Video Update!

Below is one of Ryan Moore's videos featureing Charlie Mix, Sam England, Andy Hobson, and myself on the Raven Fork in NC during the spirng of 2008...

The Raven Fork from r.moore on Vimeo.


Below is on of Ryan Moore's Videos of myself and lots of friends... all filmed in one day within 25 minutes of my house in Jan of 2008!

Alabama Huckfest from r.moore on Vimeo.

You can see Ryan Moore's newest video project "The Final Final" here: http://www.vimeo.com/thefinalfinal

Until Next Time...

-adam

Westward Bound!

Departing Chattanooga, Tennessee at 6:30 PM, Matt Wallace, Ben Davis, and I drove through the night, arriving in Salida, Colorado the following afternoon. Our arrival landed us right in the middle of FIBArk, arguably one of the best river festivals in the west. After about less than an hour of greeting friends and watching some of freestyle’s best throwing down in the play hole, we realized that after driving all the way to Colorado we were sitting around watching other people kayak. This realization was unsatisfactory to all of us so we hightailed it back to the truck as quickly as we could. After a short drive north we arrived at Clear Creek of the Arkansas with just enough daylight to get in a couple of runs before dark. There is nothing more perfect to shake off twenty two hours of driving than freezing cold water and three miles of fast nonstop action. We spent our first night in Colorado camped at the take-out for Clear Creek, under a perfectly clear sky, with highest of expectations for the trip to come.


Months prior to our departure, the main objectives for our June trip were mainly focused on doing as many overnighters as we could in a few weeks of bouncing between Colorado classics. After all, we were hoping this trip would be good training for many more overnighters we would hopefully be undertaking in California in 2009. High on our list were the Upper Animas/Needle Creek combo, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and hopefully Los Pinos as our finale. However, as our departure date neared the record snowpack was delivering high flows around the state; knocking the Gunnison off the list before we even got started and the status of our other plans were immediately up in the air as well.

After departing Clear Creek, we were enjoying ourselves as we camped and boated our way into the Crested Butte area, when things took an unexpectedly negative turn for one member of our group. We had been enjoying the classic runs of Oh Be Joyful, Daisy Creek, and the Slate River for a few days when Ben dislocated his shoulder during a high water run down Oh Be Joyful. Somehow he managed to roll up with one functioning arm and catch an eddy, but found himself walled in on the wrong side of the river. After a couple of minutes I was able to reduce his dislocation, but his arm was still useless and we were still on the wrong side of the river. Eventually, Matt and I were able to rope him and his gear back across the river safely, although not without a few tense moments as he crossed in swift current between class IV rapids.

With Ben indefinitely on the injured list we retreated to Salida for a couple days of playboating in the hole, high water on the Numbers, and trying to figure out what would be next for our group. Luckily for Ben, he was able to find a cheap flight back to Tennessee and a ride to the airport with a friend as well. Unluckily for Matt and me, our solid group of three was down to two and our plan to convince some of our friends in the area to join us for some self supported adventures were also unsuccessful. We needed a new plan and after a few beers that night decided to try to focus on short steep sections that were either “park and huck” or were short enough for us to walk the shuttle. Either way we would get a solid dose of verticality, even though it was clear we would not get to fulfill our goal of doing some self-support trips.











We headed out the following morning, meeting up with Boyd Ruppelt and Samantha Brunner we spent the rest of our trip getting shut down on a roughly equal amount of rivers as we actually got to paddle. The road to the South Fork of the Crystal was still snowed in; the road to the North Fork of the Crystal was washed out by high water; the main Crystal was just plain HUGE; the “Tunnel of Love” on Wolf Creek was blocked by wood; the road to East Fork of the San Juan was closed 12 miles away from the river; and the Cascade Creek Slot was flooded and full of wood. However, we did manage to get on North Fork of the South Arkansas, Oh Be Joyful, Slate, Daisy, Ice Lake Creek, South Mineral, La Plata, South Fork of the Rio Grande, and finished up back at Clear Creek of the Arkansas on the “high side of good”, about 100 CFS above the recommended maximum level.



Our trip was anything but what we expected as we crossed the country in an attempt to escape the drought in the southeast. We did not meet out goals of doing Colorado’s major overnighters; in fact we didn’t do a single self-support trip. However, we did run some classic and not so classic whitewater that was as high quality as anyone could ask for. Along the way we dealt with the biggest challenge with any trip like this… the unknown. As we drove back towards the east and into another dry southeastern summer, it was with no regrets.

You can check out video from our trip here...


Until Next Time...

-adam

kayak session

Mexico 2007 Revisited

Photo by Boyd Ruppelt

In November of 2007 Joey Jarrell, Kim Rudge and myself (Adam Goshorn) joined up in Birmingham Alabama to depart for the 24 hour drive south to Valles Mexico. We arrived 27 hours later and spent the next couple of weeks paddling several classic and several not-so-classic rivers in the the region.

During the middle of our stay we were joined by Drew Armstrong and Boyd Ruppelt who flew into the coastal city of Tampico, rented the lowest clearence vehicle possiblly available and joined us for 5 days of bottoming out thier car on the roads of SLP, and paddling along the way.

It was my third winter visiting the region to paddle, but 2007 brought the most paddling days, several lesser known runs, and the best water levels yet. During our stay we paddled various sections of the Rio Valles (Micos and Salto Sections), Rio Tamasopo (Cascada de Puente de Dios), Rio Minas Viejas, Rio Frio, Rio Verde (second canyon), and the Rio Santa Maria(3rd, 4th, and 5th canyons). Below is some of the footage from our travels, enjoy...


Until Next Time...

-adam

The bama boys roll north to the ultra classic "Crow Creek"... no, no... lets call it "Black Bird Branch"...

It's been way too long since I've taken time to update my blog, but all the great water we've had in Alabama has had me spending my time boating rather than sitting in front of a computer writing about boating. However, I'm feeling inspired after a great weekend of boating and am feeling the urge to share once again.



Saturday I paddled a run defines all the reasons I started creeking in the first place. It is in a bueatiful, rugged, and committing gorge and the creek itself is steep, challenging, and ultimatly rewarding for those who are lucky enough to have the oppertunity to experience it.

Charlie Mix, Joey Jarrell and I rolled out of Alabama Thrusday night, paddled Big Creek on Friday, and met up with a few other bama boys to camp out Friday night. Sam England, Jorday Sherman and Andy Hobson, were finishing a weeklong huckfest in western North Carolina and around the campfire Friday night it didn't take too much convincing to get them to return with us on Saturday to our main objective for the weekend, the Raven Fork.

Saturday morning started early with us packing up our campsite in the national forest just after sunrise. After grabbing a quick bite to eat we were off to Cherokee North Carolina to meet up with Ryan Moore and check the gauge on the Raven Fork. We had heard through the grapevine that the perfect first time level was betwen 6" and 9" and upon reaching the river Saturday morning we found the perfect 7" we were hoping for.

While Sam and Andy had paddled this creek once before, Charlie, Jordan, Joey and Myself would all be first timers. Upon reaching the river, Jordan, Joey, and Ryan made the decision to save the boating for another day and hike to provide camera support. With our paddling group down to four, we geared up and began the hike in...


We hiked into the gorge, putting on the river at the top of a fun warm-up rapid known as Lord of the Rings. Below that we made our first portage of the day as all four of us passed on Anaconda, seal launching in below it to run the first bigger rapid of the day... Headless Horseman...




Here are shots of Andy and I running another rapid known as Right Right...



The next bigger drop was Razorback which features a fun railslide into a long bouncy slide...





Downstream came another easier rapid known as Jedi Training...


Mortal Combat is another big slide sequence with a big kicker boof near the top...






The biggest rapid of the day and perhaps one of the biggest rapids any of us have ever run is Mike Tyson's Punch Out. This HUGE multi-tiered cascade is impossible to capture in pictures and video because its simply massive...






The last of the big ones we ran was Caveman. This features a series of ledge drops finishing with a SWEET boof off the left wall...



Until Saturday I have never had a standout run that I could point to as my "favorite". There are lots of runs that I love for various reasons. The Raven Fork is truely a special and amazing place... and at least for now, its my favorite place on earth!

Until Next Time...

-adam

Thank you Charlie Mix!

This post must begin with a big thanks to Charlie Mix for flying to Europe for the Holidays. His absence, conbined with the great distance he was from Alabama surely helped bring much needed rain to our beloved Little River Canyon. For those of you who haven't figured out this great indacator, the general rule seems to be if Charlie or I are out of town... Alabama goes off. Now that I have made this fact public... if we ever go out of town at the same time you will know to load the boats and start acting sick at work because its about to start raining in Alabama.

Last weekend I was actually out of town too, but not too far away to drive back for what would be a great weekend on LRC. Joey and I had done a low water Russell Fork run on Wednesday and then the Green on Thursday when an "Operational Schedule was Determined Daily" against us and said 60% for Friday through Sunday, effectively ending our plans. We both headed back to our family homes in VA only to hear that AL was getting hammered on top of a good rain they received earlier in the week. My love of LRC and Johnnies pulled hard on my mind and I quickly reloaded the truck and drove late in the night. After 5 hours of sleep at Brandon's place in Knoxville (thank's man) I finished the drive arriving at the Johnnies at 9:30 eastern.

Although Johnnies had run Friday in the late afternoon, it was already too low so it was off to meet Spence and set shuttle for the main canyon. I was expecting 4-5", but we rolled up to the bridge to find a good crew of boaters dressing out and the Rt 35 Bridge Gauge just over 10". It was on! I quickly dressed out and offered to go first so I could get some pictures from the bottom of the falls. I felt good about my line and kept a dry head as I hurried into position at the bottom of the falls.

Below are some of the better shots from the falls....

Next up, Mark Travis...




Charlie Simmons...



Andy boofed the hell out of the first drop and cleaned it with a nice vert line at the bottom....




Mark checking out the bottom of the falls...


After all the big smiles of the falls we headed downstream with a big crew of 7. Here is Mark at Mammoth Rock...




Andy catching a breath at the top holes entering mammoth...


After a great run on Suicide and Upper Two I drove back to the top to find the water had dropped to 8" and Chuck was getting ready for his first run on the falls. I jogged down to the falls with my boat and passed my camera off to Andy as I joined Chuck in the water. While many folks run the falls down to 6"... Saturday evening's 8" was actually the lowest I had ever run the falls... and for the first time I scraped some off the first lip causing me to get more verticle than planned and bang the front of my Everest on the shelf upon landing. It just goes to show what I ahve always known... this drop is much safer at 10" and up.






Chuck went right after me and had a great line...




Until Next Time...
-adam