Little White and the Colorado Fall Blues

Given the exceptionally dry weather in Colorado this fall and little to no great kayaking opportunities, here is to thinking about the next kayaking trip.  Little White Salmon, March 2012 with Ben Luck and Louis Geltman. Lots of water, lots of wood, lots of sunshine and a whole lot of good paddling.

Nathan & Matthew Klema

The Pelechuco: A Big Bowl Of Via

           I have learned over the years that when you go on kayaking trips by yourself you can never be too sure what to expect.  I first met Cooper Lambla in Cusco Peru following a week of rolling solo through the heart of the Peruvian Andes.  We barely knew each other for thirty minutes and we already had plans to spend the next month exploring the largely untapped rivers of Bolivia.  Outside the country any imformation was impossible to find so it wasn`t untill we arrived at the Instituto Geographico Militar in La Paz that we realized how big of an undertaking it would be.  With difficult access it quickly become apparent that most boating would have to be done from close to the source all the way untill it reached the low foothills of the Amazon Basin.  We decided to warm up on the already know Unduavi river figuring a roadside run would help us know the character of the rivers without being too commited.  Brimming with excitement, and unsure of past put-ins we got off of the bus as soon as the river looked remotely boatable at around 10,000 feet.  The locals shook their heads in something between confusion and amusement as we dragged our boats optimistically towards the steep, rocky, mountain creek.  The first day consisted of mostly portaging with ultra-steep stacked class V and occasional commiting slot canyons.  It wasn`t untill the second day that we were finally rewarded with several miles of quality boofs and gorgeous canyons with the cascading waterfalls typical of the northern Andes.

    

Cooper Lambla near the beginning of the good stuff on day two

Cooper probing a slot on the `Duavi

             Inspired by what we found we decided it was time for a mission, and a big one at that.  The Pelechuco river is one of the northern most drainages of Bolivia`s Cordillera Real, and a principle tributary of the Tuichi; a river renowned for it`s thriving jungle ecosystem as it flows through the remote Madidi National Park.  In the early dawn hours we borded the ten hour bus from La Paz to the town of Pelechuco.  The drive itself was spectacular, passing through fields of grazing Alpaca on the high alpine tundra with glacier capped peaks in the distance. 

The headwaters of the Pelechuco from the road

          Upon first arriving in Pelechuco most of the locals thought we were nuts, but eventually several became excited and offered us their help and advice.  We learned where we could expect to find fishing trails, how far tributaries were, the names of people who could help us in potential take out towns, and we were even given a ride in a 4x4 several miles down river. 

Cooper and I with Juan (a folk musician and driver) and Reynaldo Vasques (Hotel

owner, horsepacker, and most simply stated - the man)

        The river started with a several hour portage.  That was followed by about a half hour of boating and then a several hour portage on the other side of the river.  The jungle was quickly getting denser and the river showed no signs of mellowing.  Only a good double boof kept moral high as we ate tuna with ketchup and mayo in a small, buggy camp.

Cooper at camp one

On day two we ran almost everything but the gradient was unrelenting, with many small must make eddies above horizon lines as the river dropped from the Andes in one continuous rapid.  At lunch we realized we hadn`t made it as far as we thought and were in fact barely on the map.  Shortly after lunch a 14 inch crack propegated in the bottom of my boat and we had to camp early for repairs.  Still moral remained high.  Realizing the size of the undertaking we were on the water early the next day and around noon we finally reached the point where the gradient mellowed (slightly) and we were able run several kilometers of whitewater without scouting. 

Coop linking it up on day three.  It was still pretty steep!

           Just after lunch on day three we finally got what we came for.  The gradient picked up again, but this time - instead of scary steep boulder gardens - we found ourselves in a tight-walled bedrock canyon that we named the Babylon Gorge. 

Myself spreading my wings on Boof To Babylon

           Below the canyon the river finally lost some of its angst and we were happy to finally relax while we paddled several miles of class 3/4 in spectacular canyons with pristine jungle crowning the rims.   We took out in the first town we saw and were immediately surrounded my the locals, curious to know where we had come from.  By pure chance there was one car in the town that was getting ready to make a trip to the outside world.  The drive to the pavement took about seven hours and was on a one lane dirt road with a precipitous drop to one side and board bridges spanning gaps in the road.  After the driver fell asleep at the weel Cooper drove the vintage land cruiser to safety much to the amusement of the Bolivians riding with me in the truck bed.  After the Pelechuco we spend two more weeks in Bolivia and ran three more rivers.  Unfortunately both Cooper and I had camera mishaps so seen here are the only surviving pictures; so enjoy them.

    A beautiful little river we stumbled upon.  We still don't know its name.

A Typical Bolivian shuttle.

CO Highwater Recap Part 1: Clear Creek

As anticipated, the huge snowfall of last winter (La Niña I…) led to highwater flows for a majority of this kayak season in Colorado. Especially for the rivers and creeks of northern Colorado and the Front Range.

One of the highlights of the season for me was enjoying our local mini-Payette; that is, Clear Creek. The river ran at over 1000 cfs for more than a month – no rocks in sight!

The afterwork classic run, Black Rock, gained a big-water feel and was not to be missed. I will let these great photos capturing a late evening Black Rock rally at near-peak flow tell the story (photo credits: Justin Merritt):

Lower Narrows in early July:

Rigor Mortis (aka rigo):


Pitted.


A successful highwater blue angel run through rigo is too good not to celebrate:

Here is a video edit to give some perspective from on the water:



With round two of La Niña (Spanish for “the Niña”) appearing to be on tap for this winter, I can only hope more of this is in store for next year. In the mean time, I am looking forward to some fall paddling in the creekin' heartland—the Southeast—with the Huckin Duckie and company.

-Alex

A Tale of Three Ropes

So, it's that time again to talk about ropes in the river. Seems like this discussion comes up every year, but it's a good one to have. Here we go:

The Tale of Rope #1.

Rope #1 has one serious problem. It's too short. The new ropes that everyone is carrying in their PFDs are awesome......AS BACK-UP ROPES! They are generally around 40 feet and simply too short for many uses. Always carry a full size - minimum 80 feet - throw bag in your boat! When you get out of your boat for any reason, but especially scouting, always take your full size rope. This is as simple as river safety gets. Don't boat with people who can't figure it out. You never know who will run the rapid first or maybe someone from another group will drop in, get pounded and need a rope.

To illustrate my point about rope #1, here is a picture of me running 57 Chevy on Escalante Creek. In the shot you can see Kyle Hagadorn digging out of the pothole on river right.

(Photo: Lori Merritt)

Later that day we watched in horror as a paddler dropped into the pothole and swam. We were gorged out below and couldn't get back upstream to help from the bank. The paddler's buddy threw rope #1 at his recirculating friend and guess what? The rope didn't reach. You can tell from this photo that it is not a long distance throw across Escalante creek. But it's longer than a chest throw bag. Thankfully, the swimmer was not being recirculated too bad, was able to stabilize himself in the pocket and then swim on his own back to shore above a class V killer rapid. No thanks to his paddling buddy.

In short, definitely carry a PFD throw bag. I've swam and then needed to rope my buddy out of the same hole with my PFD throw bag. I've swam and then needed my chest bag to pull my boat off a rock. However, you also always need a full length rope in your boat and in your hand on scouts. I've personally witnessed a long rope save a life, where the swimmer definitely couldn't be reached with a short rope.

The Tale of Rope #2.

Rope #2 is plenty long enough and was on hand while scouting/setting safety. The problem with rope #2 is that it was thrown at the wrong time. In this case, three kayakers had come cleanly through Rigor Mortis on Clear Creek and were immediately below the hole. The fourth boater came through and swam. All three remaining kayakers peeled out and were within reach of the swimmer from the instant he swam. At this point, rope #2 was thrown at the swimmer without any eye contact between the swimmer and thrower. Rope #2 landed well within reach of the swimmer, but right behind his head - he never saw it. Now rope #2 was draped across the river, nearly ensnaring the three kayakers. Have you ever tried paddling with a rope draped across your paddle? It's nearly impossible as the snare becomes worse and worse. Rope #2 definitely could have caused another swim and possibly an entrapment in this scenario.

A Shot of Rigor on a better day with higher flow

There are a bunch of lessons from rope #2. First, always make sure to get eye contact with the swimmer before throwing a rope. I will never throw a rope to a person who is not looking directly at me. They will miss the rope and you will have missed your shot at a save. Second, if rope #2 had entangled someone, it is essential that everyone has a knife accessible while underwater. Not in a pocket, not binered to something, but removable underwater. I know these accessible knives fall out and occasionally you loose them - call it the price of boating and just buy a new one every few years. Third, never throw a rope into other paddlers. Kayakers in the water are frequently the best option for swimmer safety - let them do their job. In short, be very conservative about throwing ropes. Just because you have one in hand does not make it the best option and frequently it is not.

The Tale of Rope #3.

The Mank Crew rallied up to the Poudre and set safety at Whiteline. It was running a solid medium 2.5 feet. We scouted Whiteline extensively and noticed a little spray coming out of one of the entrance holes. As my homie dropped in, he pitoned the hell out of that little spray. I also didn't realize how solid the rock was right behind the spray and thought we'd go right over it. Wrong. Homie surfed the first hole, which fed out river right. Then he dropped over the next hole with no speed. This hole is bad at that level. He cartwheeled for awhile, but lost energy and swam. Thankfully, Ben was setting safety at that hole with rope #3 because just downstream 20 some odd feet is a powerful 8 foot waterfall. After homie body recirculated for two rounds in the hole, he popped up on the river right wall headed for the waterfall. The entire time homie was swimming in the hole, Ben could see his helmet and kept yelling to get his attention. Ben didn't just throw rope #3 into the hole with the swimmer. Ben kept cool, waited and threw the rope after the swimmer came out of the hole and looked up at him. Rope #3 was long enough, timed right and a perfect throw. The strength of the current almost pulled Ben into the river and almost ripped the swimmer off the rope and into the falls, but both barely held on as the swimmer pendulum into the eddy.

Look closely and you can see rope #3 coming for the swimmer in the pic below.

(Photo: Joel Bakken)

I had the huge advantage of a second scout after the swim and got to boof the living daylights out of it. Thanks to Kevin - I do think Lefty is the way to stroke it!

Photo: Joel Bakken)

So, carry a long rope, throw it judiciously when in contact with the swimmer, have a knife handy and be prepared to take a big pull into the river when you catch someone on line. Safe lines out there and have a great season everyone!