Downhill Kayaking: Spring Flings 2013

Below: Adam Goshorn on Little River Falls, photos by Pat Smith

Sure, spring doesn’t officially begin until March 20th, but the seasonal rotation in my life doesn’t exactly follow the official guidelines. This year, my winter was composed of back to back trips, first another raft-supported trip on the Grand Canyon and then down to the creeking paradise of Mexico for the holidays. My spring paddling season started almost immediately when I got back home the second week of January. Although rains and good water levels had returned to the southeast in December, I had been out of town for most of it, so January was the kick-off of the local creeking season for me. This year the good water levels that started in December didn’t let up until throughout the whole spring. So many good times on good runs with good friends… I’ll let the pictures share the rest of the story.

Below: Adam Goshorn on Little River Canyon, photos by Jay Howard

Below: Matt Taylor on Little River Falls, photos by Adam Goshorn

Below: Matt Taylor entering Asleep At The Wheel on Allen Creek, photo by Adam Goshorn

Below: Matt Jones catching a huge boof in Asleep At The Wheel, photo by Adam Goshorn

Below: Pat Smith exiting Asleep At The Wheel, photo by Adam Goshorn

Below: Matt Jones on the West Fork of the Little River, photos by Adam Goshorn

Below: Jesse Carter running Eye Of The Needle on Jones Creek, Photo by Adam Goshorn

Below: Matt Taylor running Bow Down on Jones Creek, Photo by Adam Goshorn

One weekend late in the spring my friend John and I drove up to the Russell Fork after work on a Thursday, planning to spend a 3-day weekend paddling the gorge. However, after arriving at 1:00 AM and sleeping in the car in the pouring rain all night, we awoke to find the Russell Fork Gorge too high and our plans ruined. However, with lots of water in the area we salvaged the weekend into an awesome time and ended up doing four different runs in three different states over the course of the weekend! Here are some of the best shots that resulted from that weekend.

Below: Travis Overstreet single-blading the Kettles, photo by Adam Goshorn

Below: Adam Goshorn on the Kettles, photo by John Kern

Below: Jeff Greenough finishing the mandatory portage, photo by Adam Goshorn

Below: Forrest Fewster on Crash Test Dummy, photo by Adam Goshorn

Below: Adam Goshorn on Crash Test Dummy, photo by John Kern

Below: John Kern on North-South, photo by Adam Goshorn

Below: Forrest Fewster entering Two Blind Mice, photos by Adam Goshorn

Below: Chris Fewster finishing Two Blind Mice, photo by Adam Goshorn

Another one of my favorite days this spring was a day when a crew of six of us paddled Upper Teddy Bear into Lower Teddy Bear into the Chairlift section of Little River Canyon, taking out at Canyon Mouth Park. This Bear Creek is known as "Teddy Bear" to avoid confusion with the more difficult creek by the same name further north on Lookout Mountain. This Bear Creek may be easier, but offers a much longer runnable section and getting to paddle out on Little River Canyon at about 9,000 CFS was just the icing on the cake of already great day. Most of the time paddlers either run the Upper Teddy Bear or the Lower Teddy Bear, but not both. Typically if the water is high enough for the upper section, the lower section is too high... and if it is low enough for the lower, the upper is typically too low. However, there is a perfect level (around 12" on the gauge at the lower put-in) where the upper isn't too low and the lower is on the high side of runnabality, but still manageable. For those who find themselves there at this perfect level, the result is one of the best runs around as paddlers are able to put in at the top of the mountain and drop around 1000 feet of gradient, over 13 miles through three distinct sections that all have their own character. The upper is a tiny stream with big bedrock slides, the lower is pushy river running (somewhat similar to the Tallulah at 700+, minus Oceana), and the paddle out on the Chairlift section of Little River Canyon is big water fun with grand-canyon sized wavetrains! It was raining all day so I didn't take any pictures of video, but John Kern put together a nice video from the footage he took on his GoPro, which can be seen HERE.