Our individual schedules conflicted for the weekend of 5/6/2011, and it didn't look like any form of real paddling was going to happen. We had hoped for Escalante, but our schedules couldn't make that happen. The early season Wyoming stout was not going to work either. I planned to just do yard-work instead, and scheduled 1000 square feet of sod to be delivered Saturday morning. After I made this decision, I got the call that Bailey is running, and that I just have to go. Of course, now I can't go, unless I want to waste a few bills on this sod situation. After some talk... a trade agreement was worked out where I would receive free landscaping labor in exchange for getting my ass in gear and the sand out of my junk and join this trip. I can get my housework done in 1/4 of the time and go kayaking?! Sounds good to me.
The sod arrived at 7am, I called the team, and we got to work. With 5 people, we were able to make short work of this project and in record time we were loading boats and on our way out of town.
Chase, in the suit of lightning, making sure everything is OK while I do the same from inside the port-o-john.On this run, we were showing a first timer, Mila from the Czech Republic, down the run. We were a little unsure of her abilities, but considering the fact that she drank her first malted adult beverage at age 3 or so and comes from a place where they rock climb barefoot, with knotted rope as protection, we figured she would be able to hang no problem.
We had a flow of somewhere between 350 and 400cfs, which is nearly a perfect flow on this run. We boogied down to the first big rapid, Four Falls. If you want to be a tough guy, you can run the top falls and call this rapid Five Falls, but the chances of screwing up the top drop are high and the penalty for failure is, at best, a wicked chundering followed by a recirculating swim followed by a major pain in the ass boat and gear rescue. It could also go much worse than that, which is why most people just portage it. If you portage, you are technically trespassing here, but the landowners have always tolerated paddlers in the past so long as you respect the area, pack out your trash, and pee in the river instead of on the trail. So take it from me, and don't be a jackass.
If it is your first time here, get out and scout to check for wood, and to spot the rocks which will try to interfere with your line. The drop is on the highly debated line between IV+ and V-, and boats easily, but I have seen swims here and the far left side usually has some wood you will want to avoid.
Chase and Mila in Four Falls, showing Mila's left side exit from the top drop.
Mila finishing up Plan B. Everyone was glad to have a good line and we headed on down through The Steeps, which is basically 2 miles or so of continuous, IV+/V- creekin'. It is awesome and fun and is many paddlers favorite part of the run. In the largest drop of this section, Chase must have been bored as he stopped in one of the largest holes for some surf practice, and Ben decided to explore the right hand channel of the same drop which is supposed to have a nasty pin spot. After these river exploration shenanigans, everybody got it together and it all went fine.
Supermax comes after The Steeps and it is a big drop with a lot to deal with. You have to see it to understand and appreciate it. We stopped so Mila could have a look at the beast with Ben explaining the line options. Chase and I gave it a 20 count or so, and headed down. I was first and planned on taking my normal line, which is to catch the river left eddy above the undercut. The lateral guarding the eddy completely kicked my ass, and I had to run a line which takes you awfully close to the undercut. I ended up splatting the undercut, which actually saved me from getting stuffed. Quick roll, and I caught the half-way eddy, no worries. Chase was next and he had a clean line. I waited in the eddy for Ben to come down, and expected Mila to portage. I got a few hand signals from shore which led me to believe Mila was going to run it! Mila had a great line, as did Ben, and they met me in the eddy. We finished up the remainder of the rapid, and met up below. At about this point, I started to feel sick to my stomach. We took a break before heading down.
The rest of the run is fairly continuous, and you need to be heads up for Trashcan, which should be run on the left, and a huge hole below it in a section of class III+ which should be run dead center. I started feeling worse and worse at this point. I wasn't sure if was going to puke on my sprayskirt or not, but I had no energy and was paddling like crap.
As we approached Deer Creek, which is the last big rapid, the plan was discussed which ended up being the same as Supermax. Ben would show Mila where she didn't want to be, and Chase and I would blue angel the rapid and try to show her a good line. Sitting in the eddy, the idea of walking did occur to me. I had not been paddling my best the entire second half of the run, and generally I just felt terrible. I started to think maybe I was just psyching myself out though. I couldn't remember the last time I scouted this rapid, and it really paddles pretty easily. That said, there are plenty of places you wouldn't want to be and the bottom half is very fast and very shallow. It wouldn't be an ideal rapid to explore while upside down.
Mila setting up a boof in Four Falls.
We waited for Ben and Mila to get on the riverbank and we peeled out. Chase was in a retro mood, and it was his mission on this drop to bring back paddle tricks from the early 90s, which he did at the crux with a 360, above the head, paddle twirl.
My line started out great, with an excellent boof off the top ledge, and I was only slightly off my usual line when I lost my control and was floundering with a right side brace. I tried to brace far too long, and when I went under to roll, I was pushed right and over a rock which snapped my paddle in half. I didn't know this happened at the time, all I knew was that I couldn't roll and that I was about to have a less than fun experience. I let go of the paddle and felt the boat hit a rock, which I was able to hold on to long enough to get my face out of the water and see that I was about to go over a 6 foot drop backwards, upside down and head first. As soon as I went over and impacted, I bailed from the boat and swam as hard as I could to Chase, who was in an eddy on river left. Chase was not in position to paddle with a swimmer, so I drifted downstream a bit and got out.
The guys got my boat and I searched around for my paddle, again, not knowing it was trashed. Chase came upstream to make sure I was OK, and I asked about it. "Your paddle is in pieces Bro, it's gone." Crap. I put the breakdown together and drained my boat while Mila and Ben had successful runs.
At this point, I still felt terrible but was relived to be past all of the big rapids. From here to the take out, it is pretty easy creeking with spaced out class III+ action. There is only one more rapid to be concerned with, Mystery Eddy, which is the last real rapid on the run. It is a short drop and it goes well, but it can give you a stout chundering if you screw it up as it is full of rocks and has a strong hole at the bottom, especially at flows over 350 or so. Chase and I were in the lead, and as we passed the last eddy before the drop, it occurred to me that we hadn't even mentioned this rapid to Mila. There is a trick line on this rapid, where you boof into a hidden eddy in the middle of the drop and from upstream, you look as if you just vanished. Again, we didn't explain this to Mila, and when I met Chase in the eddy, we started wondering about her. Just then, I saw her go by, in the meat of the drop, upside down. Oops. Ben showed up just in time to see this as well, so we hustled down to see how she was faring with the hole.
We got there just in time to see her attempting a swimming self rescue, which wasn't really a big deal as this could be the best place on the river to swim, since there is a huge pool with slow moving water. Luckily there were two guys talking safety on shore who gave us a hand with gathering gear. We sorted out this situation and headed down the mile or two of class II to the takeout.
Paying dues.
All in all, it was a another great day on Bailey. We had some carnage, learned some lessons, but creekboating is often the art of Plan B and it can sometimes still be considered a successful day even while you are enjoying a PBR out of your favorite shoe.
Supermax comes after The Steeps and it is a big drop with a lot to deal with. You have to see it to understand and appreciate it. We stopped so Mila could have a look at the beast with Ben explaining the line options. Chase and I gave it a 20 count or so, and headed down. I was first and planned on taking my normal line, which is to catch the river left eddy above the undercut. The lateral guarding the eddy completely kicked my ass, and I had to run a line which takes you awfully close to the undercut. I ended up splatting the undercut, which actually saved me from getting stuffed. Quick roll, and I caught the half-way eddy, no worries. Chase was next and he had a clean line. I waited in the eddy for Ben to come down, and expected Mila to portage. I got a few hand signals from shore which led me to believe Mila was going to run it! Mila had a great line, as did Ben, and they met me in the eddy. We finished up the remainder of the rapid, and met up below. At about this point, I started to feel sick to my stomach. We took a break before heading down.
The rest of the run is fairly continuous, and you need to be heads up for Trashcan, which should be run on the left, and a huge hole below it in a section of class III+ which should be run dead center. I started feeling worse and worse at this point. I wasn't sure if was going to puke on my sprayskirt or not, but I had no energy and was paddling like crap.
As we approached Deer Creek, which is the last big rapid, the plan was discussed which ended up being the same as Supermax. Ben would show Mila where she didn't want to be, and Chase and I would blue angel the rapid and try to show her a good line. Sitting in the eddy, the idea of walking did occur to me. I had not been paddling my best the entire second half of the run, and generally I just felt terrible. I started to think maybe I was just psyching myself out though. I couldn't remember the last time I scouted this rapid, and it really paddles pretty easily. That said, there are plenty of places you wouldn't want to be and the bottom half is very fast and very shallow. It wouldn't be an ideal rapid to explore while upside down.
Mila setting up a boof in Four Falls. We waited for Ben and Mila to get on the riverbank and we peeled out. Chase was in a retro mood, and it was his mission on this drop to bring back paddle tricks from the early 90s, which he did at the crux with a 360, above the head, paddle twirl.
My line started out great, with an excellent boof off the top ledge, and I was only slightly off my usual line when I lost my control and was floundering with a right side brace. I tried to brace far too long, and when I went under to roll, I was pushed right and over a rock which snapped my paddle in half. I didn't know this happened at the time, all I knew was that I couldn't roll and that I was about to have a less than fun experience. I let go of the paddle and felt the boat hit a rock, which I was able to hold on to long enough to get my face out of the water and see that I was about to go over a 6 foot drop backwards, upside down and head first. As soon as I went over and impacted, I bailed from the boat and swam as hard as I could to Chase, who was in an eddy on river left. Chase was not in position to paddle with a swimmer, so I drifted downstream a bit and got out.
The guys got my boat and I searched around for my paddle, again, not knowing it was trashed. Chase came upstream to make sure I was OK, and I asked about it. "Your paddle is in pieces Bro, it's gone." Crap. I put the breakdown together and drained my boat while Mila and Ben had successful runs.
At this point, I still felt terrible but was relived to be past all of the big rapids. From here to the take out, it is pretty easy creeking with spaced out class III+ action. There is only one more rapid to be concerned with, Mystery Eddy, which is the last real rapid on the run. It is a short drop and it goes well, but it can give you a stout chundering if you screw it up as it is full of rocks and has a strong hole at the bottom, especially at flows over 350 or so. Chase and I were in the lead, and as we passed the last eddy before the drop, it occurred to me that we hadn't even mentioned this rapid to Mila. There is a trick line on this rapid, where you boof into a hidden eddy in the middle of the drop and from upstream, you look as if you just vanished. Again, we didn't explain this to Mila, and when I met Chase in the eddy, we started wondering about her. Just then, I saw her go by, in the meat of the drop, upside down. Oops. Ben showed up just in time to see this as well, so we hustled down to see how she was faring with the hole.
We got there just in time to see her attempting a swimming self rescue, which wasn't really a big deal as this could be the best place on the river to swim, since there is a huge pool with slow moving water. Luckily there were two guys talking safety on shore who gave us a hand with gathering gear. We sorted out this situation and headed down the mile or two of class II to the takeout.
Paying dues.All in all, it was a another great day on Bailey. We had some carnage, learned some lessons, but creekboating is often the art of Plan B and it can sometimes still be considered a successful day even while you are enjoying a PBR out of your favorite shoe.
