Where is Baer ?

Kids Camp with Pucon Kayak Hostel

2012-02-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

Danny going big on the Tres Saltos.

When David Hughes approached me about doing a kids kayak camp for his Pucon Kayak Hostel I fumbled my response. I had never taught kids, or a camp. My personal philosophy took over: swing for the fences. "I could do that," I thought. "Teach kids how to kayak, how hard could it be?" Over the last few years I have taught a fair amount of adults how to roll, teaching kids couldn't be much different. I was in for a major learning experience myself.

Danny and Lucas, kayaking the Rio Machine.

The students, Lucas, 15, and Danny, 13, are brothers from Santiago. Both had rafted before and done a tiny bit of kayaking. We started the instruction from scratch, talking about all the gear, why we wear it, and how to outfit a kayak. We got them suited up quickly and headed to Lago Caburgua where we began a roll clinic. There were more distractions then I could imagine, the kids splashing, parents looking on, and breathtaking scenery. The initial roll clinic went well, and the kids attention was quickly turning more and more towards kayaking.

Eric teaching Lucas to roll in the hot springs.

Paddling with people at an entirely different skill level is challenging, and taking them to a river that I have never paddled before was slightly frightening. The smiles on their faces were exhilarating as we all peered around corners, not sure of what was next. I never thought taking two class 2 paddlers, down a class 2 canyon could ever bring such enjoyment. Everyone was so excited for the next challenge.

Kayaking and Stand Up Paddle Boarding the lower Trancura.

It was difficult for me to find a teaching style suited for Lucas and Danny. It was my job to remove boundaries and perceived fears. I instantly reverted to river guide mode. We passed in and out of small eddies, rolled in the current, had the kids lead rapids, and find their own lines. By slowing down and teaching the simplest portions of kayaking I allowed myself to see the little things again. I had my eyes wide open looking for tiny eddies, spotting geological abnormalities, and understanding the group dynamics the next time I went kayaking on something "hard." Teaching truly is a learning experience.

Lucas crashing through a wave on the Lower Trancura.

We even had the kids write little stories about their experiences. This took some serious prodding, but the end result is a simple view on their experience.

Lucas Miller wrote:

One would wonder how hard kayaking could really be, I thought it was a simple idea that relied on more physical power than knowledge. To my surprise, kayaking inhabits a world between these two things. A mere physical approach to the river would be possible, if not dangerous without the proper mind to "read" the river. Being able to see how a river moves and how it acts is invaluable in kayaking it. When i first started, i went on a beginner river, simple flat water. It could not have been simpler. Kayaking left my mind for several years. Then my mom told me of a kayak camp in chile, a great chance to train with the same school my cousin learned all his tricks, though he stayed for a semester and i am doing it for a week.

Lucas learning to roll in the Hot Springs.

My first impresion of kayaking was that it was a merely physical sport, but it is also of dicipline minds, being able to focus as the vastly powerfull waves or rocks rush at you. Or as you flip into the cold water, you try to keep your mind clear as you perform the flip. The flip is a trick that i had to learn, since getting out of the kayak everytime one flipped would waste time that i did not have. It was hard at first then i started to get comfortable with the hip snap and the paddle movement. I did my first flip on my second class, and my first combat flip yesterday. It was good that they made me rehearse the flip, i did it instinctevly right when i went under.

Lucas practicing rolling in the hot springs.

My kayaking teachers are Eric, Chris, and David Hughes.
You could tell where there were rocks or how they were positioned underwater by just looking on how the wave forms. The lines between eddie and current become more clear, they usually have little whirlpools and move the opposite direction of the current. Almost all rapids end in a V, the bottom of the V pointing downriver. I almost got flipped once when moving on a strong current to a slow eddie, the change is very difficult to cope with while your kayak is rocking precariously, though I am still a beginner.

Lucas firing up the top of the Tres Saltos.

It is always awkward to enter a eddie, but if you lean upriver and do a stroke on the upriver side of the kayak it would smoothen your entry instead of the usual rolling. It was funny seeing all the whitewater horizons, which could mean a waterfall, though most of the time in our case it mostly ment a bunch of rocks. Eric would joke that they were waterfalls and my brother would pretend to be scared, though more like terrified. Before that we looked at some really tall waterfalls that would have bashed me against rocks and flattened me. Eric quizzed me and asked where i would go if i were on the river, i chose the left side, and apparently i would have run into a big pointy rock on the bottom if I were really on the river. That would not have been the best of days.

Yesterday my brother, Steven, Eric, David Hughes, and me went on the Tolten river. It was an easy river, few strong rapids. My brother did drift downstream after falling off the stand up paddle board.

This camp is amazing since they know the rivers and Pucon has incredible views, kayaking with Volcan Villa Rica in the setting framed with picture perfect mountains. Literally crystal clear water that made the bottom visible. All in all, i would be sad leaving. Keep kayaking.

Daniel Miller wrote:

I first kayaked in Tennessee on the Ocoee river with my brother, I was about 9 years old. At first I thought kayaking would be easy but then I thought because of my size it was really hard for me. I was scrawny compared to my all american cousins who were paddling with us. I was even skinny compared to my cousin my same age.

Danny in front of Volcano Viarrica.

A few moments after I think of what I'm supposed to do I get flipped by my uncle, he wanted to see if I could get out of my kayak. I start to run out of my precious air, my mind is racing and I tap the part of my kayak that is out of the water. I had forgotten about the plastic handle that would allow me to escape my kayak. My uncle then flips me back up and says, "maybe you ought to paddle with out a skirt."

I would never think that 4 years later I would be rolling like a pro and be in a kayaking camp. My first thought at the camp was were is the river? After a week I'm able to flip like a pro. The three things that I liked the most about this camp is that, my teachers would teach with a bit of humor. I also like that I can now surf the wave at the lake in my kayak. Another thing I like is all the amazing views of the landscapes and the animals I saw, like an otter and a strange bird and lots of fish, and lizards. All in all this camp has been the best camp I have ever been to.

Danny and Lucas in front of Volcano Viarrica

Daniel and Lucas's plane that would take them back to the city of Santiago was nearing, and the smiles on their faces were slowly fading. They wanted to stay, and their week of kayaking and adventure had enlightened the three of us.

Write up and photos by Chris Baer

Rio Cochamo

2012-02-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

The Cochamo valley at it's finnest.

Preface: Christmas day I kayaked the Portage rapid on the Rio Palguin and crashed. It gave me a serious beating against a rock. A week later and we are trying to paddle the Rio Cochamo, and I am dealing with rather severe pain in my left shoulder.

Our alarm clock.

Cochamo

The beta we were collecting on the Rio Cochamo was spot on Chilean. Loose. None of the stories add up, and there was a constant downplay on the size of drops, not to mention the lack of directions to and from the river. The stories of paddling the river over the past 15 years were as varied as they come. "Sieves on top of sieves with logs, super clean, it's the Chilean Yosemite, big rapids, smooth granite, slides, hike in, use horses, complicated, don't use horses, multi-day, one day." The beta on this run was almost comically bad. The only consistent beta was that in a very remote part of southern Chile there was a river and it was worth paddling.  

Boats precariously balanced in one of the beautiful inlets of the Pacific Ocean.

Our group was quickly forming, and the addition of another rental car sealed the deal for our trip. Casey Tango, Godon Klco, Anna Bruno, Matt Smink, Seth Dow, and I packed the rigs and set our sights south. A full day of driving later and we were nearing Puerto Varas. The scenery was incredible as we passed by Lago Llanquihue and multiple volcanoes. Small inlets from the Pacific Ocean came into sight and my jaw dropped. We were passing through some of the most beautiful parts of Patagonia.

Our poor rental truck, slightly overloaded.

Lago Llanquihue and one of the countless volcanos.

After another hour of incredible scenery we arrived in the town of Cochamo. The town was bigger then I had pictured in my imagination, and the river was wide and flat. The water level looked acceptably low, more than a few inches below the buttress in the middle of the bridge. That evening was spent arranging horses and packing the necessities for our mission the next day. We had decided to hike the boats in and have the horses carry the food, camping equipment, and the rest of the kayaking gear. We would camp overnight at La Junta and paddle downstream the day after, New Year's Eve.

Our cowboy for the trip.

For more info on using horses see how to travel internationally with a kayak.   

That evening I was on the fence about whether I was physically able to paddle or not. After another spike of pain my mind was set. It was not worth risking the team's safety for my desire to paddle. This was an exceedingly hard decision to make. I have suffered plenty of injuries over the years, but this one was really hurting me mentally. I was going through my nightmare scenario, flying back to the states, having surgery, getting a "real job," and not being able to kayak.

The next morning we drove the vehicles along the river to the end of the road. Some place along the drive the rental car received it's first flat tire. Get the wrench, loosen lug nuts, raise car, take tire off, spare on, lower car, and tighten nuts. At this point in the trip I was feeling like a NASCAR mechanic. Next we talked to the cowboy that was going to wrangle the two rented horses to the top of the river. Casey, Gordon, and Seth shouldered their kayaks and started up the 10 kilometer hike. Anna, Matt and I followed behind carrying cameras and water. The aging access trail consists of braided trenches stamped into the earth by millions of hooves.

Gordon Klco hiking through the trenches.

After a full morning of hiking and multiple creek crossings we reached the kayaker's put-in location. Looking further into the valley the granite walls grew tall and polished. We pushed forward another hour or so and reached camp. The entire team immediately collapsed and devoured our hodge podge lunch. You really haven't had anything like a manjar, aji pebre, mustard, avocado, cheese, and tuna fish sandwich on squished bread.

The view looking up from the bridge in Cochamo.

The group slowly began to motivate, setting up camp and going on other hikes. After years of kayaking my brain always has rivers in the subconscious. After spotting a sign reading Cascade Trail, I laced my shoes back up and went for a look. The scenery was unreal. There were massive mountains made from one single piece of polished granite. The granite was covered in snow and ice, and it was slowly melting and quickly cascading back down to camp.

Next generation.

The next morning the kayakers woke up early and hiked back down the trail to their put-in location. That left Anna, Matt, and I to do some other side hikes and enjoy a rowdy, natural slip-in-slide.   

New Year's Eve

Star trails for New Years.

The group re-met at the vehicles. Stories were shared about a broken boat, sieve laden rapids, and a hike out just shy of completing the run. The beta on this run stays confusing, and once again all I know is that it is worth it. The new year was celebrated with tired bodies and great memories in a beautiful valley.

Celebrating New Years with some wine and a beautiful view.

Write up and photos by Chris Baer

Casey Tango is the BOSS!!!

2012-01-16T15:25:00.000-07:00


Tango sliding into the freezing waters of Minnesota

Perched inches away from a 15 foot seal launch that leads directly into a 70 foot waterfall, Casey leans forward putting his skirt on and says, "So my girlfriend just broke up with me via email, this is how I deal with my emotions, like a BOSS."

Dirty Jersey

Tattoos, dark shades, and a flat brim hat

Casey Tango, also known as Dos Litros for his love of cheap Chilean wine, hails from Dirty Jersey, the arm pit of the East Coast. Tango is stereotypical Jersey. He is covered in tattoos, wears a flat brimmed hat, shaved head, big mirrored sunglasses, curses like a sailor, and wants what he wants right now. The perk of traveling with some one who looks like they may have just gotten out of jail is that we never had to worry about security. I think some of the possible thieves eyed our posse not as a target, but as a threat. What more could you ask for from a traveling partner?

Dos Litros, enjoying Chilean wine

Jersey blood is what fuels the Boss, and what drives him to constantly be on the go. His pace is full steam ahead. Ten minutes after waking up Tango is ready to charge. A dozen cups of yerba mate later and he is bouncing off the walls. He turns into the proverbial over-caffeinated ADD crack baby. Dealing with a spastic 29-year-old child is never easy. Loading boats or paddling downstream he keeps a mind-blowing pace. I could barely get my camera out of its Pelican case before Casey charged off the next horizon line.

Traveling, and Destroying kayaks

Warning this video has very unacceptable lyrics, Tango is the Boss.

Kayaks are usually cumbersome and exceedingly expensive to travel with. Stepping out of customs Tango was boastful about his kayak getting on the plane for free. Pointing at his recently trimmed mustache he said, "The baggage lady dug the stash." I had an equally ugly new mustache and it cost me $175 to get my "wave ski" on the plane. Irony made its self more than apparent only a few days later. During our first day paddling in Chile Casey's boat began to sink. He had opened up a twelve inch gash directly under his seat. The impending sinking feeling only increased his pace as he charged into the unknown on the Vientedos Saltos section of the Rio Claro.

Portage?

Casey must be scared of the jungle because he sure wasn't walking around any rapids on this trip. Handing me his paddle one day, he asked, "Can you take this to the bottom for me?" He then strapped on his hand paddles and charged into The Portage on the Rio Palguine. Realizing his skill level, Tango was excited to test it on the nastiest looking drops in Chile.

Tango spicing up the Upper Youghiogheny

Whether finding the best bread in town, getting another tire patched, or bargaining for horses, Tango's Spanish never let us down. Attempting to gain access to the Salto Nilahue, Tango had a remarkably detailed and compassionate conversation with a local Mapuche woman about religion and beliefs. His more then ample Spanish saved us piles of cash and countless hours.

Tango staring down Pine Tree Falls in CO

On the river Tango has transformed his Jersey pace into a positive. He is an aggressive paddler who always has his head on a swivel. I can't think of anyone more willing to put themselves on the line in a true rescue situation.

Casey hates being cooped up

Casey Tango is a BOSS.

Story and photos by Chris Baer

Road Tripping in Patagonia Chile

2011-12-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

Casey Tango on the first water fall of the Rio Fuy

Rio Llancahue

Pucon was starting to dry out and the team packed the rental truck up to get on the road heading south. It was rather late in the evening when we arrived in the Rio Llancahue valley. After a quick search for camping we decided upon a grassy non-fenced portion of land near the river. The evening stars were magnificent and we were all happy to be out of Pucon.

Casey Tango and Gordon Klco getting dinner ready in a beautiful pasture

The sound of a tractor revving it's engine awoke me. Then I heard curse words, even though they were being yelled in Spanish, the tone was clear and we were definitely camping in the wrong spot. The tractor ran over the corner of Tango's tent, and its driver started beating our rental truck with a switch of bamboo. We packed up quickly but then noticed our truck had a flat tire. We proceeded to change the tire with the farmer glaring and cursing. Then we drove a couple kilometers up the road to get away from the angry local. The rude awakening shook the group a little. It took an hour of drying tents and sipping on tea to get the anxiety back under control.

I had a vague recollection of the put in location, but it still took a few minutes and a couple bee stings to find. The Llancahue's river bed reminds me of Colorado. The rock has a rough texture and there is an overall feeling of mank to the run. That aside, it still has some really fun rapids including a twenty foot water fall and a rowdy mini canyon.

Gordon Klco taking a big stroke into the unknown, Rio Llancahue

The run went real smooth, but we were all still a little agitated from our rude awakening. The group consensus was to continue to move south. We packed the truck back up and headed towards the Rio Fuy, after repairing the flat tire in the town of Coñaripe.

The Road

Gordon Klco sitting in front of our rental truck with the tire off getting patched again

Living on the road isn't easy in Chile, it likes to poke at your wounds on occasion. As we parked the truck at the put in for the Rio Fuy Casey Tango noticed the distinct sound of air leaking out from yet another tire. We drove around the quaint town of Puerto Fuy looking for a vulcanization shop. Spotting a car jack in a lawn we pulled over to a small house. The young resident hopped in our truck as he gave us directions to the local mechanic. An hour, and six US dollars, later we had another patched tire. It seems as if Chile isn't really out to harm us, but it rather continually humbles us.

Rio Fuy

Gordon Klco popping off the first of the falls on the Rio Fuy

The Rio Fuy is the only place that I have ever put on a true lake, even though I have put in at plenty of dams in my life. Lago Pirehueico is the headwaters of this amazing river. We literally put in at the marina. There is a huge ferry nearby and a few other large commercial boats. I really enjoyed the feeling of paddling out of the lake and into the river as it constricts the flow of water and quickly picks up gradient.

The peaks near Rio Fuy

The largest volume run that we have done so far in Chile is definitely the Rio Fuy, which is about seven thousand cfs. It was really fun for me to get back on big water. The lead-in whitewater is classic big volume, with pushy rapids and a handful of hidden holes looking to give you a thrashing. The upper whitewater is super fun, but what I was looking forward to was the waterfall section. Two years ago I wasn't able to paddle this section because the flow was several times larger.

One of the Frenchies on the first falls of the Rio Fuy

The waterfall section isn't just waterfalls, it is a layer of bed rock that turns the meandering river into a beast for a half mile. The first and easiest rapid is a clean twenty-plus foot drop. Second is a slope to six foot drop that lands in a boiling eddy. Third is a drop that reminds me of the Zambezi. It has a protected tongue that leads into a boiling eddy-line, wave-hole combo. Fourth, and a little too close for comfort, is the Bird Sucking Hole. The hole has the reputation of being so powerful it actually sucks birds out of the sky and into its depths. I don't know about all of that, but it did look like a body re-circulator. If the previous three drops haven't made you lose your nerve yet, a very thin left line is available over the hole. The finale is a protected twelve foot ledge with a tricky, blind lead in. If all that goes well, the normal take out is just down stream on your right.

Casey Tango sloping off the second drop in the water fall section of the Rio Fuy

Eager for more action? Continue down stream. The river mellows out for a few kilometers and then the gradient picks right back up as it nears Salto Huilo Huilo, a hundred and forty foot monster waterfall. There are a few continuous rapids, and then the river breaks up through a hand full of islands where it becomes obvious that its time to start scouting. Here there is an elaborate rapid with multiple channels. I believe all the water in the left channel disappears into an underground fissure. The middle channel cascades dangerously close to the left line, and goes through an amazing double-tiered rapid. What water is leftover continues to the right through some tight slots and off a marginal twenty-plus footer. Remember to scout ahead, Salto Huilo Huilo is coming up quickly, and there are only a couple safe exit points before the falls.

Taking some time to enjoy the little things

Write up and photos by Chris Baer

Merry Huckmas from the Rios Palguin, Puesco, and Maichin

2011-12-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

Casey Tango showing off the beauty of the Rio Palguin

Palguin

Twenty minutes out of Pucon you come across the Rio Palguin, its attributes are stunning. The crystal clear water cascades down steep gradient that manages to pool up at appropriate places and plunge off of clean waterfalls the rest of the time. Two years ago I celebrated Christmas by trying to paddle as much of the Rio Palguin as I could in a day. This year I tried to step up and run even more, it didn't work...

Christmas morning the group started coming together, and early that afternoon I put on the Rio Palguin with eight friends. To paddle the entire river takes skill, guts, and a bit of luck. Our group of nine was about to test the limits of all of these attributes. The run starts with the very optional Salto Palguin, an 80 foot waterfall with a super tricky entrance. The entire group, and most mortals, start below this impressive Salto. The normal run starts with a busy lead-in rapid that drops into a sticky hole immediately backed up by a rolling eight foot ledge. Next is a fast paced hallway that hangs a tight ninety degree turn and falls off of a twelve foot ledge. The ledge has multiple rock flakes to launch off of at it's lip and one big hole to land in at its base. The third rapid is a super clean twenty foot falls. The twenty footer has an island in the middle, whichever way you pick, right or left, it offers similarly clean lines. Beyond the third falls the run transitions into boulder gardens for a bit.

Approaching the next horizon line is the first exit point out of the canyon, and on your right there is a well beaten trail. The horizon line is a twelve footer referred to as the Crack Drop. There are two islands separating the water into three different cracks. The left and middle cracks are paddle-able, but have a very marginal risk to reward level. The other exit point is just downstream on river left. This exit is exceedingly hard to spot from the water, and a guide is suggested for your first run. It would be very easy to miss the take out and accidently paddle into The Portage.

It's Christmas day and I am standing above The Portage, I'm feeling good and I have watched a handful of my friends paddle into it. Their lines all look very similar. Paddle to the edge of an eight foot crease and fall into the trough. Then they disappear under a rock that your standing on and reappear fifteen feet downstream. I have yet to see anyone in control as they reappear and immediately fall another twenty feet into the hydraulic below. This is the kind of rapid I have a tendency to laugh at and walk around. The risk to reward in my head just doesn't calculate.

Looking towards Casey Tango I giggle and said, "For the past four years I have been doing foolish things for Christmas."
Tango smiles. He says, "You have been doing foolish things your whole life."
That sealed the deal. I was going to borrow Casey's plastic hand paddles and doggy paddle my kayak into the rapid known as The Portage... I was thinking this isn't foolish, this is plain stupid, as I was trying to put the hand paddles on.

Hand paddling in moving current is something I have never done before. Sure I have played around in a heated indoor pool, but never ever tried to go downstream with them. The only reason I was contemplating the hand paddles is that the entrance move is rather easy, and once you fall off the entrance you are simply out of control. It doesn't matter if you have a paddle or not in there. There is absolutely nothing productive that you are going to do in that violent melee of swirling water under a rock. The fact is that a fair amount of people break their paddle, or worse, the paddle breaks them. The hand paddles seem to eliminate some of these variables.

Clutching the hand paddles in my teeth and sliding into the kayak my smile started to grow. I was doing something way outside of my comfort zone. The hand paddles were adjusted and slipped over my fingers, again my smile widened. Pushing away from the eddy I got the first feel of the moving current on my new means of propulsion. A couple strokes later and I eyed up my target. One last big push and the water engulfed me. I felt the immense power of the entire river landing on my shoulders. Then the chaos started, and I was flipping over. I expected the rapid to be violent and chaotic, I knew I was going to roll at least once. What I didn't expect was the next blow. My shoulder felt a sharp stab. All of my body weight, and most of the river's power slammed my shoulder into a rock. There was a fair amount of pain but the ride wasn't over. I felt my boat start to resurface and gave my wrists and hips a good flick. An eternity passed as I went cart-wheeling backwards off the twenty foot ledge. The impact at the base of the falls was rather unimpressive compared to the beating I had taken above. A few moments and thirty some odd feet below I snapped my hips and hands one more time and was sitting upright. I slowly hand paddled over to the edge of the eddy. My paddling companions with cameras and smiles on there faces awaited me.

"Sorry guys, my Christmas is over."

The throbbing in my shoulder was starting and I was concerned that I had done legitimate damage to it. The hike out of the canyon was by myself. I pondered what I had done in the last year to piss Santa off so much. Coal for Christmas was starting to sound good compared to the beating I just received.

The rest of the group continued downstream, minds set on a Merry Huckmas. A little boogie water and there is a mini canyon that has a tendency to acquire wood. After the mini canyon is another ominously named rapid, Boof to Swim. It is a twenty foot curler that comes off the right wall and lands in a pocket hole. Depending on flows this rapid can be fun, or a guaranteed swim.

Josh Oberleas ditching his paddle on the Medio Palguin

The big one, Medio Palguin, is up next. This rapid has more video, stills, and write-ups then any other in Chile. It is a spectacular seventy foot falls that consistently gives paddlers the big waterfall taste they are looking for.

Gordon Klco peering over the lip of Medio Palguin

From Medio down the run tames a bit. There is one more suggested portage around Brennan's, a tight mini canyon that leads into a deadly undercut room. The take out is a few kilometers downstream at a well traveled bridge.

Puesco

The Puesco is the best kayaking I have done in years. The tallest drop is under six feet and there is a good eddy every couple hundred yards. Rio Puesco is all about kayaking, there are no stunts, no portages, and the photos look bland. I have been referring to it as Chile's North Fork of the Payette. Heads up kayaking at it's finest for kilometer after kilometer.

Maichin

Casey Tango paddling into another beautiful canyon on the Rio Maichin

Beautiful is the first word that comes to mind when describing the Maichin. The river passes through a handful of gorgeous moss covered canyons. The overall class of the run is 3+ with fun boulder gardens and multiple channels. There are two rapids of note, the first one is early into the run and easily scoutable from river left. It is a multi-tiered drop that lands in a blasting hole, the downside to the rapid is that both walls are severely undercut. The other rapid of note is towards the end of the run, you can scout and or portage river right.

Casey Tango boofing the "hard" rapid on the Rio Maichin

Story and photos by Chris Baer

Nevado

2011-12-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Casey Tango putting down the landing gear at the Crack drop.

Another day in paradise... the Rio Nevado just out side the town of Pucon, Chile is an absolute gem.

The doomsicle getting chopped up, to help weld Casey's boat.

Before we could paddle the Nevado, it was time to fix Casey's boat. The twelve inch crack was getting bigger by the day. We found a donor boat at Dave Hughes's Pucon Kayak Hostel. Oddly enough the donor boat was previously owned by two of my friends. Casey fired up the chain saw and we went into repair mode. An hour later Casey's boat was looking good and it was time to go kayaking.

Gordon Klco flying through the Crack drop.

This year Pucon is dealing with rather low water. I feel lucky that Casey Tango, Gordon Klco and I were able to catch a good water level on our run of this amazing creek.

Gordon Klco getting his nose down at Dulce Amor.

The Nevado might be one of the best, and most well rounded creeks I have ever gotten the chance to paddle. The rock is extremely polished granite covered in slick green moss, the water is crystal clear, there is a fun slide with a rowdy step-up jump in the middle of it, and three different twenty foot drops!

Casey Tango looking for the auto boof.

The day was going super smooth. Casey's boat floated. All of us had fun lines on the big drops until... The second to the last drop. I gave Gordon some horrible Chilean-style beta, and he tried his best to follow my verbal directions over a dry, two foot tall rock. Gordon fell off of the back of the rock and into the hole. He did an amazing stern pirouette and then landed on his head. The right wall denied his first roll attempt and he started washing down stream. Next, a well placed branch slipped between Gordon and his paddle. The fight was on. A couple more unsuccessful roll attempts and an undercut rock sealed the deal. Gordon jumped out of his boat and was quickly swept into the next sieve pile of a rapid. Which happens to be the only ugly rapid on the entire section. To my amazement, only seconds later, Gordon was able to scramble on top of a rock in the middle of the junky rapid. The clean up went well, except for Gordon's missing paddle, and we were all excited to see the first booty beer of the trip get consumed. Two days later on our next trip down the Rio Nevado, his paddle reemerged just feet away from the swim location.

Photo and write up by Chris Baer

International travel with a kayak and buying a lemon vehicle in Santiago

2011-12-04T16:20:00.001-07:00

Gordon Klco making the Garganta look beautiful, photo by Chris Baer

Asheville North Carolina to Santiago Chile with a kayak

I am always apprehensive before flying with my kayak. This trip to Chile was no different. I actually was adding to the gamble by driving from North Carolina to Georgia the night before the flight. Once arriving in Georgia in the early morning I had a couple errands to do. I picked up a roll of Gorilla tape, a new pair of Dickies, mailed out a check and paddle, and the biggest errand, find a storage place in Georgia to leave my truck. (the new nineteen eighty-four F150 still doesn't have a name, if you have a good name leave it in the comments below) I managed to get all of the errands done just in time for the rain to start coming down. That meant that I got to arrange the storage location and do the final pack in a down pour.

My "Grandma, or wave ski, or kayak" whatever it needs to be called to get on the plane, photo by Chris Baer

I called for a mini van taxi four and a half hours before my plane was scheduled to depart. After a funny conversation with the cab driver about my "grandma" in the big black bag in the back of his mini van, he dropped me off at the terminal. The check in process is always risky with a kayak, the boat simply does not fit into any of the specified sizes. Some kind words, use of the always persuasive "don't worry I do this all the time", and checking in with all of her associates, the baggage person finally gave my "wave-ski" a baggage ticket. My apprehension vanished, my boat was checked, it is all under mycontrol from here...

The Posse in a cab to the used car lot, Photo by Chris Baer

Finding and buying a used car in Santiago

Day 1
Arrive in Santiago and find out that Casey Tango and Gordon Klco have had their flight delayed 3 hours, worse Gordon was not able to get his boat on his flight out of Denver. I make my self comfortable in the Santiago airport and await there arrival. Four hours later I bump into Raul. Raul is Gordon's contact in Santiago and I had bumped into him in CO a few years previous. As Raul and I start to chat Casey and Gordon made there way out of customs. The base of the team was together and all the gear was there minus Gordon's boat. We loaded Raul's car down with gear, and headed to Casa Roja, the hostel that we would base out of while in Santiago. Upon our arrival to the hostel a head popped out of one of the windows, it was Wes, our fourth. I felt like we were ahead of the ball having all of the people and almost all the gear in one spot. Raul was willing to up the ante one more notch as we piled into his car and took off to check out a couple used car lots before it got too late. We pulled to the back of the used car lot, and parked fifty feet away from our dream rig, a Mitsubishi Delica. The price was right, and it ran better then any 1990 Mitsubishi van from South America could be expected. We left the car lot with dreams of rallying the van all over South America.

Shelling out the cash for the Mitsubishi Delica, photo by Chris Baer

Day 2
Raul was busy in the morning, and we had a couple unanswered questions about the van. So we caught a taxi over to the car lot and checked out the Delica one more time... it looked good. That evening Raul meet us at the car lot and we bought the Delica... Raul bought the Delica. In Chile you need a RUT# (a social security number) to buy any expensive items. Raul was lending us his RUT # and technically became the actual owner of the Delica. We turn over a $1000 U.S. a piece for a 1990 mini van in... OK shape. We hop in our new whip and took off back to the Hostel. We all needed a good nights sleep, we were going to go kayaking on day three.

The Rio Claro

Day 3
Wes, Tango, Gordon and I wake up early, and head into the automotive district to put a kayak rack on the van. An hour later our van was looking pretty good, kayaks and paddles strapped to the roof rack, and everything four dudes need to survive in Chile for two months packed inside. It was actually happening... we were heading south on Rute 5 toward the Rio Claro. As we came to the town of Molina, the fuel tank only had a quarter tank of gas for the 50 km drive into the mountains. We had a quick conversation about whether we ought to stop for gas. The group agreed that we ought to stop, but our Chilean comrades were leading the caravan and had no intentions of slowing down. We finally stopped 20 kilometers out of town for beer. There were no more gas stations on our route into the mountains, and our drive to go kayaking got the better of us.

We continued up the mountain and as we neared the put in for the Veinte Dos Saltos the road got bad. Everyone got out of the van to spot the line, clear rocks, and to lighten the load on our poor Delica. The "four wheel drive" section went rather smoothly and the hopes and dreams of the Delica were coming true. We parked the van and began a short hike to the famous water fall run Veinte Dos Saltos, (twenty two) that's right 22 drops in only a few miles.

Casey Tango's boat after his first run in Chile, photo by Chris Baer

Our group is rather big, starting with the Chilean contingency of Raul his brother Nico and their friend Jose, and continuing with the gringo contingency of Wes, Tango, Gordon and I. Our large posse started into the Veinte Dos, Raul and Nico where giving us a little verbal beta, and we were boofing off of blind water fall after blind water fall. Quickly we entered into a very committing basalt canyon. Half way through the canyon Tango reached forward and got a huge boof off a 10 foot drop and cracked his boat. Tango started sinking quickly, in what he claims to be his most committing canyon he has ever paddled. Tango's attitude stays positive as he dumps gallons of water out of his boat every chance he gets. As we reach the take out of the run I look around to see huge smiles on everyone's faces. I was personally really pleased, the Veinte Dos section was my missing section to running all of the Rio Claro.

Raul and I hiked back up to get the vehicles at the put in, and all we could talk about was what was to come. Our state side boating group was about to do a lot of Chilean boating. Once at the van I jumped in and took a good look at the fuel gauge, it was low... really low. The Mitsubishi Delica was definitely not running shuttle the next day, but I thought it ought to get us back to town. We camped for the night, both Chilean and Gringo groups.

Fill up the fuel tank, and the beginning of the end

Day 4
The Chileans put there priorities in order over the evening and realized they needed to head back to Santiago to get ready for the following day. That left the Gringos at the camp site to tear down. We also had to get to Santiago to finish the paper work on the van. We were most of the way out of the mountains when the van ran out of gas. Tango and I grabbed one of the large gallon water jugs and began hiking and hitchhiking towards town. We walked about five kilometers when a truck stopped and we hoped in the back of it. The driver of the truck was Chilean and new the roads well, we were in for a terrifying hundred KPH ride, whipping pass cows, kids, and passing cars.

Once we safely arrived in town we went to the grocery store. We had hitch hiked in with a empty gallon of water that was to be our impromptu fuel tank and bought another gallon jug of water that would double our capacity. Upon arriving at the gas satiation the attendant refused to fill the jugs, he said the police would catch him. Tango and I walked directly to the other gas station in town and had no problems filling the containers. Next order of business was catching a cab the 30 km back to the van, after a little persuading we found a driver. Once we reached the van we fueled back up and the van fired back to life. We were on the road again, as we approached Santiago the van started getting warm the thermostat was rising but stayed within a reasonable temperature. We pulled into Casa Roja, and got a room for the evening.

Day 5
Woke up and decided to split our resources, Casey and Wes went to take the van to a local mechanic to get checked out. The mechanic told them he had a couple things to fix, and it is going to take a couple days. While this is going on Gordon, Raul, and I went to get the rest of the paper work for the van finished.

Day 6
Check in with mechanic and have a couple drinks.

Casey Tango hitting the wall at Casa Roja, or maybe he is about to get locked in a locker, photo Chris Baer

Day 7
More drinks and talking with mechanic. Santiago was draining us, no one in our group is a city person and we all simply wanted to go kayaking.

The Delica obviously overheating, photo by Chris Baer

It's a lemon, how to get a tow in Chile

Day 8
The van got finished and the bill was very reasonable. We picked up the van in the evening, and started the drive back south to the Rio Claro. We kept it fueled up this time, but it started to heat up as we started into the hills. This time the warming of the van was accompanied with noise, we shut it down promptly and pulled over. We quickly diagnosed the problem in the dark and realized nothing was going to get fixed till the morning, we slept in a tree farm on the side of the road.


The knot of Chile, the double overhand, it even works to tow vans, on dirt roads up hills and down highways, photo by Chris Baer

Day 9
Wake up early and try to start the van, we crank the engine and get nothing. We turned it over some more, nothing, more cranking nothing , more nothing, finally the battery ran out of juice. There was almost no traffic on the road that early in the morning and we decided to try push starting the van. The van would pop, stutter, and idle while in gear on the down hills but as soon as the hill flattened the van died. Once the van stopped puttering down the hill, we would get out and push it to the next hill. After a few miles of pushing the van a local fruit vendor offered to tow us into town. We attached the van to his truck with a ten foot piece of nylon cord. Amazingly enough the fruit vendors overhand knots held and 30 minutes later we arrive at the mechanic in Molina. The mechanic diagnosed a couple of problems, first was an adjustment with the distributor cap, secondly there was a noise in the front of the engine. The noise in the front of the engine had been diagnosed by the mechanic in Santiago earlier in the week and we decided to get back on the road. As we drove back into mountains the van was missing a bit of power, and upon going down the first big hill the temperature shot up. We limped the van up a couple hills and it became very apparent there was still a major engine problem. Once again we slept on the side of the road.

Getting towed down the highway getting passed by a double decker bus, photo by Chris Baer

Day 10
Again we can't start the van, we push it and try jump starting it. We eventually get a tow to a steep hill and drop the clutch on the hill, the van starts back up but it is running real rough. We make it two kilometers and can't get the van up a big hill. Again we wait for a tow up the hill, once at the top we push start the van again. The van fires up and we make our last go at it. Another 4k and the van stops running for it's final time. We wait for another hour or so and catch a tow by a couple exceedingly nice men, Pancho and his father Jose. The Chileans offered up a tow to there house in Curico. We quickly accepted there offer, and arrive in Curico. Pancho's mother greets us at their door and makes us a great local lunch and treats us like family.

Street art in Curico, photo by Chris Baer

Day 11
The groups threshold is being pulled at from every imaginable angle. It looks like the van was the first one to give up. Wes was the next one to leave the group, he awoke and caught a bus to Pucon. Tango and Gordon are feeling the financial crunch, and I am wondering how I was able to pull off so many adventures with out this kind of epic failure happening. We crash at Pancho's house for a second night waiting out the weekend, and get a local Spanish lesson.

Hitting the reset button

The Delica getting loaded onto the flat bed tow truck for it's final adventure, back to Santiago, photo by Chris Baer

Day 12
Monday morning we loaded the van on a tow truck and make the three hour drive back up to Santiago. The tow truck driver drops the van back off in front of the dealer that we bought it from a week and a half previous. The auto dealer was quizzical on our return, Raul had spoken to him on Saturday, but I don't think the dealer really expected the van to get dropped back off. Raul showed up a little while later and spoke harshly with the dealer. A resolution was worked out, and we might be seeing some cash back for the van... I am currently writing it up as a very expensive life lesson.

Raul then packed us in his car and we took off looking to find a more functional vehicle... a rental truck. After a little internet shopping and a dozen phone calls we managed to find a two wheel drive pick up. The rental fee got reduced to an amazingly low price of $44 dollars a day, not bad compared to the listed $65 dollars.

Pancho, Jose, and Erika sending us off in our rental truck, photo by Chris Baer

Day 13
Wake up at Casa Roja, and have our rental truck delivered to the parking lot adjacent to the hostel. We pack the truck to the brim and take off once again to the Rio Claro. Five hours later were in our boats and paddling the beautiful Veinte Dos Saltos section.

Casey Tango sliding through Garganta del Diablo, photo by Chris Baer

Gordon Klco boofing through the upper Entres section, photo by Chris Baer

The next few days are filled with paddling the Claro, sleeping in the dirt, eating great self cooked meals, drinking cheap beer, and finally being on vacation.

Gordon Klco, happily sleeping in the dirt, photo by Chris Baer

Photos and words by
Chris Baer

South East Tour

2011-11-22T22:42:00.001-07:00

A couple of rafters approaching the Thing

Back in the south east, there is only one thing to do, well there is a couple things to do. Mainly hope for rain and when that doesn't happen enjoy the garrenties, the Green Race and Tallulah release.

My head was still spinning from three days of travel, returning to the States from Africa. I left West Virginia after Halloween with costume makeup still on my face, I had to get moving again. I swung through Kentucky for some White Lightning that would help fuel the next few weeks. First up was the Green Race, I have never taken the run lightly but I make the race into a joke. Last year I had a fun whistle in my mouth while launching off of Gorilla, this year I was trying to figure out how to one up myself. It was time for pyro techniques, roman caddles to be exact.


Chris Baer, with a Roman Candle attached to the back of the helmet, thanks again WRSI for protecting my head against all sorts of danger.

I came through Chefs, and eddied out to have a cohort place a roman candle in a sleeve on the back of my helmet. As the first round from the roman candle went off I knew I was back at home. The crowd grew loud, and I had an ever expanding smile on my face. I had explosives going off on the back of my head all while paddling towards Gorrila the crux of the entire race.

Chris Baer, getting my nose down on Gorilla

My finish time was toward the back of the pack, but I had a smile knowing that I had more fun then most of the competitors combined... and that I was about to win the after party.

It was time to do a little planning for my next big adventure... Chile. I also had to plan the next weekends event Tallulah fest. I sat in the Henderson Ville library for three days of transferring video clips editing photos and checking on air plane tickets. After three days of sitting I was ecstatic for the weekend.

The South East runs are usually damn releases, and that means that all two hundred boaters put on the river together. Tallulah is a prime example, lots of officials, lots of lines, and lots of sketchy boaters. Tallulah also draws an amazing amount of friends, between Green Race and Tallulah I was able to see more then a hundred kayaking buddies. That amount of paddlers in a small place usually leads to after parties. Late evenings sipping on white lightning and speaking of different adventures, past and present.

Random kayaker getting intimate with the Thing

Tallulah's white water is super high quality, who doesn't love sliding down a steep bedrock slide into a gigantic explosion called the "Thing".

The Tallulah river is dewatered for most of the year, there is a damn and hydro electric plant that divert the water from it's normal course. For a couple weekends in the spring and fall there are recreational releases. These releases will never replenish the ecological damage done by dewatering a delicate ecosystem. These releases do give us a chance to enjoy a spectacular valley and hopefully leave a long lasting impression that dewatering rivers, is not a sustainable energy option.

These guys had a interesting craft, it was originally from Russia and was over twenty years old

Two days of paddling on Tallulah and the weekend was over, time to repack the bags and get ready for my next adventure... Chile.

Another adventure brought to you by Chris Baer.

Africa

2011-11-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

The less you have the easier it is to find joy?

I was recently invited on a trip to Africa, what else could I say, YES. Here is the catch it wasn't for paddling...

Traveling is always entertaining and being I wasn't dragging a boat with me, I was up for a mission. 30 minute drive in a car to the train station 12 hours on the train from Thermond WV to New York, a few more trains and shuttles and get to the airport for a 14 hour flight to arrive in South Africa, back on another plane for 2 hours and presto I'm in Mozambique.

The team slowly arrived and introductions where interesting the team had came from all walks of life. We did have one common goal, to build some houses for the truly less fortunate. Most of the families that we were to build for were "broken" in some way, a father had died a grandchild was added. There was a family that consisted of two elderly ladys that were raising there grandchildren, the parets long ago had died from aids. The aids epidemic really strikes hard here, there are few people between the ages of 20-40, they have all died. Now there children are being raised by neighbors and grandparents. The need for sustainable housing is huge. Our small team made the tiniest change in a community that is so stricken. Now I have a second opportunity to help... to spread the word to you. HELP, weither it is in your local comunity or world wide, we as "Americans" have it super well, as we are maching on capitals asking for more financial freedom we need to really open our eyes and relise we have it amazingly well. If you are not pissed off about greed at every level you are simply not paying attention. Go and help how ever you can.

A new home owner with two of the home builders holding her hands

This lady was smiling and singing and she lives in a collapsed hut,


Making dinner

Trista Matascastillo, our fearless leader

Dancing is embedded into the African culture

Really, my dad is dancing I had to get a pic to prove it

I never had seen my dad dance till Africa and I caught him dancing twice,

Norm Baer putting Hack Saw to re-bar

Norm Baer mixing more "Masa"

House construction getting close


The masons at our home sight

The old house on the right and our new creation almost complete on the left.

Part of the dedication was having the community touch the new house and give it god vibes

As we finished the emotional task of handing the homes over to there new owners my head started to spin with anticipation. Africa is not stark or barren, it is lush and beautiful. Our groups next destination was a whirlwind two day "safari", We drove from Mozambique through South Africa and made a loop through Swazi Land back up to Mozambique. The wild life and plant life was simply stunning.

Look close and you can see that they are landing on hippo's

mom still looking out for the "little one"

I think this giraffe was playing peak-a-boo

They are way bigger in real life, especially when they are 10 feet from the van

After the safari I figured it was due time for a little kayaking. I headed to a small river known as the Zambezi, It has this little water fall called Victoria Falls, and is home to some supper fun kayaking. I was greeted with 30 thousand cfs and a very fun loving group of paddlers.

The Zambezi gorge

Yule Creek

2011-08-14T11:21:00.001-06:00

Ball Check

Yule,

July 16th 2011, My birthday, I woke up a 33 year old child with one goal... to have way too much fun.

I've looked at Yule Creek a hand full of times over the last few years and have been skunked at every attempt to paddle it. Today was going to be different, I had good information that the level was high but acceptable, and I had two buddies, Casey Tango and Ben West who wanted to fire it up. We drove three hours over passes through Aspen and into one of the most beautiful valleys in Colorado.

Looking up at Crystal peak

The three of us piled out of the truck crossed a obviously private bridge and walked to the base of the last of four amazing drops. Looking up hundreds of feet I could see the terrifying doubled pitched slide of Oriental Massage, at it's base was a small recycling eddy with a strainer on the left side and an exit on the right directly into the finale drop called Happy Ending, a twenty plus foot water fall. I immediately started smiling, the water level was definitely high but it look O-so-good.

We started up the driveway and heard a UTV heading our direction. " O SHIT, it is the owner, RUN." We took off down the hill and tried to tuck into the bushes. The owner, familiar with his property, walked right up to where we hid. I emerged from my hiding spot and confronted him. Hostile at first, he explained his concern of us getting hurt. There was no way he wanted us on his property, and we knew we were off to plan B in order to access this amazing gorge.

We spent the next three hours hiking all over the place trying to find good access to the gorge. After expending all of our options I finally expressed my interest in simply repelling 200 feet into the canyon off the left rim. This would put me directly above the last four drops. The group hummed and hawed for a bit trying to figure out if 640 feet per mile worth of gradient was what they really were interested in getting into, the answer was no. I was the only one that still had motivation after three hours of driving and another three hours of hiking. Casey and Ben were both enthusiastic about me running the drops. They offered to help me into the gorge and shoot the video and stills while peering over the rim from hundreds of feet above.

Rappelling into the canyon

I put on my make shift harness, fashioned from a small piece of webbing and started into the gorge.Shaking with anticipation, fear, and pure excitement I lowered myself to the first major rapid. To my luck the first drop, Ball Check, is a 30 plus foot, barely off vertical waterfall, with a tree barricading the right line, (exactly where I wanted to go). After a quick scout I decided to try the harry fairy from left to right directly next to the log. It didn't work. I caught a flake at the top of the drop and took a huge bounce. I still can't believe I was able to barely control my descent, but I landed in the landing zone right side up and in mild control. I tried to turn my boat back forward for the next drop but the water had no plan on allowing me to do so. At the last second, looking a couple hundred feet to the bottom of Wall Check I committed to straightening out my boat.... back wards. The ride was nothing but intense, dealing with laterals, catching air, all while going 30 plus miles an hour back wards. I got rolled towards the bottom of the drop and snapped back upright quickly. I was.... ok, really scared, a little beat up, but I had just ran the biggest drop in Colorado back wards.

Starting down Wall Check switch

As I pulled over to scout Oriental Massage and Happy Ending, I was both terrified, and amazingly happy. I was receiving the most magical and intense birthday present ever.

I started over the lip into Oriental Massage with a gigantic smile. I creamed into a 20 foot curler and came out the back side of the enormous wave at 40 miles an hour grinning from ear to ear. The hit at the bottom of the slide was intense and strong enough to knock my helmet camera forward. I cleared my eyes just in time to see the strainer before cascading off of Happy Ending. I took a couple back strokes, bumped off of one of the logs and swung to the right before paddling forward off of Happy Ending. I reached forward into the turbulent water and took a huge boof stroke mid flight I stomped the nose of my boat down into the pool at the base of way more than a hundred feet of fun. I couldn't control myself I felt like a kid giggling uncontrollably. Still worried about the private property I quickly paddled through it, and down to Casey and Ben. We celebrated with luke warm beer, and I had a birthday I will never forget.

Yule on my birth day from Chris Baer on Vimeo.
The best birthday of my life, getting older and proving I have not grown up all at the same time. Screaming down 640 feet per mile of pure fun.

Chris Baer, a year older and still living like a kid.

Pine Creek

2011-08-01T10:43:00.000-06:00

Pine Creek is truly my back yard run, I walk across the street put my boat at the top of a small embankment slide into the river and a minute latter I am flying through the S turn. This year Casey Tango and I managed to catch it at around 3600 CFS, high flows are so much fun. Check out the Video of us bombing through Pine Creek, Triple Drop and the big waves in Number Four.

O Be Joyful

2011-07-24T17:32:00.002-06:00

Well it is one of the most well know creeks in CO and for good reason. O be Joyful offers water falls slides and even a couple stompy holes if you are not paying attention. I manage to get my yearly trip in a week or so ago, check out some head cam footage.

O Be Joyfull from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Fibark

2011-07-19T18:09:00.002-06:00

Check out some entertainment from Fibark, one of the biggest boating festivals any where.

Chris Baer, making my way through the big wave, thanks Leif Anderson for the shot, I so wish I had an awesome mullet like his.

We kayak raced through number Four in the numbers and then Rodeo'd it up in Salida.

Teva Games

2011-07-11T17:59:00.000-06:00

Teva Games in Vail CO always goes off huge, this year was no exception. It all starts off with the Homestake race, a rather nasty course with a stacked field of competitors.

Bryan Kirk making his way through the course

Another racer dropping into the maul

Jacub Nemec wheeling to a second place finish

Isaac Levinson charging to the bottom to be the first place US finisher


another boater charging through the steeps

Airborn Athletics showing off the airborn

Check out the quick edit of my race run

Next up was the boater cross events, both raft and kayak head to head fights to the finish.


whoops that doesn't look like the fast line


pushing the vertical limit

too many boats in the hole?

retrieving a boat stuck in the hydrolic

some of the boats had to be recovered from the hole, this guy had an interesting idea on how to get them out

The kayak race contained almost as much action. The added bonus to the kayak portion is the 8 Ballers, a group of kayakers devoted to crashing the racers off line and over all creating mayhem.

That has got to hurt

A fair amount of chaos

Bakers Box

2011-07-05T14:11:00.000-06:00

Early this spring I went down to help out the Four Corners guys with there big preseason swap. Well, it wasn't preseason for all of us, I got a guided tour through one of the most containing canyons any where. It also has some amazingly ruff access issues, the sign on the private property that you walk across for a mile or so reads, Trespassers will be shot and survivors will be shot again.

Minnesota Recap

2011-06-21T18:51:00.004-06:00

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

Split Rock

2011-06-09T21:22:00.001-06:00

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

Lester

2011-05-30T10:10:00.002-06:00

Chris Baer, always running Almost Always

The Lester river is just north of Duluth Minnesota and makes a great after work run for the locals of Duluth. It is only about 2 miles long and after a couple laps you can run it in about seven minutes. The charicter is mostly shallow class 4 with two rapids picking up the pace. The first harder rapid is named Naked Man, and has a stout lead in into a funky seven foot boof into a very shallow pool. The rocks at the base of the seven footer dolled out a lot of pitons this year. The second big rapid is called Almost Always, for years it was walked on a almost always basis. Now days this great rapid gets fired up almost always. Almost Always is a near vertical 20 footer that allows a awesome air plane boof at the top.

The Cascade

2011-05-28T19:07:00.003-06:00

Long John

The Cascade is one of my favorite runs of the North Shore, there is a wild variety of drops from long technical slides to a very steep stacked set of waterfalls. I managed to get a ton of laps on this gem, with flows ranging from negative 1/2 to negative 6 inches, I am a firm believer that more is better, and after getting comfortable with this run, I could imagine running it at stomping high flows.

Tango checking out the bottom drops

Entering the banking turn of Long John

beware the icicles

A MN teaser,

2011-04-27T09:17:00.001-06:00

Here is a couple of things from some other sources to get you ready for some MN updates.

and check out this site, the local news man whats to give kayaking a try

http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S2061338.shtml?cat=10348

Grand Canyon 2011

2011-04-11T08:58:00.000-06:00

just another day in the big ditch

Grand Canyon for 27 days, too many stories to write down. Here is a bunch of photos with a couple fun words.

Just another beautiful beach

We Had very varied flow, notice how far the boats are up the beach


the boats tucked up in the Deer Creek micro eddy

The side hikes during the winter months are perfect, nothing like going on a 10 mile hike in jeans and a sweatshirt.

Brian Newman lining up a big piece at Crystal

cactus on the way up to the Nankoweap Granaries

another beautiful sunset

The scenery never lets up

Dan lining up the big wave in Crystal

Dan Wylie hammering Crystal

Fish, being FISH!

Fish going big early on in the trip, look closely and spot Jane hunkering down on the front of the boat.

Fish and Jane finding the sweet spot at Hermit

Fish deep in Deer Creek Canyon

classic Grand Canyon shot from the Nankoweap Granaries

Grease meet water

Fish with one big Grease bomb

That is a motley crew

Marjie matching the travertine water of the Little Colorado

Koreen and Julie standing in front of Hermit

Jeff Catlett and his 18 foot boat buried in the good stuff

Jeff looking like a submarine resurfacing from the depths


The scale of the Grand Canyon is hard to comprehend, Look close to spot Jeff crushing Hermit

Marjie, Jane, Minna, Koreen, and Julie playing in front of Elves Casum

Marjie ditching her kayak and taking the sporty "swim" line

Chris Baer, with Havasu canyon in the back ground

Miles, looking for the big line at Hermit

Miles with a proper Grand Canyon beard

Minna at Vasey's Paradis

Minna thinking about going for a couple more "newmans" before leaving Havasu for a night cruse

Looking up stream at Phantom Ranch, the true point of no return

The dark walls and moon a near Christmas Tree Cave

Jane and Minna creating the sound track to Red Wall Cavern

De-rigging Project Mayhem in the middle of the night

Rooster heading down stream on another beautiful February day

Is that a pyramid? I don't know but it sure is pretty

Red Wall Cavern and a little lens flair

Wes, Miles, and Dan making there way through Deer Creek

Most of the crew steming around the fridget water in Deer Creek

Wes, Dan, and Miles making there way down Deer Creek

We saw snow on the rim the entire trip

The temperature difference from the top of the canyon to the bottom is very noticeable. It is typically 5-7 degrees warmer per 1000ft drop in elevation. That means the rim gets snow and we are in T shirts tossing horse shoes.

got to dry out those underoos some where

Wes in front of Havasu Canyon

We launched February 5th and took off March 4th, 27 days on water.

There was fourteen people on the trip, three of which had very limited rafting experience, one of which was Michael the mayor of Durango.

The weather was great, highs in the low 70s, and lows just above freezing.

Our flows were all over the place usually around 20,000. That much water made some of the rapids pretty darn easy, and gave a couple of the bigger rapids a couple fun BIG options.

We managed to have 5 flips on the trip, including Jeff the morning of his birthday. I think Jeff just wanted to wash the rest of the whip cream pie off.

Please leave any questions or comments below and I will try to give you good answers.

Chris Baer still felling a little weirded out by not being a mile deep in the Grand Canyon with a bunch of good friends.

Mauricio Mora Lindo

2011-04-10T20:58:00.001-06:00

While I was in Costa Rica I was lucky enough to meet and paddle with Mau, his generous hart shined brightly. Barely meeting me Mau picked me up from the hostel and took me paddling on the Upper Orosi. Over the matter of three weeks I became a permanent fixture at his house, and we got the opportunity to paddle together multiple times. On February 16th Mau was pinned in a sieves on the Upper Orosi and drowned. I am still uncertain on how to grieve and morn such a loss. I do know that Mau LIVED his life and would want me and every one else to continue to do so. I miss you Mau.

Upper Sevegre

2011-04-08T11:25:00.000-06:00

Here is a quick edit from the Upper Sevegre in Costa Rica,

How to travel with a kayak internationally,

2011-04-02T07:52:00.002-06:00

Yea, there is room for one more boat

First off, these are not rules these are merely suggestions on how I have managed to get my kayaks too and from.

Traveling with a kayak is a pain in the ass. You are the slowest, clumsiest tourist. This makes you a prime target for pickpockets, thieves, and everyone else looking to rip you off. You are traveling with the biggest suitcase ever. Try to travel with a group of other kaykers; strength in numbers. If traveling solo bring a small lock so you can lock your boat up to something and walk into a store or bathroom without your kayak. If you feel like some one might be sneaking up to steal out of your bag or wallet, make a wild turn and smack them with the boat. Overall, I have never been hassled too much, most of the people including the criminals are too busy laughing at the stupid gringo.

2x4s make a excellent rack on a rental car

Starting simple: Cars
Almost all of us have car racks back home -- now you are traveling, the rules just changed. Most cabs do not have roof racks, and they have those little signs on top, most of those come off pretty easily, if the little sign does not come off, just flip your boat over and go cockpit down. Bring straps, I prefer a big 20 footer and two 9 footers, this gives you lots of options. Most cabs at least think they are in a big rush, be willing to dole out another 50 cents to show the cab driver how your straps work and reassure him you do it all the time.

your sleeping pad between your boat and car will avoid denting the roof too much

Buses
Different places have different customs on this one, some times boats go on the roof, other times underneath, and sometimes they might just ride in the seat next to you.
On the roof, have your straps ready, some times the driver will only stop for a few seconds. The next thing you know you are on the top of a bus doing 50 mph down a dirt road with a 1000 foot cliff on one side.
Underneath, most busses are about 8 feet wide, that means a 8 foot 6 inch creek boat needs to go in a little sideways. It also means fitting a Pyranha Everest or some other longer creek boat becomes exceedingly difficult.
The bus driver is going to ask for extra money, he usually puts it directly into his pocket. You can either talk to the ticket seller and squabble over the price ahead of time, or buy the driver off. I have found it easier to play dumb with the driver. I take most of my money out of my wallet, (and in a Texas drawl) say "no nintendo por favor" and then open up the wallet revealing the two dollars you have left. Usually the driver will see you are as poor as he is and just shrug his shoulders.

bus rides can be interesting

Boats and Trains
Most of these crafts are huge and have plenty of extra space. They can deal with the extra weight of the kayak. Once again they are going to look for some money. Stick to the same rules as buses -- barter and play dumb.

Riding in style on the Big boat

Now for the tricky one: Planes
As far as I know there are no airlines flying out of the United States that actually allow kayaks on board. That does not mean you cannot fly with your boat. There are a couple of airlines that will take "small light weight break down kayaks", but the average creek boat does not fit into their size requirements. Don't despair, there are a few things you can do to help get your boat on the plane.

"wave ski" on it's way to Chile

Plan ahead:
1) Get a bag for your boat. I go to the fabric store and get some cheap material and make a gigantic "pillow sack" with a draw string on one end. I then take a couple nine foot cam straps and put them around the boat on either side of your cockpit. Then connect the two 9 footers with a 20 foot strap looped over itself several times (this makes an ok shoulder strap, it also gives the baggage people something to grab onto other than your collar). I use the shoulder strap when I walk up to the ticket counter, I think it makes the "wave ski" look lighter. If you buy a bag, make sure it doesn't say KAYAK on the side. (your are about to lie to the ticket counter and tell them it is anything but a kayak).
2) Look nice. You don't have to wear a suit, but a collared shirt and clean pants, try to portray that you are a professional and that you fly a lot. The ticket folks will want you to fly with their airline again.
3) Show up early, wait until the line gets small and the checker has time to play with your baggage. Worst case scenario -- after being denied go sit and pout and hope that ticket person goes on break. Then run back into the line and give it another try.
4) If you can, find the ticket person that looks new, they won't have a clue and they are easier to trick.
5) Print out the airlines baggage rules, find the (wave ski) (surf board) (light weight break down kayak) portion and highlight it.

When talking to the baggage person
1 Be nice, helpful, let them be in control, and offer assistance.
2 Have your passport, ID, credit card and your highlighted "rules" all ready to go.
3 LIE. You can't bring a kayak on the plane, so it is whatever you tell them it is. Be persistent, say whatever it takes to get your kayak on board. I had a lady in Asheville, NC ask me if it was a kayak, after I said no she asked if I had been to the Green Race the day before. My gear was still wet and my hang over was in full effect from the race. I responded with: "The blue race? What is that?" Tell them you do it all the time: "Yeah, I was down in Africa last month". They might try to tell you it won't fit, my response is "I have fit it in a Cessna before, it will totally fit!".
4 If they tell you it doesn't meet the size requirements remind them that it is round and that if you did all the calculus that it would fit in their requirments.
4 If they tell you no, plead. "I am on this trip for four months, and this is why I am going please."
5 Last resort: "Fine, if I can't take it with me, you deal with it." Turn your back and start to walk away. The people in the airports are really afraid of baggage being left behind, and they may just put it on the plane to get it out of the airport. (They might also call the bomb squad who will take it out on the tarmac and blow it to smithereens.)

This is the conversation I usually get:
baggage person: What is THAT?
me: It is my wave ski (big Smile)
baggage: What is a wave ski?
me: It is like a surf board for surfing in the ocean. Here are the airlines baggage requirements, it is highlighted right here.
baggage: Well.... ok? It looks like it will be 100 bucks? Hold on! Does it meet the length requirements?
me: Yeah. It is a bit awkward but it fits no problem. Here is my credit card, thanks.
Baggage: Ok, have a fun time with your wave ski?

Our my personal favorite quote from a security guard as I was falling asleep next to my wave ski on an overnight layover in Texas: "Just tell me that isn't your grandma."

Remember, have fun, you are on vacation and you do this all the time.

Costa Rica, The Classics, Navarro, Pozo Azul, Patria, Macho, and Orosi

2011-01-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

another beautiful sun set near Uvita

So there are a couple things I have learned about Costa Rica so far, There are a lot of unrun hard sections out there, and the hard sections the Ticos do run are pretty damn fun.

I took a week off to travel with family and managed to take an actual "vacation" got to see some of the classic Costa Rica attractions and even got to swim around in a rip current for a bit.

the old growth trees were never cut down because they were too big

Navarro,
I met up with Mauricio Mora Lindo for a couple days and we took a ride to check out some runs in the Orosi Vally, It had been raining for a bit and everything was on the high side of crazy. At that point Mauricio turned to me and said, " O I got something for us, it might have a little wood". We showed up to a tiny tributary with a fair amount of water in it, the Navarro. Immediately it was off to the races, blind corners, fun boofs, and more then a little wood. During our run Mauricio and I both had close encounters of the wood kind.

just monkeying around

Rio Macho
Ferdinand and I met back up, and it was time to get one of his favorites, the Rio Macho. This run is less a river then a pile of rocks on a steep hill. It starts off quick and stays at a feverish pace, tight boof into tighter slot, around a sieve and off an even smaller boof onto a tiny piece of water backed up by a sieve. The Macho stays at that kind of pace for close to 4 miles. Needless to say the first time you do this run you are totally disorientated, tired, and dealing with a huge altitude loss. Ferdinand claims the gradient some where in the 700fpm range, with only one drop over 6 ft, the Rio macho is just plain steep.

Pozo Azul

Ferdinand on the second 20 footer

Next up was the Pozo Azul, or Blue Pool, the run that Ferdinand named his company after. After a hour long hike through muddy pasture land we arrived at a tricky 20+ footer. At this point Ferdinand said, it is either class 5 or 2 today, nothing in-between. His description was spot on. We would run a water fall or complicated rapid and it would flow into meandering class two. There are a couple cool rapids in the valley one is a narrow hall way, and another that is named Swiss-cheese, aka "sieved out". The climax of the run is a 30ish footer that has a tendency to have a rather hard landing. Ferdinand and I had good lines and paddled down to the confluence with the Sarapiqui with smiles on our faces.

Ferdinand getting his nose down on the 30 footer

Ferdinand hard at work in his Blue Pool work shop

Patria,

5:30am putting on the Patria

The Patria is an absolutely amazing run. It has also dealt out more then its fair share of random beating. This river has created epic stories for most of the lucky few that have ever entered into it's beautiful pristine valley.

Ferdinand surrounded by big holes, and bigger rocks

The Patria, we skipped the upper canyon and hiked down from the main road for 3 hours through super dense jungle. There was plenty of cursing as we slid, crashed, and donated plenty of blood to the hike in. Upon arriving to the river Ferdinand told me we had to bump our way down the side creek that we were on for a 1/4 mile to the true Patria. Bouncing down the tributary was painful at best. I got pinned a couple times and my ankle started aching from a couple small pitons. It took a while but we finally made it to the Patria. The water level looked a little low to me, but as we headed down stream tributary after tributary entered into the creek.

the boof above pushed all the water into the nasty sieve river right

My energy level was nearing empty. Between waking up at 4:30am, a three hour hike in, and another half an hour bouncing down a 30 cfs creek, it was taking all of my mental strength to put together ok lines.

Lady slipper

We pushed on, one rapid after the next, as we got further into the canyon the added water started to clean up some lines but added sticky holes to others. I got rolled a couple times and we took a time out for food and water. It took everything I had to stay calm and put together lines through the next 6 miles of class 5 white water. As we exited the remote and absolutely gorgeous canyon, all I could really think about was how soon I could have my head back on my pillow.

Orosi

Last but not least is the Upper Orosi, the put in rapids are steep and sieve laden, but quickly the run tames into fun class 4. This is one of Ferdinands home runs, and he gave me the proper locals tour. We would come off a boof charge to the far side of the river, drive up onto a rock, slide into a micro eddy, and then back to the far side of the river.

I have gotten to run a ton of different rivers around the world and one of my favorite things is to get the true locals tour. No scouting, bizarre lines, and paddling partners that are laughing all the way down the river.

I was rather captivated by his eye coloration, double click the photo for a closer look

Stay tuned, next adventure is going to be of GRAND proportions.

Chris Baer

Chirripo Pacifio huck fest

2011-01-10T20:48:00.002-07:00

Todd Wells, Caterata La Perla

First Descent of La Perla,

La Perla is a 50 + foot drop that starts with a tricky slide into a 30 foot vertical drop. Todd and I had this gem in our sights for the last 3 weeks. We had been keeping ourselves busy with other adventures but today it was time to pluck this first descent. The drop is just a short hike up the hill from Casa Mariposa, (the hostel I have been home basing out of). After scouting the beast one more time there was little hesitation in running such a magnificent drop.

The lip of the falls is rather ugly, there are two rock flakes most of the way down the slide portion of the drop. The rocks are unnervingly close to the sliver of water that I want to be on, and look as if they might launch you out of control. There was a distinct possibility of launching out flat, or on your head into the pool 30+ feet below. To make it more interesting the main flow rides up on a curler at the lip of the falls. The water then drives left into the nasty left rock flake. It is a pretty thin line at the top of a rather large drop.

At the top of the falls I felt unusually calm, I had a third of the butterflies in my belly that I was expecting. Once again I had a funny song in my head, this time Avril Lavigne's "Alice" was rolling through my head. I hopped in my boat, slapped the skirt on, and slid into the water. My pre big drop rituals are rather impromptu, today it was a extremely short lived wiggle warm up dance. Three strokes later my boat was right on line. I tossed in a quick correction stroke on the slide, and a second later I was rolling up in the pool with a huge grin.

Chris Baer, with big smile for La Perla

Ignorance is bliss, and it will make you hike some more in Costa Rica. I hadn't learned my lesson about the upper upper Chirripo Pacifico, as Todd and I continued down stream. Our attempt was to paddle down to the most upper paved bridge. As we headed down stream we encountered a married of ugly and painful drops. After bouncing off of a hundred rocks, we found a set of very marginal drops. A quick discussion led us to hiking out of the river valley. To our luck we were in the back yard of Casa Mariposa, a short walk brought us to base camp, and beers.

Once again, the Upper stretches of the Chirripo Pacifico have turned out to have great hike and huck potential, and a low tolerance for allowing any downstream movement out side of bouncing off of rocks.

First descent of Catarata Pacifica,

Chris Baer, airborne, funnel, wheelie on Catarata Pacifica

The team had left, Ferdinand had clients to paddle with, Todd was going to spanish school, and this left me solo. I had been studying the water falls in the valley for the last 3 weeks, the valley was home. After all this time I had a calling, I wanted to run one more of the big drops. I knew that Catarata Cloud Bridge was runnable but it looked painful, and I never got a good view from the lip of Catarata Pacifica. So I set out for another hike, I wanted to get a really good look from the top of Catarata Pacifica. I stopped at the normal overlook, and peered down onto the drop. The lead in is rather intense from above, and I couldn't see a proper way to get to the lip of the falls. The embankment is all over hanging and full of lush vegetation. Upon further investigation I was able to wade down the river left side and get to some slippery rocks right at the lip of the beast. I was astounded, it looked.......ok?

I split the drop up into a few categories,

The lead in,
The river bed was made of bed rock, and had odd shaped eddys, and diagonal holes protecting the true lip of the falls.

The disconnects,
Upon rolling off the lip, the water disconnects for 15 feet, and then hits a small rock flake. It then disconnects again for another 15-20 feet before it gently reconnects with the bed rock a total of 40+ feet below the lip.

The funnel,
40 feet down the drop the rock starts to funnel together, the right wall is slightly overhanging and the left wall is the major issue. The drop at it's widest is 20 feet, the exit is 5 feet wide, the left wall does all of the funneling. The results of hitting the left side from 50+ feet above looked painful at best. Not only was the rock pinching together from side to side, but it was also ramping into the pool. This transition into the landing zone made me feel a little better, I knew I would have a half a second to try to control my angle.

The pool,
Looked ok, there was a deep boil rolling up 20 or so feet away from the base of the falls. There was also a relatively calm large pool on the left side to collect my wits in. The right side of the pool was moving fast off the next 6 foot drop, and also looked rather under cut. At this point it looked perfect, a 50/50 chance for a nice pool.

So as I mentioned before I was solo, no other boaters in sight, probable no other boaters within 100 miles. One of my major concerns about the drop was the lack of proper safety. I never like to count on non boaters to help set safety, but I didn't have any other choice. I turned to John Titan, (Casa Mariposa owner) he is in his mid 40s and constantly over active. John was going to be my safety, I didn't tell him much but I saw in his eyes he understood the possibilities. He was willing to dive into the water and drag me out if so needed. More then his willingness to set safety he had a gleaming light in his eye to watch the first descent of this glorious waterfall in his own backyard.

The day of descent was busy at Casa Mariposa, and it was just after noon before John and Jill where able to ditch there duties and join me at Pacifica. I was mentally prepared, I had gone through all the horrible possibilities in my head. After all the daunting thoughts, I still had the firm belief that I was going to get spat through the constriction at the bottom, with a huge smile.

Once again we had a crowd of onlookers, John was set up on a rock at the base of the falls with my camera in one hand and a throwbag in the other. I went through my final mental preparation and looked at the 5 foot gap 60 some odd feet below with a smile. I was about to make history one way or another. I looked up from the drop and gave John one loud blast out of my whistle, he looked around and got the thumbs up from the crowd, it was go time. I wondered back to my boat nervously slipped my spray skirt on and indexed my paddle. I shrugged my shoulders hummed my song and turned to face the most imposing drop of my life.

I cranked out a couple paddle strokes picking up some speed into the class 3 maze of back wash, eddy lines, laterals, and rock flakes that made up the entrance rapid. I was one move away from rolling off the lip, I was totally committed and right then a giant smile came on to my face. Right or wrong this was going to be one hell of a big ride. I drove up onto a rock on the right hand side inches before the lip, it slid me back to the left onto a pile of water that pushed me back right, and with a slight right draw stroke I leaned forward and started my descent.

I was instantly airborne, with square shoulders and head held high, I anticipated my next reconnect. Uggh, I reconnected with the rock. I was already 15 feet down, I managed another tiny correction stroke and once again was airborne. I cleared my eyes, I was 10 feet away from reconnecting the second time and I looked to the bottom of the drop, I was spot on line. As I reconnected the second time I drove my heals down to match the rock slide and lessen the impact. I was instantly brought up to warp speed, and could barely close me eyes in time to get shot through the funnel at the bottom.

I hadn't really thought about the impact into the pool, I knew the pool was deep, I knew I was going to be going really fast. I wasn't sure what was really going to happen as I got rocketed through a 5 foot gap from 60 feet above. What did happen was the wheelie of my life. I was staring at the clouds doing 40 mph through the pool. My paddle got ripped out of my left hand and so I reached down and swept the water with my bare hand keeping me vertical, and mildly stable. After traveling 30 feet staring at the sky the speed slowed and I leveled the boat back down. I was a couple feet away from the crowd, it wasn't till I smiled that the gaping jaws of the crowd lifted into a rejoining celebration.

Bumping my head,
For the last few years, I have been having rather entertaining Christmas days. Two years ago I tubed the Micos water fall run in Mexico. Last year I ran the biggest drop of my life, the 70ft middle Palguine. This year the plan was to get the second descent of the La Perla waterfall. As I stood above the 50 foot slide to vert, I was all smiles. John got himself positioned with the rope and camera, we exchanged head nods, and it was time to go.

I hoped in my boat, slid into the eddy, and peeled out. I was trying to recreate my line from a few days before. On the way down I got pushed a bit further left on the slide portion and got a little cork screw action in the air. I lifted my paddle to try to square up for impact, and CRACK. This time it wasn't the paddle that gave.

The bow of my boat slid into the water, the right blade of my paddle touched down on the surface, and my head followed through. I resurfaced quickly and immediately raised my left hand to my forehead looking for blood. As I pulled my hand away I saw a little pink. I turned towards the crowd paddled a couple strokes and felt the warm blood flowing down and dripping off my nose. Upon a second inspection I could feel the gap above my eyebrow. I told John I was ok, and I would meet him back on the road to the Mariposa. I took off through the next couple rapids and pulled over a quarter mile down stream and hiked back up to the road.

All I wanted for Christmas was a 50 footer... I have heard of getting a lump of coal for Christmas, but a lump on my forehead seems a little excessive.

Special thanks to John and Jill of the Casa Mariposa, you have helped set safety, shoot photos, mend ill friends, lend local knowledge and machetes, and most importantly share your home and the best base camp I could ever imagine.

First Descents, Rio Chirripo Pacifico, Cateratas from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Chris Baer, still smiling with a black eye.

Partial First Descents of Rio Division and Sevegre

2010-12-26T08:01:00.002-07:00

Todd Wells doing the first descent dance

Rio Division
Ferdinand showed me a you Tube video of a couple of people trying to do the first descent of the Division river. These people were in a raft and a ducky, it looked laughable at best. It turns out the joke was on us. 2 days, 5 hours of hiking and scouting, and we accomplished just a bit better results then the rafters.

So where are we going?

I was sitting in the town square of San Isidro, when Ferdinand and Todd pulled up. We went and had breakfast, the conversation was filled with what do you think we are really getting our self's into. We planed for a two day trip, deep canyons, rope work, and just about every untold possibility.

A few minutes later Felipe showed up he was to be our shuttle driver and local beta guru. We hoped into his Toyota Land cruiser and we were off to Santa Eduviges.

Felipe's 4x4 of fun

Upon arrival we did a little pre put in scouting, we decided to skip some class 4 warm up and head right into the meat of the run. We took our time packing our over night and rescue equipment. The time was 12 noon, we had 5 hours of day light before we needed to camp, and everyone was pretty excited about the run.

Ferdinand, in a warm up drop.

We put on and went a mere 400 meters before we reached the first, previously unrun drop. It was a 20 footer that landed in a odd shaped cauldron. The walls were definitely undercut and the water boiled up 30 feet away from the drop. One by one we took our chances, and amazingly enough every one had relatively good lines.

Todd, sending the 20 footeer

We went another 100 feet, and saw the lip of a drop that looked absolutely amazing. Unfortunately it fell 30 feet onto a rock shelf, not to mention it was the start of a very containing canyon.

We took our time scouting the upcoming canyon and it was one horrendous looking drop after the next. There is no doubt in my mind that without some amazing rope work this canyon will never be ran. We had managed to move 500 meters in 5 hours, something had to change. The beta we had said there was another canyon ahead and it looked as containing if not more from the topographical map. It was time to skip the next canyon or anticipate spending a second night, with few calories somewhere deep in the canyon. After appraising our options, it seemed best to hike 500 vertical feet back up to the road and a half a mile to the town of Santo Thomas. Upon reaching Santo Thomas it was getting cold and dark. We meet a few locals and Ferdinand immediately started negotiating a truck ride down stream around the second canyon. An hour or so later we piled our equipment into a pick up truck and started the drive. As the rain pounded down we arrived at a shed, I was so happy to have a mildly dry place to lay my bivy sack.


Home sweet home

hiking back into the canyon

We awoke to beautiful views 1500 feet above the river. One of the locals told us he could hike into the canyon in 20 minutes, we anticipated just over an hour with the kayaks. What we encountered was a 2-3 hour hike through coffee fields, then banana fields, then the ground gave way. It got too steep to plant anything and the vegetation returned to native Costa Rican Jungle. We lowered our boats with ropes for the last 500 feet to the river. Upon reaching the river I was delighted with the sights of clean steep whitewater.

look close or double click to check out the 200 meeter waterfall

We had about 9 kilometers of river to paddle to get to our planed destination, the town of Savegre. We reentered the canyon about a kilometer or so above where the other group had. Therefore we had a kilometer of amazing, steep, first descents in front of us.

Ferdinand, with another cool rapid

The group had a new energy back on the water, we paddled well. Drop after drop we scouted and ran great lines, the white water was steep and technical.

Ferdinand having a little fun

There were no portages and most rapids had multiple fun lines. We paddled for less time then we hiked the day before, and we had the Savegre bridge in sight.

putting some calories back in our bodies, at the Sevegre bridge

Ferdinand made a phone call to Felipe, he was over an hour away so we decided to push on to the town of El Brujo. We were greeted with news that the next 9 miles to Brujo were class 4 and had been ran not that long ago. This took the group moral to new heights, and before you knew it we were boofing off random rocks, and running obscure tight lines. Just over an hour later we saw Felipe on the side of the river, it had been a long but very rewarding day.

Todd, picking up his bow

There is absolutely no way this will ever be a classic, but with a little work you could make this an amazing one day adventure.

Todd, sending another first descent

With a nights rest and a good meal in El Brujo we tackled another big mission.

The Savegre

So Felipe's father lives on a piece of land near the Los Quetzales National Park, and was speaking highly of a back yard run. Ferdinand was more then excited to pick off another first descent, and so was I. Todd, Ferdinand, and I loaded boats onto horses in the morning, and hiked back into the jungle. The horse trail was beat down, deep mud, and deeper ruts the entire 11 kilometers up to Felipe's house. Once at the house, Felipe's mother brought us a great hearty lunch. It was already just past noon and we had 11 kilometers, 5 or so of which had never been paddled before to descend. My energy was circling the drain, but I was excited to see some more quality white water. 10 minutes into the run I crested a pour over to see a retentive hole. I cranked out a hand full of strokes aiming for the right side of the hole. I hit the hole got stern stalled and felt the water pulling me back in for a ride. I took a couple good rides, and got on the foam pile, a few strong strokes and I was heading back in for another ride. A few more seconds later, and my low energy had gotten the better of me. I slid my knee out of the thigh brace and popped out of my boat.

It took a couple minutes to recover my gear, and I tried to get my head back in the game. Around the bend was Felipe and the whole family, they were there to watch us run the "big one". It was an ugly left to right drop that had a odd looking hole at it's base. Ferdinand fired it up first and got blown hard left into a pin rock. He dug in with a strong brace, and pulled himself around the pin rock and into the pool. Todd caught a lower eddy and made a strong move left to right but got spun out near the lip, and fell into the drop with almost no speed. This resulted in another entertaining run. I peeled out of the top eddy supper low and kept my momentum down the drop, I managed to cut through the nasty first hole, just to get immediately flipped in the compression hole behind it. Our exhaustion was starting to show in our boating.

Ferdinand lining up the "big one"

Ferdinand deep in the crease

We headed down stream picking off other drops and keeping a relatively fast pace. As we got further down stream Ferdinand informed us that we had already paddled more then half the gradient in the first third of the run. This put us all in a state of calm, we started goofing around again. A few more kilometers went by and the recognition of what we had done started to come over me.

In three days we paddled 23 miles, hiked 10 miles, kayaked 5 miles of first descents, and had an amazing time exploring a beautiful corner of Costa Rica.

a cool centipede

The video Ferdinand showed me, and are only real beta.

Savegre and Division River, partial First Descent from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Chris Baer
exhausted, beat down, and smiling

First Descents, Canas, Ceibo Canyon, and Caterate Casuela

2010-12-20T11:25:00.006-07:00

A sequence of the hardest big drop of my life

Chris Baer, contemplating the hardest drop of my life.

First descents.

Ferdinand and I had made it through the getting to know you stage, now it was time to do some serious exploring. I hopped in his car once again and we took off to explore a couple runs that have never been done before.

The morning bird show

Canas, 300 fpm class 4+ with one sieved out class 5 move.

I would have never guessed we were about to do one of the steepest class 4 runs in the world as we were driving through the pineapple fields of Costa Rica. Ferdinand had the Rio Canas on his to do list for two years, and I was lucky enough to get to run it after knowing him for only three days. We stopped on the side of the road walked down to the river and looked into the river corridor. The Canas looked good, steep boulder garden style rapids with a couple fun boofs in sight. The level was a bit low, but the water channelized really well. As we headed up stream we stopped at a few more places, and it all looked good. We found an easy access spot, and Ferdinand checked the elevation on his watch against the topographical map. It all was adding up, we had just over 3 kilometers of unrun boulder gardens to negotiate to get to the next good access point.

We headed down stream scouting countless blind horizon lines, most of the times all it took was standing up and you could see a couple fun boofs and a nice eddy at the bottom. Our pace was quick as we headed down through tight slots and fun little boofs. About 2/3 of the way down the run we encountered a fun 5 foot boof directly above a pin rock and a nasty sieve. I took a quick look at it and found a thin line on the far left. I got back in my boat flew off the boof and slipped just past the pin rock. Ferdinand liked my line and fired off the drop right behind me. The pace stayed rather quick and before we knew it we were at the original take out bridge. We both were having a good day and there was plenty of light left so we pushed on, and ran another kilometer of equally fun white water. This run would be great for solid class 4 boaters look to up there skills.

Ceibo canyon, 400-500 fpm

The night before the Ceibo mission Ferdinand and I spent the night looking over topographical maps and planing the assault on what looked like a meandering river, that came out of a slot canon. As we drove up the river valley, the river looked minuscule, my first impression was it was just too low. After talking to some locals we got the information we were looking for, keep on going up stream the river lives in a canyon up there. We locked the hubs on Ferdinand's little Suzuki and went up a ridiculously steep hill with supper loose rock. My head was bouncing off the roof, and I was holding the O'shit Handle out of necessity. We finally made it to a relatively flat area and stopped the truck. The river was a thousand feet below us. It was emerging out of a basalt mini canyon, I got really excited. We left the truck at the flat spot, and hiked another kilometer up the road, to the top of the first canyon.

As we entered into the canyon we didn't get more then 50 feet before we came around a blind corner and spotted a nasty class 5 sieve pile caused by a land slide. Ferdinand was deservingly hesitant, I saw a "hairy fairy" right in front of a sieve and a marginal line bouncing down a pile of junk rock. We continued through the canyon scouting constantly, and found a hand full of great rapids. The 15 foot slide to boof and fun linked double slide were the highlights of the run. As we exited the canyon the character changed, we were now in a bouncy boulder garden, and the water quickly sprawled out. We paddled another couple hundred yards and got to a swinging bridge and pulled out of the river. After getting the first descent of this beautiful canyon, I am definitely planning on returning to check out some of the upper canyons. Two days and two first descents down, I was feeling a little physically tired but mentally I was on was on fire.

Ferdinand, in the midst of Ceibo Canyon

Caterate Casuela and the Cloud Bridge section of the Chirripo Pacifico, is a hike and huck

A few weeks ago I scouted this section and, my original opinion was that almost all the drops on this run where, marginally runnable, at best. Over the last couple weeks I have scouted almost every vantage and access point. When Ferdinand offered to set safety I was both excited and nervous. The morning came, and I was going through my mental readiness, stay calm, eat a light breakfast, listen to an upbeat song (Katy Perry "I kissed a girl"). Before I knew it Ferdinand and I jumped in his truck again. We cruised up to the Cloud Bridge reserve, and parked the truck. From that point on, there is no motorized vehicles allowed. We started our two kilometer hike into the reserve. We had a fan club following us, John and Jill from the hostel Casa Mariposa, the care takers of Cloud Bridge, and a couple other folks all came up to watch. As always it took a while to get cameras and safety in place. Then Ferdinand gave me the thumbs up, the Katy Perry song came back to the front of my head, I did a little happy dance, and new I was ready.

Caterate Casuela might be the most complicated big drop I have ever ran. It starts with a small slot on river left, that leads you across the creek to a 8 foot drop. At the base of the 8 footer is a huge curler that explodes off the right wall. That curler drops another 15 feet into a cauldron, the cauldron is about 10 feet wide and rotates back under the curler at a proximately a hundred miles an hour. Then, the water falls off a beautiful 40 footer into a shallow pool. I am amazed I wanted to run such a messy drop, but as I have traveled and gotten better, I have fallen in love with "roller coaster" drops. The more dynamic the rapid the greater the reward for me. The idea of dropping 8 feet bouncing off a wall another 15 into a cauldron and then running a 40 footer all in the mater of 2 seconds was too much of a draw, I had to fire it up.

I hopped in my boat, checked my life jacket, helmet, spray skirt, did my supper quick stretch routine, and gave Ferdinand a loud whistle blast. A couple seconds later I heard Ferdinand whistle back, (safety and cameras were ready). I looked down at the shaft of my custom Blunt Family Paddle, and right there in the middle are the words "FIRE IT UP!!!". I gave the paddle a quick nod as to agree. I paddled back to the middle of the pool, rolled my neck, shrugged my shoulders, and started humming the song again. Out loud I reminded my self to just float over the first drop. I paddled to the slot with a nice right hand angle, and as I came through the slot I picked up a ton of speed. I was flying toward the first 8 footer, leaned forward and rolled over the first drop. A nano second later I got a quick left sweep stroke and the nose of the boat up on the curler. I followed it with a quick right stroke and was blinded by the spray of the curler, about then I felt gravity kick in. I got my left paddle blade ready for a brace and before I knew it I cleared the curler and was a foot away from the lip of the 40 footer. I didn't even get a chance for a stoke off the 40 footer, I did push my weight forward and cleared my paddle to one side. A half of a second of free fall and I entered the landing zone. I glanced off a rock about 9 feet under the surface and paddled away from the drop with a huge smile.

Chris Baer, about to hit the curler, Caterate Casuela

Chris Baer, reemerging from the curler, Caterate Casuela

Chris Baer getting the nose down, Caterate Casuela

I took a couple minutes to shout in celebration and a couple more to reflect on the scale and difficulty of the drop...

looking back up at the hardest drop of my life

dumbfounded that it went so well

Soon enough I gain composure and headed down stream. The next drop looked very marginal, I charged for a small rock flake and got pushed off early. I dropped 10 feet and glanced off another rock. The following drop looked absolutely horrible and Ferdinand and I both walked. Putting back on the river, I paddled another 15 feet to the next horizon line and saw another very marginal drop. The river in this section drops about 1000 fpm and was looking very unrunable.

Just another rapid on the upper upper Chirripo Pacifico

Ferdinand and I had a quick pow wow, and decided to abandon the project. All said and done this is one of the hardest hike and hucks I have ever seen, and I am absolutely stoked to have gotten the first descent of this amazing drop.

First descents of Ceibo Canyon and Rio Canas, Costa Rica from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Three days and three first descents, not a bad mid week.

Chris Baer

Costa Rica, Chirripo, Chirripo Pacifico, Upper Buena Vista, and the San Rafael

2010-12-13T10:34:00.007-07:00

The view from Cerro Chirripo

Packing up my equipment in snowy Colorado I really had no idea what I was getting my self into again. I have been traveling internationally to kayak for the last three years yet every time I pack my bags for the next grand adventure I have that voice in the back of my head asking me are you ready, do you know what you are in for, what if, what if, what if. I stop, and think about it like a big drop, I could either sit here and think about the down sides or, I could go live life to the fullest. I checked my list twice, repacked everything, barely slept, and before I knew it I was on the plane heading to Costa Rica.

I knew there was some boating in Terrialba, so that was my first destination. Apon Arival to the busy poluted relative gross city of Terrialba I was rather disapointed.

The town of Terrialba

I hung out for a couple of days and used every contact I could think of to find a paddling partner. Todd Wells showes up, and we imediatly got into the quick chit chat of who we are and what we have been up to lately. Todd then invites me to go with him to the other side of the country and check out some water falls and the tallest peak in Costa Rica.

We hopped a bus and a day later we are in San Gerardo.

Waiting for the bus in San Jose

We had been referred to a real cool low key Hostel, Casa Mariposa. The next day we grab mechettes and start the bush whack, hike, and scout mission to check out some amazing waterfalls.

Chris Baer in full bush whack mode

A Mot Mot

Coati

Cerro Chirripo, is the hightest peak in Costa Rica and is basicly in the back yard of Casa Mariposa. So the mission started, we hiked 15 kilometers up to a freezing cold base camp building, and spent the night. The next morning the plan was to wake up early and summit early so we could watch the sun rise at the peak. At 4 a.m. I rolled over to hear the rain pounding on the roof. There was a few groins and grunts and there was a inaudible decision to sleep for a couple more hours, there wasn't going to be a view. I awoke again to the sound of rain, and I knew that I was still going to push to reach the summit. Two hours and five kilometers later I was at the peak with 30 mph winds and side ways rain, the view was.... grey.

A beautiful view on the way up Cerro Chirripo


Chris Baer at the peak , not exactly the best view

Todd, feeling a little beat down after the hike up.

Chris Baer, it is a long hike back down.

Back down at the hostel we took a day to recover, drank tea, ate copious amounts of food, and just lounged. That night I awake to hear Todd getting sick, I originally thought it was his body telling him to take it easy for another day. Then he stayed sick, day after day high temeratures and not eating. At this point I started having the thoughts of dengue fever, leptospirosis, and malaria. It was time to get Todd to a hospital. The morning Todd was to leave for the hospital he looked a little better. After a couple days in San Jose, I got a phone call saying he was back on his feet and doing well.

Enough of other stuff, lets talk boating. It took me way too long to get on the water this trip, but the wait payed off.

Beautiful rain forest canopy

Day 1
Upper Upper Chirripo Pacifico 500 fpm

Ferdinand, one of the few creek boaters in Costa Rica, called up one day, and said, lets go kayaking. The next thing I know he stopped by plucked me up and we put on the Upper Chirripo Pacifico, this run is STEEP, average gradient has to be close to 500 fpm. We put on the creek and it was obviously heading down the mountain. It was horizon line after horizon line with micro one boat eddys in between, I was immediatly happy with my winter choice of Costa Rica. Three kilometers and over a thousand feet lower in elevation we reached the confluence with the Blanco and took out on the right. My first kayak run in Costa Rica was filled to the brim with must make eddys, seives, undercuts, and more off angle boofs then I could imagine.

Ferdinand on one of the countless drops

Day 2,
Upper Buena Vista, 300 fpm
The Upper Buena Vista, the name immediatly made me think of my summer home in CO. This run had a slightly mellower pace, then the Chirripo, only 300 fpm. There was a couple distictly different sections to this five kilometer run. It starts with a handfull of 15 foot drops with nasty lead ins. Then mellows out into a section of four foot boofs and blind twisting and turning through micro canyons. The third section gets back into some bigger drops that are concealed behind gigantic boulders. The last portion is just junky rock piled high ontop of itself falling quickly down to the take out bridge.

San Rafael, 300-500 fpm
Our second run on day two was the San Rafael, another three kilometer run. The San Rafael had over 30 drops between 6 and 15 feet, absolulty amazing. By the time we reached the take out my arms felt like they where going to fall off, and my smile was actually making my face hurt.

Day 3
The Canan section of the Chirripo Pacifico, 300fpm no drop bigger the five feet.
Ferdinand looked at the flow and said well it is a little high. What he meant to say was he had the previous high water descent, and now the water is six inches higher. So we put on, and it was pushy. A thousand cfs rushing down 300 fpm felt pretty out of control. We would peel out of a swirling eddy and go a half a mile down through huge holes and around blind corners in a few seconds. I was in survival mode, I was chasing Ferdinand down the run. Five kilometers down stream we stopped at a bridge, and I was thankful to be exiting the river.

Chirripo, Buena Vista, and San rafael from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Three days four rivers and over a vertical mile of elevation loss. Not a bad way to start off a Costa Rica trip.

Chris Baer

South East, Green Race

2010-11-16T01:49:00.004-07:00

Down to the Russell Fork,
Sieves, Undercuts, and a whole lot of fun especially when the evening party is fueled with local Moon Shine. As the weekend finished up there was a couple of us that had nothing better to do, so we drank more Shine and played with cameras. During that evening Brandon Gonski managed to catch the best shot of the Wrec Center ever.

Brandon Gonski took this incredible picture,

Horse Pasture light,
Well it wasn't a light hike. It seems I have been bringing the rain to the South East for a few years and this year was no exception. With the rain pounding down I meet up with Gareth Tate, we cruised out to pick up Lee Timmons and heading to the Horse Pasture as we past over the Toxaway I had to stop and check the gauge, it was in!, but it was also 1:30 pm, and way to late in the day to start a huge mission into the Toxaway. So we drove on and got to the Horse Pasture, the level was on the high side of good. We hiked to the river and the thunderous put in falls almost blew me over. Lee had a bad vibe from the get go, but was willing to play along for a bit. Gareth and I where on our usual style, LETS GET THIS SHIT! We bombed off the first couple drops and Lee decided to bail, and hike out. Gareth and I managed to push down stream and get to the bottom of Stair-step before we started loosing light. With a small, inexperienced crew, loosing light, we made a good decision and hiked out. By the time I made it back up the hill to the Wrec Center it was already time to break out the Petzel head lamp.

Gareth getting a great last stroke

Chris Baer sliding down stream, photo by Lee Timmons

Who says class 5 isn't fun, look at that smile, photo my Lee Timmons

Gareth looking back up at Stair-step

That was my extent of rain bringing to the Asheville area, it stayed dry from that evening on. When there is no rain in Asheville there is one fun thing to do still, Green River Narrows Laps. I did a bunch of them again this year, and as the race grew nearer I felt good. It was the first time I had entered the race actually knowing where I was going to go around the next blind corner. On the other hand I don't take kayak racing very seriously, and as I came into the Notch that shit talking caught back up to me again. I went into the eddy yelled at Arlyn Agababian to grab my bow, and reached into my lifejacket pocket to retrieve my fun whistle. I put it in my mouth, gave Arlyn the nod, spun around, and gave the whistle a huge blast as I pumped my fist, the 500 person crowd standing on the other side of the river showed their appreciation with a huge cheer. I paddled back out into the flow and gave the whistle another big blast as I flew off the launch pad of Gorilla. I flew through the Speed Trap and down the rest of the slides to the finish line blasting the Fun Whistle all the way.

Chris Baer blasting the Fun Whistle in the Notch eddy

Chris Baer getting his boof stroke and one last blast in the Fun Whistle

Chris Baer practicing, 1

Chris Baer practicing, 2


Chris Baer practicing, 3

Chris Wing coming off Gorilla

Jeff Clewell with a big Flying Squirrel move

Big Crowd at Gorilla

Chris Baer racing through Nieces Pieces

Crowd looking into the Notch

Chris Wing racing through the slides

Panting to the Finnish line

Another pretty line

Resurfacing through the Notch

Crowd at the lip of Gorilla

Frog men in action

Best safety in the world, especially if you get your helmet ripped off

Big Gorilla boof

Jason Hale running Gorilla switch after catching the birthday eddy

Hale disappearing

Another great line

What nightmares are made of

Another backwards run off Gorilla

Chris Baer finding his way through Go Left

Check out post race fun
Everybody Shines from 7 Finger media on Vimeo.

So I have been up in the air with what to do this winter and I finale pulled the trigger, Round trip ticket to Costa Rica for two and a half months. I am hopeful this trip will also include some other countries as I have spoken to a few people in Columbia that sound game for some exploratory missions.

Next update will be coming from Central America until then go big and smile bigger and give your fun whistle a big blast.
Chris Baer

Gauley and such

2010-11-09T23:17:00.004-07:00

WOW Fall was busy

West Virginia sun set from Rick-O-Shay's ultralight

Commercial raft guiding on Gore Canyon was great until I crashed kayaking and messed up my ankle in Cheeseman canyon, what to hear the whole story click here ouch.

Commercial raft guiding in WV on the Upper Gauley is always rewarding. I have a stealer group of return clients that allow me to play hard and work on new and not so standard lines. Including the Double Death Spiral into Iron Ring, and just letting them go through the Box Canyon on there own.

During the Gauley three day mid weeks it is up to us to find some trouble, like flying in Ultra lights and Caving


Ridding with the master of all that is sketchy Rick-O-Shay.

Casey and Hammer above a 20 foot drop deep in the cave

Casey and Hammer Checking out some stalactites

Hammer repelling

Tubing the upper Gauley with Casey Tango,
There had been so much shit talk about it after my good friend Mike Edwards accomplished the amazing and definitely stupid feat of tubing the Upper Gauley, we had to follow suit. The next friday we had a bunch of coffee, talked a little more shit, and went down to the local tire store looking for inter-tubes. The guy behind the counter was more then happy to help, what size you need, I reach my arms out beyond my sides, about like this, we are going to go tubing down the river. Well this is what I usually sell to folks that are going to take there kids out. Perfect we'll take two. That was that we had tubes next up a little padding. We stopped over at River Expeditions and grabbed a couple wet suits. We tossed a couple extra beers and a roll of gorilla tape (our patch kit) in our support raft and hoped in the river. It was off to the races, we had solid left lines through Insignificant. When you bump your feet off of Pillow Rock while siting fat man style in an inter-tube there is no doubt you had a great line. Next up the scary one Lost Paddle, Casey and I had lines that would put most raft guides to shame big Hawaii 5-0 hits and supper clean lines into Tumble home. Once in Tumble home the shit talk caught up to us again and we both went through the Mail Box Slot. At this point we were feeling pretty sure of our new found skills and Casey called for a left left line at Ship Wreck. I in turn called out for Death Spirals into Iron Ring, I went a little further right then expected and had some serious down time in the top hole just to pop up right before taking a big Wood-stock hole hit. As we floated into Sweets falls we both under stood what was about to happen, we looked at each other and simultaneously the words came to our lips, MELTDOWN! Tango managed to style it on the other hand I got totally beat down. As I slowly found my way out of my pounding I looked over to see Casey stamping his tube and getting pulled up on Postage Due. I went for the same line and got blown off into the Box Canyon. I had a great line through the Box, and climbed up the back side of Postage Due to celebrate a very successful tubing mission of the Upper Gauley.

Casey Tango getting a hand up onto Postage Due

Upper Youghiogheny, Seems there is always some issue with the damn release on the Youghiogheny, it is early, it's late, There is always some rumor of something usually not true. Last year International House Of Pancakes Falls burnt to the ground, but it looked good this year. Anyways the initial big three day midweek release did get canceled and as Gauley season rolled on Casey Tango and I got more and more restless about missing one of our favorite traditions. So fifth weekend we got the heads up that the river was going to run, unfortunately my personal favorite part of the Upper Youghiogheny was closed. The Riverside Hotel, they do the best vegetarian food anywhere, and it is one of my favorite restaurants any where. O well there is always next year, and the river as always produced some great entertainment.

Let the show begin

B-Real boofing International House of Pancake Falls

Casey enjoying the show

Some of the paddlers even like to pull there skirt and still paddle to the eddy

A small but excited crowd at National Falls

Another great time spent in West Virginia and Marry Land.
Chris Baer

Cheeseman Canyon

2010-08-21T10:44:00.003-06:00

Cheeseman Canyon is a great run, I would highly suggest a good guide, and a small crew to attempt this amazing sieve laden playground.

CFS 400
Class 5
Gradient 240 fpm at best
Length 6 miles

Driving into the Cheeseman Canyon is a little erie, the forest burnt to the ground only a few years back and as far as you can see it is burnt trees, baby aspens, and a lot of bed rock. The team, Mike Hagadorn, Casey Tango, Riley Frakes, Jeff Flora, Tom Dohdray, and myself; many of us had never boated together and it was going to be a testing adventure.

Up to the put in; Mike had already contacted the caretaker of Sportsman's Paradise; (Bill 719-748-3212) we drove through the gate, and met Bill. We slowly followed him through the property and arriving at the far property line we handed Bill a six pack of cold beer. What had arguable been the nastiest river access in CO had just been taken care of with a six pack and a smile. Bill locked us out on the far side of the gate, there was only one way out of the canyon from here.

Bill locking us into the Canyon

Once on the water we paddled for a short bit and reached Club Dues, a pushy, bouncy, fun little rapid. Next up is Let's Make a deal, an awkward boof into a pushy pool that goes under a rock on the left.


Tom in Let's Make a Deal

Mike Hagadorn on Let's Make a Deal

Penis Buster Parfait is up next and we all decided to portage the top portion that looks like a manky pile of shit.

Mike In the hart of the Parfait

Tango looking for a way out

Back on water we got to the top of Slap Your Mama; as the group slowly went through a crack on the far right one of the paddlers got pinned. Wanting to help out I went down the center channel and tried to make the hairy ferry into the eddy. I didn't make the ferry and bumped into the rock backing up the eddy. Instantly I got shoved under the rock, it took a couple seconds of scrapping and wiggling and I managed to find my way out from under the rock. I rolled up just in time to bump into another rock, I was so lucky, this one was at least as undercut as the first rock. I spent another few seconds pulling myself out from under the second rock. This time when I rolled up I spotted a horizon line bigger then I wanted to run blind. I also saw out of my peripheral a tiny channel to the right, I went for it. My tiny right line was a 8 foot drop, as I spotted my landing zone, I realized it was a mess of rock and wood. I tried to pull my nose up and over the wood and in doing so I smashed my bow into a almost dry rock. My ankle folded over and my first thought was that I had just broken my ankle. As the pain rushed through my leg I stabilized my boat in a vertically pin, the water was now pounding onto my back. I was starting to get pretty nervous, the boat was quivering and I was concerned it may fold on my already messed up ankle. Riley amazingly quickly showed up and helped yank me out of my mostly submerged, vertically pinned boat. We then spent a while dragging my kayak from it's precarious position.

My ankle was allready swelling and I couldn't put any weight on it; after a quick conversation a decision was made. The easiest way to get me out of the canyon was to get back in my kayak and paddle another four miles of class five rapids to the take out. I crawled back in my kayak and we headed down stream.

Mike at the top of Punji Sticks

Riley avoiding the undercuts and sieves in lower Punji Sticks

We scouted a couple other drops, I portaged a few more, and even got a couple piggy back rides around Underprivileged and Does Chaos. As we made it down to Slide for Life my ankle was getting really painful and I was extatic for a no scout run of a cool rapid.

Mike Sliding for Life

From there down the river keeps its character, sieves and undercuts everywhere. Another mile or so of seive laden flat water and we were at the take out. Casey's Jeep was three miles up the hill; Riley jogged up the hill and retrieved the Jeep. Riley returned with the Jeep and I was ecstatic not to have to crawl the three miles up the hill to the vehicles. As we loaded up the Jeep, I used a beer for pain control, and another on my ankle as a ice pack.

Riley giving Tango a hand going through a flat water sieve

Nothing like a cold one at the take out

p.s. The X-ray came back negative and I am already back on water. A huge thanks goes out to Casey Tango, Riley Frakes, and MIke Hagadorn for the piggy back rides, and dragging my kayak through this amazing canyon.

Chris Baer
WhereIsBaer.com

Crystal Gorge

2010-07-31T17:46:00.003-06:00

I got the call the other day, "Chris, you have been in the Crystal Gorge before, right?" "Yea, let's go!" and that was that. Casey Tango, Taylor, Riley, and I pile in the truck and head over Independence Pass to one of the most infamous gorges in Colorado. Upon arriving at the Beaver Ponds in the small "town" of Marble, we are greeted by Ross Herr, Jakub Nemec, Mike Hagadorn, and Chris Stafford; we had a stout posse.

Eight paddlers head into the upper gorge. We are on fire and the group energy level is through the roof. We stop a few times for quick scouts and extensive video and still camera coverage.

Jakub with a big boof

Ross avoiding the undercut

Then we reach Pine Tree Falls; the last time I was there we endured a massive portage around an equally massive tree that made the drop just shy of deadly. This time the group makes the drop look like an everyday affair. All the paddlers fired up the drop, most making it look a little easy, a couple making it look pretty entertaining. As the cameras are placed back in their cases the group takes off down the canyon towards the infamous Inner Gorge.

Mike slipping over the log into Pine Tree Falls

Riley in the hart of Pine Tree

Chris about to enter the curler

We take a good look at the entrance drop, Zute Chute. It has a new rock in it. (The last time I ran this drop I got pushed hard right into the "bad place." Now with the new rock it looks as if 90% of the flow was heading into the bad place. I am a little scared.) After a solid scout the group gathers up and tal

ked quickly about the protocol of bringing eight people into a micro canyon. I speak up, "Well the group is working really well and the communication has been great, lets just keep it up and have a eight person PARTY down there." The group is overjoyed and as I elect to go first and shoot some pictures, the group's morale is boosted yet again.

Casey getting his nose down on Zute

Ross stomping his boof

One by one eight in a row the group rallies off of Zute Chute with a myriad of both good, bad, painful, and just plain ugly lines. We are in the Inner Gorge, "the walls are slick with spray there is seldom sun and there are NO RASPBERRIES" I love this place. The group quickly picks apart the drops and one after the next, we move further and further through the gorge.

Jakub deep in the gorge

The last two drops must be run back to back and have a tendency to deal out some beatings. The drops give two of our eight a burly hole ride in a slot barley wide enough for their boats. Taylor and Casey Tango swim from their beatings.

Casey and Taylor repenting with the canyon in the background

There used to be a log jam at the back of the last eddy but it isn't there any more; after Taylor swims his boat slips through the now open eddy into Millers Falls. Millers Falls is a set of mostly un-runable drops that falls 400 or so feet in less then an eighth of a mile. Needless to say Taylor's boat took loads of punishment.

The team hikes down, pulls the remains of Taylors boat from the river, celebrates an amazing run with a beer, and then disbands as quickly as it came together.

I jump in the car with Jakub Nemec and Ross Herr and we are off to our next mission: the North Fork of the Little Wind. We drive for seven hours, sleep in a rest stop, buy our Indian fishing permits, and drive into the middle of nowhere. The Wind River Range is absolutely stunning. There are gigantic rock domes every where and all our dreams of steep bed rock look like they are coming true. Then we start hiking in; we do not have the best beta but we are determined. Three hours later with a sore shoulder and a million mosquito bites we come to the conclusion that we are on the wrong path. We get skunked after a huge drive, a big hike, and the realization of having to work the next day... and we were so close. We piled back in the truck and drive all the way back to CO.

Once back in CO I check my guide schedule, realize I am not working tomorrow, and immediately start calling folks trying to get a group to go back in for another lap through Crystal.

Todd "Danger" Greenwood responds quickly with a 'I would love to." The next morning Todd, Ross, and I head back into the Crystal. While we were on our big skunk mission to WY it had been raining in the Crystal drainage, and the flow was currently up to 400 cfs. It is very apparent that the water level is on the high side from the telltale signs of not scraping our way from the put in to the first major rapid. With a smaller group we blast through the Upper Gorge and are quickly at Pine Tree Falls. Pine Tree looks to have a full set of teeth with more water, and it is ready to bite. Both Todd and Ross have entertaining lines; Todd even pulls off the new school technique of running it "switch." We blast though the next section and, again, stare down into the Inner Gorge.

We take a second to show the lines to Todd and as we peer over the edge, the consensus is that the water level is HIGH. Todd graciously bows out of the Inner Gorge, and set safety for Ross and I. Zute Chute is still big and it leads directly into the Inner Gorge at an amazing pace. Ross and I have solid lines on Zute and quickly find ourselves tucked up into a small eddy and talking about how we are now deep in the shit. We peeled out one right behind each other and cleanly race though most of the Inner Gorge, stopping right before the last two drops. Again there is a quick dialogue about good lines and staying mentally strong. I watch Ross peel out, have a great line off the first rapid, a little submarine action on the last drop but clear it, and make it through the mighty Inner Gorge.

Now it is my turn. I peel out, move right to left, and moving through the crack drop a boil off the wall grabs my boat and flips me upside down, opposite of the side I was bracing on, right into the rock wall. I quickly swing for a rodeo roll and miss. I start to set up for another roll and felt my paddle wedge between the walls. After a quick jerk it comes loose. Setting the paddle back up for another attempt it snags again, and this time it makes that horrible sound: KABOOM. I grab the longer piece of the paddle and try two more rolls to no avail.

The last drop is nicknamed Perfect Piton; it is a six foot drop with a rock in the landing zone. Not wanting to land on the rock with my head I kick out of my boat, roll over and take rocks to the shins and knees. One more shallow ledge and the six foot drop is right in front of me, I give it a huge dolphin kick combined with a gigantic butterfly stroke, trying to launch my body past the shallow rocks in the landing zone. I clear the rocks, but the sticky hole draws me right back into the seam. I go for one quick recirculation and popped out. At 400 cfs there is a tiny eddy on the left before all the water rushes off Millers Falls amd certain death. I windmill my arms, furiously kick my legs, and leave a wake off my ass as I swim into the mini eddy and watch my boat start it's decent into oblivion.

busted up gear

good to the last drop

A little cursing later, we all agreed the Inner Gorge of the Crystal is an absolutely amazing place.

Crystal Gorge Creeking with Nomad Adventures from Rex Lint on Vimeo.

Big South, it's up North

2010-07-19T17:51:00.002-06:00

The Big South, this creek is just good plane fun.

Gordon Klco about to slide into Weird Creek

The plan was for Casey Tango, Gordon Klco and myself to leave Buena Vista go to Denver pick up the rest of the posse and head to Fort Collins for the evening. We got to Denver and where immediately over taken by Hunter Pettit and Paul Siratovich, there idea was to hang out in the BIG city and having some beers. The next thing I knew I was waking up on the coach and we were pilling back in the van to head to the Big South. I always forget how long of a drive it is but it was kind of nice to let the hang over slowly fade as we made it further and further up the Poudre canyon. As we finally arrive at the take out we were greeted by Taylor Brandt. We rearrange boats piled 6 deep into a toyota pickup and head to the put in. The damn was releasing a full 200 cfs and Weird Creek was a little intense with a solid flow and a good hangover. The constant splashes to the face quickly did there job and I was feeling good. The run starts off with a hand full of great boofs and some tight lines, as I watched the paddlers come through I new we had a solid crew and were going to have some great lines.

The group had a quick pace as we arrived to Cool World there was no hesitation every one had quick scouts and beautiful lines.

Casey Tango stylin a Cool world line

another good boof in Cool World

Gordon getting a nice boof

We continued to blast through the rapids and get to Peterson Lake in the middle of the run, my shoulder started to feel sore and my butt went totally to sleep as I paddled through the flats. As we arrived to the top of Prime Time Gorge Taylor announced that his boat was leaking like a sieve. We spent a couple minutes getting out the bitchathane and patching up the crack. I ate some food, and got the blood supply back to my butt.

After the great calm it is kind of hard to get back in the class 5 mind set but after the first couple boofs of Prime Time I was right back on my game. Next up the always looming Double Trouble, this thing is just threatening. Some walked but the majority of us fired it up and with a bunch of clean lines.

A couple clean lines at Double Trouble

We cruised on down to Slideways where two front-range jackson kayakers had been left by there boats a quick chuckle and we were off. We finished off the run with a short walk back to the parking lot.

It was 7pm we had ran 12 miles of great white water in 4 hours what a great pace, and what a great place to spend an afternoon.

A random Moose sighting on the way out of Rockie Mountain National Park

Chris Baer signing off from the Big South

Pandora's Box, Baker's Box, Middle Box, Lower Rockwood, Middle Animas, Scary Place!

2010-05-13T10:15:00.004-06:00

Well I don't know what name is really going to stick, but damn is that place fun.

I was down in Durango helping the folks out at Four Corners River Sports, (they had a big swap over the weekend); and I got the invite to drop into the Middle Box. For years there has been rumor and tales of certain death to any one that proceeded past the Rockwood take out; there is even a plaque on the right side of the river to confirm the stories. At the same time there has been a few people that have gone in and either had scary extraction stories, or speak of some "OK" way out. What is true is that there is two sieves in the gorge that will kill you if you don't get out in time.

So armed with a small amount of beta; Joel Cameron, Danny Flynt, Cruise Quenelle, and myself did what few have ever done, purposely put in at the take out of Rockwood Gorge.

Joel and Cruise hiking in

The rapids start off gentle but quickly grow and the next thing you know you are punching through tightly walled-in holes.

Joel about to skip over one of the first sticky holes

Cruise going deeper into the Canyon

We passed around a blind corner and there it was, "the Boulder Garden". Boulder Garden is actually a really fun rapid, there is some pin potential; but, you can start left and zig zag around some boulders, finishing with a great little slide on the left.

looking upstream into the Boulder Garden

Immediately eddy out left and scout the next rapid. There is a right and left line at the bottom, and as bad as the right line looks it goes pretty well. All four of us ended up going right and a couple of us even got a good boof off the center rock.

Danny, about to go right

Joel hitting his boof

After this you need to be heads up, the take out is coming quick. The next rapid has a little slide to boof flake on the right hand side. The last rapid is really ugly; I would suggest wheel chairing on the far left. Then get out river left, look upstream and there is a tall slab of rock that you can use to walk, scramble, and climb out of the canyon.

Cruise, with the hike out right behind him

Once at the rim, take a look around and enjoy, but stay quiet, you are probably trespassing. Walk down stream to the end of the ridge, you will be directly across the river from the normal put in. The hike back down is a little strenuous, my guess is there will be some ropes put in, in the near future. Put in and fire up the ugly drop, or fairy across and start "Pandora's Box".

We started our adventure at about noon, by the time we dicked around with the portage we were putting on to run Pandora's at 3 p.m.. After a little practice you could easily run Middle Box and portage the sieves in under an hour. Might be a better option then trying to sneak pass the property owner on the normal (illegal) put in route.

Back in the water we started through Pandora's. The gorge immediately lives up to expectations, with steep and containing walls. The rapids are fun, and you usually can't scout (I love not scouting). We bounce down through a couple more rapids and got to Swollen Member, Danny turned to me and says, "there is a decent hole down there, just punch it". I was right behind Danny, and I saw him get rolled in the back wash of the hole. I brace threw the same funky water that rolled Danny and I saw him struggling to roll his boat. He tried to roll on one side and then the other and the boily water was continually rejecting his roll attempts. Then I saw that O so familiar wiggle of the boat as he kicks his way out and starts swimming. Danny manages to swim to the left rock outcropping directly above the next bouncy rapid. I hit the eddy with him and watched Cruise chase Danny's boat through the next rapid. I hung out with Danny and we went threw the options. Option one was swimming down stream, this looked extremely painful if not down right idiotic. Option two was to climb out, Danny managed to get 50 feet above the water and then couldn't safely go any higher. Option three was going to have to work, I looked Danny in the eyes "stay put, stay warm, and I will be back to get you out of here". I peeled out of the eddy not knowing how long Danny was going to be perched on that shelf.

I met up with Joel and Cruise down stream they had already pulled Danny's boat from the water and where extremely bummed to hear that there was no way for Danny to climb out. We paddled a little ways down stream and it looked mildly possible to hike out of the canyon on river left. We stashed our boats high above the waterline and pulled every last piece of rescue gear out. The hike up and out of the canyon was sketchy at best; loose rock and cactus where constant hazards. Once on the rim we hiked back up stream and looked for the mini ravine that Danny had perched himself on, hundreds of feet below. As we started to descend into the ravine we accidentally kicked a couple of rocks loose; Danny immediately started blowing his whistle. I was relieved that we had at least found the right ravine, unfortunately the ravine looked absolutely horrible to descend into. Ropes got broke out quickly as we rappelled and scrambled back into the canyon. We had to leave people at specific spots on the way down to reset the ropes, as we needed as many ropes as possible when Cruise reached Danny at the bottom of the canyon. A couple hours went by and we all where back at the rim of the canyon.

Danny almost all the way out of the canyon

Everyones hands where bloody from sharp rocks or cactus and our faces looked of total exhaustion. The sun had just set and we where giving up on the idea of boating out of the canyon. Just as the talks of hiking out started, we spotted another group of kayakers passing far below in the canyon.

I know I should know better by now but I had to say it, "Let's do this!, let's paddle out of here!, I want to finish this canyon". Danny was hiking out for sure. His boat was safe, up and out of the water, but far from any place accessible. Cruise and Joel looked at me hesitantly, but agreed. We headed back down the canyon, lost our trail, and did some scrambling. I was about to give up and hike back out of the canyon when I spotted one of my markers from the original hike out to get Danny. We quickly reached the boats, and it was dusk. The three of us took a couple seconds to mentally prepare and then we were off. Cruise led the way, with very short descriptions and the constant last words of "follow me". We bombed through most of the rapids and got to Reptilian; our initial plan was to exit the canyon there and save some fun tickets to help Danny with his hike out if necessary.

It had gone so well, sure there was a swim, sure it was dark, but damn the group was really working well. I said it again " lets fire it up!, I want to finish this bitch!". Cruise looked me dead in the eyes and smiled, he reached down splashed some water on his face and didn't even tell us the line. Joel rolled his shoulders a couple times reached down and grabbed a sip of water and chased Cruise into the rapid, I was right behind him. There was howls of delight at the bottom of the rapid, all of the hard stuff was over. Danny was hiking threw the woods and we had some relative flat water to paddle to the take out.

We finally reached the take out and the group we saw from the rim was there. They had moved Danny's boat into a more accessible spot and had called some friends to get them ready for a search party in case we didn't show back up. I couldn't have been happier, the boating community is so tightly knit. Everyone is always looking out for each other. Not to mention they had a couple beers to share. As we started to explain our three mile nine hour adventure, Danny comes jogging down the street just in time to put a beer into his booty.

Danny repenting to the river gods

What ever you want to call that run, it isn't that hard, but there is absolutely no room for error. There are sieves everywhere, and escapee plans need a damn good team, and hundreds of feet of rope.

A huge thanks goes out to the group that moved Danny's boat.

Nice to have friends on your side "saw boats call when out"

A even bigger thanks goes out to Cruise, Joel, and Danny for being calm under pressure and dealing with a epic adventure.

Chris Baer signing out from Durango Colorado

New Mexico

2010-05-03T19:04:00.007-06:00

Well, there was basicly no season in Minnesota this year so what is a boy supposed to do? Swap some letters around, and instead of boating in MN I went to NM.

I have paddled a few other times in New Mexico but it had been more then a couple years. That old saying "you can only run a rapid blind once", well after a few years and a couple hundread other runs, I barely remembered a single line on any of the New Mexico rivers; and I was supper lucky to get Rolf Kelly, Tim Kelton, Atom Crawford, and Cameron Gillen to route me down some of the classics.

Atom Crawford enjoying a booty beer after an amazing swim

yet another interesting line at MJ Falls

In two weeks of paddling in New Mexico I had the opportunity to paddle the Race Course twice, the Upper Box twice, and the Embudo at 3.6 on the gauge close to ten times. There wasn't a single drop over five feet but it was still a heck of a lot of fun. The one thing MN and NM do have in common is the like to hand out beatings, I personally witnessed 4 swims, more pinning then I knew possible and some great booty beer drinking next to the fire at Atom's place.

Here is a little video shot by Tim of the Embudo
After work Rio Embudo from tim_kelton on Vimeo.

p.s. Atom Crawford is the man, he might even let you hang out if you plant onions and bring him some whisky.

O yea drive slow and wear your seat belt in Dixon.