Define Adventure

Panama Whitewater Kayaking Report

2010-10-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

Here's some video of Panama whitewater paddling from 2003-2006. The runs in Panama are spectacular, and so few people have ever gotten to paddle them. Much of the footage here on this video is from the Upper section of the Rio Los Valles and from the Upper section of The Rio Chiriqui, parallel drainages in the Chiriqui province. With the first descent of the Upper Los Vallesin in 2003 its seen less than 10 runs by three groups down it since. To my knowledge I've run along with each group that has attempted this river, which blows my mind because it is just so good. There is a hike in, and a hike out, and two big portages, its far from an easy run, dropping over a thousand feet in just over 2 miles, but this run is world class! Enjoy the video.

Husum Falls of the White Salmon!

2010-09-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

After two summers guiding here in the North-west for Wet Planet Whitewater, I've gotten to raft on some awesome stretches of river. The People are great, the weather is great, and on a twice daily basis on the White Salmon River we get to run over this crazy 10 ft waterfall called Husum Falls. If you've ever wondered what it must be like to run a bunch of people over a waterfall in a raft, here's a few pics to help your imagination. The guide usually get the worst of it here as demonstrated by raft guide and kayaker extrodinare, Curt Joyce (Below) on one of his seven flips this year (Ouch those rocks look close). Cheers to the King of Carn!

Occasionally a passenger or two will go flying as well
This is my handy work on this poor family of five, I think its that little guy hanging on that closed the coffin on this baby, sealing my third ever commercial flip (all three here at Husum). Eleven year olds love rafting!!
Bald Maniac Boatmen... the rest of the line was about as ugly as these two mugs (below).
Even our Husum Falls Champion, Sara Cohen (below, out of sight), has a little excitment, she actually sat this one back down, but had everyone in the boat sitting in her lap!

Here's a fun series of a typical run over Husum Falls... Everyone hangs on for dear life as the raft goes vertical...

Going DEEP! Wet Planet uses 14 ft long self bailing Aire rafts, and they go all the way under water...

we spend life under water for a second or two, the raft begins to re-emerge, click on the photo below for larger images of what remains of the crew

Disheveled but happy to be still upright, it is not uncommon for the guide's disembodied head to hover behind the raft while the crew recovers

This backender (below) didn't work out so well for Dave Martin's crew, but at least the self bailing floor works well.

While most rafts actually stay up right over the falls, it still always feels like you got away with something when you resurface still up right. Always a crazy feeling. If you want to know more about Wet Planet and Husum falls check out the Wet Planet website at http://www.wetplanetwhitewater.com/.

The Little White Salmon

2010-09-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

The Legend of the Little White Salmon river is spread far by paddlers and is largely responsible for drawing me away from the Blue Ridge Mountains, a whitewater paradise in and of itself. Its reputation for fast and steep emerald green water fed by deep cold aquifers year round had me hooked, and after a couple of years of drought induced dreaming I finally worked up the courage to leave the friends and rivers i love dearly behind in North Carolina and see if it really was all that great. Now at the end of my second season here in the North-west's Columbia River Gorge, I think the 'LW' might be the best, funnest steep creek in the world. But beyond its great rapids, what I've really come to appreciate about this river, and whitewater paddling in general is how other people are drawn to it, same as i was, in search of some greater fulfillment. Here's a few pictures of the Little White Salmon as best enjoyed, with some really good friends.

Photo: Curt Joyce

This is me, launching off boulder sluice rapid, the last drop in a half mile long boulder garden called gettin busy that starts off the run.

Photo: Drew Austell

Curt Joyce with classic form, late boof at Sacriledge

Photo: Drew Austell

Curt Joyce on the middle line of Wishbone falls, the beautiful 20 foot waterfall we get to run whenever we want to.

Photo: Drew Austell

Dave Martin and Ryan Copenhagan paddling together through Stove Pipe Gorge.

Finding nothing but air at Stove Pipe Falls Curt Joyce Photos

Photo: Dave Martin

Ahh, the gratuitous Spirit Fall picture. One of the prettiest places on earth.

Photo: Dave Martin

Curt Joyce and I regrouping and enjoying the Spirit amidst the froth and spray below the falls. I only run this waterfall when the moment seems right and there's a good buddy ready to go with me.

Vertical Challenge wrap up

2010-07-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly a month since the Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge ended and a solid month of non stop kayaking has given way to the busy rafting season here in the North-west. Returning from Idaho spent but happy, I've since had the chance to travel down to southern Oregon to teach a couple of kayak instruction course on the Wild and Scenic Rogue river, Eddy Flower has just announced the top finishers from the contest and our Washington based team, The Off the Cowch Team, has taken the top spot by a landslide margin. Our total vertical feet paddled was nearly 150000 ft, or 28 vertical miles! The top four individual finishers were from our team, and I reached my personal goal of logging more than 40000 feet over the 32 day span. Over the four years of the competition this is now the most ever recorded! In addition and of incredible importance is the fact that as a team we also were able to raise $6470 for the First Descents Program, sending young adult Cancer survivors to week long kayak camps as part of their recovery. This also makes us the first team to lead both the vertical standing and the donation standings. Thanks to many of you guys, we have set a new bar for all teams that participate in the Vertical Challenge in the future. So again, to everyone, your encouragement and excitement about the competition was so valuable and appreciated. To those who were able to contribute financially; I got to help out a few days with the actual First descents Camps; your contributions are so valuable and mean so much toward the greater goal, i am honored that you were moved by my paddling to become involved in this competition yourselves. Thank you all so much.

View of the Columbia River Gorge from the mouth of the White Salmon after our teams 35 mile paddle from Trout Lake Creek to the Columbia, Day One Vertical Challange 2010

Photo: Curt Joyce

Idaho: Land of Giant Water

2010-06-18T21:11:00.001-07:00

So California Plans were set aside as word rolled in that the late melt had led to too high flows across the Sierras. Not to be discourage and with other info suggesting huge water fun to be had in Idaho, I set off with Jeff Clewell toward Banks, Idaho, home of the North Fork of the Payette River. The North Fork is a unique river, big water and uniform steep gradient combined with road blast rock make for some of the worlds longest and fastest rapids. This awesome stretch of whitewater is usually run at flows between 1500 and 3000. However, with a late spring melt and some heavy rain, the North fork was on a slow fall from a record high 9000 cfs when we arrived. We met Cooper Lambla and Will Stubblefield, two NC boys livin the dream in Idaho for the summer and went for a couple of laps on the 'easier' lower five miles to get our big water legs under us. I can honestly say i haven't ever paddled anything so enormous and so fast, and we were only on the 'lower five'.

The Upper 10 miles of the North Fork would have to wait till Monday, our next stop was the Secesh and South Fork of the Salmon River, a classic overnight adventure that takes you twenty miles down a steep action packed creek, into a huge big water canyon, with rapids the reminded me of Granite, Lava and Crystal on the Grand Canyon for 35 more miles, and finally out 20 miles on the Main Salmon river, one of the largest drainages in the North West. Seventy-five miles of steep creeking, huge water, and fantastic company made for a great 1st time kayaking overnight.

Back to Banks tired and happy, and scared as all get out cause next in line is a Top to Bottom North Fork Run and it is still running huge! Its hard to convey what this run is like from the paddlers perspective. Take every one of the biggest big water rapids you know of; take the Grand Canyon and eliminate every inch of flat water, make the rapids bigger, harder, way faster, no eddies. Drive your motorcycle at 30 mph into a big breaker off the Hawaiian coast and do that over and over again. In any case, I've been looking for that threshold, that piece of whitewater where i could say, thats as big as I really will ever care to go, and i think i found it on the North Fork of the Payette last week at those high flows. I had the great fortune to be able to follow two of the greatest big water paddlers I've ever seen through the melee; many thanks to Fred Coriell and Ryan Casey for the good beta and solid lines. Check out this Link for a fun visual reference: http://www.vimeo.com/12563837.

Eddy Flower Update and California Bound...

2010-06-05T20:04:00.001-07:00

These last weeks we have been going full tilt, running rivers day in and day out, our team, THE Off the Cowch Team, is the heavy leaded in both vertical feet paddled and Donations pledged. This is huge. never before has such a contender for the vertical title also been a lead contender for most donations received for First Descents. I personally am blown away at the contributions that have been made on my behalf and they all have inspired me to continue paddling as long and hard as i can. A week ago I was having a conversation with a friend, and in trying to explain the significance of this competition i came to the realization that over the course of my development as a paddler I have really only paddle for my own personal rewards and objectives. Now for the first time ever, my paddling has given rise to an excitement that is benefiting a broader purpose. It's an incredible feeling. Every donation i see arrive in my name, inspires me to paddle another river, do an extra lap, and not for myself any more but for everyone who is watching, contributing, and for the benefit of the First Descents camps. In any case, my goal for the remainder of the competition is lofty. I want to finish with 40000 ft of descent and $4000 in donations. With 10 days to go, the work has been cut out for me. I'll do my best, and if any one out there has the means, First Descents is truly an awesome program. Again, here's a great video about what they do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPnRYc5p1e0&eurl=http://www.firstdescents.org/cms/. You can check the real time standings of the competition or donate by going here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPnRYc5p1e0&eurl=http://www.firstdescents.org/cms . Thank you to everyone for your support.

THE Off the Cowch Team members Drew Austell, Jeff Clewell and Curt Joyce along with Susan Hollingsworth from Femme 45 starting a lap on the Miracle Mile of the Willamette River. Photo by Melissa Wilder

Susan Hollingsworth, Drew Austell and Jeff Clewell on the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette in Central Oregon

And now, I am headed to California...

9 Laps of the Little White Salmon

2010-05-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

We've all heard at some point, a friend, family member or co-worker griping about how the wish they had more time to do whatever it is they enjoy; maybe it's fishing or camping, soccer or woodwork or rock climbing. Why is it people across the world regular spend all day hard at work, often not really enjoying themselves, but when given the opportunity to do something they truly love doing they'll spend only a few hours at it and then return to everyday life wishing they had more time. With this mindset I've spend much of the last couple years trying to see how much whitewater can be fit into a day, week, year. If you love it, then do it! since first arriving in the North-west a year ago I'v speculated with friends on how many run one could possible get on the Little White Salmon river here in Washington in a single day. For perspective, the Little White may be one of the highest quality, action packed Class V whitewater runs in the world. Dozen of rapids literally come with out break as the river drops nearly a thousand feet over four miles ending at the Columbia River. With no hike in or hike out and a ten minute shuttle from put-in to takeout it seemed to me to be the ideal testing grounds for whitewater endurance. Just how much whitewater is possible to fit in to a single day? Plans started to come together a few days out; with six laps as a goal, good friends pledged to help out paddle a couple laps with me or run a shuttle to the top. I started to scribe out a schedule, how long would each lap take, who could meet me and when could they make it. As it all started to fall together the personal goal of six laps, began to give way to the realization that there was time in the day for a good few more than that; eight laps became my new goal.

Finally, on Sunday, may 16th I met Curt Joyce and Lauren Starcevich a 5 am; still dark out we headed to the river. Lauren dropped us off and headed to work. Curt caught the 2 dawn patrol runs and Andy Round met me for two more runs, and like that i was half way done with four laps in before 11:15. Feeling strong still, I was joined by Lance Rief and Jeff Clewell and got a ton of great encouragement from some of the other local paddlers and friends who were out for their regular Sunday paddle. Three runs later, now seven down, i realized i was enough ahead of my schedule that i could pack in an extra final run, a quick call to Andy who had spend his afternoon working and i had paddling partner for lap # 9. By this point i feel like i'm on fire, my mind was so tuned to the river and in the game that my body had no choice but to come along. Getting sore, but more fired up than ever I started Lap 9 and found what i was looking for. Call it a primal thresh hold, a place uninterrupted by distraction, a task at hand so practiced that it was accomplished with little thought. Lap 9 went by as the shadows got long and at 8:20 in the evening, I paddled up to the takeout. Fourteen hours of paddling the best whitewater on the planet, with so many of my best paddling friends will stand out as one of my greatest memories. I got exactly what i wanted, i tested my limits, and spent the entire day doing something i truly love. I could not have done it with out everyone who paddled with me, drove me to the top, clapped me on the back. Getting such good energy from so many people made the day possible, so thanks everyone, and go out and do something awesome all day long!

Curt and I at 6 am right before starting Lap 1 Photo: lauren Starcevich

Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge

2010-05-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

The Eddy Flower vertical challenge began May 15th and will go until June 15th. This is a whitewater oriented competition between teams and individuals to see who can paddle down the most vertical feet of river over the allotted 32 days. After a strong team finish last year and my 1st place individual showing of almost 34000 feet in last years contest, i have been excited about getting back at it again. We started off on Saturday with a 30 mile paddle from the foot of Mt Adam all the way to the Columbia River, this stretch covers almost all of the navigable whitewater along the White Salmon River. Starting at the foot of Washington's 12500 ft Mt. Adams with our team of four, and then paddling out together, 30 miles downstream into the massive Columbia River with an outstanding view or Oregon's Mt. Hood was reward enough for our efforts, not to mention the fantastic whitewater, elusive canyons and good companionship along the way.

If your interested in following the Eddy Flower Vertical challenge check out the hosting website at http://www.eddyflower.com/VerticalStandings.aspx. You can track our progress as a team, check our individual standings and if so moved, pledge donations to benefit the First Descents kayak camps. First Descents is a great program that uses whitewater kayak instruction to help young adults diagnosed and recovering from cancer begin the recovery process. Check out a great video about First Descents here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPnRYc5p1e0&eurl=http://www.firstdescents.org/cms/. Raising money for the First Descents camps is the other half of this Vertical challenge and a great way for you to participate too. This is truly a great program, we actually host several of their week long camps here in Washington at Wet Planet Whitewater. Donations can be pledged to First Descents through the Eddy Flower Website. Click this link for more information on how to donate: http://www.eddyflower.com/MakeDonation.aspx.

Time to migrate... back to the North-west

2010-05-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

Back in the North-west for nearly three weeks now and paddling nearly every day of it has been awesome, i almost haven't noticed that I've broken both my kayaks and my truck (all in three days). A few hours patching boats and a visit to the shop and things seem patched back together at least for the time being. My winter in North Carolina couldn't have been better, with great people and exceptional days on my favorite river there, it was hard to tear away, but i was welcomed back here in Washington by some of my favorite people to paddle with and after a five day drive i literally stepped out of my truck and into my kayak to get a run on the Green Truss section of the White Salmon river. It's great to be back!

Mt. Hood as seen from the White Salmon Valley, WA Photo: Jeff Clewell

Home Improvement

2010-01-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

Tree season has come and gone. Christmas and New Years we're fun and now its bathroom season. I'm spending a coule of extra weeks back in my hometown of baltimore helping my friend Nick gut his bathroom and put in a new one. Fun Fun. Actually, its a big job and has lead to a few head aches, but now a week in progress is being made. heres a few photos...

Just after tearing out the old toilet and shower

Sketchy old plumbing and an even skethchier floor support underneath

setting the first piece of the new floor down after running the new plumbing

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

2009-11-14T14:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-13T18:33:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-09T13:11:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

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

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.

Panama Paddling

2009-10-30T11:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a few photos from various paddling trips in Panama, one of my favorite paddling destinations. Between fall 2003 and fall 2008 i traveled to the Chiriqui province of Panama 5 times for the whitewater there. Two trips were spent video boating for commercial kayaking trips, learning the area and doing some exploration. Three more times just paddling with good friends in the fall, based in the town of Boquete and running the goods everyday.

photo: Mike Goglin

Above and below are all taken from the Upper Rio Los Valles. Since the 1st decent in 2004 (Mark Sanders, Rob Barham, John Miller, and myself) i only know of a total of 9 people that have ever gotten to run its awesome drops.

A 2 mile walk in, followed by a few hundred yards of exhausting machete work and roping boats up through the jungle leaves you gasping at the top of this monster (above), the 1st drop on the upper L.V. This one always freezes my blood, but it serves as an appropriate gateway to Panama's steepest run.

Photo: Mike Goglin

Above is one of the yet to run waterfalls, the second major portage on the U.L.V. not only holds great scenery but is also home to a very poisonous snake that decided hanging out right where we had to repel down was the best place to be. Look careful and you can see our rope. A none too pleasant part of this adventure was dangling from that rope, machete in hand, working out the details of our passage with Mr. Fer du lance (the snakey). it was some real indiana jones action for ya. beautiful spot though.

Photo: Mike Goglin

This is Mexico dropping one of my favorite drops anywhere. Named "Turnstile" cause once you run it, there is no going back, your in a walled gorge with a 35 footer as you only exit.

photo: Mike Goglin

Here's Turbo firing up some of your average steepness on the Upper Los Valles!

photo: me

Nick Pabst about to land a great drop on the Caldera River while i look on (above).

Photo: Mike Goglin