run much harder than the guidebook described. Especially when we got to the lower gorge about 1-2 miles from the take-out. The boulders eased off and the sweeping flow of granite bedrock filled the riverbed. This definetly made for some of the best slides of the trip, but also gave us some of the best hole rides of the trip.

John in the lower gorge
Photo Adam Griffin

Nick in the lower Gorge

Photo Adam Griffin

Nick below another big slide

Photo Adam Griffin

One in particular, called Corner Pocket we later found out, gave us all a good ride, except John who scouted it for us, go figure. John jumped out on a cliff side and told us to just stay in our boats and he would give us hand signal directions. The hand signal we got translated to,"It's really big, but good! Two drops, go right, then further right." We all looked at each other not wanting to go first, finally Adam stepped up and peeled out. The rest of us watched John for an update on Adam's run. John gave the "Hold" sign, as if Adam was in trouble, then gave the "Good to go" sign. I thought whatever and peeled outjust wanting to get below the rapid.

John disappearing in Corner Pocket

Photo Adam Griffin

I soon found myself plugging deep into a huge hole. Rolling up in the backwash and getting pummeled for a second, I exited the rapid. John was still on the cliff giving the "No good, don't go" sign, then after he saw me in the pool below, he gave the other guys a "Good to go" sign. Adam and I watched Brian and Jeff come flying down the rapid and go right into the corner pocket, get spun around for a minute, then wash up into the pool below.
We paddled the rest of the way out of the gorge, getting pummeled in another huge rapid that was really a piece of shit, and pulled up on about a 100 swimmers and sunbathers at the take-out.

One excellent thing about Cali is you know you're getting close to the car when you see nude sunbathers. And the really fun thing is that it's a gambleas to the quality of the sunbather. Sometimes you find a cute girl with big knockers, other times it's an old man with a wrinkly penis to show you. Good for laughs either way.

Pauley, Lavezolla, and NF Yuba

2005-11-13T21:13:00.000-05:00

Levels: Pauley and Lavezolla 280 cfs @ Downeville, NF Yuba 1,100 cfs

After leaving the Dinkey Creek area, we drove for many hours north to Downeville to catch the local runs around there. We hit the area late in the afternoon, bought some food and beer at the local grocery store, and headed to the put-in for Pauley and Lavezolla creeks. We barely had enough room to pull off the road let alone sleep on that narrow ridge of a road. Crashing hard, we hit the sack, but not before I threw our only frisbee into the river....I'm still catching some shit for that...

We woke up early with plans of hitting all the local runs in Downeville: Pauly, Lavezolla, and the North Fork of the Yuba. We quickly made our way down Lavezolla, which was nice, not too exciting, not too boring, just nice.

Nick filming John on Lavezolla Creek

Photo Adam Griffin

Next was Pauley Creek, which reminded us of a Cali version of theTellico River, an introduction to creeking. Really neat gorge with some really easy, safe, and fun 10-20 ledges. The first one we ran blind thru a crowd of old schoolers who were scouting/portaging the drop. It was pretty fun watching them go nuts with hand signals trying to give us last minute directions. That was followed by another great ledge of about 20 ft. It was way too low for the drop, which had a rock spiltting the already minimal flow. But we charged off of it with smiles because the portage would have sucked and there was an attractive girl sunbathing with a large set of mammaries, thus named Mammary Falls.

Adam running Mammary Falls, with the processor of the mammories in the foreground Photo by Brian Mills

Brian going head over heels for Mammaries

Photo Adam Griffin

Nick on another random ledge on Pauley Creek

Photo Adam Griffin

Finally was the 7 mile stretch we did on the NF Yuba, putting on at Sierra City we paddled down to a campground on the river. That was another really fun river run that was pretty challenging, but not too bad because everything flowed downstream. It was a little unnerving at first because you couldn't see what was downstream and couldn't stop to scout, so it was just a good guess where to go, and for those following the lead boater, it was more reassuring because you could see whether your man gets beat down or not, and you can then decide whether or not to follow that particular line.

We met up with another eastern boater named Jeff, who was just out wandering around. He was well received because at this point in time, we were already getting on each other's nerves pretty bad and had already heard all of each others' stories three times.

SuperDink @ high water

2005-11-03T23:38:00.000-05:00

Level: ca. 350 cfs @ Dinkey Meadows (dreamflows online guestimation), 1,300 cfs @ Dinkey above North Kings
Paddlers: Adam Griffin, Nick Barron, John Webb and Brian Mills
Hikers: all mentioned above

Here's a video from the day, sorry for the shakingness of the shot, Brian was filming.

On our way out from the incredible Tule area in a Food 4 Less parking lot, we decided that with the insuing cold front we could sneak our way onto SuperDink, which had been very high due to an incredible snow pack in the southern Sierras. So we took the gamble and drove straight up the mountain arriving at Dinkey Campgrounds late in the evening.

After pulling into a seemingly empty ranger station, 2 rangers came hiking out of the woods and were curious as to what we were up to. We found that they were not even open yet for the season due to the cold temps and high snowpack, and that they had just cleared all of the roads a week prior to our arrival. The good news that we found out was that the water was way down from previous flows and that though the road to Dinkey Dome was closed, there was a "good" trail up there.

We excitedly pulled into a campsite for free, since no one was around, and planned to begin hiking in as early as possible. A bonus to our campsite, we could practically start hiking from there and then paddle right into camp, ahh the simple life.

Well we awoke early in the morning to the annoying sound of mr. John Webb honking the car horn and screaming, "SuperDink! SuperDink!" Now, John isn't much of a river-beta person, and in fact the only guidebooks he'll "read" are ones with photos, and the best way for him to determine if a river is good or not is to see video of it. With that said, John had seen a clip of Burning Time (Scott Lindgren) with a segment featuring SuperDink. He deemed it "good" and "worth doing" after we told him what it was. At any rate, John was fired up and couldn't wait to start hiking.

Hiking up the "trail" to Dinkey Dome

Photo Adam Griffin

We had a quick breakfast and began our hike on the "trail" the rangers told us was good to go. Well, we never found a trail that was good to go, actually we never found a trail at all. Just high granite domes covered in Manzenetta (picture rhododendron but sharper, more clustered, and less forgiving) Our only saving grace was the game trails we found snaking thru the masses of hell-bushes.

Hiking up to the base of Dinkey Dome, with Dinkey Dome proper in the background

Photo Adam Griffin

Finally arriving at the base of Dinkey Dome, a truly awesome sight, we found the water level to be quite high. There's a really neat gorge just downstream of Dinkey Dome that is really tight and locked in. We couldn't see much of it, but from what we could see it didn't look too good and the water was too high. So we hiked back up and over the dome we just hiked our shit up and over and made it to the top of the slide.

A look at the slide from the top

Photo Adam Griffin

Now, the slide of SuperDink, which gives the run its fame, is an incredible anomaly that is without a doubt the longest slide I've ever run, and is one of the longest slides in the Sierras, somewhere in the 1/4+ mile range. The slide isn't straight forward and does twist thru another gorge before plopping into a pool, and scouting all of it is definetly recommended. But as it was, we were all dog tired and I for one was certainly not fired up about hiking back down to give a scout, to then hike back up. However, Adam said to hell with it and decided to put on despite the high flows. John and I agreed to "set safety" on the cliff above the slide and watch Adam's run, planning to make our decisions based on his sucess/failure. You can see our perch in the last part of the video as we cheer Adam on.

Launching in, Adam said he found the top part very pleasent and had plenty of flow to cover up the scrape. In the first bend of the rapid, however, Adam told me, "That's when it all went wrong and the shit hit the fan." In the video, just as you loose sight of Adam, is where it all went down. The gradient picks up a good bit there and the constriction of the gorge really makes the rapid larger. He made it thru most of the big holes okay, but flew past his planned eddy where he hoped to scout the last few drops, which happen to be the biggest. John and I lost site of Adam and scrambled down the dome to find him stuck in an alcove, right above the last set of drops. Finding that he couldn't get out of the water to scout, I gave him some hand signals describing the lines thru the remaining drops. Peeling out after several attempts to escape the alcove, he crashed down the last bit of the slide and plopped into the pool below and beached himself on the bank.

John and I then got the scoop of the slide from Adam, "There's way to much fucking water in there." Based on that, John, Brian and I promptly picked up our boats and carried around the slide. Our plan then was to run down to camp, but found the water levels still high thru the more boulder garden stuff as I joined Adam in a rather large hole somewhere downstream, executed a marry-go-round in the hole, and then got the hell off the river. We all decided that the water was too high and that hiking would be much better for our health. Instead, the hike out sucked much harder than the hike up and by the time I got to the car, I couldn't move anymore.

That next day we didn't go anywhere or do anything but sat at camp drunk, well fed, and happy. All of this was of course aided by the general store less than 100 yards from our campsite with copious amounts of beer and hot showers. Actually we did paddle thru the campsite section of Dinkey which was fun continous class III, and we still got to have that feeling of taking out at our campsite.

Nick in the campground section of Dinkey Creek

Photo Adam Griffin

Main Fork of the Tule

2005-11-02T13:57:00.000-05:00

Level: 400 cfs at Springville
Paddlers: Brian Mills, John Webb, Adam Griffin, Nick Barron

Nick boofing downstream in one of the many great boulder garden rapids

Photo Adam Griffin

The Main Fork of the Tule has to be one of my most favorite runs anywhere in the country. It has some of the most fun slides, awesome boulder gardens, and incredible California quality. I think the best description of the run can be summed up with one word: Quality

Simply an awesome run with some great stuff on it, we found the water level on it perfect, and our only complaint was our mistake of leaving the area too quickly. We should have just hung around that area for the next week and ran it everyday, but that's of course my hindsight 20-20.

John holding rope for me on one of the lower slides

Photo Adam Griffin

The run started off with a pretty good bang. A slide with a tight notch at the bottom gave John a good ride and woke him up for the run.

The next mile or so was mostly comprised of incredible boogie with some great boofs. We made our way down to the first big slide on the run, which we couldn't decide if it was good to go or not. It seemed like a fun slide, but there were many exploding roostertails and seemed overall chunky, plus we all thought it would really suck to piton somewhere in the slide, so we chose to walk along the granite sidewalk and put on below.

Just downstream was one of the bigger slides on the run and was one of the bigger thrills, too. The slides continued from there and were broken up by only by more boulder gardens. One more rapid in particular I remember, and so does John, as the worst boof followed by the best. The first drop was about 10-12 ft tall and clapped down on some rocks, providing a rather unpleasent hit. Just downstream was an awesome boof, that in the video you can see Adam hit square on. John and I boofed out too much on the first drop, and our backs felt it for the next day or so.

Nick hitting the bad boof

Photo Adam Griffin

John hitting the good boof

Photo Adam Griffin

A few slides later and we were in the junk just before the takeout at lower Coffee picnic area. The run's characteristic changes drastically and switches from quality to crap pretty quickly. We made it thru some of the crap and decided to hike out at Upper Coffee picnic area, finding the trail rather elusive. But we made it all back to the car and headed to some poached campsites and drank beer for the remainder of the day

Nick on one of the lower slides

Photo Adam Griffin

Here's another link to a short video from the day

Upper North Fork of the Kaweah

2005-11-02T13:28:00.000-05:00

Level: 1.4 ft on the Bailey Creek Bridge gauge (Kaweah at Three River 2,500 cfs)
Paddlers: John Webb, Brian Mills, Adam Griffin, Nick Barron

We left the desert like Kern area in high hopes of finding more reasonable flows. Heading north to catch the seldom ran Upper NF of the Kaweah, we ran into some car troubles and the Benz overheated, blowing a hole the top radiator tank. After a scary drive back to Bakersfield, stopping only twice to refill the water tank, we found a shop that could replace the part on Saturday morning, leaving us to hang around downtown Bakersfield for the evening. We found the area hot, miserable and overall an unpleasent place and sat at the shop all of Saturday morning waiting for our car to be done.

The Benz

Photo by Adam Griffin

We finally got the car back and made our way to the Kaweah, and bombed down the lower section of the NF Kaweah, finding it a fun run with a cool waterfall about 25 ft tall.

Below the falls on the lower NF Kaweah

Photo by Adam Griffin

Camping at the put-in for that run, we planned to do the 5 mile hike to the Upper section that next morning.

The hike wasn't too bad and was relatively flat, but just long. We were happy to find the put-in and some shade to hang out in, drink some agua fria, and then put on.

Hike up the Upper NF Kaweah

Photo by Adam Griffin

The run we found to be an incredible run and simply beautiful. The run itself is the most fun for the least amount of stress that I could ever imagine. Big, fun slides with little or no technicality, just stupid easy fun.

Sorry for the lack of photos, but I did get a lot of video that day, so here is a short clip from the day

Brush Creek

2005-11-01T20:51:00.000-05:00

Level: 5-6" on the bridge gauge at the takeout (Kern @ 6,500 cfs)
Paddlers: John Webb, Nick Barron, Adam Griffin, Brian Mills

John, Adam and I drove out from Knoxville, TN in 2 rushed days and arrived at the Kern at 4 am. Catching a few hours of sleep in a little league ballfield, we headed straight to Kernville in hopes of catching Brush and Dry Meadow before heading further north.

What we found was a raging high Kern River and a matched high Brush Creek. We figured Dry Meadow must be equally as high and decided not to even try to hike in a see it. So rather than go driving around looking for some river that was low enough to run, we hung around the area for about a week and gave Brush Creek a good go.

Looking down from the overlook, I decided it looked on the high side from there and thought it would be really high when we got down in there, and opted to sit the first run out and film. John and Adam decided it was good to go and dropped in. They found it to be really high and scary with lots of big holes and almost zero eddies, and decided the upper gorge of the run was too high.

John boofing some of the bigger drops in the upper gorge

Photo by Adam Griffin

We did find, however, that we could hike up about a mile from the takeout and run the last part before it dropped into the Kern. The last part of the run is much wider than the top, and handles the water much better. So for the better half of the week we ran laps on that last part, along with a few high water sections of the Kern, while we waited to meet up with Brian, who was coming down from a snowboarding trip in BC.

Adam on the lower portion of Brush Creek

Photo by Nick Barron

John on the big slide

Photo Adam Griffin

John in a fun slide on the lower stretch

Photo Adam Griffin

We had a good time racing thru the lower stretch of Brush, but were excited to move north to see some other areas and better runs.

Here's a short video of Brush Creek