Sometimes the logistics aren’t as legal as you might want.

an amazing canyon

serenity above chaos

Kayaking missions sometimes lead us into murky waters, legally. Technically when I’m changing into or out of wet shorts on the side of the road I’m committing public indecency. Post-run cold ones, hopefully in a coozie and not a bootie, are open containers. Scouting, and occasionally accessing, really means trespassing. In all of these circumstances I ask myself the same question: If I’m not hurting anyone else, what does it matter?

  
Something we don't talk about from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

the boys below a rather nasty hydraulic

desert run off

By no means would I ever suggest breaking a law, but sometimes it’s a necessary evil in kayaking, and sometimes the risk is worth the reward.

Adventure by Chris Baer

Another extremely committing canyon in Colombia, Rio Junambu

Joel Fedak enjoying the entry rapids

My six-week trip to Colombia was quickly coming to a close and our team was in the southwestern corner of the country. It was going to take a solid three days of van, bus, and pick-up trucks rides to get back to Bogota and depart.

such a huge country with so much to offer

Jared Page heading towards the gorge

One more, one more, one more, is a recurring theme in my life. After a quick discussion we realized that we could sneak out for yet one more adventure. The boys had paddled the Rio Junambu the previous year and spoke of a deep canyon with quality class 4 rapids.

smashed into the mini van

Access to the canyon took a little longer then anticipated. The road had degraded over the season, and was now exceedingly jarring. Exacerbating the situation was the fact that we packed six deep into a mini van, with all three of our creek boats loaded inside the van with us.

Rio Junambu, Colombia from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

An arching bridge marked our put in, and upon inspection the water level looked a little low. We bumped and ground our way down the river for a bit until we reached the first major tributary on the right. The confluence rewarded us with double the water. From here down there was one small tributary after the next. Unfortunately at least a couple of these tributaries are the runoff from villages far above. These streams brought in an abundance of trash and some interesting smells.

Jared Page in the boogie

As the river got bigger so did the rapids. It was fun class 4. We picked apart the rapids, finding alternative and interesting lines.

more great class 4

Jared Page entering the canyon

As we approached the canyon sheer walls shot straight up. The gorge was a few hundred feet deep. It was beautiful. Unfortunately the gorge wasn't very long, so we stopped and took a small break enjoying the location and a quick snack.

our take out bridge

Paddling out of the canyon leads you to two different historical bridges, both are arches, and it would be really easy to misidentify the one that your shuttle driver was waiting at. After hiking the few hundred vertical feet out of the canyon we continued switchbacking our way up to the new yellow bridge at its rim. The hike was exhausting. My hope that our shuttle was in the right location dwindled, along with the light.  A handful of phone calls later we luckily contacted Yander Gavilanes a local rafter in the community. It took a few more calls and Yander re-coordinated the shuttle driver.

yes we hike to that yellow bridge

Yander also invited us to hang out in the town of Buesaco. The next morning we took a small tour of town and of a local farm. Colombian coffee is amazing especially when it is served piping hot, feet away from where it was grown.

enjoying breakfast on the farm

the view from our 20 dollar hotel in Buesaco

The Junambu was a great way to wrap up an awesome six-week adventure in Colombia. A huge thanks to all the Colombians for making this one more trip of a lifetime!

another adventure by Chris Baer

Rio Caqueta, two days in a committing canyon

Yea! its walled in, look close that little spec is Jared

The Colombian adventure continues, next on the check list was the third descent of the Rio Caqueta. With some amazingly vague beta, "It should take one or… three days? there is some pushy white water! with a portage… or a few!?" Giorgio Codleuppi, Jared Page, Joel Fedak and myself packed our boats with a little better then an overnights worth of food, light weight sleeping arrangements, and few guaranties. What we could see from maps was that the canyon was covered in a dense jungle, and was very containing.

middle of no where

We piled into a pickup truck and made our way to the river. Upon arrival the river's flow looked pretty low, but the general size of the river was huge! An estimated 4,000 cubic feet of water per second was pumping through the canyon. We put on directly below the highway and quickly arrived at a vertically walled section. It's Beautiful! There are a few small water falls plunging hundreds of feet into the canyon. These falls make the walls glisten with their spray.

House size rocks, and hydraulics to match

Into the big rapids!

Early on day one, receiving a single thumbs up I charged into what looked like the big side of a fun rapid. Coming into the blind bottom section it was one huge feature after the next. A couple strong forward strokes blasting through hydraulics, a quick brace, and a WTF! In front of me was a twelve foot wide six foot deep hydraulic. The bravado in me said to boof over the hole. My attempt was almost laughable. A quick window shade and I popped up just in time to throw a horrible looking loop towards the corner of the hole. One more window shade, and I resurfaced with a single thought, "That can't happen again." The group pulled over and took a time-out to reassess our hand signals.

 

Big and Pushy

There was immense pour overs everywhere! Our group did a fair amount of scouting, wadded through side channels, and peering over house size boulders into the turbulent river. With an empty boat and a solid warm up, I know most of the marginal lines could come together… With a heavy boat and the looming walls of the canyon, skirting and running away from big features was the game plan.

Late in day one the pace was slowing, it was one huge barely scoutable rapid after the next. We spent an hour of scouting a particularly nasty rapid, just to agree upon a cheat line. Climbing out of our boats at the next horizon line we were confronted with an enormous siphon, the entire rivers flow smashes into a couple apartment building size rocks and disappears. After our quick portage the light started to dwindle.

4,000 cfs siphon

(Colombian rivers have been known to rise incredible amounts, last year Mark Hentze was washed away in the middle of the night do to a huge unexpected surge of water.)

We chose an elevated beach and unloaded our boats. The scenery was beautiful; but camping in the jungle has a few draw backs. Sand flies, and constant precipitation, made the small damp fire a little less enjoyable. We ate food and shared stories of near misses with huge hydraulics. As the evening developed the temperature dropped, and I found myself with an inadequate sleeping system. I slept in every layer I had that wasn't soaking wet.

Day Two we awoke to clear skies and gorgeous views

Once on water we were confronted with more scouting, and more running from huge pour overs. Arriving at yet another large rapid Giorgio charged in and disappeared over a large horizon line… It took him a few seconds to come back into view. When Giorgio looked upstream he once again gave us an awkward hand gesture. Joel was next to paddle into the melee. Upon arriving at the bottom of the rapid, Joel's hand single was distinctly different. His hand signal portrayed a very well defined get left!
Jared took off into the rapid looking for the left line, unfortunately he found himself disappearing off a large horizon line. From above I could see his boat catch major air twice before relieving itself of the hydraulic. Jared then rolled up just in time to fall into yet another, much larger hydraulic. His beating resumed immediately. Jared was dealing with a heavy decision, and oxygen depravation was working against him. Abandoning craft, sleeping arraignment, clean water, and food, Jared hit the eject button. Thankfully Giorgio and Joel were in great position, and cleaned up the situation quickly.

Giorgio Codleuppi making friends with a local fishing family

Mid day on day two we exited the canyon. The gradient and pace quickly petered off, and we found ourselves slowly dodging fishing boats. We paddled the last two hours to our take out in the small community of Puerto Limon.

Puerto Limon, looking back at the beautiful Caqueta valley

adventure brought to you by Chris Baer