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

Team H paddlers, Lou and Josh hit Quebec

- In English its 'Waterfall'. In Thailand it was 'Nam Tok'. In Norway its 'Fossen' but now we are in search of the 'Chutes of Quebec'!


Where do I start this story of such epic moments in its first week...
It all started relatively smoothly pulling out of 269 Twyford Rd with boat on roof, bags in boot and passport in hand.
The trip to Auckland was not a bad one and the check in to the plane with my years worth of gear and kayak was a breeze! Things were going so well! I got off the plane and settled in San Francisco Airport for the expected 18hr Layover with some wireless internet, an uncomfortable chair and regular updates on the loud speaker about terrorist treat level ORANGE!!! What does that even mean?
Anyway the hours ticked over and as it came time to sleep I made my way to the domestic terminal to sleep before my flight and check in at 6am!!! At 12.45am I made it to American Airlines check-in area and someone came over and said if I was on one of their flights I could not come with my kayak... They then changed me to 'Air Canada' and said they will now take you at 8am. I was a bit unsure about this but could do nothing! When I went to check in at Air Canada they had the same story and NO KAYAK policy! With only a few minutes till my original flight boarded I raced back there and made up a totally outrageous story about why I was switched over and they bought it! As the flight was boarding they rushed me through and i missed the $250 over sized baggage cost and made the plane! I then went on to leave my wallet on the plane in Chicago on my connecting flight which I just made it back for in time and then although I had told Lou when my flight was coming in we missed the vital info on flight numbers etc and they went to the wrong terminal in Toronto... about an hour later they found me and we were off!
So that was by far one of my worst travel experiences but all good because I made it and am now sitting in Quebec after a week on a sick mission!

-Josh and Lou Hanging out, Photo Tyler Fox

The first few days we hung out near Ottawa sorting cars and things and did a sneaky run on the Ottawa before heading into Quebec. On our way toward Quebec City we took a detour and ran a cool drop called Chutes Mont De Peine with a spectacular backdrop of a massive cascading manky drop.

-Josh Neilson, Mont de Peine - Photo Lou Urwin

-Josh Neilson Mont De Peine, Photo Tyler Fox

-Lou Dropping in, Mont De Peine, Photo Tyler Fox

-Tyler Fox Silhouetted in Mont de Peine, Photo Josh Neilson

After this we checked out Chutes Saint Ursule, which was run a few years back by Steve Fisher and Dom Chaput for 'Black Book'. In the case of this film it by far makes this drop look smaller than it really is! standing next to it puts it in perspective for sure! Its Massive and well worth going to see!

-Saint Ursule in it's entirety, Photo Josh Neilson

The next morning we headed a bit further north in search of a river called the Mastigouche. I had seen it in some clips before and it was the run in Quebec that I knew I wanted to run!

-Josh Neilson, top slide Mastigouche - Photo Tyler Fox

-Lou Urwin, Top slide, Mastigouche - Photo Tyler Fox

With a small hike in we were at the lake which marked the start on continuous gradient downwards!
Slide after slide was on the cards as we made our way down.

- Josh Neilson, Bottom drop of middle slide - Photo Lou Urwin

-Tyler Fox, Bottom drop, Middle slide - Photo Josh Neilson

-Lou Urwin Sliding the middle one - Photo Josh Neilson

Everything was clean and managable apart from one drop in the middle that had me on my toes.. It wasnt a big drop, it wasn't super vertical and it didnt have a big tow back... what it did have was most of the the flow going into an undercut wall at full pace on one side and into a toaster on the otherside with a narrow boat width ridge down the middle. With all the calculations made I rolled off the lip and along the ridge to the bottom in one piece and stoked!

Josh Neilson, The tight slide - Photo Tyler Fox

While this got the heart racing I knew that the best was to come. The take out slide is amazing, You enter on the left and slide down toward a wall then turn right and hold on... Coming off the left wall into the middle and down the ramp to the bottom! We ran this one over and over till we couldnt go any more. The run at this flow was sick and could definalty use a bit of extra water here and there but all in all it is a super fun run!

-Josh Neilson, Bottom Mastigouche Slide - Photo Lou Urwin

-Josh Neilson, Bottom Slide - Photo Lou Urwin

-Tyler Fox Claiming it! - Photo Lou Urwin

-Folow the leader, Josh and Tyler - Photo Lou Urwin

-Lou Urwin getting into it! Photo Tyler Fox

Successful days on the river like this are not as frequent as they may seem looking at different sites over the net. For every quality drop or river there are numerous drives up winding roads to see waterfalls that land on rocks or have dams above them etc etc. For the next day we found this to be the case but as energy levels were dropping we came across more!

- One of the ones that had potential but doesn't go! Photo Tyler Fox

We met up with David La Rouche and his mate John and headed to camp at a Riviere Gouffre Du Nord where we would put on in the morning and run a nice sloping drop now named 'Breakfast drop'.

-Josh Neilson having waterfalls for breakfast - Photo Lou Urwin

-Tyler with a serving of the same! - Photo Josh Neilson

- Lou following suit - Photo Josh Neilson

-David getting vertical - Photo Josh Neilson

-John rolling off! - Photo Josh Neilson

For the rest of the day we were in unfamiliar territory for everyone and headed in search roads next to blue lines on out maps. Within an hour we were standing next to more drops and slides but left these for the way home. The winner of the day though was hidden in behind a farm in the hills which thanks to John and Dave and their French speaking abilities we were up the farm track in to find 2 classic waterfalls and a third marginal one. With a bit of google earthing we have found that the section above has a series of waterfalls and slides which may be on the cards in a few days.

- Bottom 2 of 3 standing yet to be run, We'l see soon - Photo Lou Urwin

We are now based at Pat Levesque's house in Chicutimi planning for an epic week on the river. Yesterday we ran the Bras Louis which was a nice run but very cold! We put on and ran the A section first which was an hour of boogie water then the other guys had to leave back to work so they did our shuttle from the top again and we ran down to the end of the B section. The B section was a step up from A and had one portage for us but the rest went like mad! The last drop was unlike anything Ive run before. A skateboard ramp like entry which once at its lowest point then headed back up again over a huge rooster tail and then straight into the next drop. Super fun and even went back up for a second go!

-Josh Neilson rolling into the ramp drop - Photo Lou Urwin

-Tyler Fox doing the same - Photo Lou Urwin

the rest of the day we spent Driving up those roads in search of drops that all came to dead ends and no sight of the rivers... The never ending search for whitewater is often a long and slow process but when you find the goods its all worth while.
The next few days is set out for a possible few first descents, one which we found and others that Pat has found and keen to search out more. Stay tuned...

- Map Books, a must for every waterfall search mission - Photo Josh Neilson

- Believe it or not, The dark figure behind this 'DANGER' sign is a BEAR!!!! obviously the focus is a bit blurred as I am swiftly making my way back to the car! AGHHH RUN