Laurel Fork, Doe Gorge, and a Marginal Monster

Mark Taylor controlling the first reconnect on Laurel Falls

Home on the kayak tour

 

Kayak homesteads take on a myriad of different shapes, mine is a 1984 Ford F150, The Boone North Carolina homestead was a classic rambler only inches above a creek that regularly flooded. We awoke on coaches with plenty of empty PBR cans strewn about. Our concentration quickly swung to a strong batch of coffee, and the rain that pummeled the surrounding county the night before. Every one hoped on there internet tools and started blurting out levels of different local runs.  

 

Laurel Fork

Ty Caldwell, Mark Taylor, Clay Lucas and I set our sites on the Laurel Fork. The flow looked spot on, and the rumor was, there was a "marginal monster." A 60 foot cascading water fall in the middle of the run. The car got loaded down with kayaks and a quick stop at the local fast food joint got us in the mood for some class 5 creek boating.

Once we reached the put in, we instantly realized we were in the right place. There was a myriad of other kayakers roaming around. Most of the other boaters were complaining about the high water... High water sounded like a ton of fun to our crew, and we quickly suited up and put on.

The run starts off with a bunch of fun class 4 moves that are interspersed with a ton of overhanging bushes and downed trees. There was wood every where, I got to the point that I wasn't worried about the rapids but was concerned about where the next ill placed tree would be.

Ty Caldwell launching off of the first ledge at Darwin's Hole

A few miles into the run we came to the only "hard" rapid of the "normal" run. Darwin's Hole, there was kayakers everywhere. The kayakers were trying to scout, and wondering how they might be able to portage around what our group thought was a "damn good rapid." One by one our team made the "hard" rapid look like another class 4. It started with a fun off angel boof into some swirly water, then another 5ft boof that landed in a protected hole.

A random paddler finding the flake at the top of Darwin's Hole

Heading down stream I started to get lost in the drops, all of the lead-ins looked very similar. Then we came around a corner and saw what we were looking for, a gigantic horizon line. The lip was a hundred feet wide and the old growth trees growing below looked very small.

A long scout ensued, it was definitely a "marginal monster." Mark Taylor set his eye on the center line, a bouncing, reconnecting, slope to vert to slope. After watching his very clean but bouncy line, my concerns were reconfirmed. I really didn't think I would have much control on the third reconnect. The speed and violence of the reconnect looked like it could be a career ender. So... I contemplated a far right line. It was a triple drop jumble, the first two drops looked like the tea cups on the Paralyze rapid of my local run Lake Creek. The third feature was a 40ft drop with a light reconnect half way down.

Mark Taylor sending Laurel Falls on the Laurel Fork

Standing above the drop visualizing my line I looked down at my new friends, Ty gave me a hand jesture that made my 80% certainty turn to 100%. I was going to paddle this marginal monster, and I was going to make it look good.

Sliding into the water I looked down at the the beyond tricky lead-in, my hart was beating heavy. Two inches off my line at the lip, meant I fell eight feet onto a rock shelf. Quickly resetting my angle I fired off the second drop and was again a couple inches off line and fell another ten feet onto yet another rock shelf. My ankles were sore and the front of my boat was disfigured. Worst of all I was stuck in a micro eddy inches from the 40 footer and way off angle. The next three minutes were filled with cursing and trying to figure out how to regain the angle I needed to paddle the finale big drop. Contemplating my fate, the decisions was made to turn around in the tiny back yard swimming pool of an eddy. Fate was being tested, there was a decent chance I would fall off the 40 foot drop backwards. The stern of the boat was extended nearly a foot over the falls, as I turned around a smile finally came back to my face. My ankles no longer hurt, and I was super excited looking at the final horizon line. A couple set up strokes and a huge weight shift, I was air borne one more time. Seconds later I was at the bottom of a truly Marginal Monster with a gigantic smile.

Doe Gorge

Upon finishing the Laurel Fork our group received an invitation to check out the Doe Gorge. Our beta was that it was an absolutely beautiful gorge filled with some fun class 4. Our group was pretty fired up after the Laurel fork, and put in antics quickly followed. We gave Mark Taylor a huge shove off the put in bridge, he sailed through the air landing supper flat off the 12 foot put in bridge.

The Doe Gorge lived up to expectations, the scenery was top notch. We traveled through an old gorge filled with gigantic trees and classic south eastern beauty. The white water was fun class 4, and the only down fall was the fact that the local red necks still think the river is there trash can. We dodged propane tanks, tires, and the occasional basketball while paddling a river that truly needs a good clean up day.

Boone NC has inspired me to revisit northern NC again and again, thanks Boone Boys.

Yule Creek

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.

Lester

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.