Sneak Peak: 1st Descent - Upper 8 miles of the North Fork Little Wind River

With the water petering out, the Winds were looking good. Our crew decided to explore the upper reaches of the North Fork of the Little Wind River near Lander Wyoming. The lower section of waterfalls was first run last summer by a group of legendary vert baggers. We thought upstream looked like a good opportunity. Here is a sneak peak. more to come. watch out for video in the near future.

How low is to low? Embudo in July....

Well, when you live at the takeout of the Embudo and it starts raining hard. The excitement starts to build. It has been bone dry down this way since June and everything has dried up good. I figured that If I could guide a raft down the Rio Grande Racecourse run at 250cfs, full of American sized tourists, then I sure as Keck could bounce a kayak down the Embudo at 50cfs. There were some big flash floods yesterday and the Embudo was raging, and I mean raging. So I woke up this morning and sauntered down my driveway for a look. Looked like a perfect mank flow of about 75cfs and the game was on. I called up my buddy Crow and we met up and fired the mank up. It was so manky that we ended up just doing the first canyon and then hiking out. Good times by all were had. While we were bashing our way down, I really was wishing that the Huckin Ducky mank master himself, Joe keck was around. He would have absolutely loved it. But on second thought, it probably was a wee tad to high for him. He probably would have swam in Long Rapid and I would have had to hike back in some other day and retrieve his kayak. You really need to be on it in these flows. Sorry Keck, gotta give ya a hard time now that you live in Texas. Way to rally down this year tons to run the stout. See ya this Spring, closest stuff to San Antonio :) Hope you enjoy the photos. Maybe with all this rain it will come up a lot more and we can mank it again,,,,Beers, Atom....



The night before our mank fest. Full bank to bank Embudo

Due to the rain, we had to hike in from the highway. Crow testing out the backpack.



The awesome putin tree



I wore a drysuit cause the weather felt like Washington. Too Hot!



Hatching Dragonfly, eating it's own husk..



Crow boogie water



Crow just above Long Rapid...



The start of Long Rapid



New tree in play towards the end of Long Rapid. Gonna suck at high water next year...Heads up...



Myself entering the Cheese...



Where is the normal boof?



Submerged in da Cheese....



Same line as high water



Keck would be proud...



Mank Cheese...



One of the 12 broken paddles we encountered on the run....All this from Spring 2010 carnage...



another storm approaches...



Crow at the bottom of the Cheese....



Beautiful creek....



Wondering how I just made it through the carnival mank...



Nice hike out...



Shit, now have to go back in for keck's kayak....



Crow hiking the small creek back to my house. Felt like Mexico....



Home sweet Home!


Thanks to Crow for coming off the couch and bashing rocks with me. I'm Loving the new Jackson Villain. handles the high water creeks as well as the super mank. Awesome kayak. Till next mank session. Beers, Atom...

Buena Vista and Salida Playboating Photos

Late July means low water on the Arkansas River, but playboating in Salida and Buena Vista is still great. Here are some playboating photos taken this past week at around 700 CFS. Photos by Mike Schroeder and Steve Bletsch.

Hucking great weekend!

All I can say is that im still stoked from last weekend.  Saturday Big South with Sarah and Ashley, and Sunday Crystal Gorge with Brian Burger, Chris Menges, Sean Lee, Andy Blakesly, and Tom Janney.  

Here are some highlight photos!

Sarah running safety at double trouble.  Photo: Ashley Watts

Dan dropping in on Double Trouble. Photo: Ashley Watts

Super good feeling when you land it. Photo: Ashley Watts

Sunday I got to go do Crystal Gorge! Stoked!

Crystal!

 If your name is Danny something and you recognise this boat we found it; its right after the put in for the upper gorge on river right.  It it destroyed but you need to go get your stuff.  Photo: Dan Piano

Brian Burger in one of the typical rapids before you drop into the inner.  Photo: Dan Piano

Chris Menges looks on as Burger sends another super fun boof! Photo: Dan Piano

Sean Lee probing.  Photo: Dan Piano

Dan trying out the left line on Pine Tree. Photo: Brian Burger

Tom Janey post Pine Tree.  Photo: Dan Piano

Scouting Zute from the river right side looking back up the gorge. Photo: Dan Piano

River right scout on Zute looking into the inner. Photo: Dan Piano

We wanted some more beta so we rallied over to river right and scouted.  Check out the tunnel!  Photo: Dan Piano

Sean Lee probing Zute leading the charge into the depths of the Inner Crystal Gorge.  Photo: Dan Piano

Andy firing.  Photo: Dan Piano

Chris dropping Zute!  Photo: Dan Piano

Burger likes Zute!  Photo: Dan Piano

Sean Lee setting up to scout on river right.  Photo: Dan Piano

Blakeslee charging! Photo: Dan Piano

Tom Janey styling.  Photo: Dan Piano

Horizon line. Photo: Dan Piano

Burger boofing with the wall.  Photo: Dan Piano

Chris Menges showing the money line with style.  Photo: Dan Piano

Burger routting into the bottom set.  Photo: Dan Piano

Tom scouting Millers falls.  What you see here is pretty much the whole take out eddy.  Photo: Dan Piano

Top of Millers. Photo: Dan Piano