Spring is Nature's Way Of Saying: Let's Paddle. So we do.

Well spring time hit at quite a perfect time, I was getting very sick of the cold weather when all that was running was the glenwood play wave. I spent my days working, longing for the snow to melt and the rivers to flow, and occasionally getting out to the play park to brush the dust off my shoulders from too much time spent in ski clothing. Here is an example of a typical day in early spring for me.

Lazy Tuesday With Fred Norquist from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

As spring approached, we saw that escalante was in. Jake and I made a quick hit and run at that one day, this is a super fun early season creek to brush off the dust from winter.

Jake and I in the lower gorge of scandalante.
Me runnin the falls.
Jake running the falls as well.

And then it happened: God came out and said "let there be water"!!! And there was water. We started running Barrel Springs when it got to a decent level. Here are a few photos from our daily barrel runs. This was a good warm-up, barrel is a really fun, long class 4-5 rapid that keeps you on your toes.


Jake and I in life after death at 5,000.
Barrel at a nice level of 5,000.

Jake and I doing our thang.

We ran barrel quite a bit, maybe 5-6 times. Here is a little helmet cam video of it at 4,000cfs.

Barrel Springs/Shoshone 4000cfs from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

We checked the CO flows to see that Vallecito and Pandora's box were in. Jake and I set out on a 2 day shit running mission in durango.


The crew on the hike into Pandoras box, safely passing the no trespassing signs without getting shot.
Looking into the gorge, scary stuff.

Jake, Ben and Nate at the Put-in.
We were stoked to successfully run Pandoras.

We also ran Vallecito three times when we were there, but were having way too much fun to take pictures.

Then one night, God came to us and said "go to california and get some classic california granite". So we did. Jake and I left carbondale the day the Reno competition was over, and met up with Demshitz in reno. We then went on a tour of some really good rivers in Cali.

First stop was Kimshew.

The crew at the put-in about to go run the brown.
Chris Korbulic dropping into Kimshew falls with me, fusilli, and shannon looking on.
Fusilli boofed it!
Jared ran triple drop.... and had a marginal line.

So did Chris with the most savage piton that I have ever seen.


Jared on Frenchman's curve, on of the best rapids on the run.

Jared boofing a hole in the lower section.

Jeremy Laucks making it look easy.

We then drove to the South Branch of the Middle Feather, one of the most quality creeks in the world probably.


We put on with a stout group, making it a super fun, long day on the river.
Fusilli after one of the top rapids.
Jared on one of the best boofs in the world.
Me and Jared running a fun little in-between rapid.
The crew kickin it at lunch time, Demshitz like to get tan.

Fusilli on a very cool rapid.
Shannon Carrol stoked to be on waterfall paradise.
Jared running a sweet 20 footer.
The lip of the portage. This creek is super steep.
This is my favorite rapid on the run, a sweet double drop.

This was one of my favorite runs I have ever done, the cleanest waterfalls possibly in the world.

Here is a cool little video that I put together from another great day in california.

South Branch of the Feather Creekin from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

We then met up with Evan Garcia, Michael Shields, and Max Blackburn and cruised to the upper south yuba. We ran a super fun section, with one of the most fun rapids that i have ever run at the end, East Meets West.

Here is Michael Shields running east meets west. Check out his blog http://fromthedirt.blogspot.com


Evan cookin up some good ol' dirt taters.

We then Headed to the Clavey river for a fun overnighter. This was my first class 5 overnighter, so it was really cool to be able to paddle to your camp, sleep and wake up to an awesome day on the river.

Our sweet campsite.
A fleet of jefe's.
Jake, Miguel, Evan, Max, and Charlie kickin it at camp after eating som delicious cheddar wursts.
The rapid right next to our campsite, Charlie Center showing us how it is done.
I thought this was a cool shot of him resurfacing.

We portaged some super stout drops.
This river had a really cool style of rapids, some boulder garden, and some granite holes. EG filmin.
Max boofing a crazy rapid.
EG likes brown.
Eg runnin the brown.
Charlie lovin the clavey.
Charlie in one of the last sweet rapids.
Michael Shields doing what he does best: stouts.
Charlie sneaking a gnarly little rapid.
Evan decided to run it. He pitoned, but was lucky not to get beat down by a backed up hole.


I had a bit of a rough day after a gnarly beatdown that lead to a swim. Drink your booties, apeeze the river gods. Your next swim is just around the corner.

The past couple months have been filled with great times on the river. I cant wait for what is to come.
Go kayaking. Its incredibly fun.

For more thorough descriptions on these rivers, check out my blog at http://rfkayakers.blogspot.com
or evan's blog
http://egcreekin.blogspot.com
or miguel's blog
http://fromthedirt.blogspot.com

If you havent heard, the Demshitz movie is for sale now at http://www.demshitz.com. Get your copy today! possibly the best kayak video ever.....ever