Louise Urwin BC Update

BC Domination...

After the disapointment of not making it to California this year, we're making up for it by getting our creeking fix in BC. Tyler, Blake & I, loaded the car with boats, replacing the standard roof racks with the extra wide 2x4 special and with the back wheels almost completely in the guards of our trusty new wagon, hit the road.

From Ottawa, we made it as far as Toronto before our first stop...Colin & Ashleys wedding. We poshed it up (well as much as a car load of skid kayakers could) and enjoyed the hilarious (& perhaps a little tipsy?) priest and garden Canapes (that's posh talk for really good fancy food) before the newlyweds left us in their dust...beautiful wedding 'congratulations' guys :)

Tyler, LU & Blake poshed up for Colin & Ashleys wedding (for you mum:)


The next leg of our journey took us 40hrs across the country, through the states (with only minor immigration hold ups) before we got near Invermere, BC and our first waterfall stop, Lunderbeck...so excited...and it was too low...doh!

Lunderbeck Falls - a bit on the low side :(

A little disapointed, we arrived in Invramere and of all things got our teeth cleaned by Blake's sister.....so we're on a boating trip and so far we've been to a wedding, drove a lot, got our teeth cleaned and haven't boated....next stop Golden.....Paddle time!!!

After a slow start on the boating front, it's been game on since, we've hit up a bunch of sweet runs from Golden to Revelstoke, Jasper, Squamish & Whistler. Including 5 sick days in our playboats at Skookemchuck Wave...We've met up with a lot of friends and had some great crews to play with...good times all round, Unfortunately didn't have the camera on all of them and missed out on Beauty creek & the Ashlu due to water levels which were a couple we really wanted to get on but only one swim so far (no it wasn't me) and no real carnage (touch wood).

As far as wildlife goes, this is my 4th season in Canada and before this season hadn't seen any bears..on the Clearwater river yesterday alone, I saw three black bears, a bunch of Bald Eagles & lots of jumping salmon trying to get up the big drops and slamming into the rocks...poor wee guys. BC is riddled with cool animals (I'm a sucker for them) although I'm not sure if I'm ready to see a grizzly bear just yet....


On the wedding front, we spent some time in Jasper for Matt & Megs wedding which was unreal! Sooo many activities...Boating, Biking, partying & we even did a premier for "Valley High" in one of the local Bars...it was a big hit and thanks to some local businesses, we had a bunch of prizes
to give out and ended up a pretty wild night.

Wet Dream Result (trailer)

Pretty funny tongue in cheek video offering here.

Upper Cherry Creek

Where Kiwi’s can fly…

Finally, after four years of trying to get on Upper Cherry Creek all my stars aligned. I was free from any other commitments, the flow was good (well, ok at least) and I had a team.
The plan was simple, meet at the bakery in Coloma, drive to Cherry Lake, hike, paddle. Easy. Well not so fast.



The only other kiwi willing to join me on the trip was Jamie Garrod, however he was carrying a rib injury after a party wave session at Barking Dogg went horribly wrong. He was still keen to come and give it a shot.

The third member of the team, Dave came highly recommended by a good friend of mine, Joe Bousquin. However, come departure time, he had no kayaking gear and was MIA. Hmmm, what to do.

After many dead end phone calls trying to rally a team, I made the call and drove south to Cherry Lake trail head to see if I couldn't find a team there. Jamie, keen on a mission came along to check things out.

Can anyone say keen? Loaded and ready to go. Just need a team

After a lazy start to the day, a team from Reno rolled in about 1pm-ish. “Hey, are you fullas heading up to Upper Cherry?”, “Yeah, that was the plan”, “Sweet, mind if I join you?”…. Against their better judgement they started the 18km hike with a wayward Kiwi in tow. I was a happy chappy.

Anyone who plays down the walk into Cherry is staunch. Carrying 34odd Kg (75 pounds) 18km’s up hill takes it’s toll. The first few hours roll by pretty quickly but soon the burn starts to set in. Shoulders and hips get sore and your legs can go into a state of shock. Stuffing them into a kayak day after day doesn’t really prepare them for this abuse.

All was not lost though, travelling up with JC (team Reno) was hilarious. He was never shy about letting you know how much his heavy ar%^ kayak weighed or how that last hill was nearly the death of him. Tag Randolf and Matt into the mix and you have a recipe for almost wetting your pants… At least when you weren’t feeling the hurt.

Honest, I'm not hurting at all. Fake smiles during the walk-in

The scenery is out of this world. I have never seen anything quite like the moonscape we walked through on the way to put in. Photos, nor words can do justice to the High Sierra’s.

Yes

The first day starts with a sweet sweet rapid called Morning Slide and sets the scene for most of the day’s paddling. In one morning of paddling on Upper Cherry I ran more granite slides than I knew existed on the face of our fine earth.

Better than a coffee, Morning Slide, Matt getting going

It was pretty cool to be in there with a bunch of folk who hadn’t been there before. We spent the morning giggling like school girls as we ran slide after slide of sweetness. In the pools between we were all gob smacked by the views the stretched out in every direction. AMAzing!

Day one on Cherry is pretty straight forward as far as paddling is concerned. A ton of slides and three pretty sweet gorges.

Matt taking in the surreal landscape

Our first major portage came in what is known as the entry gorge. It took us the better part of an hour to get our boats and the team around a manky (shitty) blocked up rapid.

JC enjoying not carrying his kayak

From here we paddled down to the sieve pile (big arse jumble of rocks) that signaled the start of Cherry Bomb gorge.

Having watched John Grace and co. fire up Cherry Bomb in the Seven Rivers DVD years ago, it was a pretty cool feeling to finally be there for myself. Only a handful of times in my kayaking career(?) have I felt that feeling. The last time I can remember was floating around the corner to the Gates of Argonath on the Upper Hokitika back home in NZ. These places build up a legend and I had finally made it. Stoked.

My last look at Cheery Bomb from the bank

Cherry Bomb is not how I imagined it. Most rapids of that legend have an ominous raw. Cherry bomb was airily quiet. Perhaps it was because of the low water. Perhaps.

We quickly scouted the drop and cast our eyes further down stream. There were three horizon lines in the gorge and we couldn’t see the bottom of them. The first was obvious, run left. Sweet.
It was the second major horizon line that had us concerned. We knew that everything in the gorge went. We just weren’t sure where we needed to be on the second major drop. The fear of the unknown.

Having learnt to paddle in NZ and cut my teeth on West Coast rivers, its drummed into you very early on, don’t run things blind. It’s a great way to get yourself in trouble.

After much deliberation, we made the call to commit to the gorge. I think it was mentioned that if Rush (Sturgess) can hand paddle it at high flow, we should be fine.

A Kiwi taking flight

Turns out, we made it through without any drama. The boys all stomped Cherry Bomb and eddied out with massive grins. It was a pretty sweet feeling.

Matt getting into some pre-dinner tea cup action

From here down we ran a few more slides and then finished off the day with some super sweet tea cups that took us straight to camp. What a day.

It's not often you'll wake to a view this good into morning...
unless you're dating Megan Fox of course

Matt and Randolf running a breakfast lap to warm up

Day two (three) began at the crack of 9.30 as we pushed off from camp and down into the first slide. Grove Tube, Perfect 20 (more like mildly rowdy 30) and double pot hole awaited us.



All these rapids are sweet in there own right, but due to the water level and team enthusiasm we decided to pass on this section and opted for the quick walk around them. Double pot hole looked much better from the bottom but we were all still undecided about whether or not there was enough water to get far enough left on the lead in… Next year maybe.

Our paddling day really got going when we entered the aptly named Waterfall Alley. Drop after drop of Californian treats make up this phenomenal stretch of whitewater.

Waterfall Alley. I wonder how they came up with that?

For everything that day one on the water was, day two was not. After Waterfall Alley, we picked our way through some more slides and down into some low water manky gorges.

We pushed, bounced and scrapped our way through these and down into Red Rock gorge. After some quick portaging and creative line selection we made our way down through Red Rock and the final gorge, where we got back to some of the treats we had become accustomed to higher up.

One of our last rapids on Upper Cherry Creek. Randolf practices air paddling

One final portage had us around the log jam at the mouth of the river and into Lake Cherry. A further 15minutes had us walking up the final climb to the car park and the ever patient Jamie Garrod.

Beer, shower, Carl's Jr and more beer. Heaven is a place on earth.

Sweet As!

South Silver

The South Silver Fork of the American River is the closest thing to natures Disneyland. Slides, drops, teacups and a ton of granite make for one big playground.

Auto Barn... Sweet As!

I first paddled the run back in 2003 and ever since it has been high on my list of things to do when ever I'm back in this part of the world.

Settled high in the Sierra's, the drive alone is worth the trip. You are treated to amazing views of the surrounding hills with their towering granite domes, a landscape foreign to many kiwi travelers.

Berno slotting into holiday mode

Its this granite that leads us along the winding roads in search of the put. After some creative 4wdriving in our 2wd Suby (with no clearance) we managed to glide gracefully into the clearing that is the carpark.

On this particular trip we managed to rally a huge team of kiwi kayakers. The ex. CPIT boys were camped at the put and have been for a few days. They had taken almost all the seats out of their family wagon and made an outdoor lounge around their outdoor fire.

NZ winter or California granite.... you can decide

Along with AD, Rachel Moore and Zak, we numbered 9 kiwi's at the put in.

Straight off the bat you are into AutoBarn, a super fast slide that kind of feels like a big granite gutter. After lapping this a few times we headed on down stream to the next sweet features in our outdoor playpark.

Slides more slides...

The team worked through the aptly named boof boof slide with varying degree's of success.

The lovely Rachel Moore boof boof sliding

Our next stop was the first of four fantastic teacup drops. It is these teacups that kiwi paddlers have been dreaming of for years. The team split up and ran and re-ran all the different combo's they could through the teacups and down into the signature drop on the run... Sky Scraper.

Zak Shaw dwarfed by Sky Scrapper

Many lines were run, smiles we had as we all threw ourselves down this granite wonderland.

After lapping out SS and the infamous Off Ramp we headed on down stream for more slides, boofs and great fun... It really is the most fun you can have in a kayak.

Team CPIT checking some of the goods.

Me lining up for Off Ramp

We all had a sweet day out in the Californian sun paddling with good friends. For me it was an added bonus to paddle with the boys from CPIT. Having paddled with them in NZ and having the privilege of teaching with them, it was great to be in one of the world's best kayak destinations throwing down.

eNZed represent.



Music is by Kiwi charger, LADYHAWKE - My Delerium

Clavey River

The Clavey River is the gift that just keeps on giving.

The Clavey has long been on my list of rivers to run in California. Until now things haven’t quite worked out timing wise.

Zak and I had been keeping a close eye on the Dream Flows website. We made the call to head south and put out the call to the numerous kiwi’s lingering down the road at the local campsite. Initial enthusiasm had the team swell to seven. By morning our team had shrunk to 2.5 paddlers. Hmmm.

Clavey Car Camping

After wasting the morning away we managed to commit Shannon (fellow NZKS employee) the remaining .5. We also managed to figure a relatively complex shuttle that involved a team driving to Yosemite first… Sounds positive already.

Now that we had locked in a full team of three, the suby (actual nickname… really original) was packed to the roof and we made our way south down highway 49.

49 runs north south along the base of the sierra’s and is the all important link to many of California’s best paddling.

Zak lining up the entry to rapid #73

We decided to make camp near the put-in so we could get an early start. With a little time up our sleeve’s we stopped in Tuolumne City (they use the term ‘city’ very loosely) for a beer. After driving around the town that time forgot we found the ‘Loggers’. It was next to the only other open business in town. Sierra Ink, a tattoo outfit. Go figure aye.

Shannon thinks he's off to play cricket.. whats with that?

Anyone who has meet Shannon knows that he looks about 15. So, with out ID he was promptly kicked out of the pub and was made to sit in the Suby while Zak and I enjoyed a beer. After much piss taking the publican let him back in and even let him drink a beer.

Shandawg testing out his split paddle

Our day begun at the crack of 9.30 as we pushed out of the first eddy and straight into our first portage. Once we were back on the water things got going with both a rush and a roar. Pushy class four and laden kayaks put the team in the groove for the day.

Blue Steel. No school for that..
Image: Zak Shaw

Things were going pretty smoothly until Shannon jammed his paddle in between two rocks and proceeded to break the entire blade off. Go the class three mank (mank is usually a shitty and shallow rapid).

We make so much $$ teaching kayaking that we just cut werner paddle's up for fun.
You can see how much fun it is...

After sorting this we made short work of the remaining Upper Clavey section. Unknown to us, we lunched at the half way bridge. This was fine, however, it was one of the last decent places to camp. From here we dropped into the lower 8 miles.

The pinstripe's make for bigger boof's. Honest
Image by Zak Shaw

The consistency in gradient is amazing in the Clavey. Very quickly you loose count of the pool drop combinations you run on your journey towards the Tuolumne. Slowing, mile after mile, we made our way down stream looking for a sweet beach to set up camp. As the afternoon slipped by we realised that there weren’t really ANY camping options. Finally about 6pm we finally found a beach we could camp on. It even had sun (for the first 10 minutes).

Zak doing his best to blend in

After a restful nights sleep we pushed off from camp at 8.30 to tackle the remaining two miles that would lead us to the confluence. In the back of my mind I knew we had to keep things moving because we had organised to be picked up at midday.

Ha! Fools are paddling straight past the last camp site. At 2pm...

During the last two miles the Clavey kept doing what it does best. It kept on giving. Drop after drop the Clavey kept going. The paddling was pitched at a fantastic level. Most of the 100+ rapids were at the limit of safe boat scouting. Zak was feeling good out on the water and was happy to probe what we couldn’t see.

Shannon perfecting his rocket move. Rapid # 243

At the confluence with the lower T high fives were issued and we turned to head for our midday shuttle pick up. Hilarity ensued as we fell through Clavey falls. Going from 25 cumecs to 240 was quite the transition.

The boys getting ready to run the toilet bowl

Our Clavey trip proved to be the trip that kept on giving. After paddling the remaining 18km in an hour 20 we were worried we kept our fantastic shuttle drivers waiting at the bridge. 12.30 had us at the take out. No shuttle. One o’clock came and went. No shuttle. One thirty, no shuttle. By 2.30 Zak had drawn the short straw and was dispatched we a passing vehicle to try and get the Suby.

Zak Shaw "Where's the shuttle?"

Finally, at 3.30 our shuttle had arrived. Shannon and I were starting to feel a little worse for wear after 3 hours in the 38oC heat. High fives were re-issued and we were done.

Turns out Anna had gone walk about in Yosemite, got on a one way bus to now where and got lost. Mmm