Racing Blind?

The Pacific North West has a pile of great race events in the spring. The courses range from low volume class 4 on the East Fork Lewis to the waterfall play ground of Canyon Creek and the dangerous and demanding waters of Robe Canyon. These all sounded like a ton of fun, but the only issue was that I hadn’t paddled any of the sections before. The lack of practice and sleep from the healthy party atmosphere supported by the ultra-friendly local paddlers still couldn’t sway me from competing in these quality race courses.

Robe Race 2015 from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

East Fork Lewis

Showing up to the East Fork Lewis I had the misconception that I was on “Cascade Creek”. Setting my boat down in the top eddy I could see a respectable horizon line. I chatted to a couple others in the eddy and was introduced to Chris and Hillary Neevel, who took me under their wing for a quick practice run down the “race course” section. It was about four miles into the section when Chris looked over his shoulder and stated that he wasn’t sure where the race actually finished. Another mile downstream we reached a fun waterfall, after which we called it quits and hiked to the road to hitchhike back to the starting line. Upon reaching the starting line, we were informed that the course was only a little more than a mile long and we had significantly passed the take out. The race lap went relatively smooth and awarded me a third place finish in the long boat division. 

plopping off the first falls on the East Fork Lewis

high fives on the podium

Canyon Creek

A day later Chris, Hillary, and I were standing around in yet another parking lot talking about the next race, which in my head had to be this “Cascade Creek” I was certain we were racing. Turns out I was wrong again and we would be racing down Canyon Creek. Canyon Creek is a significantly harder course than East Fork Lewis and contains a handful of fun waterfalls. The beta at the top of the run was, “When in doubt go off the middle”. 3 2 1 GO! Pulling hard on forward strokes, the initial rapids went well. A couple of blind turns and the first large horizon line appeared, luckily for me there was more than ample safety on the course and I was able to shout out a quick, “Which way do I go?!” to a safety member. The response was comical, a dropped jaw and an, “A a a right!” The impromptu lines were working out relatively well but were definitely far from the fast race lines. As I fell off the tallest horizon line on the course smack dab in the center of the flow, I clipped a shelf halfway down and started rotating towards my head. Twenty feet below I landed solidly on my side, and with a strong brace and forward stroke pulled away from the veil to see safety members helping a swimmer out of the landing zone. The first of the final two ledges, though, was by far the most entertaining. Again I asked which way to go and this time the safety responded with a strong, “RIGHT!” Looking back at this, what I think he meant was right of center, but that was not where I was heading. I heard RIGHT and I was going RIGHT, all the way RIGHT. On the far right side of the river is a funky curler that led directly into yet another waterfall. A solid stroke onto the curler and my thoughts were that this line was way harder than anything else on the course. A nice boof-to-paddle-twirl and a solid extracurricular line was complete. From there the finish line was in sight, and a new section of whitewater was completed relatively quickly and with almost no beta.

Robe Canyon

stout crew

A few weeks later it was Robe Canyon time. At least I wasn’t still messed up on the name of the run, but yet again I had no practice laps. The Robe Canyon is definitely the most challenging of the three races and getting safety onto the course is difficult at best. So the “organizers” have decided to do the race as a team event. Every racer must complete the course with one other kayaker. This was interesting as some people had been training together and others where finding partners at the put in. I was distinctly in the latter group and was starting to chat up a handful of possible partners when Chris “Topher” invited me to be his partner. The course is spectacular and contains a handful of difficult rapids. Difficult enough to put me upside down not once but twice. A respectable finishing spot was attained and the party commenced at the newly installed commemorative bench.

1. Dave & Will                                29:50
2. Ben & Brian                                30:20
3. Sam & Jordy                               30:42
4. Sam & Benn                               31:00
5.Henry & Adam                            31:29
6. Darren, Scott & Christian           31:40
7. Brad & Evan                               32:15
8. Trevor & Chase                          33:20
9. Joe & Dan                                   33:39
10. Chris & Chris                            33:56
11. Hillary & Ellie                          37:14
12. Jon & JD                                   38:45
13. Chris & Leif                              39:37
14. Steve & Conor                          53:54


Racing blind is almost always guaranteed to give you a horrible finishing placement, but it is a spectacularly silly way to see a new section.

Animas, and 680 fpm more

Chris Baer cleaning the last drop of Crazy Women Creek

The Animas, 

The 4 Corners crew, Cruise Quenelle, Joel Cameron, Tony Miley, Dave Farkas, Sasha Stauffer, Eric Munroe, Drew Beezley, and myself took off for the daunting task of paddling from the Third Gorge of Lime Creek aka Cascade creek, down to the Animas, hiking up and paddling Canyon Creek aka Crazy Women, and then paddling down the Animas through the Rockwood Gorge. My entire body was sore the next day and my mind was still revelling in the amazing action of one of the best combo runs I have ever put together.

The Crew, Cruise Quenelle, Joel Cameron, Tony Miley, Dave Farkas, Sasha Stauffer, Eric Munroe, Drew Beezley, and Chris Baer 

Third Gorge Lime, aka Cascade Creek

Get the Backpack ready for another classic Durango hike, luckily the mile and a half hike is down hill and relatively painless. Once on water the action starts quick and the two mile section rips by.

Sasha Stauffer, paddling through Landslide on Cascade Creek aka 3rd Gorge Lime

Tony Miley, a preface

Tony is a class 5 kayaker, partial owner of 4 Corners Riversports, and was the first person to take legitimate interest in my kayaking. After paddling with Tony on the Gauley River in West Virginia he offered me a sponsorship program with his kayak shop. Sense then I have received the honor of paddling with him in a myriad of locations, including my first run down Vallecito where he laughed at me and told me that I don't get to scout anything. Tony's vague beta and big smile have created tons of adventures for everyone around him.

Unfortunately Tony was involved in a major ATV accident a couple years ago and lost most of his right hand. Fortunately Tony is exceedingly resilient. He has gotten back up to full speed, with the help of a few prosthetics, and an amazingly strong spirit.

Crazy Women aka Canyon Creek 

This run is legit, 680 feet per mile of action, thank god it's less then a mile other wise my nerves would have faltered. Upon reaching the confluence of Crazy Women and the Animas Cruise Quenelle leaped from his kayak and started into an incoherent stream of words. It's in, let's go, big, waterfall, cauldron, really hard, skate board? I wasn't really sure what was going on. The entire crew quickly hopped out of there kayaks and followed Cruise (who was the only one with a kayak) up the hill. Thankfully Tony Miley turned around and saw me still sitting in my boat on the beach. I asked "Tony what is going on here?" Tony responded with a quick and very excited, "Grab your boat and start hiking there is a couple big water falls, you will want to run these for sure."

In classic Durango fashion, the protocol is to hike the 680 feet of gradient and then paddle back to the Animas. Thankfully Tony is the man, and helped me carry my kayak to the top of the steepest pitch.

Upon looking at the micro creek, I was excited to see very runnable drops. The downfall is that the drops are unnervingly close to each other. The entire posy was running around scouting from every imaginable angle. After a couple minutes Cruise came up to me and asked me if I was ready. Laughter came out of me..... " whoa whoa whoa I'm kayaking this? whats the line?" Cruise took a couple minutes to describe the preferred lines in the tiny and very committing canyon.

Tony set himself up in the middle of the canyon to be safety, the rest of the crowd huddled around the rim of the canyon waiting to watch the entertainment. Cruise and I sat at the put in for a couple minutes contemplating our lines and cooling off after the exceedingly steep hike. Quickly we slipped into the creek and the action started. One 15 footer into the next into a small rock that fortunately stopped me only inches away from going directly into the Skate Ramp drop. I was on an eddy line looking 20ish feet down at Tony setting safety. The boil under me subsided and I was luckily able to back paddle into the eddy and set up correctly for the next big drop. Skate Ramp is a 20 footer with a launch ramp near the bottom. Both Cruise and I get thrown around and Tony was at the bottom grabbing our boats before we washed into the next rapid. With Tony's classic big smile, he high fived us and shouted out "nice lines boys!"

Cruise Quenelle in the middle of the second canyon

The second pitch it the big one. Cruise and I decided to skip the first manky 4 foot ledge. The plan was to seal launch off a very precarious rock ledge that instantly shoot us into a funky 8 foot drop. It was Tony Miley with (one hand) that helped us into our boats and gave us the final shove, Seal launching us into the mess of white water below. The second drop was an off-vert 20 with some serious piton potential half way down. The last and biggest drop is a 30ish footer that lands in a very containing cauldron that to our luck had a large log wedged into the left side of the landing zone.

Cruise Quenelle with a beautiful line and a little log loving at the bottom

Cruise and my lines went exceedingly well and after some high fives and hugs, we were back on the Animas paddling towards Rockwood Gorge.

Beyond Rockwood,

The Animas river is absolutely amazing, one spectacular section after the next. The white water contained below Rockwood is as pushy and committing as I ever want to test. For a full write up click here.

Looking down into Pandora's box

Luke Hanson charging between the sieves in the Baker's Box

Just an average run out in Pandora's box

An adventure brought to you by ChrisBaer

Opel, and Canyon Creek

Wow, a month in Hood River went fast.
Opel Creek, Canyon Creek and a Horrible swim.

After a couple weeks in Hood it was time to go explore, Opel creek was first on our list.

A stunning hike in threw an old growth forest.



Our first major drop on Opel creek, a funky boof into an ugly hole.



Scott Baker styling the line.



Same drop shot from below,




The last drop on the Opel, a fun two tired item.
There was also another drop spotted on the drive out that we had to stop and look at. 20ish foot water fall that had definitely had some man made help at one point, lots of concrete along the river left side but it did look.... ok


Then we were off to Canyon Creek OR


This run started off awesome, tight little boulder gardens, wood galore, nasty holes, under cut walls, sieves, all the things to make it a manky class5
Scott trying hard to not go under the wall.



Smiling away coming threw another steep wood infested boulder garden.




So this is where I reiterate, NASTY HOLES, check out the one at the top of the picture, walled in, sieved out, boil all the way to the bank... nasty.




So here I am doing a very ugly stern squirt in the fore mentioned hole.

WARNING
This is where the story goes bad.
Mom don't read this.

I stern squirt, get the boat back down, and start paddling like hell. Got flipped, rolled back up facing the hole, and immediately ask for a rope. Then the rodeo session began threw some ends and quickly lost all control. At this point I realized I was not getting out of the hole in my boat.

So now I am getting cartwheeled and flipped around in the hole with my paddle, boat, and camera. I manage to catch a decent gasp of air and see the guys on shore throwing ropes, my hands go up my head goes under and I couldn't find a rope to save my life... literally. I continue to get beat for a while occasionally coming close to the surface and flailing my arms feeling around desperately for the ropes. I tried clawing and kicking off the undercut walls, but nothing was working. A few moments latter I have a decision to make, stay just under the surface and continue to feel around for the rope or to ball up hoping that the water grabs me as a hole and pushes me deep in to the low lying current. Or in this case possible deep under one of the surrounding rocks, a scary decision to make but when faced with no oxygen, and the real thought that this might be it... ball up what is it going to hurt.

I barely went any further down then I had when I was just flailing around, time for other options. The buoyancy of my body and gear was keeping me recirculating in the hole, so it was time to ditch some flotation. I reached a hand up and pulled the latex gasket away from my neck, this would allow any extra air that was trapped in my dry suit to escape. All I felt was 40 degree water coming down my chest. At this point I was on the worst carnival ride ever upside down right side up cartwheeling, the guys on the surface said they could see my hole back on the surface occasionally but I was getting so tumbled I had no idea which way was up.

I was starting to get really tired, the hole event had been going on for close to two minutes now and I had only occasionally had gotten even a mini gasp of air. I thought about trying to take off my life jacket the one last piece of buoyancy, but what would this mean for me further down stream, and... I was too tired. I felt my arm fling limply threw the air above the hole and that really scared me. I was dyeing. A few more tumbles and I felt what I had been looking for the hole time that damn rope. My hands clenched on with every thing left and the guys pulled my blue body out of the water and on shore. They held me there for a while, my legs wouldn't support me. After a minute or so of coughing hacking and my throat burning from the taste of oxygen. I raised my head and said guys we need to go get my paddle and camera.

The guys were all relieved, and I thank them for truly saving my life.

The rest of the run was ok, collected all of my gear minus one elbow pad, and I was happy that there were only a couple more nasty little holes.

Back at the Wreck Center after a scary day.
Thank you Scott Baker for some of the pictures and thanks to Scott Baker, Dan Ingerson, and sketchy Dan, for pulling me out of the damn hole.

Thanks for reading another installment of Where Is Baer, stay tuned in for some Minnesota action up next.
Chris Baer