At the top of Peacock Mountain Pass from Dave Hoffman on Vimeo.
China was….very Chinese. The cities were hectic. The countryside was wonderful and the people among the most inviting I’ve every met. It was cold and windy, and, at times, surprisingly hot. Not speaking anything other than a few basic words of Chinese, I spent a lot of my time wandering around, looking, watching, seeing.
Dave Hoffman, Hagen Gorge, WA. Photo by Andy Lictenheld.
Writing this blog, I struggle with how to tell stories about kayaking. A little bit of me wants to appeal to my hardcore kayaker friends, to show them what I’ve done, to get them stoked and maybe a little jealous. A larger part of me wants share things that all kayakers can understand and appreciate. But most of all, I want anyone to be able to read what I write and understand what kayaking means to me. I want my family, girls I like, and my non-kayaker friends to get why love kayaking so much. And yes, I do have non-kayaker friends.
Fitting these desires together into a coherent narrative is highly challenging. Often I just can’t do it. Sometimes I do.
Saturday I paddled Hagen Gorge, a fun creek just outside of Portland. I took headcam footage of one of the larger rapids, Euphoria Falls. You’ll find the video unique. It captures a particular aspect of whitewater kayaking – running drops on verbal beta. In the right situation, kayakers will drop into a rapid with just some quick words to describe the moves and no scouting to get a closer look. There’s little I find more thrilling than running a rapid blind. Coming around a corner, seeing the rocks and the water and making decisions in quarter-seconds. Decisions that determine whether you are going to have fun or get hurt.
In the eddy above Euphoria, I give lingo-heavy information to Andy, in the blue boat. He’d run Hagen about 3 years ago but didn’t have a clear memory of the rapids. We charge off, I style the rapid, as does Andy. Below, we share exaltation at our good lines, the friends who surround us, and the special places we visit.
This is what I do. I hope you like it.
A little warning: During this video, I continue my awful trend of cursing up a storm while the headcam is recording.
Euphoria Falls, Hagen Gorge from Dave Hoffman on Vimeo.
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Christie Glissmeyer on Yellowjacket Creek.
Finding a rarely run section of river, about which I had heard nothing, just doesn’t happen that often. It started off quite simply. During July of 2008, a huge snowmelt year, Mike G and I headed up to paddle McCoy & Yellowjacket Creek. Driving up and down NFDR 28, in search of the access, we spied a big waterfall from the road. I also noticed on our WA Gazetteer that the road got close to, and appeared to cross, the creek further upstream. We found the put-in, which the Bennett Book describes as Class V. During the subsequent hour it took us to get down to the creek, loose soil and rock avalanched down around us as we clutched thin tree trunks. The steep terrain forced us to improvise several rappels, lowering boats to one another. Dirty, sweaty and tired we made it to the creek, where I slipped and cut my knee open.
A golden sun lights up the river as we near Squirres and the end of the Rio Pacuare.
Wow. Costa Rica is awesome. Every day there is a day well spent. Living is slow and easy in Costa Rica. Warm rain and warmer water. Sunshine and jungle shade. Fresh fruit(guanabana anyone?), casado con pescado and gallo pinto. Ocean waves and tropical birds.
Of all the places I’ve traveled in Latin America, the traveling and the kayaking is easiest in Costa Rica. Lack of Spanish skills won’t greatly limit what you can do. Crime is low and mostly limited to property theft – a little vigilance is all thats required. If you’re looking to paddle abroad, or just escape the bitter northern winter, give CR a look. You won’t be disappointed.
These photos are just a fraction of what I shot during my 11 days in the country. More will come as I churn through, along with a story that connects them.
Linda & David gear up for a cold and beautiful day on the Bruno Mountain section of the North Santiam River. The weather and the scenery made this one of the most memorable days I spend on the river this year. We were paddling this day as part of the Advanced Whitewater Seminar that I love to teach.
Patty charges through Spencer’s Hole during an OKCC trip to the North Santiam River, OR. The OKCC leads a number of great trips every month and I was happy to be a part of this one.
I have good timing. The world’s longest-running and most prestigious big-wave invitational, The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau, known informally as the Eddie, is only held when the big swell at Waimea Bay reaches 20 feet Hawaiian – meaning at least 40 foot faces. I just happened to be in Hawaii last week when the conditions were right for the first time in five years.
Coming home Friday night, I get online and Facebook tells me what to do.
I’d thought about running Metlako Falls for a while. But only just thought about it. I’d never even hiked the mile and half up to take a look at it, though I’d driven past the Eagle Creek trailhead dozens of times. A handful of my friends ran it this spring and pronounced it amazing.
Metlako is a perfectly shaped waterfall. A gently sloping slide launches down into a deep pool. There is no entrance move to make, there is no exit to navigate, no cross-currents pushing sideways, nothing but a beautiful freefall to the deep pool below. What holds me back is the same thing that inspires others to kayak it – Metlako is a huge waterfall.
In early June, several good friends and I took a boating trip to Idaho. It was the peak of snowmelt and the rivers were raging. After an amazing two days on the SF Salmon, we finished the shuttle and camped near the incomparable mountain town of Yellowpine. The next day we paddled a high flowing East Fork of the SF Salmon (Check out that link for what the EFSF looks like at normal flows). Mike took a huge, long swim, just barely making it out of the river. I had my headcam on and caught the entire episode on video. After he finally got to shore, I stopped kayaking for the day. I just didn’t want to see that go down again.
Scouting the top of Flight Simulator. Mike points to where, an hour later, things will start to go wrong. Read More
Paddler: Erik Boomer. Nov 2007. Photo copyright Dave Hoffman.
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