Me running last drop of Thor's Playroom, Opal Creek, OR
It’s official. I am in love with HoodRiver. No doubt about it. Jeff and I spent a fabulous 3 weeks in Oregon in May, 2/3 of it in The Hood. May is an amazing month in the Pacific Northwest. We had warm sunny weather for most of our trip (barely a cloud in the sky for the last 2 weeks) but still plenty of water. With so much to do out there we split our time between boating, hiking, caving, beach combing, and generally enjoying the wonders of the region. After a couple of days of paddling and hiking the Columbia Gorge we headed out to the Oregon Coast and made our way down into California to see the Redwoods. From there we headed back north stopping at Crater Lake.
Paddling Highlights:
I didn’t do much difficult paddling on this trip. Not having paddled much this year do to a broken foot I didn’t feel in shape for any epic adventures. Nonetheless I got on some old favorites and a few new runs as well:
Upper East Fork, HoodRiver: With good water this year, the East Fork was a wild, adrenaline packed ride. Some have likened it to a miniature version of the North Fork Payette. Not having run it I’ll have to take their word for it. Sweet run (despite some hideous wood).
Me on the Upper East Fork, Hood River
West Fork, HoodRiver: Great fun with good water!
HoodRiver, Dee to Tucker: This run was surprisingly more exciting than I expected! Besides, what’s better than having a pie store at the takeout? The Huckleberry Peach pie was our favorite!
Joe and Jeff on the Hood
Opal Creek: The level was low but the scenery was spectacular and still had some fun rapids. Also the clearest water I’ve ever seen!
Joe with Thor's Hammer
Eddy checking out Thor's Playroom
Joe running "Big Fluffy"
Maggie, Joe, and Rachel hiking in
Wind River:Awesome run, for us East coasters: reminds me of a combination of the Upper Gauley and Upper Yough
Middle White Salmon: It was too high to run the Farmlands or the Truss this year unfortunately but that meant there was good water in the Middle. Awesome relaxing run, full of big fun waves.
Unfortunately not many boating photos from this trip. Most of the runs were fast and continuous with not much time to stop.
Me running bottom of Maytag
Hiking Highlights:
HoodRiverMountain: This was our favorite hike. Just 10 minutes outside of town, Hood River Mtn provides some of the most spectacular views with very little effort. We did this one about four times. An easy 30 minute hike brings you out to a gorgeous meadow full of lupine, balsamroot (a small sunflower like plant) and Indian paintbrush. The Wildflowers were just spectacular. From here you also get amazing views of Mt.Hood, Mt.Adams and on a clear day Mt.St. Helens and even Mt. Rainier in the distance.
Me amongst the wildflowers on Hood River Mountain
DogMountain: This is another fabulous hike on the Washington side. Seven miles round trip once again provided fields of spectacular wildflowers, views of the Columbia River, Mt.Hood, Mt.Adams and Mt.St. Helens. I felt a little like I should have had a dog along, most people on this hike did!
Gorge view from Dog Mountain
ApeCave:ApeCave lies at the base of Mt.St. Helens and is the longest lave cave in the Western Hemisphere. The longer chamber is approximately 1.4 miles long and the hike requires some scrambling over boulders, scaling an 8 foot wall. No lighting is available in the cave so you have to carry your own. Temperatures are in the 40s and the above ground trail is still packed with snow.
Eagle Creek: A fantastic hike that takes you past the fabled Metlako and PunchbowlFalls as well as TunnelFalls.
Me at Punchbowl Falls, Eagle Creek
Misc. Gorge Hikes: Louterell Falls, Multnomah Falls, Horsetail and PonytailFalls.
Redwoods Hikes: We did a few short hikes in the Redwoods parks. Waking thru the old growth forests was just amazing. The trees tower overhead, seeming to have to end as they reach up to the sky.
Me with some little trees
Oregon Coastal Hikes: We did several great hikes along the OregonCoast. CapePerpetua had some fantastic old growth forest hikes, the Oregon Dunes had beautiful white sands, and no coastal trip could be complete without plenty of Tide Pool fun!
RougeRiver: On our way to Crater Lake we stopped to check out the NaturalBridge on the Rouge and the Rouge Gorge. The NaturalBridge is actually a lava tube thru which the river flows. At low flows the whole river disappears underground. We arrived to find quite high flow with a good portion of the water flowing over the top of the tube. The massive outflow of the lava cave was impressive.
Crater Lake: Even in mid May Crater Lake is packed with snow. We arrived to find only the first mile of the Rim Drive open. Nonetheless it afforded a spectacular view of WizardIsland, the Lake, and its deep blue waters.
Crater Lake
check out the full galleries with tons of great moments from the trip:
Impacts and Remediation Methods of Acid Mine Drainage
AMD in Red Mountain Creek, CO
At some point, most paddlers have come across one of the greatest threats to our nation's streams: Acid Mine Drainage. Paddling on many of West Virginia's creeks and rivers the effects become quite evident. The Cheat River watershed is especially affected.Acid Mine Drainage is a mixture of sulfuric acid, ferric compounds, and other heavy metals. It degrades water quality tremendously, posing severe threats to aquatic life, surrounding ecosystems, and humans. It results from the oxidation of pyrite during the mining process. I did a research paper on AMD for one of my first Environmental Management classes. The abstract is below followed by a link to the full text of the paper for those interested in learning more about this devastating phenomenon. A synopsis of AMD in the Cheat watershed follows.
ABSTRACT: One of the most significant land management issues facing the U.S today deals with hundreds of years of abandoned mines. Prospecting for coal, gold, silver, nickel, and other precious metals has left many regions of the nation literally littered with abandoned mines. These sites that once held the riches of a thriving nation now leave behind a legacy of destruction. Thousands of miles of streams are polluted with acidic mine waters that drain from these mines, bringing with them high levels of heavy metals and acids. These substances are highly toxic to aquatic life leaving many streams entirely devoid of life. Surrounding ecosystems are thus also highly affected; acid mine waters can leave behind tree-less, lifeless moonscapes. The ecological and public health impacts of acid mine drainage and its affect on recreational activities are discussed here. An overview of historic mining practices, legislation, and remediation methods are also studied. Successful remediation projects on key river reaches are examined.
For my birthday Craig put this great video together for me. Seeing as how all i'll be doing for the next couple of weeks (I broke a bone in my foot) is watching it rather than actually paddling, i thought ya'll may as well too! Enjoy.
In September Jeff and I headed out to Durango to visit family and take in the amazing sights of Colorado in the fall. While this was not a paddling trip, it did afford some spectacular scenery in one of Colorado's premier paddling destinations. The aspens were just turning their brilliant yellow when we arrived. We spent the first day driving out from Albequerque, NM and taking the scenic route through Santa Fe and Pagosa Springs. On our first day we drove up the San Juan Skyway through the towns of Silverton and Ouray on our way to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The weather was beautiful and we had a fantastic time taking in the sights. The next day we played tourists and climbed aboard the Durango & Sliverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The train winds its way up the Animas River and though we got some cold rainy weather the ride was still quite beatiful. Jeff's brother David and his wife Carolyn picked us up in Silverton and we continued on through Telluride.
The rest of our time was spent hiking Durango, including another trip up Vallecito Creek and enjoying the scene in Durango. On the way back to the airport we stopped to see Aztec Ruins National Monument and Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico. See the full gallery here.
Red Mountain
Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Train heads into the San Juan National Forest
The train along the Animas River
The mighty Animas (low water)
Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Carolyn on the Telluride gondola
Telluride, CO
Ouray, CO
Critter!!
Silverton, CO
Hiking up Vallecito
At the rim of the creek.
This is about the most we saw of the creek, at the takeout.
Admiring pretty scenery from the shelter of the Jeep.
Happy New Year all! I thought i'd start off 2009 by quickly reminiscing on 2008, boy what a great year! Here's a quick recap of what I did this past year, some favorite moments, and associated trips (click on the photos) by season.
This past fall i started grad school: MS in Environmental Management. Yes i am hoping to save the world for a change of career pace! So expect to see some posts on topics such as Acid Mine Drainage in the near future. I'm definitely looking forward to what 2009 will bring. So far in the mix: Another trip to Oregon coming up in May.
Winter: Icy days on the Upper Yough (photo: Jeff Macklin)
Spring: Scouting on Canyon Creek, WA; Part of a great Pacific Northwest Trip
Boofing with Pinky on Little Antietam Creek (photo: Jeff Smith)
Summer: Boofing off Grace Under Pressure during the Great Falls Race (photo: Jeff Smith)
Hiking the Zion Narrows as part of a great Southwest adventure (photo: Jeff Smith)
Fall: Launching off Pummel (with cat ears) for Halloween. (photo: Craig Campbell)
Having used up all my time off on various trips throughout the year i've been staying closer to home. Finished off the year with some trips on Big Sandy Creek and had the pleasure of leading Craig down on his first LBS trip (i think he had some better lines than me!).
In other NEWS, Sunny has asked me to take over as Team Manager for the Potomac Paddlesports Team. We've just added some great new members and i'm very excited to get things going for the 2009 season. Check out the Team Blog @ http://potomacpaddlesportsteam.blogspot.com and look for the cool things we'll be doing in the upcoming months!
Well it took some time but i finally started running the Falls more again. Chris came "home" all the way from Colorado and needed a guide, and i needed someone to motivate me. We got some great runs in on the MD and VA lines... and yes those are cat ears! Happy Halloween!
Chris on Pummel
Hiking up for another lap on Pummel
Scouting U-Hole
Middle line on U-Hole
Maggie on Pummel
Now this is really the scary part, paddling the most unstable boat... ever!!
Sweet boof off first drop of S-Turn
Spout
Chris and Maggie
(all photos by Craig Campbell)
Also check out the great posts Chris put up on the Pyranha and CKS blogs:
After getting a taste of Colorado boating and just how generally gorgeous it is there in the summer, I was excited to head back again this year. Though I’d intended to only go out for a quick week long trip, it quickly turned into a much longer adventure once Jeff and I started planning everything we each wanted to do. I wanted to head to the mountains, he wanted to see the desert.
“You’ve turned my boating trip into a desert trip!” I joked. “You turned my desert trip into a boating trip” was the response. Of course it turned into a wonderful compromise of both. We packed up the car and headed west on Friday of Memorial Day weekend for an awesome three week adventure.
Great Sand Dunes
We arrived at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, just west of Colorado Springs, mid day on Saturday. The dunes are the largest in North America, rising up to 800 feet tall. I is basically the country’s largest sand box! Despite rather windy conditions we had a great time hiking up the steep sand. The wind was so bad that despite not having rolled up my cotton jeans high enough while crossing the creek and getting them quite wet... I was completely dry by the time we reached the top. At moments it felt a bit like being sand blasted but the scenery was more than worthwhile.
We made our way to Durango driving through Wolf Creek pass. Jeff insisted that a trip through Wolf Creek was not complete without getting snowed on... and of course it did. We were surprised to see just how much snow was at the top and the fresh snow on the trees. Though quite scenic we both agreed that Wolf Creek itself was mankier than either of us cared to take on so we continued on toward Durango stopping in Pagosa Springs. We took a few minutes to check out the San Juan River and the hot springs.
Upon arrival in Durango we started off by checking out Mesa Verde NP just outside of town. Jeff’s brother David and his wife Carolyn proved to be excellent hosts, taking us on a great tour of the ancient ruins.
After getting settled somewhat it was time to get some boating in. We chose the Lower Piedra as our first run, a lovely class III/IV run in a gorgeous deep gorge. David and Carolyn kindly ran shuttle for us. Afterwards we drove up the Valecito Creek.... just to look. The creek flows through such narrow walls and is so deep that we weren’t actually able to see any of it as the trail lay far above. Nonetheless it was a beautiful hike.
The next day I decided to check out the local playpark in town on the Lower Animas. I demoed a playboat from the local shop and floated down. Though surprisingly scenic for a play run, it lacked more than a few easy rapids and my dislike for playboating was once again reconfirmed. But a nice sunny day made for a nice float.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out in town. Durango is definitely a super cool place with lots to do and see. We’re both looking forward to heading back for another visit in September.
David and Carolyn's kitty: Quatt
Glen Canyon
Though we were having a blast in Durango it was time to head on. First stop: North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Aside from our drive out from the east coast, this was the longest time spent in the car. We were both surprised to find it incredibly interesting. Along the way we saw amazing scenery and stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam (the monstrosity that dewaters the Grand Canyon).
Grand Canyon
We spent that evening and part of the next day checking out the breath taking overlooks and doing some light hiking down into the canyon. Words cannot describe and photos cannot convey the true beauty of the Grand Canyon. You just have to go and see it for yourself.
Snow in Arizona, in June. Who would have thunk it?
Zion
Next we headed to what would be one of the main highlights for me, Zion National Park. The geology, animal and plant life in Zion’s canyon is amazing. The variety here is just incredible. We started off with an eight mile round trip hike to Observation Point at the rim of the canyon (the panorama at the top is the view from here). The scenery along the way, animals and plant life were wonderful. The next day we donned our drysuits and did the best hike I think I’ve ever done... into the heart of the Zion Narrows.
The North Fork of the Virgin River carves its way through the soft sandstone of Zion, forming a deep and narrow canyon. In the Narrows the walls are scarcely 20 feet apart in places and 1500 feet high. The sights are simply stunning. We spent most of the day making our way up the river. At flows above 140 cfs you are allowed to paddle it, but unfortunately it was only in the 80’s. Just the same, the hike was fantastic. You spend about half the time wading through very cold water and it amazed me to see so many people doing it in shorts. I was quite happy to have my drysuit on as the water was usually above my knees and several times came up above my waist. Well worth the time for sure!
From there we headed on to Bryce Canyon which provided still more spectacular scenery and photos.
Jeff makes friends with the locals
Sunset
My tree throne
Capital Reef
Capital Reef was next on our way to Moab and we spent some time here admiring the scenery. It is kind of a combination of Zion and Bryce geologically, making for some amazing sights. This was probably the most visually stunning of the parks to me. The geology was fantastic and though we only spent a short time there it certainly made an impact. We checked out some Indian petroglyphs along the Freemont River. See more photos
We arrived in Moab to 90+ degree heat. The harsh dessert sun was simply unbearable mid day so we spent our time hanging out in town and decided that since we’d only have a few hours in the mornings and evenings to go hiking that we should spend the hot parts of the day paddling. The Colorado River flows through Moab and it was running at about 38,000 cfs. Mostly fast moving flatwater with a few class II-III rapids it is more than worth the trip. We stopped in at the local kayak shop and asked around for beta. They were kind enough to provide us with a map of the river and suggested best put in / take out options. We chose a five mile section just on the boundary with Arches NP called the Lower Fisher Towers section.
The next day we were surprised to find that the temperature had dropped into the 50’s and it was very overcast and threatening to rain. Since the lighting in the park would be very uninteresting without some sunlight, we chose to save this for later. Jeff quickly biked the shuttle for us and we put on the might Colorado River. Okay so it’s not the Grand Canyon. But it was wonderful anyway and we got to combine the two main objectives of our trip: boating IN the desert! Who could ask for anything more?
From the put in you see several tall red mesas and various other rock formations. The first rapid was a legitimate class III wave train followed by some smaller rapids. The water moved so fast that the five miles took us only about an hour. We took some time to explore a wash that was backed up by the river and had fun playing in the whirlpools near the takeout. That evening we were able to catch a nice sunset at Balanced Rock in Arches NP.
The next day we were once again greeted by rainy (this time pouring rain) weather and chose to spend the morning in town. We also drove around some looking at more petroglyphs. Thankfully though the sun finally came out and we were able to do a fantastic hike through the park including catching Delicate Arch during a beautiful sunset.
Sunset at Delicate Arch
Fire in the sky
The biggest window i've ever seen
another window
Hanging out at camp
Delicate Arch thru the window, Photo: Jeff Smith
After the sun set the lighting was spectacular. These are actual colors!
Double-O Arch .
Our awesome campsite .
Cute mini arch in the back of our campsite
No shortage of pretty out here
Turret Arch at sunrise
Vail
Finally it was time to say goodbye to the desert and head back to Colorado. Our first stop was Vail where we met up with Ryan who was hanging out at the Teva booth giving out ear exams. We paddled Dowd chute the first day and checked out some of the Teva Mountain Games events. Josh drove out from Denver to join us for a Gore Creek run.
After a few days in the Vail / Silverthorne area Ryan joined us for a trip down to the Arkansas valley. We set up our campsite at the takeout of Clear Creek (which has some of the most incredible free camping I’ve ever seen). I ended up getting in three laps on Clear Creek, the Numbers and we did a great run on the Brown’s Canyon section of the Arkansas. Clear Creek is a great class V- run. Short but very sweet it flows through a gorgeous valley surrounded by 14ers. Brown’s and the Numbers were both great big water runs. We also spent some time doing great hikes, making smores, and watching carnage at the Pine Creek Boater X (check out some shots of the start).
Getting ready for some high altitude kayak sledding
Jeff cooks a mean breakfast
Old mining town
The most perfect beaver dam
... and the most perfect beaver lodge
Maggie on Clear Creek
First Gorge, Clear Creek
Maggie on Clear Creek
Lake Creek
I really don't want to run anything called Paralyzer
What does it take to live in THIS house?
Brown's Canyon
Staying at Clear Creek provided some of the most diverse scenery we’d seen in any one are on our trip. Our campsite was at approximately 9500 feet, with several 14ers surrounding the valley. Jeff and I did a hike up to about 11k feet and though we weren’t quite able to get above the tree line we got some amazing views. The lush green aspens and tall pines were amazing. We spent some time exploring the old mining towns just up the road. In great contrast, heading back into town and to the Arkansas was very much like being in the dessert again. It was much more arid here and the vegetation changed drastically. Quite amazing!
After a few wonderful days out trip was starting to come to an end. I met up with Hector and Tyler who’d just arrived for a run on the Numbers and then we made our way to Denver. Josh and Sylvia made our last evening in Colorado quite pleasant as we made the long trek back east. We arrived home with many wonderful memories, thousands of great photos, and numerous plans for future trips.
Many of you have been wondering where I've been this summer. No i haven't spent every day at the Falls like last summer. Between various trips, injuries, school, climbing (hey i can do 5.11s now!) and a general lack of motivation I have been out paddling less. But that doesn't mean i haven't made it out to the Potomac or had a blast!
Along with a few requisite Falls runs and some attaining, what would the summer be without some general tom-foolery? When i couldn't paddle too well due to some injuries i decided it was time to break out my fins and boogie board again. Craig, Sarah, Jeff, and I had a great time negotiating the treacherous Mather Gorge on our bargain store craft! Craig even came up with the perfect solution to rafting.
Sarah headed home to the UK this week but not before showing us just how it's done on the Fishladder Boof. It was wonderful having her around this summer. I think we all made some great friends this summer and hope to meet up again soon.
Craig in his alligator raft
Craig let's the chicks do all the work
I can make mine go higher!
Sarah fires up the boof, showing us how
Jeff and Craig, wishing the flatwater would move just a little faster
The alligator raft is hard to roll. But at least it is stable... no issue,
Me running last drop of Thor's Playroom, Opal Creek, OR
Joe with Thor's Hammer
Eddy checking out Thor's Playroom
