Well I did it ladies and gentlemen, I did what I set out to do.  I have joined the ranks of Heehaw Jones and I believe I have taken the first(however small) steps to curing cancer and other tragic ailments.  The title of Midwest Intermediate Freestyle Champion is mine!

The weekend started with a playboating clinic taught by Colin Kemp and John McCondville.  We worked on learning playable features, where to do tricks in the feature, and how to compete smart.  Colin was extremely helpful and I believe vital to my success in the comp.  I was also lucky enough to drive Colin up to Wausau and pick the brain of another Heehaw Jones admirer.

The prelims on Saturday went great and I had a ton of fun.  I came in 2nd by 18 points…quite the spanking but my hopes were high for semis and finals on Sunday.  After Semifinals, I was in 2nd to another guy and he delivered quite the spanking as well.  I figured Finals could be anyones for the taking so I gave it my best go.  Even if I had bombed the Finals, at least I had made it there and did my best…and most importantly, had a great time.  Much to my surprise, it was I that delivered the spanking in the finals beating 2nd place 69 to 31.5.  I attribute my first place finish to a variety of tricks that I tweaked or learned that weekend.  Now I’m not sure what I actually landed during the competition, but my bag of tricks now contains spins, cartwheels, splitwheels, and a loop.

The competition was a lot of fun, but I had the most fun at Little Drop.  This feature was great for nearly any skill level.  It gave up tricks fairly easily and a majority of loops I have landed have been in this feature.  Hopefully the competition next year will be located here.  Speaking of next year, I am formally announcing my intent on competing in the Expert division(since I am no longer allowed in the Rec. division).

To top this great weekend off, each night was spent in the dark parking lot of the VFW.  I was introduced to a modified, pro version of 4-Square.  Instead of the playground rules of using your hands, PBR rules stipulate a soccer-esque approach where your arms are off limits and you must kick, knee, chest bump, or header the ball.  My success on the court exceeded my success in the hole that weekend…not normal for me in a sport where a ball is used.

While I had a great weekend, I could not help but be bothered at the severe lack of Chicagoans and Chicago area paddlers at this event.  I believe the only two people representing our city/area were myself and Pete.  Some people couldn’t make it due to work, others just bailed, and even more people never even thought to come. Wausau has a great whitewater park with phenomenal features.  The competition is low key and anybody can enter.  When you aren’t competing, there are plenty of other features in which you can entertain yourself on.  Just so everyone is clear, this is not an event in which you can just push off your calender.  If you are a paddler and living in the Midwest (or Reno)  this is one trip to solidify on your list.

What’s next for me as I follow in the footsteps of Heehaw himself?  Well I LOVE Beaver and Gauley Fest sounds like the place to be.

See ya on the river

Red (Dog)

Now I know I have mentioned this a number of times before, but this was one of the best weekends I have ever had paddling.  I’m sure I keep saying this due to a number of factors which always result in great times but the song remains the same(reference anybody?).  I’m sure you’re asking yourself, what made this weekend more special then any of the previous “amazing” weekends?  Well the answer of course is quality whitewater. 

Our weekend started off with myself geting out of work an hour early, only to be stuck in traffic for another hour, on top of afterwork rushhour in Chicago.  Picking up Powder and Scare Crow on the way and driving through the night, we arrived at camp around 5:30am, only to be woken up by The Orange Crush at 7.  Little did he know, the water gets to Sang Run later then it used to so we woke up for nothing.  The Upper Yough was running around 2 1/4 on the paddlers gauge so it’s the among the lowest I have ran it (this is my 4th) but knew it would still be a great time.  Big Drop, Bill, and Kyle joined Powder, Scare Crow and I and we couldn’t have had a better crew.  Although a few of us are still on the novice side of things, nobody had any troubles and only a few heads got wet.  We made it though cleanly and had an awesome time.

Late that night, we camped out in some pretty heavy rains.  I must admit, it was tough to sleep, my mind was racing with thoughts of new run(s) the next day.  After a quick breakfast the next morning, we were on our way to Meadow Run.  This tight little run starts off on the Cascades, a waterfall that doesn’t look like it belongs with the rest of the run.  This slide, although intimidating, was a fun, easy, scary ride…definitely an interesting “get up and go” early morning thing.  The rest of the run was back to narrow winding through the mountains.  All too early, we arrived at the natural waterslide.  I didn’t run this extremely tight slide but there was only one thought running through my mind when a few buddies ran it…BADASS.

After an amazing morning run, The Top Yough was calling our names.  Few of us had ran this stretch of the Yough before and I had only seen a couple drops on it that were quite impressive.  The rest of the river was quite different then the first two drops, another cascading slide and a pretty straight forward 5 foot ledge.  Continuing after that was 2 miles of whitewater.  Unfortunately for our buddy Brett who dislocated his shoulder and Mike who was kind enough to drive him to the hospital, they didn’t get to experience the rest of the river at a relatively high flow to what our guide had seen prior.  Dave was kind enough to take the rest of us down these mostly read and run boulder gardens, with the exception of Suck Hole.  We all had great runs down this beautiful river and were more then happy to relax for the rest of the night.  Most of us had 2 personal first descents in one day, a first time for most of us.

Sunday, our plans were set well in advance to run the Savage River.  Although we may have been able to get on another river at natural flow, we took the damn release due to its hype and our curiosity, as well as its difficulty.  This was an awesome run similar to some of the stuff I had paddled in Mexico.  It was an extremely continuous low volume river with not much of a drop to it.  Everything aside from the damn was read on the run and I was happy to lead the way for most of the time.  Most people were pretty tired at the end but had I not had to travel 13 hours, I would have taken another run.

As mentioned before, this was one of the best weekends I’ve had and I’m sure it has something to do with quality whitewater, good friends, fun times, and of course, the fact that I LOVE PADDLING

RED DOG (mandated by The Orange Crush)

My apologies for my absence from blogging.  I have no excuse…I’ve just been lazy…ya know, too much paddling.

Since I last wrote,  my buddies and I took a  trip all along the Appalacians.  Dusty and I met Cowboy and Friendly, loaded up  a trailer with 8 boats and hit the road.  Three days on the Ocoee didn’t sound all that great when we started…but after three days, we had never had so much fun on it.  We ran the entire river on the 1st and 2nd days and park’n played at Hells Hole on the 3rd.  Other then a productive day at Hells Hole, the fun part was running it in our creek boats.  We had a great time running different lines, catching as many eddies as possible, and being comfy in our caddies.  I definitely rekindled my love for the Ocoee…not that it faded all that much.  Day 4 was spent on the Pigeon.  Not knowing what we were getting into and trusting the guide books analysis of a class 3-4 river, we were initially disappointed in the class 2-barely 3 run but in retrospect, I had a good time floating down and discovering some great little eddy lines.  On the 5th day, we were lucky enough to learn of a free shuttle at the New (once we arrived at the outfitters) and some of us were able to get another new river under our belts.  Even though it was at low water(relatively) we had a great time on one of the most beautiful places I have been.  The next few days were spent in the Yough area.  Dusty and I ran the Lower while the other two rested up for a big next day.  The Upper Yough on the next day was a great time (for some).  When you’re not on your game, the first major rapids can be quite difficult but fortunately for myself, I was ON and feelin great.  Day 8 was just another relaxing day spent at ASCI.  I had great distaste for ASCI from my previous visit but I ended up having a great time playing at the bottom.  The last and final Day 9 was spent at a rightful place, East Race.  9 Days of paddling in a row really advances you.  Linking multiple days like this, easily teaches you to be “one” with your boat and insists you become a better boater.

Since that trip, my paddling has become much more routine.  My early season lack of East Race water caught up with me and I have really needed andindulged my fix.  I have been to East Race every weekend since it has opened on the weekend of Day 9.   I have taken a much different approach to East Race this season.  I now take my time going down alone.  I use each feature to work on specific aspects of surfing andhave found that Rodeo Hole is my key to advancement.  Cartwheels in Rodeo Hole have been coming more andmore second nature andthis last weekend, I landed my first few LOOPS!  I have been feeling as if my boat is an extension of my body, it has been feeling natural…as if I were born boofing.

I should have a pretty exciting month coming up with a couple more days on the Upper Yough, a new river with a release on the Savage, and the Midwest Rodeo Championships.

Now for those counting…I have paddled for roughly 75 days this calender year and couldn’t be happier about the direction my paddling is headed.

Well a few weeks ago, the rains came….and they didn’t stop.  Record rainfall pounded the midwest and the rivers didn’t take long to rise.  On the Friday before the floods, the Root River was running at about 500-700cfs.  This fun but tame level would be the start to a weekend nobody will soon forget. 

Sidelined by the Windy City Kayak Symposium on Saturday, I was anxious to get on the rising Root the following day.  The gauge looked as if it would reach 2,500-3,000 cfs but nobody expected what it jumped to Sunday morning.  I woke up and with my eyes barely open, hit the refresh button for the gauge, and immediately ran out the door.  With the level at over 3,000cfs and the graph shooting straight up, I didn’t want to miss a thing. 

With the current pushing through the trees…everbody was on their toes.  Cautiously finding eddies or just  wide eyed on the shore…nobody could believe the levels or the fact that I was the first to surf All Evil at this menacing level (it as friendlier then it looked).  Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lUb4ip5HMo to see my last surf of the day but this was not even close to the most exciting part of the day.

On only the 2nd or 3rd run.  The Hulk (with an injured shoulder) got flushed off of Upper Pipeline and was immediately met with a vicious low hanging tree.  After grabbing the tree, The Hulk was flipped and swimming in seconds. 

Yard Sale: 1 boat, 1 paddle

 Barry and I were the first and only ones on the scene and nobody wanted to mess with those eddies.  As I escorted The Hulk to shore after All Evil, Barry went on to save The Hulk’s boat.  After The Hulk was safe and sound, I chased down Barry to aid in the boat rescue.  As I was approaching him, he flips and swims.  The Hulk’s boat was now gone under some brush and we think this will now be a nice swim in the golf course…WRONG!  As we turned a corner, we noticed a foot bridge that is now a river wide strainer.  If Barry doesnt get to that last cluster of trees, he must dive down below the foot bridge.  Swimming for his life, Barry pins himself against a tree and my handy rope (the one that everyone thinks is stupid on the Root) pulls him safely to shore. 

Yard Sale: 2 boats, 2 paddles

I continued on down the river/flooded golf course looking for lost gear and as I am coming to the end of the golf course, I saw Barry’s boat pinned against a log jam (that will have to wait till the water recedes.  As I was wading through the flooded golf course, the Hulk’s boat is floating down stream and after lots of frantic scooting and cussing on my part, I managed to get to the boat, clip onto it, and tow it to shore just in time before it met the same fate as Barry’s boat.

Yard Sale: 1 boat, 2 paddles.

Gear rescue missions for the remaining items at the yard sale proved worthless but everyone was safe and sound.  Even though I was dead tired after safety boating, I couldn’t resist the calls of All Evil @ 4,000+cfs…definately a day I won’t soon forget.

Well the past few weeks have been quite relaxed as far as paddling goes.  I spent 3 weekends in a row paddling in the north woods of Wisconsin.  We had some pretty good levels on the Wolf River and had an amazing time at Pabst-A-Palooza but the whitewater was tame by most peoples standards…up until this weekend anyways.

Bebop (Zach), Jeff, and I took off Thursday evening, crammed in Jeff’s truck with our creekers and playboats in the back bed.  For anyone who owns both a play and creek boat…you know it’s gonna be a good weekend when you must bring both.  We got to the B&B/campgrounds around 4:15am and quickly went to sleep..we knew the weekend would be good and needed our sleep.

In the morning, we threw around a few ideas of what to paddle and “settled” on the Tip Top Yough even though none of us had been on it.  We ran into Jeff’s friend Brad at a local paddle shop and again at a cafe.  Now I don’t believe things happen for a reason…but we were destined that day to run the Upper Yough.  Brad and his friend Steve were heading that way and it just so happened they were more then happy to take a few Midwesterners down this stretch.  Zach and Jeff had both been on the Upper a few times while this would be a personal 1st D.  The level read 2.5 on the gauge, well above the normal release level during the summer.  This is a river where inches on the gauge translate into feet on the whitewater portion.  It was gonna be JUICY!

Nervous and tweaked nearly the entire way down, I was in a constant battle with myself about this run.  Our pace was brisk during the first half down to National Falls.  Remarkably, everyone cleaned the top and most steep section of this juicy creek run.  Our fatigue began to show through after National Falls when we had 3 swims between the 3 of us Midwesterners (swimmers will remain anonymous).  After much doubt, head games, and my swim (ok, not compltely anonymous) it became apparent to myself that this river at this level was just within my range of abililty.  Instead of “wow, this is crazy,”  my thoughts turned to “This is awesome, I should be here, and I don’t wanna be anywhere else.”  Everything in my life (past and future) melted away and I became focused on the task at hand.  For most people, a swim would shake them up, for me, this swim and on previous at Daddy’s Creek shook me and made me realize what kinda paddler I am and acts as a stern reminder…be aggressive and trust yourself. 

Upon completion of this run, I was flying high and felt on top of my game.  Reaching the take out, we realized the gauge read nearly 3ft, a full foot above a “normal” release level.  Very few paddle the Upper Yough at levels like this and for it to be my first time down, I will always view that river differently then anyone else.

Saturday ended up being a more relaxing day on the Cheat River.  This was a personal 1st D for Bebop and myself and we were excited to not be wide eyed the entire day.  We played, took different lines, and had fun on the big water.  Coliseum contained the 2 biggest holes I had ever seen.  The perfect end to an awesome run came at the waves down at the bottom.  Bebop and I threw our very first Blunts.  Once again flying high, we returned to the Yough area and did a quick run on the Lower’s Loop.

Sunday turned into our third amazing whitewater day in a row.  We got on the Upper Yough and upon our decent, realized the leve was just a bit lower then it was when we had started on Friday (all were thankful.)  Jeff and Bebop felt confident enough in their skills and knowledge of the river that we would be fine.  My skeptic nature was unsure but I wanted to run the Upper at a lower level so bad that our relatively inexperienced crew would be fine.  It was amazing to see the same stretch of river at two drasticly different levels so close to eachother.  Lines had changed, some holes got smaller, some got munchier, and all 3 of us nearly cleaned the run (a flip here and there did not sour the occasion.) 

The bright idea was then brought up to run the Lower Yough at a level none of us had seen.  The office at the lower had closed and the shuttle at the end would probably not be running…but we had the river to ourselves.  We had a fun time running the Lower up untill time that we realized the walk out of the lower would be epic.  After 3 days of hard paddling, we carried our creekers uphill for 2 miles.  After each steep incline, around the corner was a steeper and taller hill.   Now that, is a class V takeout. 

Intially we had planned on paddling 4 days in a row, but our epic weekend ended early and the 3 of us just wanted to go home.  We were fatigued and happy and wanted to make the crammed ride home as enjoyable as possibly. 

Sunday, our Upper and Lower Yough dual run was day 50 this calender year for me and as the iceing on the cake for an epic weekend I will always remember.

River Junky

Hot Damn!  These past two weekends have been absolutely amazing.  Last weekend, saturated grounds, snow melt, and rains provided epic playboating conditions on my favorite local spot.  The Root River was raging at 2,500 CFS when I pulled up friday morning.  With levels this good, I was astonished to only see Adrian, Jon, and I to be the only ones out there early on but I wasn’t about to complain about having a private river. 

Jon headed straight down to All Evil while Adrian and I carried up to an amazing Upper Pipeline.  As we got down to All Evil, I noticed a humbled Jon sitting on the banks gripping his throw bag tightly.  His only words where “wow.”  Without a hesitation, I rode the curler out to the massive standing wave on surfers right and quickly (without my consent) spun left and was engulfed by the white wall of water named All Evil.  Without much warm up and not having been in a feature this big since the mid summer floods, I quickly wanted out!  With a wall of water to my right and a potential “working” to my left…I figured the only way out would be to windowshade or ender…I chose the later and Backstabbed out.  Rolling up with dinner plates for eyes…I could only mutter “wow.”  Informing Adrian that the longer he waited and looked at this feature, the less chance he would attempt to conquer it.  Needless to say, a 5 minute staring contest resulted in All Evil telling him to stay in the eddy. 

Levels on Saturday and Sunday offered much more fun with a max reading of 2,800 CFS and 2,100-2,300 CFS respectively.  With 3 solid days on amazing levels, I could feel my level of playboating advancing.  I established myself in the features, learned them and where I was in them, and felt like I could attempt other moves then spins.

This past weekend provided an entirely different experience then the high water levels on my favorite playspot.  MPG, Justice Jake, and Jeff headed up to the Upper Peninsula, Michigan.  Arriving in L’Anse around 5:30 am, we places our bags on a comfy concrete slab at the takeout of the Falls River and fell fast asleep.  Alon and Steve where nice enough to take us UP Newbies down the Falls.  Jeff quickly realized he was in the wrong boat and halfway through and after spending most of the time upside down, he hiked out as we continued down.  We took two runs down the Falls that day and had a blast running ledges and slides.  It was quite the rush.  We even got to rename a drop.  The broken out damn (last drop of the Falls) is now aptly named Money Shot due to MPG(now aka Hand Job) breaking his paddle and requiring a pricey hospital visit.

Tommy decided joined up with us later that night and Saturday we decided to head to the Rock River.  This seldom run stretch started and ended with more flatwater and marshes then we preferred provided Jeff with a run appropriate for his boat and gave Tommy a warm up in his rarely used creeker.  We had a great time running the continuous whitewater section and everyone enjoyed dodging the rediculous amount of timber in the river.  It was a beautiful remote run but provided little challenge.

Sunday we woke early for a quick run on the Falls and to give Tommy the creeking he had been looking for.  We had a quick, clean run and hit the road for the Peshtigo which was raging at 30 inches (previously only hit at Summer flows and around 12 inches).  This was an awesome run with big water, high volume drops, and above all else, warm weather.

As you may be able to tell…my weekends keep getting better and better and no two weekend is the same.

Red Baron

River Junky

Well after much deliberation and closely watching the radar….I hopped in the Crush Mobile with MPG, Blue, and of course Orange Crush to take on West Virginia.  Although water levels were questionable at the time, rain was in the forecast and we knew the weather would pull through for the Hoosiers and Rapid Renegades.  12 hours after my departure from the Chicago area…we pulled into Camp Ceaser and the crew hit the hay immediately.  I for one, was not down for the count.  The White Castle I threw down earlier in the night decided to hassle me so I was forced to wrestle it down.

Friday called for rain all day…the weather man was wrong.  It trickled here and there but didn’t give us what we wanted.  The Upper Meadow did though.  After a tricky put in and approximately 12 scrapes of the Crush Mobile’s hitch…we finally made it down to the river and had an amazing time running conintuous III, -IV rapids.  We had a very successfull run and everyone had a blast.  The group consisted of MPG, Blue(he got his name on this trip), Orange Crush, Big Drop, Scarecrow, Big Chief, Anny, and myself.

After a little partying and lots of talk that night, we decided to check the levels in the morning but the Cranberry was the probable choice.  Sure enough…come next morning…we ate at the Hill Top Diner and headed for some technical creeking.  As the group ran shuttle, we figured the 15-20 people we had ready to run the river would be way too big so MPG, Blue, Scarecrow, and myself decided to head down.  None of us had run or much less seen this river before so we had little idea of what to expect.  To say we were pleasantly suprised would be a gross understatement.  We boat scouted everything and picked our way down this technical, fairly steep creek. 

Our first run went pretty fast so we loaded up the Crush Mobile and headed back up for another run.  We were more then willing to leave the Crush Mobile at the put in since it was loaded with beer…and we knew it would aggrivate Orange Crush.  However, on the way up, we ran into FooFoo who was more then willing to drive the Crush Mobile back down…we were hesitant, but we accepted.  About half way down our second run, we ran into the rest of our group…chuggin away in a group of 15, like little lemmings blindly following the colorful object in front of them.  Astonished they hadn’t split up into smaller groups, we messhed with them and led them down Cranberry Twist, a fairly technical rapid with a blind turn and a couple seams to punch through.  We decided to run this rapid twice and break it down as much as possible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjruJxHJ_s .  For the rest of the run, we decided to take matters into our own hands and split the group up and led people down the remaining class III boulder gardens.

If you have ever paddled or been to a festival with the HCC, you know they take over the scene…and Webster was no different.  Much bigger then last year, the camp grounds were packed and the party hut was jumpin.  Blue and Orange Crush took the party by storm and danced their heart out while the rest of us boozed and did whatever other vices we chose to indulge in. 

Perhaps the higlight of this trip would be the crowning of two new champions,  SPONGEBOB and I(RED BARON) OUTLASTED THE ORANGE CRUSH.  We taunted him and egged him to stay up, and a couple times he came out on the porch in his orange underwear, but the bed got the best of him and he crashed hard.

In addition to the hard partying and crowning of two new champs…the weather finally cooperated and it rained all night.  Although everyone wanted a quick run Sunday morning, the Back Fork of the Elk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eah58UiE3g4was on the rise and nobody could turn it down.  We put on Sugar Creek that was nearly busting at the seams.  Nobody in our group of 20 had seen this level before so we knew we were in for an epic run.  We split into two groups and made our way down.  The first few ledges went fine aside from a miscommunication and a terrible line on the first ledge but all was well.  I will spare you the juicy details of the debacle but we had yard sale on the third ledge and face smash on the second to last drop.  To say the least…we were ready to get off the river. 

All in all, everyone was ok, MPG drove the whole way home(thanks), and I got home at 4 am but it was worth it.

Here are a couple things we all learned on this trip: The trailer on the Crush Mobile needs to be fixed, everyone should carry a rope with them on the river, and WV is always an awesome time.

River Junky

It’s springtime and you don’t have to travel far to find phenominal playboating.  Going on weekend trips are fun and all, but so is an hour drive to park and play.  Standing waves are sometimes hard to find  on rivers…but not on the Root.  Waves are a plentiful feature on this river. 

MPG and I rolled in during the afternoon on Friday and paddled till we could no more.  We knew Saturday would be a big day on the Root so we called it a little earlier then normal and headed back to Chicago.

Saturday proved to be an excellent day.  There was a pretty good interest in our first Rapid Renegade Boater X.   The levels were excellent…every feature was in.  Malted Milk provided an awesome Surfer X impromptu. 

Sunday is when I had the most fun though.  Getting to Racine around noon, the water levels had dropped but there was still plenty of play to be had.  Friday and Saturday were moderate days for me.  I had a tough time getting comfortable on the waves and wasn’t feeling 100%.  Today proved much different.  From Upper Pipepline down to All Evil, I dialed in every feature.  Spins on Upper Pipeline and Tundra came easy and I even got a few spins on All Evil.  Sunday was tons of fun with a good and easy level, and moderate air temps.  The icing on the cake would have to be the 10 min surf on a standing green wave just above All Evil. 

Hopefully  WV will be my destination next weekend.

Red Baron

After spending a weekend in our creekboats last week, MPG and I were ready to get back in our playboats and hit some waves.  A local favorite spot was running at a good level so we decided to head up for the day.  MPG pulled into Chicago to see a little snow on the ground and blue skys.  After a quick stop at my place, we loaded up and hit the road.  The further north we got, the more snow was coming down(or going sideways).  Not only were the weather conditions for paddling questionable, but it didn’t take long into our trip where the weather was now questionable for safe driving. 

Arriving at the parking lot for the Root River, we anxiously got down to the bottom only to realize the snow down here was much deeper then we anticipated.  This wasn’t the first “Oh, shit.” moments we’ve ever had on a river trip so we did what any respected, or disrespected paddler would do…we put on the river. 

Not only was the river at a beautiful level where just about every feature was in, but the scenery was beautiful.  For those not familar with the Root River, below a dam are several perfect features.  Standing waves are at attention with every drop of the riverbed.  Our first run was a blast and we quickly forgot about our stuck car. 

On our way back up to the top of the run, we decided we should try to turn the car around and were successfull up to 100°.  Now, the only thing left to do was paddle!  After another great run (about another hour), we figured it would be best to work our way out of the parking lot. 

While I changed, MPG  went shovel/plow hunting.  As quickly as he disappeared into the storm, he emerged victorious.  We worked hard to to shovel a runway for us to bust out.  After about 2-3 hours, our hero Tom and his dad, came to our aid.  Armed with shovels, sand, and man power, we were out in about 45 minutes. 

While most people were huddled in their houses, we had a very memorable park and play experience and I’d do it again….just choose a better parking spot.

Red Baron

Well as any whitewater paddler knows, the destination you have when you leave, is not always where you end up.  Earlier last week, WV seemed like the place to be.  By the end of the week however, TN had enough water and was forecasted to have more, we immediately turned our sights down south.

After picking MPG and Jake up in South Bend, Indiana, we hit the road hard.  Stopping only for provisions and petrol, we arrived at the top of Baby Falls on the Tellico river a little past midnight.  I set up my hammock and fell asleep to the roar of the water. 

Waking to rain around sunrise, we dressed and put on with Orange Crush and Big Drop.  This was the first time Big Drop attempted to stride Baby Falls as well as the first time MPG, Jake, and I would run the Tellico.  We were all jacked up to say the least.  Our first run down past Jared’s Knee went fairly smooth so we didn’t hesitate to take back up and run the entire section.  The top section provided awesome boat scouting practice and amazing boof practice.   The rain was on and off all day while we ran laps.   All in all, we ran the top half 3 times, the bottom half 4 times, and Baby Falls 5 times.  I even got to practice a pin extraction on a fellow boater a couple drops above Jared’s Knee.

After an exhausting day on the Tellico and an even more exhausting decision making proccess on what to paddle Sunday, we got shady directions to the take-out of Daddy’s Creek and off we went.  We are still unsure if the boars’ heads hanging from the fence by our campsite were meant to keep us or the boars off private property.  Sunrise proved a good alarm clock again on Sunday morning and after much deliberation on who’s going to paddle what, Jordan, MPG, Jake, and I put on Daddy’s Creek with little to no knowledge on what lay ahead.  We boat scouted what we could and got out to take a look at Rattle Snake since the bottom half of the rapid(top half of the snake and Fang) are completely hidden.  We had an awesome time running this creek since it was not only an awesome level at 2 ft, but a new creek to us all. 

With only 2 years of paddling under our belts, creeking is a pretty new thing to MPG and I.  We both got to put a lot of our skills to the test, worked on getting used to our new or previously seldom used creekboats, got hands on practice with safety, and got to pick the brains of some veteran creekboaters.

River Junky @ Baby Falls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJlAnY5paJA

MPG @ Baby Falls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JoBT8IyZSI

River Junky