Nicole Mansfiield suits up for the 30 foot Medina waterfall in Medina NY. This creek runs under the Erie Canal just before turning and falling about 30 feet. So yes, essentially there is a river running over another river (canal) a little different to say the least. The Erie Canal dumps water into the creek right above the waterfall making this park and huck runnable most days of the year!
Check out this footage sent in from Chris Morelli, Northeast regional team paddler. His crew has been putting down some first descents lately, chekkit:
On the way back from Outdoor Retailer Yonton and I had the chance to run one of the most impressive river canyons in the world - The Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We had a kick ass crew consisting of canyon vet Capt’n Milo Wynne, our Rockies Rep Brent Toepper, Asheville homeboy turned Boulder bike guru Daniel Windham, and Astral team paddler Jakub Nemec. Its been about 5 years since I’ve been back in the “M-BOX” and it was so sweet to get back in there with such a great posse!
Milo knows this river all too well and I think he said it was his 46th run…it was only my 16th and it was awesome to be back in there with my good friend who showed us all the clean lines. The Black is notorious for nasty rocks, poison ivy, extensive safety, pteradactyls… (well maybe not those)…and good old fashioned portaging. If you are not down with “river viewing” as we like to call it this may not be your can of Foster’s. There IS some really sweet boating to be had, but there’s no doubt about it - you gotta work for that shit.
Here’s Jakub firing up the first big rapid, DAYWRECKER:
I think Yonton really liked this run. The dude is one of the best boaters that I know but kinda dislikes portaging. He did awesome and styled a lot of rapids, like this one called LOWER INTESTINE:
After these couple of Black classics you get to BALL CRUSHER, here’s Daniel Windham not letting the libations hold him down (Daniel had a heavy boat that day)…
We rallied all those rapids and then some more, after a nice 18′ WATERFALL you get to what we like to call THE PORTAGE…I really don’t know how to sum it up…its pretty brutal - BUT, keep in mind when things get tough down there you need to simply look around and remember where you are. Not many have seen “the guts of the earth” from your perspective. Check out Brent and Yonton in the midst of river viewing at its finest:
So we carried down to the cave camp, which for many crews marks the end of Day 1. Here we had a great chance to reflect on the day and slept in the cave with the sounds of the canyon singing its amazing song (thank Jah those ring tail cats let us sleep).
We woke up on Day 2 and utilized our fishing permits to enjoy some time having, what Milo liked to refer to as, “a Dumb off”…the trout were hitting like crazy. Check out this hog that Daniel pulled (then released to probably eat the next kayak that he saw)
After breakfast and the fishing tourney we packed up and hit the river.
To start Day 2 you have to execute a rather tricky portage on river-left, then scurry back to the right over various methods. Then there’s a big ole rapid called NEW GENERATION once you get back to river-right. Jakub decided to give her a go, and had an awesome line. This is a portage for most and I cant believe how easy he made it look…I would seriously scout and protect this drop if anyone contemplates running it. Its really difficult with no margin for error!
We kept a good pace down to the GREAT FALLS portage…down here Brent and I made it to a happy little spot below the falls and contemplated canyon life awaiting on the crew - it was good to chill with BT who has been in the industry for years, representing the best companies out there and being an overall great ambassador to Colorado kayaking (check out Off the Deep End)….
So down here the river braids out and goes off multiple cascades and falls…none of which look all that nice. Again our boy Jakub fired up a seldom run line on the Falls, here he is styling it:
From here its some extended boogie down to Chukar Trail, the takeout. Once you get there enjoy the 1 mile race to the top of the false summit hill. Milo made it first with the rest of us not too far behind (I think)…we enjoyed a quick lunch sesh, then loaded up and hit the road. What a great trip with the crew. Here’s a little video that Jakub put together. Enjoy!
PS - The poison Ivy is really bad down there this year. Our crew had a few nasty bouts with it - my worst in about 10 years. Make sure to take precautions if you are allergic (or not if you like pain and suffering - which is probably why you want to run the Black anyways right?)
We just got an update from Demshitz very own Nicole Mansfield. She’s been on the road from April-July snapping some awesome photos of their kill it tour. Here’s a few of our favorites…. For a complete 2010 photo recap check out the DEMSHITZ GALLERY
Jared routing a stout hole on the Poudre River
Graham boofing in Kootenai Creek
Jared sliding down Wall Check on Yule Creek
Jared surfing Glenwood Wave at a very nice high water level
Benefits of kayaking in the Littlest Big City - Dave skateboarding to the Reno River Festival.
Well we made it to British Columbia. Here we found a very fast long slide, a short but, super fun creek, and spent some time at the mighty Skookumchuck narrows.
After successfully running the Krutaa River we headed back to our lake shore camp and sadly packed everything up in order to move onto our next river. The next river on our ‘Hit List’ was the Sweden gem Gausta River. This is the one creek that is the must paddle for all creekers heading to Sweden. If you haven’t considered heading to Sweden to paddle…you should now consider!
The Gausta flows from the highlands of the Sweden and Norway boarder from Borgefjallen National Park. The river is born from the melted snow of the area and makes its way through the open tundra. As small rivers and streams push in along the way the river continues to grow in volume and eventually pushes into Lake Blasjon. The Gausta is a great 18km section of whitewater that can be paddled in sections or in one long push day.
The Gausta has just about everything. Waterfalls with swim potential, long multi-stage slides, short slides, technical rapids, and of course unmatched scenery.
I can’t say enough about this river so I will let a few photos do the rest of the explanation…
After completing a random pit stop and potential first descent of the Umnas River, our next stop was Lake Røssvatn and take-out for the Krutaa River. Our camp location turned out to be the most epic camp location I have seen in a long while. The perfect place to spend July 1st Canada Day! We were surrounded by snow-covered mountains, an endless rock pebbled shoreline on a massive lake, a large supply of dry drift wood for a campfire, and presented with continuous 24 hours of daylight. Epic and not a place we wanted to leave!
We woke to another day of sunshine and a perfect water level for the Krutaa River. This river is one that I have spoken about with the Suomi (Finland) paddlers a number of times and I was going to add another river to my ever-growing list of personal descents. As we were sliding into the river for an amazing section of boofs, slides, and monster holes to plug, I couldn’t help but take a moment to reflect on the fact that there is nothing else in the world I would rather be doing than living the life that I am!
The water was clean and clear and every rapid a masterpiece. It is one of the rivers that required you to continually take a look back upstream after running a rapid and check it out, smile, and record the memory. We could paddle ourselves all the way into the lake to finish the river and start taking about how sick the river was and what we would paddle next.
After an epic few days and mid-summer nights in Trollfors we started on the creeking adventures. We headed toward the Norway/Sweden border in search of a few rarely paddled rivers, and perhaps a first descent or two. During our drive we caught a glimpse of a nice looking drop just off the road and after pulling over to check it out it looked good. We then referred to our trusty maps to find that a small dirt road ran near the river to the lake 4kms downstream to where the river emptied into it. Perfect. A short shuttle and a new adventure. Later we would learn from some research that this short creek was named ‘Umnas River’ or at least that is what we have named it.
This short little run turned out to be quite epic with a ton more whitewater and drop in elevation that we expected. There we nice slides (with chunky rock) and one of which located in the middle of the run was a three-stage 100 meter long beauty. We also enjoyed numerous small boofs, a few very tight and technical lines, an absolutely perfect twisting 8 meter drop, and the final drop was a sweet 6 meter waterfall. After a short walk back to the van we were packed up and on route into the snow covered mountains and our next creek…
Of course the next epic adventure will be posted soon so stay tuned.
This Spring I had the opportunity to visit the USS North Carolina in Wilmington. This vessel is a retired Navy Battleship, used in WWII, now permanently parked in downtown Wilmington along the banks of the Cape Fear River, a memorial to the country it once served. While touring around the decks I came across some interesting information regarding PFDs once used on the ship. This gives some interesting insight into the history of Kapok used as flotation.
(USS North Carolina from the captain’s chair)
(Kapok and Mae West)
(Old school kapok pfd)
(Drilltime)
Inside the boat: I once had the Liberty Chits after eating a rather spicy dish. Must be pretty common for Navy folk if they had to write it on the wall.
