Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Minnesota Recap

Minnesota Recap

 Minnesota is rad, the paddlers are overly friendly, the creeks are abusive and steep and who doesn't love hiking through snow to go kayaking.

Second of Three Falls, Devil's Track


Portage Down The Middle, Devil's Track
Another fun boof, Stewart
Some ware in the maul, Devils Track
Burgess putting down the landing gear, Stewart. Mind the recycling eddy on the left that feeds back under the falls
Paul Hooper about to disappear into the Thing on the Stewart
Paul getting crushed be the Thing

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Split Rock

Split Rock

Is one of my favorite Minnesota creeks, logistics are easy and the amount of gradient you get is just plain amazing.

Paul Hooper, Casey Tango, Burgess Norrgard, and I headed up to the private property put in. There has been some trespassing issues brought up in previous years and we did everything in our power to be undetected be the not so nice locals and the moody local cops. We dropped off the boats and hid in the woods as Paul drove the truck back off the private property and very stealthy hiked back in to meet us. The paddle in is always a tree ducking strainer boofing fiasco, but it is so worth it when you hit the first big slide.

The run is punctuated by a couple great rapids. My personal favorite is under the log, the log is gone these days but the rapid still offers a rather intense line. You careen off a blind 15 foot slide into a boiling cauldron, then immediately drop another 10 into a thrashy hole below.
Burgess, deep in under the log
The other super classic slide is Whinfrey's Whimper, a cascading slide that ends in a backed up hole.
Burgess sliding down Winfrey's Whimper

Tango starting down Winfrey's

All in all this is a super classic slide run, There is a gauge on the down stream river left side of the bridge that goes over hwy 61. I personally like a ton of water in this run there is a dash and a M next to it on the wall, six inches below this would be a great entry level and as you get comfortable with the slides, the sky is the limit. I would be absolutely fired up to show up and see the entire M underwater.
Paul sliding down one of the countless good slides