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| Manu pluggin`one of the most photographed and filmed waterfalls - what a special place this is - Spirit Falls on the Little White Salmon |
This summer I decided to spend two months in North America, to be more precise in July I started of in California and made my way up to the Stikine in August. My posts until now were about the two big projects the MFK and the Stikine, but there was a lot of whitewater and scenery inbetween and after. Our first stop our way up north was at Crater Lake National Park near Bend, Oregon.
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| Crater Lake National Park - awesome views everywhere |
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| the views in Bend are not too bad either |
The next day we made our way to the Columbia River gorge to get some lovin` on some PNW classics, mainly the Truss Section of the White Salmon and (since late in the season) low water sessions on the Little White that were still beautiful. The views and outdoor possibilities of this area are hard to grasp. Windsurfing, kiteboarding, mountainbiking, kayaking and skiing, you name it. Not to forget, good beer and very nice people everywhere, truly a place to stay for longer.
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| Mt. Adams |
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| that one again ;) myself and Manu in B&W |
For me travelling and kayaking is a lot about getting to know new places, new people and new rivers. So I rather prefer running not so good but new whitewater over lapping the same sections over and over (if I can`t do both). So besides lapping the Truss which we found perfect flows for, we also did two low water runs on the Little White Salmon that were really worth it in my eyes and ran the Wind River which was not as great as the others but still nice.
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| the Wind River Cascades - some nice drops and some amazing wildlife |
Its crazy how much whitewater this area has to offer, our next stop provided with one of the highlights of the trip, the Cispus River north of Mount Adams. This river is hard to reach these days (most access roads are washed out), but once we were there provided us with some superb creeking in an awesome gorge. A low water run on the classic Ohanapecosh section ended our little stay in Washington. Sadly we didn`t have cameras with us that day since the scenery in this valley is spectacular.
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| Mt Adams again - our way back from the Cispus turned out to be an 4 hour odysee around this beautiful volcano |
Behemoth on the Cispus is an awesome ending to an awesome river
Before going north to British Columbia, Manu and I decided to visit Idaho to end his kayaking trip with the North Fork of the Payette, a roadside 25 kilometer stretch of continous, fast and pushy whitewater.
Jakobs Ladder - the steepest rapid on the NFP - home of the annual NF race
After the Payettes it was time to say goodby to Manu and I made my way up north to BC to do some more biking and kayaking. The area around Squamish and Whistler provides some worldclass kayaking and biking. A friend from Slovenia, Andraz Krpic, moved here a couple of years ago and we had some nice runs on the Cheakamus sections, the Fear Canyon of the Elaho and the Mine and Box Canyons of the Ashlu. On my way back from the Stikine Billy and I squeezed in a sweet little lap on the Rogers Creek.
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| Andraz, Darby McAdams and Ben Jung on the must run in the Fear Canyon |
The beauty and wildness of this area is stunning, so much high quality runs in a relativly small area surrounded by glaciers and bears. There are big, pushy runs like the Elaho Fear Canyon (that lives up to its name at higher flows), low volume creeks like Rogers, easy access roadside whitewater on the Cheak and missions like Tatlow, Clendenning or Dipper.
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| Rogers Creek, Billy Thibault styling the second and third drop of the driple combo |
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| myself on the same combo - photo: Billy Thibault |
The Ashlu river is most famous for its box canyon below the dam. There is another very good section above the dam called the "Mine". I find it actually a little harder than the box and also provides some world class walled in whitewater but also one portage and a rough road to reach the top.
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| Andraz Krpic on the first rapid of the Mine. This rapid is right at put in, has a thin line and is not portageable. A good start into the day. Ash Bullivant is watching Iztok Zuber below. |
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| Ash doing his thing after the portage |
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| playing with my camera, Kiah Schaepe and Iztok Zuber on the same drop |
The box canyon is the classic weekend run for the locals, it has a regular dam release that kayakers can vote on online (vote for 32 cms!!). It starts of with a waterfall called 50/50, which kind of describes perfectly your chances of having a good line. The rest of the canyon is just pure perfection. When god created a river for kayaking...
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| trying to get to the right side of 50% - photo: Ali Glanz |
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| myself boofing the first drop after 50/50 - photo: Nick Burke |
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| Iztok in the heart of the Box - driple drop - photo: Nick Burke |
The Cheakamus is part of Whistlers "Triple Crown" (with the Soo and the Callaghan). We did multiple runs of two sections, the upper and the "Balls to the Walls" which together were my favourite run of the area. The Soo is cold and fast and sadly the Callaghan dropped out before my arrival.
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| Cheakamus starts with a bang, Blake Hornblow and Andraz firing up the classic left and the right line |
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| Balls To The Walls Falls - myself on my last run in this area for this summer, it was a pleasure!! - photo: Andraz Krpic |
A huge shoutout to Andraz, Ana, Iztok, Ana, Ash, Ben, Emanuelle, Ben, Blake, Darby, Billy, Rapha, Nathan and Heather, Colin and everybody else who made my stay in the gorge and Whistler so worthwhile. Great company and awesome times in this beautiful area.
Stay tuned for some biking and Skook photos ;)
cheers,
Re
