So I am a little out of order on things here but Cherry Creek was one of my favorite experiences from my Cali trip and I think some of my favorite photographs as well. It was absolutely the most unique place on the trip. Middle Cherry Creek is a seldom seen section of the Cherry Drainage that begins right below Cherry Lake and above the confluence with the Tuolumne. The normal put-in requires hiking in at the confluence with Lake Eleanor but “luckily” all of the flow was coming out of Cherry Lake so we opted to put in very conveniently right below the dam. We were a large crew of 7-8 people all from different parts but we had no problem meshing together and having a good time. The beginning of the run starts out really mellow with lots of small boulder garden rapids and a couple of portages due to massive boulders blocking the river. Then, out of no-where you roll up on the rapid pictured below. One of the most beautiful views around.

–

–

From here we thought we were off to a great start and our beta told us that even with putting in at the dam it would be a quick day run. The river was broken up with low volume manky boulder rapids and then, as soon as you were getting sick of that, it would open back up into beautiful Cali perfection. Near the bottom of this section, before we reached the confluence, we reached a mini gorge that had some fun moves in the top finishing with a twisting boof with what looked like a punchable hole at the bottom. Most of the crew was down low getting a good scout and me, being a little gun shy of the poison oak (for very good reasons) got two thumbs up from both JJ and Rolf and felt confident that it all went well. I had smooth lines up top, fired off the bottom boof and thought I had the perfect line.

Unfortunately, I was very wrong and after as much rodeo as I could handle I was out of my boat with Watershed bag and camera in hand, not my paddle. Luckily, the rule of the group was if you give two thumbs up and it doesn’t go…you still gotta go. Rolf came down after me, tried a different line, and exited in similar fashion. JJ pulled out some serious points for running the right side and keeping his momentum right and staying dry in his boat. There were no other takers after that. My paddle was recovered thanks to the awesome team effort, and we were back on the water with a lot of time lost, still not yet to the confluence.

JJ firing off the “right” line.

So about a mile or so down the river we reached the confluence. Knowing we had too far to go and not wanting to sleep without gear we decided to leave our kayaks at the confluence, hike back out to the cars and come back down the next day to finish it all off. Luckily it was only straight up, full of thorns and poison oak, and we would get to do it twice. All said and done now, it was worth all the effort. Day two was where all the goods were packed in even with lower than ideal flows. There was so many quality drops and an awesome crew to fire it all off with. It did leave a lasting memory with me as I had an intense outbreak of poison oak for the rest of the trip ending with a trip to the doctor. You know when the doctor, nurse, and everyone around won’t come near you and he gives you a triple dose of prednisone that you did the right thing to get help, especially when you go to the doctor 2 weeks after the trip!

So Middle Cherry Creek is totally a classic if you can catch it. Wear pants, bring extra gear, and be ready for some good times. Here are my photos from the trip. Definitely my favorites, in mostly sequential order that I can remember. Hope ya like.

Ladybugs at the confluence.

JJ firing on day 2.

Rolf

Calhoun

Rolf

JJ

Chris Harjes at the lip

Rolf

JJ

Harjes

Jared

Calhoun

JJ

Rolf

Fantasy falls is an epic adventure with all the essentials of a California Classic. You put-in high in the Sierras on a small creek right where the road passes over it. It’s a beautiful view in every direction with full ponds, huge granite domes and cool temperatures for a backdrop while you load your boat with enough gear for the 3 day tour. There was no need to rush on day 1 as our goal was to simply make our way through the first mank section and find a nice camp to enjoy. No pictures were taken on the river from day 1 as it’s mostly fast paced boulder mank. The more flow the better to bounce your way down. Don’t worry though, as manky as the first few miles are, it does not give you an idea of the goods still to come. Half way through the mank section we caught up with a group of two French men that had missed the crew they had planned to join. We decided to join up and make a crew of 5 consisting of Rolf Kelly, Jared Johnson, Jules, David and myself.

Here was our camp on day 1. A beautiful spot tucked in the woods with a huge pile of firewood to burn thanks to the high water line. Photo from Jared Johnson.

A good nights rest you’ll definitely need as the first few gorges are stacked up right away with awesome slides, holes and some fun pinched-in moves. This river really dishes anything out and everything goes. It’s just a matter of how hard you want to charge. Here are the shots from day 2.

Rolf, preparing his nasty-blistered feet for day 2.

Rolf charging one of the first drops of the morning.

Jules, our French connection.

Things really opened up for some long slides.

-

-

-

Day 2 is a full day mission. Our group had never been there with the exception of JJ so we scouted a lot and picked our way down. We had a map of the area and my Suunto watch with altimeter to track how far we had made it. We camped right before Rifflemans gorge on a sweet beach right by the river. One of the craziest parts about Fantasy is how much the river fluctuates throughout the day. We placed a stick in the beach first where the water was when we arrived, then again at the high point from the night. When we woke the level was over a foot lower. The pic helps give you a visual.

Our camp on day 2.

Careful of dem snakes. This was just a little guy but others were spotted on the shores.

The third and final day is full of action as well. Several more deep gorges, big slides and the more iconic drops of the run await.

-

-

Here is Fantasy Falls proper. Rolf charging.

David.

JJ.

and Me, thanks to JJ for the shot.

Next up after Fantasy falls is “Thing” aka “Show me your tits” aka a massive piece of chaos leading into a massive hole that is well known to serve up some beatdowns. Everyone in the group knew of this drop and we were all determined to run it before we’d even laid eyes on it. Once we rolled up on it our confidence was definitely shaken as it was late in the day, the flow was high and pictures/video just don’t come close to the real power behind this beast. After trying to come up with some reason not to run it, we finally hardened up and fired it off one after another, and to the shock of us all, no swims. That’s not to say we didn’t have interesting lines, but the hole at the bottom always let us through. Here I am testing out my aerial skills.

Rolf amongst it.

JJ in the entrance.

We were all so fired up in the pool below and it was just the steam we needed to finish up the river and the long paddle out across the reservoir to finish it all off. Here is a parting shot with the sun coming down as we touched the dam on the far side.

SYOTR

Alright, it’s been a long time since I’ve been in civilization long enough to get caught up on all the photographs from California this year. It was a crazy season to be in CA, especially for a freshman like myself. Dinky Creek is a trip I will remember forever. You gotta work these days to truly remove yourself from the everyday life and crowds of people; Dinky was just that kind of trip. After finding our way to Balch camp in the evening we met up with some crews from a run that day and were stoked to hear of a great medium high flow. Dinky Creek is known for having some ultra clean drops, beautiful surroundings and as much challenge as you wanna bite off.

Our shuttle in the morning involved loading up the van full with people and heading up one of the slowest windy roads I’ve been on following the rim of the North Kings River. Being in the back seat of my van is the perfect car sickness machine so riding for a 2.5 hour shuttle back there was no easy task. Luckily, there were an abundance of great overlooks to check out along the way.

We loaded our boats for the two day mission and prepared ourselves to head in for battle with the manzanita bushes on the hike down to the river. The trail was pretty easy to follow, and keeping your helmet on to push through was definitely a good choice. Here is a shot from the first overlook and a quick break from the bushes.

Adrienne, being short, definitely had an advantage ducking and diving.

At the get in, eating some food and getting ready.

The first 3rd of Dinky Creek starts off with some really great bouncy slides with big pools waiting for you at the bottom. No warm-up necessary after the hike, so show up and start riding. Scouting is easy but one of the first lessons I learned is make sure you’ve got some good rubber on your feet. Walking around on slippery granite can be class V alone if your shoes can’t hold on. Here are some shots of Adrienne and Toby McDermot on the opening slides.

-

After the opening slides you’re fired up just in time for Willie Kerns. A really fun almost-vertical drop, to slide, to hole, to sloping 30ish footer. It’s nicely gorged in and has the opportunity to offer all kinds of lines. Our group showed, as long as you’re lined up by the bottom, you should finish in good style at the bottom. Here is Geoff Calhoun leading the charge on the first drop.

He momentarily eddied out, then lined it back up for the grand finally. Here he is at the lip of Willie Kerns proper.

Adrienne also lined up for some Willie Kerns fun. (The Willie Kern name comes from the legendary paddler breaking both his ankles with a bad landing off one of the edges.)

From Willies drop down the river tightens up and falls down deeper into a committing canyon. The drops become bigger, consequences higher, and reasons to have the best people you can possibly bring in with you become obvious. There are some tricky portages too. The most challenging portage offers two options. Toss your gear from high and make a good size leap into the pool below. This option holds a fair bit of risk especially at the higher flows. Our group opted for the slightly more laborious but definitely safer option of lowering yourself and gear to a ledge below and helping each other seal-launch a more manageable distance. With this option only the last person has to throw-and-go; I highly recommend this safer option. Here is Adrienne and Geoff lowering down off my Speedloader 70 throwbag. The drop directly below the portage is a must scout, pick a good line as consequences for missing your line here are also high.

From the main portage down it cleans back up again with more awesome slides, boofs, and ultra classic moves. We made our way through “breakfast slide” just as the sun was coming down making for some awesome lighting and great shots. Here is Toby and Adrienne showing us how it’s done.

-

A few drops down from breakfast slide we rolled up on two California locals and immediately could tell the scene wasn’t right. They had a rough day fighting with poison oak and battling out some really technical moves on the canyon walls due to losing gear on the main portage. They had opted for the throw-n-go from the high ledge and each of them lost their equipment through the rapid below. One of their boats was tied up in the rapid, unreachable, but luckily, the other members gear finally ended in the pool where we had met them, slightly damaged but for the most part, in usable shape. We decided to join in with them for the night and offer up whatever we could. We got a great fire going in a hole in the rock and exchanged stories from the days adventure.

Drying off the gear in a true veterans fashion.

Kayaking is an amazing sport for so many reasons. One being the ability to roll up on your fellow kayaker in need and be willing to do whatever you can to help them. We shared food and layers and discussed the plan for making it out in the morning. We had a SPOT rescue GPS with us and knew we could easily call out for help if it came to it. Hiking out of Dinky is really not an option, especially solo. You have miles of dangerous terrain in all directions and navigation in the thick oily brush would be treacherous. The one member who’s gear made it to the eddy decided to join us on the paddle out and we would send help with the SPOT coordinates for a rescue once we got out. The full moon in the canyon silhouetted the rim and the frogs surrounding us on the rocks kept the night full of life as we went to bed. When morning came we were quickly alerted by the sounds of a helicopter skimming past the canyon rim. Plan A quickly changed to plan B and we all frantically waived down the California Highway Patrol chopper. After several passes they threw down the below note in a tube.

We sat down, got their attention and as they pulled away to get a radio signal we frantically grabbed all our gear and made a tiny landing pad on our granite slab camp site. It was incredible the ability of the pilot to bring the helicopter into the narrow canyon. He landed twice on the rock, just big enough to set down the feet for a brief minute. First time to let out one of the officers and a second time to load our new friend and take him away safely.

A rescue like this couldn’t have possibly been made any easier. Our only loss was time and we finally departed from camp by noon with many miles of whitewater till our destination back at Balch Camp. We reviewed our river signals one more time to make scouting quick and confusion limited and hit the river. The endless and awesome clean drops of Dinky Creek did not disappoint. With the sun setting on all our minds we moved quickly and unfortunely many perfect 20 footers and awesome slides did not get captured on this trip. I guess that’s why I already am looking forward to next year. Here are some of the final photos I grabbed from the second day.

-

-

-

-

Needless to say we made it out safe and sound, even with ice cold beers waiting at the take out thanks to our new comrades from the river. There is nothing like an adventure-filled trip on the river with some of your closest friends to make you really appreciate everything in life. We celebrated with another great camp deep in the California forest and slept soundly under one of the brightest moons I’ve ever seen. Here are some parting shots from the final day. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I’ll be posting more from the past month in the next week so stay tuned and keep coming back.
-

-

-

-

SYOTR

Here are more photos from the Cali trip thus far. The day after getting off Big Kimshew we hustled over to Quincy, CA with our sights on some bigger water and the Middle Feather. This was an awesome way to spend our 4th of July. Even though non of us brought any fireworks there were plenty of American flag covered Budweiser cans to feel the holiday cheer. We loaded our boats full and it was a great opportunity to test out my Stomper packed up. The new outfitting makes it so easy to pack full of gear. It’s amazing how much stuff you can bring on the river. Here is most of what I brought and check out how the backband is up and out of the way.

The Middle Feather is normally a 3 day mission but with all the CO boys having to get back to their jobs by Tuesday and catch their flights Monday night we opted to crush through it a bit faster thanks to Tom Janney sort-of knowing the lines. All said and done it took us less than 24 hours to get through the canyon. Day 1 begins with a beautiful class III sight seeing mission. The crew ahead of me had a bear swim out into a rapid and check them out; a sight I’m jealous I missed. After about an hour of boogie the gradient picks up into some awesome boulder garden rapids with the most beautiful granite walls I’ve ever see on both sides for miles. Here is the main event on day 1 with Tyson and Tom showing how to thread the needle past this massive hole on both sides.

Our fearless guide Tom Janney:

Tyson Titensor close behind:

We made camp on a beach a few miles above Devils Canyon with a great view, fire pit, and even a grill which came in handy for the full rack of ribs I packed in the back of the Stomper.

Camp on day 1:

Packing in the protein for day 2:

Day 2 we all woke up early and got fired up for another day of big water class V. Again, Tom hopped in front and lead the charge. He had been on this run about 5 times before and impressively chose good lines most of the way through. There are so many rapids on this run it’s impossible to keep track. We rarely scouted or stopped in eddies. He confidently charged us through saying, “I think it’s this way…” and we would blindly follow. The holes are massive on this run and I was the first to test it’s power early in day 2. Not quite awake, maybe 5 minutes down from camp, I dropped into a big one and took my licks for a solid amount of time. Long enough for the crew to eddy out and enjoy the show but luckily I held on till it’s fury was over and it let me out still locked in to my Stomper 90. There were no swims on this trip and my eyes were open the rest of the day through. We reached the new takeout, just upstream from Milsap Bar on river left around noon and waited for our chariot to pick us up and say our goodbyes as the crew headed back to CO. It was an awesome trip and I can’t wait to get back next year. The flows for our trip were around 2,800 cfs.

Here are some more photos from day 2.

Jared Johnson charging in the morning:

Tom, rapid above the portage:

“Chunderboy would do it”:

Jake routing through Helicopter:

More coming soon, keep checking back.
SYOTR