adventure's in mexico ,part 1

for months ,i was listing to my friends plan a trip to mexico,,just in case,, i would become unemployed ..Well , the wed. after Christmas i became unemployed,talked to Dave  as he was 2 hours from driving over the mexican border in his van loaded full of kayaks,got my wife's blessing to leave[very impressive sense she is taking care of our 6 week old baby girl Sienna]talked to Brian about plans ,and bought a plane ticket to leave Friday for mexico.

meet up with Adam,Brian and Brenton in Houston on a layover,then fly to Veracruz,Mexico,, to meet up with Chris and Dave who made the long drive in the stout van ,loaded full of kayaks, from Pennsylvania. Sense we arrived at night we got a place in Veracruz to sleep. Before crashing out some of us paddle a bit in the gulf and joined in with the locals in celebrating new years eve .

New years day we started our drive south to Chiapas.On the way ,we tried for the Rio de oro,about 3 hours south of Veracruz. Using the river gypsies guide book for info,we went to the small town of Playa Roca Partida and asked around for a guy named .We had our doubts this plan was going to work,but to our pleasant surprise it ended up being the best all around day in Mexico.Found  Fernando,he joined us in our van for a short ride to put in 

There he led us on a 45 min. hike through pastures to get to the river,then we portaged around a 50 ft waterfall,then put on the water and enjoyed some fun class 3-4 rapids that brought us to a 30+ ft waterfall.Fernando was there when we got there,he swam across the river,right above the waterfall,and then  stood near the lip of the falls and gave paddle and tuck motions to us.[awesome]We all, basically, had good lines.Shortly after,there was another 30 ft falls ,then a short paddle to Gulf were we surfed the waves for on hour or 2 before beaching our kayaks and getting great foods at Fernando's restaurant,located right on the beach

the next day we continued our drive south to Chiapas.we drove alot,but because of slow traffic we did not make it to Palenque . Day 3 ,we traveled to the agua Azul where the river was brown and high,boating turn tourist day.We drove to Ososingo to devise a plan for our stay in Chiapas with high water.we used info from mayan white water to help us.
Day 4
 we choose to do the  upper tzaconeja a fun mini canyon run,that was at low flow

at the end of the run,some locals showed us another waterfall,so while Chris biked shuttle for us[thanks Chris]me ,Brenton and Dave carried up to run a fun 30 ft drop.

day 5,we started early for a long day on the upper agua azul. Chris took one for the teem and drove shuttle[thx again].this run had it all, beautiful with great drops.the first good rapid had 6 to 8 ft rock garden drops far as the eye could see.

there was a canyon that took 3 hours to paddle through with fun drops.one rapid, slick rock,me and Brian had to repel to portage the drop,while Adam, Dave and Brenton fired up this sketchy drop

the high light of the run was there was a canyon that gets so narrow that the sides actually touch and you are in a cave for 10 seconds or so

after the cave,the river does not let up,after a trib helps the flow,there is a quality rapid 1/3 mile long or so.at the take out,all the towns kids greeted us.we finished the day with food down by the agua azul.

Day 6

At breakfast, we met up with 2 boaters from Colorado, 2 from Montana and Seth from the UK. We all put on the Agua Azul after starting out to far left, we hopped over a channel and found the goods. A 40 ft slide above a 20 ft to 30 footer way beautiful and intimidating.

then portaged the 50 footer and another group of kayakers  joined in,Ben and company

the middle section was phrased as valley falls times infinity by Dave,with lots of fun drops around 5 feet or so

then we arrived at the big 5 . the first and easiest?is a 30 to 30 ft and the second person over miss judged his line,checked a tree,piton and broke his ankle.we all pitched in,roped him out of the canyon,carried past the big 5 and paddled 3 miles under moon light. all 15 of us then slept at the Zapatista's camp

more pics of agua azul

Day 7

early start to drive to Veracruz.first we helped Lief out by giving him and his wife a ride to the hospital to get his ankle taken care of.on our drive we got extorted out of 65 US[we had to many boats on the van]is what the shady cop wrote a ticket for on a blank piece of paper.o well ,we made it to Veracruz safe and on time to drop Brenton off at the airport and pick up Rob.Thank you Rob and Brenton for letting me use your boats in Mexico for the week each of you were not there

russell fork detour to manns

thanks to work being slow,i was abail to join kyle for a three day trip to the russell fork.

on our way south ,we got an invite from john  to join him on Manns  creek.After quick decision making we went  Keeney creek[take out of Manns]to meet up with john.then,On our way to babcock state park,.after scouting  grist mills falls at the put in,we all had great lines over the falls,which was good my confidence,sense my nerves were ramped up,to say the least.This creek is not for the weak of heart.Manns was full of blind drops and boofs everywhere.john did a great job guiding us down,i can't imagine being able to remember all those lines ,we made it to the new river in two and 1/2 hour,to paddle the new in the dark .this may be the best run in West Virgina.

sat. and sun.were spent with great people and whitewater at the Russell fork

 a link to a good video of manns creek

labor day weekend 2011

Jeff Blood getting some action at knife's edge on the Moose

Went up to the Adirondack's to paddle the whitewater release of the Raquette and the Beaver and was fortunate to get a run on the Moose the Friday we arrived .Saterday our group grew from 12 on the moose to 15 for the Raquette,most with good lines.Sunday was more chilled on the moshier section of the Beaver,unless you choose to run the spill way.then a short drive to the eagle section of the Beaver for several laps on the short fun run.When tired from all the laps,alot of us paddled  to our campground just down stream.That evening we ate great around the fire,thanks Dave and others for the food.After a long night of rain,,,me ,Jeff and Karl ,wanted on early start because of the long drive home ahead of us.got some info for the Oswegatchie. and made our way down the run,,on the low side but a fun run to end a great weekend with new and old friends.the next day found out our other friends did the section down stream of were we took out and then headed to the water gap.

 

Merv on the slide part of Colton falls on the Raquette

David Carey making the spill way on the Moshier look easy

rope swing on paddle out of the Eagle section of the Beaver

last drop above the portage on the Oswegatchie,section #3

for more pics of the labor day weekend

red creek

 a nice write up by Dave,about a winter adventure we had in March or April?http://riverleftproductions.com/riverleft/wp/

Seneca creek

after 2 runs on the upper B,we went Davis for pizza,when shorty after we checked the river gauges and noticed Seneca gauge was 3900 and going strait up,,,so we drove to the Seneca creek take out to sleep.

we new we wanted an early start for the 13 miles of whitewater in the wilderness.

As we drove up the mountain to the put in,the temp dropped to 25 % and snow all around.
the day started cold,but the mile hike in kept us warm..the water seemed low as we first put on ,,but luckily

the were side streams feeding in around ever turn.When we got to the rapids ,,it was a nice low level.

                                                            Upper Seneca Falls

                                                                         Knife's Edge

                                                                        drop near the end

                    Lower Seneca Falls.                                             
            
   After Lower Seneca falls there was 4 miles of class 2-3 and about 5 portages because of strainers.
We got off the river at 3:30 with temps. in the 50's,,ended up having a great day on one of the most beautiful creek in WV.
more pics of the creek

Friday  morning  woke up to winter conditions for my kayak trip.

while traveling east ,made some phone calls and ended up meeting some friends for a run on drakes ,then we went for a quick run down the nearby meadow before dark.

next morning,while checking river gauges ,decided to try and catch all the creeks over in the stonycreek watershed .meet at somerset,got on the stony gorge,then roaring fork ,dark shade creek,and topped the day off with 2 laps on paint creek,the best of these creeks.

Sunday i finished my weekend with one of my favorite runs,north fork   of the blackwater to hendricks
at good flow for a great weekend.

rain day

After along dry summer,,with very few trips to the upper yough and my annual trip down the gauly during fest weekend. A welcomed inch and  a half of rain fell locally.Which interfered with my outside work,to let me play in the rain.meet up with Corey to run Bridalveil falls creek to tinkers ,,then tinkers at good flow ,,then went and played on a wave on the cuyahoga river, then stopped by branywine falls and noticed there was enough water for another run below the falls. all and all ,,about the best day one can have on whitewater in Ohio