Cherry Creek July 11

This was that tasty dose of adrenaline and commitment I have been craving the last several months. One description of the run states that "Cherry Creek is the yardstick that all Class V runs are measured against. A solid Class V, it's actually pretty amazing that such a steep run with so many boulders is so runnable. Cherry Creek is for experts only, but if you have the skills, knowledge, the right people, and the right equipment, you will walk away thrilled and amazed." Whoever wrote that was probably not thinking of me and my packraft...

The day before Eric mentioned he was "really curious to see how I would do in Cherry Creek;" that combined with the hint of nervousness I could detect Eric himself had at the run (despite doing it before) helped to elevate the anticipation. We arrived to the put-in below Holm Powerhouse a little after the 1100cfs release started. The first touch of the water revealed it was 48 degrees Fahrenheit, cold enough to further color my anticipation at the run. There would be a solid 8 miles of difficult whitewater to get us to Meral's Pool, including at least ten Class V rapids and countless other Class IV sections. Though this is known as the Cherry Creek run this is somewhat of a misnomer as only the first half mile of the run is on Cherry Creek with the rest technically being the Tuolumne River. To give myself a fighting chance at not being a total ragdoll I added about 20lbs of water ballast inside my tubes to improve my center of gravity and give me a little more mass to throw at waves.

We set off and I immediately felt gripped by the whitewater. This was the real deal! The first half mile was more or less one incredibly fast and steep rapid in which I was constantly having to make fast moves around rocks and holes, using spare split seconds to wipe the near-freezing water from my eyes. In an adrenaline fueled blur I could only react to the next feature, and then the next, and so on, forever. Towards the end of this section I drifted off the others line and found myself committing to punching through three enormous holes one right after the other. Miraculously I managed to stay upright in each one and adjust just enough to slam into the next one. Pumping with adrenaline and heart racing I slid into the pool at the Tuolumne confluence. In what at first seemed like a joke someone asked me what I thought of that Class III warm-up rapid. I soon realized the rating scale might be a little skewed for Cherry Creek, that being one of the more monstrous supposed Class III rapids I had ever run. So much for the Main T doing anything to prepare me this run. Some more Class III and IV led to our first Class V rapids, ones that actually had names. We scouted a few of these to avoid mishaps: Guillotine, Corkscrew, and Jawbone. As I made it through each of these rapids without flipping I undulated between high confidence (at not flipping) and low confidence (realizing how many close calls I had).

        Corkscrew (V)

        Jawbone (V)

Mushroom is clearly the standout rapid that is regularly run (and not portaged). We spent a good long while scouting this rapid and I made sure to walk the whole length in my assessment. There would be plenty of opportunities for me to screw it up; a flip at the top would mean a long 400ft ride as helpless flotsam through solidly aerated whitewater. At best I gave myself a 50-50 chance of punching through the final deep whole with impenetrable lateral waves. I was pretty convinced I was going to portage it as I walked back to my boat, not wanting to have a terrible swim only 3/8ths of the way into this committing run. However, in what in hindsight seemed like witchcraft, Rocky managed to calmly talk me into running it! I quickly shifted my mental plans as Rocky sped off and I quickly followed to try to keep to his line. He dropped steeply out of sight down a chute between two boulders. I followed. Whitewater everywhere, I reacted, paddled, braced. Four hundred feet went on forever. For the most part I managed to stick to Rocky's line including traversing hard from right to left across the rapid to line up above the last monster hole. I gave a few last paddle strokes as I slid down the ramp into the deep curling maul of the hole. Predictably the left lateral effortless pounced on my boat and I flipped. The hole spat me right out and I was able to quickly self-rescue. Well that was exciting!

        Mushroom (V) above and end below (more formidable than it looks!)

A short pool led right into Toadstool, another boulder rapid requiring fast maneuvering. Looking back upstream from the pool beyond many of these rapids was an incredible sight; you could really get the sense of how steep this run was and get struck by the fact that you just came down that raging mess.

        Toadstool (V)

We stopped to scout Unknown Soldier. Eric unfortunately had a miffed boof off the main drop, flipped and was unable to recover. Though only a few seconds until he was flushed from the rapid separate from the boat, it was a good reminder that things could get serious fast in here. Fortunately he was completely fine and Keith was able to chase him down. I went next, followed by Rocky.

        Scouting Unknown Soldier (V), see also frontispiece

        In the Miracle Mile

Next up was the Miracle Mile in which many rapids blur together as the river drops 200 feet overall. Blind Faith was first up. I think this is the one I managed to have a really unpleasant swim in. I had a pretty frail little flip at the top of the rapid, managed to hop back in but not to reposition myself in time for the next small hole, flipped, and then spent a scary ten seconds spinning around in a much larger hole until I managed to push off a rock and weakly ragdoll my way down the rest of the rapid. This was not a self rescue and I was appreciative for the boys attentively collecting my gear and myself. Once reunited with my boat, I requested a brief eddy break for me to regain my breath. That was the worst swim I've ever had; I've sure it could have been worse. Onward.

More rapids blurred together. We scouted Sky King and I asked Eric to be nearby with a throw rope just in case. I took the same line as the kayakers down the main drop and unsurprisingly lost my momentum when I hit the large hole at the base which stalled me out. I simultaneously did my best to brace to stay upright and take hard paddle strokes to escape. For a long 20 second rodeo ride I fought the hole as it did its best to flip me and suck me back in. Eric was at the ready but I didn't get up and to my surprise I managed to break free. In the video below you can see where, recognizing my exhaustion, Eric suggests I pull into the eddy behind the first rock. Though exhausted I was also pumped and wanted to immediately take on the rest of the rapid. That was the longest unintentional hole ride I have ever had- I don't think I could do it again if I was trying! 

        Sky King (V) main drop above and end of rapid below

        Looking down the end of the Miracle Mile

Towards the end of the Miracle Mile I managed to have one more lame flip at the final hole of some unknown rapid. I suppose better to have an occasional lame flip than an epic one. 

We scouted Lewis' Leap. Although admittedly I didn't quite see the line the others were envisioning, I nevertheless was feeling slightly worked by my flips and did not want to add one more. It seemed like the sort of rapid a little less forgiving to packrafts. So I opted to portage Lewis' Leap. In hindsight maybe I should have rallied myself to run it. On the plus side I was able to get good photos and videos of the others. 

        Lewis' Leap (V)

Another half mile below Lewis' Leap is the junky Flat Rock Falls (V) and the terrifying jumble of Lumsden Falls. We all did the traditional thing and portaged on the left, dodging poison oak, and putting in just upstream of the prominent Lumsden Bridge. One mile to go and no more Class V! For only an 8 mile run I was feeling considerably more exhausted than the previous day's 18 mile run with more headwind paddling.

        Lumsden Falls (V+) in background (portaged)

Below Lumsden Falls the river shifted to more of a pool-drop style characteristic of the Main T downstream and I could feel the weight on my shoulders lighten. The last mile was still fun with some decent rapids. I blindly followed the others into a narrow chute between rocks at Horseshoe Falls not knowing what to expect. I didn't stick the landing, my fourth and final flip of the run. We zoomed past the campground and pulled into the Meral's Pool takeout. I colored a few beer-drinking kayakers impressed when I walked past with packraft and they just realized I had run Cherry Creek. It really was a beautiful and impressive stretch of river. I can confidently say that I was "thrilled and amazed" and would love to do it again.

Big thanks to Keith, Eric, and Rocky for letting me join them on this run. It was extremely memorable.

Main Tuolumne River July 10

Keith, Eric, and Rocky were initially planning to head north for some hard kayaking mid-week, which unfortunately didn't mesh with my teaching schedule. As plans evolved the trip moved to the end of the week and I shuffled a few things around to try and go. I was desperate for some excitement and challenge and realized this might be my last opportunity for some difficult packrafting for a while. I was in! I packed packraft and camping gear, largely blind to what I was getting myself into. I had heard of the "Main T" run and nearby "Cherry Creek" but did no research ahead of the trip.

The drive to the Tuolumne was long and uncomfortable, certainly the longest I have had to continuously wear a mask. A 4:30pm departure from Redlands got us late into Casa Loma where we crashed in the woods at about 11am. Thankfully I slept pretty well and in the morning we drove to meet Rocky and to set the lengthy car shuttle. This time of year the Tuolumne is a dam release run. As we drove down to the put-in we could see the frail and unrunnable 300 cfs river; within minutes of us arriving at the put-in the 1100cfs release pulse arrived and the river noisily swelled. 

The Main T is an 18 mile run from Meral's Pool to Ward's Ferry, variably rated III/IV/IV+. It is a classic pool-drop stretch of river, though my memory is that it was primarily pool paddling. The river had some nice long rapids requiring careful maneuvering around boulders, but I found the gradient to be such that I had plenty of time to read the river and respond. Overall it felt like Class III, though I did manage to find two places to flip (easy self-rescues). Clavey Falls (frontispiece and below) was the standout rapid on the run and the only one we scouted. Wanting to minimize mayhem I opted for a sneak route instead of running the main drop at the top; this I almost managed to screw up by beaching myself on a rock but it worked out in the end.

        Towards the end of Clavey Falls Rapid

Along the way there was interesting historical hints of past gold rush ventures, including most notably a stone and mortar powerhouse supplying power to a mine. Despite this it was a remote feeling run. The rocks along the way were interesting; essentially no granite as I was expecting. There were some beautiful snowy chunks of marble in some places. We got out to check out some [dry] waterfalls in a couple side creeks on river left, which was a nice break from paddling. 

It was hot and we had a lot of paddling across the pools to try to keep time to a minimum. Towards the end the hot headwind was particularly cruel to my high profile packraft and I often slipped behind the others.

The last mile we paddled out the reservior to the bridge. The reservior water was incredibly warm and I could not resist a jump off the old bridge abutment at the end of the run. I thought the run was nice enough. Maybe I'm spoiled or it is different at high water but it did not really have the classic appeal that was advertised. It was enjoyable and great to experience but I do not feel a particular need to ever run it again. And, as I soon found out, it really was not much of a warm-up to tomorrow's Cherry Creek run. Walking to the mailbox doesn't really prepare you for running a marathon.

Thanks to Keith, Eric, and Rocky.

Lower Kern (Jungle Run) July 5

Trying to fight the covid indecision blues and find something to do that largely avoids the masses on a holiday weekend, Heather and I made the drive up to the Kern for a 1050 cfs Jungle Run. I had done this run once before with Keith and did not have too much memory of it other than having a pleasantly scenic gorge section. I locked my bike to a tree at the water's edge at Miracle Hot Springs for the shuttle and then we drove on to Slippery Rock just below the Lake Isabella dam. Unfortunately the launch area was completely closed off to regulate covid interactions and pullouts at the start of the road were also somewhat maliciously blocked off. After a little effort we managed to find what appeared to be legal roadside parking on the other side of the river, leaving us with a short walk to the river. We found a slickrock slab to get ready on only about 600ft downstream of Slippery Rock. We both were glad we chose this option as the run would have been too short and skipped the most scenic section if we started 2.5 miles downstream at Granite Stairs.

The water temperature was pleasant; I was pleased with my decision to wear a wetsuit instead of a drysuit. The first couple miles had a remote wilderness feel to them with granite cliffs plunging into the river on both sides. The narrowness of the gorge and turns often gave a sense of something big right around the corner, but of course every rapid was read-and-run once you approached it. As we cruised down I kept an eye out for pictographs that I knew were somewhere in this section but that we managed to miss last time through.

Eventually I found the pictographs high on canyon right. They were better than I thought they would be- abundant, well preserved and creative. We exited the gorge section and then had three highway bridges to weave under for the rest of the run. The rapids still continued. We saw plenty of people on the shore but only one commercial raft group joining on the river. For its "Jungle Run" name there really is only very minimal foliage overhanging the river anymore. It is a pleasant, cruisy, low stress run. 

After a clean drama-free run Heather managed to swim on the very last drop on the very last rapid before our takeout in front of a large group of worried picnickers. I changed, grabbed my bike, and set off as soon as I could to close the shuttle. The 8 mile bike ride was actually a lot more pleasant than I thought and I made good time on the mostly untrafficked old highway despite the heat. The downhill into Bodfish was exceptionally satisfying. All in all a nice day out despite the driving to pull it all off.

Box Springs Paragliding July 1

Check out the video above for a quick 7 minute flight filmed with GoPro Max 360 degree video. If you open it in the YouTube app on a tablet or smartphone it should default to a VR interface where you should be able to change the view by moving the phone. When I play with it I find that it is really similar to the view and sensation I get when flying: look up and see the wing, look down and see the world beneath my dangling feet.

It is not a particularly notable flight other than the epic struggle not shown. I got onto launch at about 7pm but it was very windy and so I waited a while. In a lull I set up. I had four aborted launches including two that gave me very nasty lineover tangles that took a while to clear, especially in the continuing wind. I was feeling particularly defeated, especially since a few days prior the conditions were also windy, did not improve, and I opted to hiked back down the hill for the second time ever. I was really close to packing up but decided to rally for one more attempt. At sunset 7:58pm the wind finally cooperated, I had my moment, and I was off for a smooth dusk light flight. The landing was smooth. I really like this launch but its position high on a ridge makes for challenging wind conditions. I've since started scouting and flying other launches but am sure I will be back to this one before long.