bonk
09-20-2005, 11:14 PM
So a friend and I ran the Middle Fork of the American the other day from Ruck-a-chucky to the Confluence (Middle/North below Clementine). The day was perfect, and we arrived at the put in around 11AM. Perfect time to hike up and scope Ruck-a-chucky while waiting for the water to rise. After the hike and then hike back, we started unloading the truck and gearing up.
By 12:00 PM we were in our kayaks messing around in the flat water above the 1st rapid right by the put in. 1 Pm rolls around, still no water. WTF. 1:30 - No Water. 2Pm finds us out of our kayaks sprawled out on a rock wondering if today is a bust. I hike back to the parking lot and ask one of the shuttle buses if they for certain water was released this morning and he told us, "Yeah, but they are about 1.5 hours behind". Ughhh that means most likely 02:30 PM for water. And sure enough about that time it starts creeping up.
We probably didn't wait long enough, but the water had come up about 9"s so we figured were good to go. Off we went! the 1st rapid is straight down the middle riffle affair which was a little shallow (probably due to not waiting long enough) that empties out into a rock bar with a little drop and then sharp right turn that is fun. From here you proceed to dodge a few rocks, run down a few little riffles and have fun while the river winds back and forth. At 2 spots in the upper section we were faced with a sharp right chute with lots of overhanging trees in the way, or the left shallow. We went left and shallow each time and both times we literally had to butt scootch down the small rapid. Perhaps if we had waited longer we would have had more coverage. Next time I'll scout the deeper fast right channels 1st to see if they runnable.
Before too long you reach a few rapids with some little ledges and drops, and one cool spot is a perfect "S-turn" from left then back right. Very fun an pretty much fun Class II the whole way down to Mammoth Bar. Of note: if you pass Mammoth Bar take out (where the sign is) there is a rapid about half way through mammoth Bar. On the far left is a cool channel that has a submerged rock just below a drop that could easily cause a nose pin if you took it with no speed. Either approach with speed, or take one of the right chute.
Immedaitely passed Mammoth is a little fun rapid with a drop then a left turn at a rock, as you make this you will look down towards Murderer's rapid. Very obvious due to the metal grating on a rock and the scary look from the rapids. We headed right and bailed into a small pond on the right. The portage we took went to the right, up over a round boulder, down the other side, then two more lowers to a mellow pool. we didn't use any climbing gear but it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do. I would say it took us about 1 hour to make the whole portage, but we did mess around a little.
Jumped in the pool below Murderers rapid and headed through a channel created by two LARGE boulders then started towards what looked to be a significant drop. As I got close I realized that I might want to look at this setion first and quickly caught an eddy on the left. Man am I glad I did! That drop has a submerged boulder that sticks up about have way across the channel. There is enough room on the left to pass, but if you weren't far enough to the left or you biffed any part of your body on the rock on the right, you would most certainly be majorly ****ed up. We elected to portage again. Over the boulder, then into the next pool.
This pool also had a drop on the far side. While it didn't look as bad, it did have boulders blocking all major chutes which would mean hunting and pecking to get through. By now we could actually feel the main bulk of the flow hit us and realized that we had definitely either jumped the gun earlier or we had out paddled the flow.
My friend ran it 1st. He was using my InaZone 240 and as he approached the 1st chute he semi-broad sided the boulder below the two guarding the chute on the far left. This bounced him left (where he wanted to be) and set him for a fast ride down the other chutes. Score! My turn.
I was paddling my Big EZ of whch has a lil' bit of oil caning and I noticed that I seem to have a bit of a harder time river running in it as oppossed to when I am in the InaZone as I ride much lower in the water while in the Big Ez. I also head towards the far left chute but right before the drop is a section of whirlpool funny water that literally just robbed me of every ounce of speed I had entering the chute. My friend had just flew right over this spot, but the lower ride caused a greater speed robbing effect IMO. While it wasn't so bad, the problem is I had no speed to squirt passed the standing boulder in the middle as planned, despite being perfectly aligned in the correct direction. I ended up getting pulled to the right.
Now you wouldn't think that this was that big of a deal until I realized that I was heading backwards down a narrowing chute that no way in hell would fit my boat. Visons of upside down entrapment ran through my mind and survival instinct kicked in. I quickly grabbed the rock with my right hand, shoved off back to the left chute only to get repeatedly bounced back towards the narrowing slot since I didnt have enough force to break the current line. My friend was watching from a rock and said it was one of those things where he just didn't know what to do. To him though, he said the severity of the incident was plain as day.
Finally after about 5 tries to break the eddy line and getting nearly pushed backwards into the narrowing chute, I managed to get some momentum, paddle hard as I could and break into the water. With my focus on just trying to enter the chute, I wasn't prepared at all for the actual drop. Bloop! Over I went. I thought about trying a roll for about 1 second, till I flew over the next drop upside down. It was a weird feeling to be falling in that position and I figured the best bet would be to kiss my deck like no tomorrow, and wet release asap when I finsihed the drop. All worked as planned, except when I came out, the boat punched through the hole, but I was momentarily suspended there between the drop and the backwash.
Another scary moment ensued as I realized what was going on. I dropped into turbo swim mode, and within a few strokes I was able to launch myself out of the hole and down the next drop. By this time my boat and paddle had some seperation bewteen itself and me so I had to continue swimming at high speed in order to catch up before it made through the pool and over the next rapids. Fortunately I caught it i time.
As I got situated and back in my boat, I realized something. Class III (below Mammoth is that) is a serious step up from class II. Guess I'll be running more class IIs before my next forray into the land of the III! Below the last big drops of Murderers Bar are some fun S turns and easy gravel bars. The current was fast and the next mile or two below the old limestone quarry was great! We knew the final rapid below the parking lot was tight and fast so we decided to scout. The river narrows to a chute, then angles left spill into a bowl with several chutes leading down the next drop. I chickened immediately still smarting from my previous encounter. My friend also decided to bail. We portaged on river left through some bushes and thrashed our way to the bottom of this section. We jumped back in and paddled two smaller rapids to the confluence and pulled out on river right.
Some lessons learned:
#1- I will be switching back to my InaZone for the near future. The higher volume and more forgiving lines are more my skill level at this point. If others want to use my boats, they need to use what I am not, not me switching my boats to accomidate them. Riding high in the InaZone I bet I would have been fine going through the rapid I lost it on.
#2- If I run the Middle Fork again, I will wait at least 1 hour after the water starts to come up before going down. This should allow for the bulk of the flow to get there. I think we left too soon and missed out on a lot of coverage in the upper section where it got boney due to low flow.
#3- You really need to two trucks or other higher clearence vehicles since on the way back I had to have my friend park his Volvo up top and I had to run down down the road 2 miles to my truck sicne we didnt think he would have made it back out.
All in all, I liked the run and though I felt I got over my head a little bit, it was a good wakeup that served as a strong reminder to respect the river and the class. I think I will be sticking to the upper section for a few more times or will just portage all of the class III sections on the lower piece below Mammoth.
Bonk rating Scale: (MoA = Middle Fork of American starting at Ruck-a-chucky)
American (Sunrise to Watt)<SoA CtoG~MoA to Mammoth<Putah<Moke (Electra to Middle)<MoA Below Murderers to Confluence)
By 12:00 PM we were in our kayaks messing around in the flat water above the 1st rapid right by the put in. 1 Pm rolls around, still no water. WTF. 1:30 - No Water. 2Pm finds us out of our kayaks sprawled out on a rock wondering if today is a bust. I hike back to the parking lot and ask one of the shuttle buses if they for certain water was released this morning and he told us, "Yeah, but they are about 1.5 hours behind". Ughhh that means most likely 02:30 PM for water. And sure enough about that time it starts creeping up.
We probably didn't wait long enough, but the water had come up about 9"s so we figured were good to go. Off we went! the 1st rapid is straight down the middle riffle affair which was a little shallow (probably due to not waiting long enough) that empties out into a rock bar with a little drop and then sharp right turn that is fun. From here you proceed to dodge a few rocks, run down a few little riffles and have fun while the river winds back and forth. At 2 spots in the upper section we were faced with a sharp right chute with lots of overhanging trees in the way, or the left shallow. We went left and shallow each time and both times we literally had to butt scootch down the small rapid. Perhaps if we had waited longer we would have had more coverage. Next time I'll scout the deeper fast right channels 1st to see if they runnable.
Before too long you reach a few rapids with some little ledges and drops, and one cool spot is a perfect "S-turn" from left then back right. Very fun an pretty much fun Class II the whole way down to Mammoth Bar. Of note: if you pass Mammoth Bar take out (where the sign is) there is a rapid about half way through mammoth Bar. On the far left is a cool channel that has a submerged rock just below a drop that could easily cause a nose pin if you took it with no speed. Either approach with speed, or take one of the right chute.
Immedaitely passed Mammoth is a little fun rapid with a drop then a left turn at a rock, as you make this you will look down towards Murderer's rapid. Very obvious due to the metal grating on a rock and the scary look from the rapids. We headed right and bailed into a small pond on the right. The portage we took went to the right, up over a round boulder, down the other side, then two more lowers to a mellow pool. we didn't use any climbing gear but it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do. I would say it took us about 1 hour to make the whole portage, but we did mess around a little.
Jumped in the pool below Murderers rapid and headed through a channel created by two LARGE boulders then started towards what looked to be a significant drop. As I got close I realized that I might want to look at this setion first and quickly caught an eddy on the left. Man am I glad I did! That drop has a submerged boulder that sticks up about have way across the channel. There is enough room on the left to pass, but if you weren't far enough to the left or you biffed any part of your body on the rock on the right, you would most certainly be majorly ****ed up. We elected to portage again. Over the boulder, then into the next pool.
This pool also had a drop on the far side. While it didn't look as bad, it did have boulders blocking all major chutes which would mean hunting and pecking to get through. By now we could actually feel the main bulk of the flow hit us and realized that we had definitely either jumped the gun earlier or we had out paddled the flow.
My friend ran it 1st. He was using my InaZone 240 and as he approached the 1st chute he semi-broad sided the boulder below the two guarding the chute on the far left. This bounced him left (where he wanted to be) and set him for a fast ride down the other chutes. Score! My turn.
I was paddling my Big EZ of whch has a lil' bit of oil caning and I noticed that I seem to have a bit of a harder time river running in it as oppossed to when I am in the InaZone as I ride much lower in the water while in the Big Ez. I also head towards the far left chute but right before the drop is a section of whirlpool funny water that literally just robbed me of every ounce of speed I had entering the chute. My friend had just flew right over this spot, but the lower ride caused a greater speed robbing effect IMO. While it wasn't so bad, the problem is I had no speed to squirt passed the standing boulder in the middle as planned, despite being perfectly aligned in the correct direction. I ended up getting pulled to the right.
Now you wouldn't think that this was that big of a deal until I realized that I was heading backwards down a narrowing chute that no way in hell would fit my boat. Visons of upside down entrapment ran through my mind and survival instinct kicked in. I quickly grabbed the rock with my right hand, shoved off back to the left chute only to get repeatedly bounced back towards the narrowing slot since I didnt have enough force to break the current line. My friend was watching from a rock and said it was one of those things where he just didn't know what to do. To him though, he said the severity of the incident was plain as day.
Finally after about 5 tries to break the eddy line and getting nearly pushed backwards into the narrowing chute, I managed to get some momentum, paddle hard as I could and break into the water. With my focus on just trying to enter the chute, I wasn't prepared at all for the actual drop. Bloop! Over I went. I thought about trying a roll for about 1 second, till I flew over the next drop upside down. It was a weird feeling to be falling in that position and I figured the best bet would be to kiss my deck like no tomorrow, and wet release asap when I finsihed the drop. All worked as planned, except when I came out, the boat punched through the hole, but I was momentarily suspended there between the drop and the backwash.
Another scary moment ensued as I realized what was going on. I dropped into turbo swim mode, and within a few strokes I was able to launch myself out of the hole and down the next drop. By this time my boat and paddle had some seperation bewteen itself and me so I had to continue swimming at high speed in order to catch up before it made through the pool and over the next rapids. Fortunately I caught it i time.
As I got situated and back in my boat, I realized something. Class III (below Mammoth is that) is a serious step up from class II. Guess I'll be running more class IIs before my next forray into the land of the III! Below the last big drops of Murderers Bar are some fun S turns and easy gravel bars. The current was fast and the next mile or two below the old limestone quarry was great! We knew the final rapid below the parking lot was tight and fast so we decided to scout. The river narrows to a chute, then angles left spill into a bowl with several chutes leading down the next drop. I chickened immediately still smarting from my previous encounter. My friend also decided to bail. We portaged on river left through some bushes and thrashed our way to the bottom of this section. We jumped back in and paddled two smaller rapids to the confluence and pulled out on river right.
Some lessons learned:
#1- I will be switching back to my InaZone for the near future. The higher volume and more forgiving lines are more my skill level at this point. If others want to use my boats, they need to use what I am not, not me switching my boats to accomidate them. Riding high in the InaZone I bet I would have been fine going through the rapid I lost it on.
#2- If I run the Middle Fork again, I will wait at least 1 hour after the water starts to come up before going down. This should allow for the bulk of the flow to get there. I think we left too soon and missed out on a lot of coverage in the upper section where it got boney due to low flow.
#3- You really need to two trucks or other higher clearence vehicles since on the way back I had to have my friend park his Volvo up top and I had to run down down the road 2 miles to my truck sicne we didnt think he would have made it back out.
All in all, I liked the run and though I felt I got over my head a little bit, it was a good wakeup that served as a strong reminder to respect the river and the class. I think I will be sticking to the upper section for a few more times or will just portage all of the class III sections on the lower piece below Mammoth.
Bonk rating Scale: (MoA = Middle Fork of American starting at Ruck-a-chucky)
American (Sunrise to Watt)<SoA CtoG~MoA to Mammoth<Putah<Moke (Electra to Middle)<MoA Below Murderers to Confluence)