Happy Holidays to Southeast Paddlers

As the end of 2006 drew near the holiday season brought the blessings of rain to much of the southeast. I was based in VA (visiting my folks) for most of the holiday season, but I managed to boat or go on scouting/wood removal missions almost every day for two and a half weeks. During that time I paddled, Watuaga, WFFB, the Green Lite, Upper/Lower Big Creek, LRC, ran laps on Wilson Creek, and spent 2 days playboating on the James River in VA.

Needless to say I was putting in alot of time on the road, including 4 trips to NC for paddling. One day Joey, John and I decided to check out the West Fork of the French Broad near Brevard NC. It was running at a minimal flow (-6"), but since none of us had ever run it we went anyway. Below are some still pics from the great slides on this run.

The third and final slide was much larger than photos can show. It was a blast, even at low water. John and Joey ran first and Joey hopped out at the bottom and pulled out the camera to catch my run.

The WFFB is a cool and very photogenic run, I look forward to returning to it with more water.

Until next time...

-adam

Return to Mexico, Part VII: El Skunko de Rio Frio

The Rio Frio is one of the main tribs of the Rio Gallines which forms Cascada De Tamul when if drops into the Santa Maria. When we ran the Santa Maria a few days earlier the Gallines had been a rushing torrent leading us to beleive the the Rio Frio must be running as well. The previous day we had also met Tom McEwin on his way to go check out the Frio. So, for our final full day in MX we headed northwest from Valles in search of the Rio Frio.

After many back roads a a few wrong turn we eventually found the take-out then the put-in. The whitewater secion of the Rio Frio is a couple of miles long and contains many easy travertine drops and a short section where it forms its own micro gorge.

After the first few small ledges we were beginning to be discouraged because of the low water level. Then we reached a fun sliding double drop that brightened our prospects. Here is Dustin finishing the last slide.
As the Frio narrowed into a mico gorge the drops became more plentiful, but one thing remained obvious... the water was quite low.

I included this good picture of the take-out for any "would be" paddlers of the Rio Frio. See the cross beam in the bottom left hand corner of the picutre that is just out of the water... make sure this board is about 6+ inches under the water and the run should be good.

When we reached the take out we were suprised to find a buch of TX boaters taking out as well.
While we were loading our truck there was quite a traffic jam beside the take out bridge.

Upon leaving the Rio Frio we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in search of a possible take-out of another river in the area (hopefully for use on a future trip).

After a few more dirt roads and a short hike we found what would probally be the take out. Hopefully someday I will find myself in MX during high water and will get a chance to explore this run from the other side of the mountains.

The following morning we ate breakfast and slowly packed up all our gear into the truck for the 26 hour drive back home. We said our last goodbyes to our MX friends and our campsite and hit the road.

Until next time...

-adam

Return to Mexico, Part VI: Double Salto Action

On what would turn out to be our second to last day of paddling in MX we returned to the El Salto section of the Rio Valles and made two runs. I've also included some of the names we used for rapids on this run just for fun. Interestingly enough the water level was about 6" higher at the put-in during our first run. For whatever reason, in our two years here it has always been the case that the hydro plant upstream releases more water in the morning thatn afternoon. This first picuture is most certinly from our morning run.

Having strained her shoulder on the previos day, Shannon hiked into a sketchy cliff overlooking La Luminosa and took these great shots from a really cool angle on each of our runs.

From river level were were busy photographing too. Dustin took this first one of me melting into the seam at La Luminosa.

At higher water this fun boof reminded us of a familar rapid back home so we dubbed it... Mexican Soc'em Dog.

We took to refering to this drop as the Aquarium for obvious reasons.
The ramp rapid...

S-Turn...

This was an easy drop with a very stong hole at high water earning it the name Bitchslap!
The Spout...

On our first run we arrived at the rapid below the spout to find quite a suprise. In the 2 days since we were last here one of the large travertine dams had broken and completely changed the river. This was a facinating reminder that geology is always at work,

Last boof. aka Mexican Tanner's Boof

After our second run we went up to the dewatered section of El Salto to check out the dewater falls and the popular swimming pools at it's base.

With one full day left there was must discussion over where we should spend our last full day in MX. Finally we decided to check out Rio Frio since it would be a new river to us all.

Until next time....

-adam