Expedition: Short For Epic? Rio Manso, Chile

Alerces Gorge

Rio Manso from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

Aeon Russo, Alerces Falls

The Upper Manso, or Argentine Manso is super fun; here are a few pictures, but that is not what this story is about.

Salto de Alerces

Mark Taylor, coming out of the jungle

Aeon Russo, Manso Gorge

scouting another phallic named waterfall

Aeon Russo, flat water paddle out

During our time on the Rio Puelo, we bumped into an old friend of mine: Tomas Binimelis. He spoke of yet another threatened and very unique river section, the Rio Manso. But he wasn’t speaking of the more commonly paddled Alerces Gorge section in Argentina, but a very remote and mysterious section on the Chilean side of the border. Bennie’s beta on what we would encounter in the isolated valley was limited, and my understanding of that valley was beyond inadequate.

Beta

Years ago I remembered both Nate Mac and Matias Nunez rambling about the obscure Rio Manso Chilean Gorge. Accounts of “epic” was all I could remember. I tried to reach out to them and other friends in the area, and unfortunately (fortunately), the Puelo Valley currently has next to no communication with the outside world.

"coloring book map"

Our threesome (Aeon Russo, Mark Taylor, and Chris Baer) added a few new faces for the endeavor. Our newly amended crew now included Hamish Tills and Tomas Binimelis. We all started compiling our marginal beta, most of which was based upon hearsay and rumor, along with a few numbers from what Aeon so delicately referred to as the “coloring book map”. The alleged put-in, from the info that we could obtain, was four-hundred and twenty meters above sea level, and we were going to descend all the way down to just above sea level. The estimated distance was approximately thirty kilometers. After a quick mental conversion to the Imperial system, the river would fall at an average gradient of sixty-seven feet per mile for eighteen miles… a long one day event?

a bunch of boaters waiting on a boat

Logistics

 

Tomas, chatting with the captain

“Arduous” would be a massive understatement for this trip. Thankfully, Tomas, our fearless Chilean was hard at work orchestrating our impending journey. To get to the Manso put-in, we would drive up the Puelo valley to the Upper Puelo put-in. We would then hike thirty minutes upstream to a large eddy, await our next vessel, load ourselves and our gear onto a motor boat, and then go upriver into the headwaters of the Rio Puelo. We then exited the first boat at an unidentifiable beach, and hiked half a mile up the hillside to get our passports stamped out of Chile by the grumpy, under-caffeinated border guards at the ridiculously remote “Paso Puelo” (only accessible via boat). We hopped onto a slightly larger jet boat and skipped our way further up-stream. Launching up a solid class 3 rapid, the captain calmly mentioned that we had just attain-boofed our way into Argentina. Our passports were stamped into Argentina at the beautiful Parque Nacional Lago Puelo. Then we journeyed north via a family friend of Tomas in a pickup truck for four hours to Paso Leon. The road dead ends in Paso Leon. We then checked out of Argentina, crossed the Rio Manso by kayak, and then checked back into Chile on the other side. This single day of logistics would have taken me a week or more to contrive, but spectacularly, Tomas pulled it off like it was just another day in the office.

Paso Puelo

 

end of the road

heading to the border crossing for the fourth time in a single day

 

On Water

 

Mark Taylor, picking his way through the siphon pile

The tributary just North of the Rio Manso is the Rio Cochamo. Shortly after setting off into our trip, the Rio Manso revealed its similarity to the Rio Cochamo: essentially gigantic boulders stacked on top of each other in a narrow canyon. There were literally siphons stacked upon siphons. Downstream progress slowed to a crawl.

Mark Taylor, Manso Chile

The next ten hours were a blur of massive boulder gardens, countless sieves, live bait scouting, and way too many close calls. Late in the day after running a massive sieve-laden boulder garden, I caught a micro eddy in the middle of the river. Looking downstream, Tomas and Hamish were sitting thirty feet below. The water between us was exploding in every direction. Their paddles were straight up in the air (signaling that the rapid was ok). Mark, Aeon, and I dropped into the melee heedlessly; we were exhausted.

Aeon Russo, Rio Manso

Every skill in my kayaking repertoire was being abused. Mentally, I was battered and my confidence started to fade.

Too Dark

 

trying to dry out after a long day

The gorge glowed an amazing saffron hue as the sun set over the unrelenting canyon rim. We stopped on a rocky beach. Fourteen years of paddling class 5 rivers, and this was my first unexpected overnight. We collected every piece of driftwood on the “beach” and started a fire. No one was anticipating a night out. Food was slim and protection from the elements was absent. The rain started at about 2:00 AM, and sleep became unattainable.

drying out after a long, cold, wet night

The following morning the crew was moving exceptionally slowly. Most hadn’t gotten any real sleep. Thankfully the river had given up most of its gradient. Wearily, we paddled through sporadic class 3 for the final six kilometers to our take out.

the locals are fighting hard

Sin Represas

 

proposed dam site, already under destruction

Part of the reason why we entered into the lower Rio Manso Gorge is that it’s threatened by an imminent dam project. We had hopes of obtaining some beautiful photos and video of the valley that could have been used in the anti-dam campaign. It was at our unexpected camp, exhausted, cold, and hungry, that I turned to Tomas with utter dispassion and exclaimed, “I changed my mind, I want this section to be dammed. I don’t want anyone else to have to deal with this.” We both let out an exhausted chuckle.

Puelo locals protesting the dam project

an amazing location

Do Not Go Into The Lower Rio Manso Gorge…

 

Mark Taylor, exhausted after another big mission

… Unless you are looking for a truly next level experience. Prerequisites should include self-discovery runs down the Rio Cochamo, Linville, Lower Meadow, and Cheeseman Gorge. Bring your “A Game”… and definitely your overnight gear.

almost too exhausted to get the shot

A couple months after I published this article John Arthur reached out to me with discription of the first discent, even more Epic!

Dear Chris,
I noticed the article on your website describing the lower Rio Manso, and thought you might be interested in some info about early kayak exploration of this run.

In February 1995 I was spending some time at Chris Spelius’ camp on the Futaleufu, and asked him for help in setting up a river adventure.  He suggested the Rio Puelo, and offered to provide logistics.  I recruited Lars Holbek, who was working for Spe that year, along with a couple of other visitors to Spe’s camp — Dave Kemp from California and Dave Kalange from Idaho.  We all piled into Spe’s truck and he drove us to Argentina.  The plan was to first meet up with a bunch of kayakers from Bariloche and run the Alerces section of the Manso.  Spe had brought a bunch of old kayaks with him, to sell to the Bariloche boaters.  In gratitude, they treated us to an evening of asado and wine on the beach at Lago Steffen after the Alerces run.  As we drank more wine, the idea of simply continuing on down the Manso to the ocean somehow started to seem credible.  Lars was against it at first, since we knew almost nothing about the river downstream (we had only a highway map, showing an eventual confluence with the Puelo).  But the Bariloche boaters assured us that the Manso was navigable at least as far as the border with Chile.  Beyond that, they knew nothing, but there were rumors that a party of Germans had headed downstream just a few days earlier.  That was enough for Kalange and Kemp, and they talked Lars into it.  In addition, Bariloche boater Diego Rodriguez decided to join us. 

The next morning, after we sobered up, the plan somehow still seemed plausible.  We were there, the river was waiting — it seemed fated to happen.  So we packed our Responses and Crossfires with gear and food for an expedition.  I had brought lots of dehydrated meals from the US, and we had a couple of camping stoves and pots.  A Response can hold a lot of gear, but we regretted the weight later.  We said goodbye to Spe and to our Bariloche hosts, and paddled off from the beach.

According to my notes, we paddled about 35 km the first day, nearly to the border.  I remember easy paddling through pastures and forests, with great scenery.  On the second day, we paddled a nice class 3-4 canyon at the border, and crossed into Chile.  Then the river turned south and got serious.  We proceeded more slowly and made a few portages.  This day we covered about 20 km. 

On the third day, things got really serious as the river continued south.  A succession of big class 4 and 5 drops, some runnable and some portaged.  One portage required fancy rock climbing by Lars and a rope traverse for kayaks and boaters.  ( I recognize this drop in your video — you did a roped swim.)  In the afternoon we reached a vertical-walled canyon with two huge drops back to back.  The first drop looked marginal and the second couldn't be scouted.  So we scaled the cliff, and pulled the boats up with ropes.  Once on top we crashed through the bamboo.  Our progress was very slow, as we heaved the loaded boats over, under and through the bamboo jungle.  In 4 hours hiking we covered about 1/2 km and reached a side creek, where we camped.  Total mileage for the day:  about 4 km. 

The morning of the fourth day, we did some reconnaissance down in the canyon, and concluded that the river was runnable for at least a few km.  We lowered the boats to the river by rope and climbed down ourselves, jumping the last 40 feet into an eddy.  Big rapids followed but only one portage and the gradient gradually eased.  About 10 km of great class 3-4 rapids followed.  Late in the afternoon the river tuned west and the canyon abruptly ended, leaving us on flat water.  We camped just above the confluence with the Rio Puelo.  We had been conserving our food to this point, but now that we were out of the canyon we celebrated with a pig-out dinner.

On the fifth day we paddled all the way to the bridge near Puelo town, playing in the huge hole at the exit to Lago Tagua Tagua.  We caught the bus from Puelo to Puerto Montt, paying 5000 pesos to put the boats on the roof.

We never did catch up with the Germans on the river (though we found bits of plastic on the rocks at the portage points).  However, Dave Kemp eventually ran into them in a bar in Puerto Montt.  They made more long portages than we did, climbing out of the canyon at least three times.  Thus, our trip was either a first or second descent, depending on your criteria.  Diego Rodriguez came back with his Bariloche buddies later and proved that the canyon we hiked around was runnable.  He eventually set up a company (Adventure Tours Argentina Chile) and guided commercial raft trips down the lower Manso.

I enjoyed your Manso video, and even recognized many of the rapids after 20 years.  I’m very sorry to hear about the plans to build a dam in there, and hope the the local resistance to this plan is successful. 

Regards,
John Arthur
Berkeley, CA

Descent of the Rio Manso from Lago Steffen to the town of Puelo, February 6-10, 1995
John Arthur
Lars Holbek
David Kalange
David Kemp
Diego Rodriguez
 

adventure by Chris Baer

 Vertical Extraction on the Rio Claro

Aeon Russo, Caracol

Watching the sun set from sixty feet above the aqua blue waters of the Cocina section on the Rio Claro was beautiful… But being stranded there for three hours after swimming head first off a six foot ledge wasn’t what I had planned for the evening.

Put-In and Take-Out Beta for the Rio Claro

Looking back up into the Siete Tazas section

 

Siete Tazas

 

Mark Taylor enjoying the Siete Tazas

Beta for the Rio Claro sections is marginal, so let's clear it up. As you drive up the valley the first section you will reach is the Siete Tazas (Seven Teacups). Park at the big Siete Tazas sign. During peak tourist season this area will be a zoo. Walk in on the main boardwalk to the viewing platform and scout your exit from the canyon. Most groups don’t paddle the last drop that is directly under the viewing platform. Getting out before the last drop makes the exit from the canyon slightly easier. The hike out is sketchy at best, and many crews will use ropes to extract boats. To reach the put-in from the parking lot, walk up the boardwalk past the restroom to the second flora-fauna sign, hop the guard rail on the left, and make your way upstream on a marginal trail for approximately 200 meters to a rock cairn. From here start your descent into the canyon, I highly encourage using a rope to lower boats on the last pitch.

Entre Saltos

Aeon lining up one of the marginal entry rapids in Entre Saltos

The next section up is referred to as the Entre Saltos, or (In-between Waterfalls) and contains one of the most photogenic drops I have ever seen: Garganta Del Diablo (The Devil's Throat) aka Caracol (The Snail) aka Twirly Bird. The exit from this section is not too far above the Siete Tazas put-in, but it is mandatory to exit the canyon here as the entire river drops into a siphon between the sections. To reach the take-out head upstream on the main road from the Siete Tazas parking lot. Within one kilometer there will be a small turnoff that leads to a bridge which crosses the river and a campground. Cross the bridge and head upstream river left to a set of stairs that go all the way to water level. This is your take-out and you must exit here. Scout it carefully and keep your eyes peeled for the stairs while in the gorge. To reach the put-in continue upstream on the main road to Parque Ingles where the main road crosses the river, and put-in here. There are a couple of marginal rapids in the first kilometer that can be portaged relatively easily. Thankfully as the canyon walls start to close in the drops clean up.

Veintidos Saltos 

alternative driving option, partially up the Veintidos Saltos section

Aeon splashing off yet another waterfall

The section upstream of Entre Saltos is Veintidos Saltos (Twenty Two Waterfalls). From Parque Ingles hike upstream on river right approximately two kilometers. Immediately after the fourth tributary look for a rock cairn. Carefully make your way down towards the river onto a rock ledge, and make your way upstream through a small patch of bamboo and over a high-water strainer. The seal launch is kind of sketchy, so I prefer passing the boats down as a team. All of the drops are clean but very committing. The take-out is the Parque Ingles bridge. If you are interested in lapping this section, take out at the first beach river right as the gorge opens up. This allows you to paddle all of the good drops and shorten the hike considerably.

life-styling at the shortcut hike up for the Veintidos Saltos section

Mark Taylor enjoying one of the twenty-two waterfalls

La Cocina

Mark Taylor and Aeon Russo looking into La Cocina

The uppermost section is only occasionally paddled and is called La Cocina (Kitchen). To reach this section continue to hike upstream river right from the Veintidos put-in for approximately fifteen minutes. Here you’ll find a patch of burnt trees, and at the most upstream portion of these burnt trees there is a trail which leads down to the river. Take out at the Veintidos put-in, or continue down through the Veintidos section to the Parque Ingles Bridge.

multimedia headquarters

I wasn't kidding these guys are everywhere

How to Get Out of an Overhung Canyon if You’re Not Chris Sharma.

Mark Taylor, Aeon Russo, and I had been putting laps in on the Veintidos Saltos section and had an absolutely stunning descent on the Entre Saltos section when we bumped into Tino Specht and Evan Garcia. They gave us the heads up that there was a relatively new section upstream of the Veintidos Saltos that people were starting to paddle, La Cocina.

Rio Claro 2015 from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

The section starts with a twisting three stage drop. It’s here that I got back-endered. Aeon was directly behind me and partially landed on me at the base of the ledge. During the beating my paddle got blown out of one hand, as I reached up to index the blade I found Aeon’s boat and grasped on. He was able to drag me out of the hydraulic just in time for him to get a stroke off the next six foot boof. Unfortunately this left my boat perpendicular to the canyon, and it broached at the lip of the next ledge. Instantly I was partially ejected from the boat and found myself with one leg in and one leg out of the kayak directly above the six foot ledge. A quick look around and I decided that downstream was the only exit strategy. Head first, I flopped out of my boat and found myself swimming down a vertically-walled hallway toward the unknown. Without hesitation both Aeon and Mark scouted downstream and found a small ledge where I was able to get out of the water.

The cliff above my perch was just shy of vertical, and I tried a handful of climbing attempts but the sloping, polished basalt finally stifled my upward progress. I was on a small ledge sixty feet above the water. After a quick conversation we decided that the next move would be for Mark and Aeon to head downstream to the Veintidos put-in where they were able to exit the canyon and head back upstream to aid me in my extraction.

fishing for paddling gear, three carabiners and some electrical tape

The canyon rim directly above me couldn’t have been worse. The belay station was steep, loose dirt sloping into the canyon. Initially, Aeon and Mark built a simple belay system in order to pendulum me from one route to the next and find a climbable way out. After making marginal progress I was left standing on an even smaller ledge higher off the water, and my climbing skills failed to match the canyon. Aeon and Mark then changed the rope setup into a three-to-one haul system. This system meant that I was absolutely dead weight and couldn’t help them at all. Some grunts later the system was abandoned; there was way too much friction in the system and the location they were pulling from was sketchy at best. The sun was setting and our energy and light were dwindling rapidly, (remember to always carry a headlamp!). Eventually we settled on a two-to-one system where I was able to help pull on the line. This eliminated a ton of friction and allowed me to participate in the pull. It worked! I clambered up over the last vertical pitch and found the outstretched arms of Aeon and Mark through the dense vegetation obscuring the lip. We collapsed in a group hug. We stumbled back to camp under the new moon.

Mark Taylor flying off Skate Park

My Personal Take on Mechanical Advantage Systems

I’m a huge fan of simple, clean systems. A two-to-one system dragged me out of the Rio Claro and it is my go-to system for just about every haul situation. I don’t carry pulleys. They are massively helpful in mechanical advantage systems but I’m not willing to deal with the extra weight and bulk of having them in my PFD. That being said, friction is a major deficit in any haul system. The average throw bag rope being bent through a carabineer causes somewhere in the neighborhood of a twenty percent loss in power. The average person can pull approximately 100 pounds on a throw rope. So by building a three-to-one mechanical advantage system with carabineers instead of pulleys the actual pull for one person drops from 300 pounds to only 180 pounds. A two-to-one drops from 200 to 160 pounds. Remember these are rough numbers. Now put in friction from vegetation, rocks, and whatever it is that you’re hauling and the systems start to fail.

Be safe out there, know your limitations, learn new skills, and surround yourself with a solid crew!

another adventure by Chris Baer

Road trip part 2, The Gol Gol,

This is actually the second try at the Gol Gol, a couple weeks back we showed up and decided there was way too much water. This time there was just a little less. The team, Kyle, Steven, Jake and I got suited up in our wet gear and hiked in to the first drop. Everyone was tired from the lack of good sleep the night before, (half the group slept in a truck and the other half in a bus stop). After a quick inspection of the first drop no one was interested in a big jungle hike to run a 15 foot boof. We put on below the first drop and cruised threw some fun class 4 towards the next horizon line. The whole run is made up of gigantic pour overs, that lead into class 4, and then back into other giant pour overs. With all of the big drops on this run pouring over it is really important to delay your boof stroke, waiting till the drop truly goes vertical to take that last powerful stroke.


Kyle getting his late boof


Steven dropping into an interesting flume, this thing was cool, both sides of the slide where just exploding, have to find the sliver of water that makes it through


Jake with a big boof

We bombed off a couple drops, and quickly arrived at an especially gnarly looking 30 ft drop. After scouting my line I gave myself a 50/50 chance of being where I wanted to be through the entrance rapid. If I was spot on from there I gave my self a 60% chance of sticking the boof over a nasty hole. To make it worse the hole was recirculating under the right wall, all of this equaled a no go in my head. Everyone in the group quickly came to the same decision and we raised the boats out of the canyon, through the jungle, and put them back in at the base of that very respectable rapid. A quick paddle brought us to the top of the 50 footer. "This thing is immense", easily a 1,000 cfs bouncing threw a narrow slot. The perfect line is through a nasty lead in, over a roller, and down 20 feet where the right side of the current engulfs you. Then you fall another 30 feet into the most aerated landing zone ever. Kyle looked at this drop for just a few minutes, walked up, got in his boat, and paddled into the monster. Kyle had an amazing line, and made this huge drop look really good to the rest of us.


Kyle styling the monster


Steven getting swallowed

One after the next, everyone donated themselves to the massive volume of water, letting themselves get engulfed and flying into the landing zone. In the pool of the landing zone everyone rolled up laughing, "IT FELT LIKE I JUST LANDED IN A CLOUD". As quick as it started it ended, we exited the canyon, jumped in the truck, and rallied back to town for some much need food.


Kyle reflecting on another stout

Chris Baer

4 river miles in 3 days

Mexico is cool

we stopped by Iltajin a beautiful old ruin on the way to Tlapacoyan

4 river miles in 3 days
The Big Banana and Pezma sections of the Rio Alseseca.

So hear is how we spent three days covering a mere four miles of river. When we first arrived at AdventuRec we heard great things about a mysterious section of the Rio Alseseca, The Big Banana aka the Plantain. The word was that there was a very large water fall on the run, and that no one had ever run it, and "you better put in on the downstream side of it". The group that was collecting the beta on the run had been turned back five times, concerned that they would put in on the wrong side of the falls. On the fifth day they found the falls, and did a immense scout of a huge waterfall. The waterfall was estimated to be 120 feet tall and "looked good to go" besides the fact that it's 120 ft. On day six the group doing most of the research had to head back to the states, but not before a missing wallet and a CB where installed in the truck. After helping our friends and giving farewell hugs we left to go run the Plantain. It was now just after noon.

Jake Greenbaum, Davis Gove, John McConville, Lance Rief, and myself where the crew that would head in to the plantain. It took us a while to drive up into the mountains and find our put in field, and then a bit longer to hike in. We hiked up, down, back up, back down, threw the cattle fences, down the steep embankment, back up and down, into and out of the jungle to get to a tiny creek, that portion of the hike took 2 hours. Jake and I both nursing bad knees decided to put on the creek, we slid bumped and mostly drug our boats down the creek for another hour.

put in falls

3:30 p.m. "WOW there is the waterfall" a beautiful spout of water flying out of the wall 120 ft above us crashing into the river just upstream of our tiny creek. "we ought to get going we don't have too much light left" .... this statement begins the true Epic potion of this tale. After the fact, we all said that we had worries about putting on that late but that none of us were ready to hike the three hours back up to the car. Once on water we made it an amazing quarter mile or so when both Lance and Davis found them self's swimming after an encounter with a submerged log. We gathered the swimmers and equipment quickly and continued down stream. During the excitement and confusion of two of our team members swimming John accidently left his camera on the shore, he didn't relies this until we had gotten far enough down stream that there was no way to get back up to it. After the swims the team seemed a little skittish, could have been the wood encounter, or maybe the fact that we were in and out of 200 foot tall gorge with no good way out, either way we found our selves scouting almost every rapid. In the next few rapids we found a beautiful 20 ft waterfall, and a just shy of mandatory 20 ft slide-sluice thing that broke Johns paddle. Another great rapid had three sections a double backed up hole, a swirly lead in to a thick hole and a mandatory 10-12 ft drop into a supper sketchy hole. The run was living up to the legends, and then the 40 ft water fall. The 40 footer looked good the landing zone was clear and the lead in was easy. The problem was again the hole at the bottom, the hole looked rather caved out, not to mention we had no idea how long it would take us to get a injured person out of the canyon. We walked, put back in, and ran more drops, with all of our scouting, portaging, and hiking we had burnt most of our day light when we paddled up to Meat Locker. Meat Locker is impressive a total height nearing 30 feet, a 15 foot boof off of the top into a ugly seam that swallowed all of us and shoot us into the boiling mess of an eddy right above another ledge. The next ledge looked horrible the ledge made a thick hole that had a cave on both sides and then choked back up by the cliff walls, " I ain't runnin that". After a quick scout we realized that we where done for the day, the sun had disappeared and within minutes it was going to be pitch black, A quick team meeting and we decided to try to hike out. We took the little amount of water and food we had, and left our boats and paddles in the jungle.

Davis on the 20 footer

We were near a banana grove, and the comment came up quickly " there most be some way for the farmers to get those bananas out of here". John was definitely the life savior here when out of his dry bag came a small head lamp. We followed in line behind John banging our shins on rocks and roots, slipping on the banana leafs, getting bit by bugs, not to mention the poisonous and thorny plants we where using to haul are exhausted bodies out of the canyon. Then there was a trail then we lost the trail then we found a better trail, and further out of the canyon. An hour went bye "shush i think i heard something" the distant growl of the overloaded truck using it's jake brake. Then the little dirt road appeared another 15 minutes down the dirt road and we where in a tiny village. We talked to a local farmer and he offered us a ride in his truck back down the hill to our truck, and we gladly accepted.

It was late, and we where exhausted as we pulled into town to force food into our bellies knowing that we had to refuel before we went back in to finnish the run tomorrow. We woke up early, with the thoughts of getting on, firing up the Meat Locker, and getting out of the gorge running threw all of our heads. We were all still tired, no one slept well, and we were all still overly tired from the day before. Even with the odds stacked against us John and I believed that we would have time to finnish the run and hike back in to the 120 foot falls swim down and get his camera back out of the jungle before dark.

the banana grove the second morning

We drove to the same banana grove we hiked out of the night before and quickly found our spot to hike back in. Another hour had gone by hiking in, and we arrived at the Meat Locker we had another team meeting all of us expressing the fact that we wanted to run Meat Locker but the next ledge was probable death. We set up immense safety, we had a live bait swimmer just after Meat Locker and another throw bagger, right before the death ledge. We all took our turns running Meat Locker and all had reasonable good lines. As we seal launched back into the river after the death hole, we realized it had taken us two hours to run the drop and we were running out of day light again. We came around a couple more bends and into the Pezma section. Pezma had some quality drops to it, 20/80 falls, a drop that notoriously beats down 80% of the kayakers, and a splattering of 10-20 foot ledges. It ended quickly a couple last small rapids and the roar of the trucks picked up as we neared our take out bridge. 30 hours, two swimmers, a camera left behind, and a broken paddle we had finally decented a mere 4 miles.

Jake in the Meat Locker


John having fun in the Pezma section


John looking for the 20% line in 20/80


Jake on the last big Pezma boof


the take out, with huge bamboo groves and my bamboo paddle, thanks Kenny.
Check out Kenny's hand crafted paddles at http://bluntfamilypaddles.blogspot.com/

"Mass Cerveze", we where all super happy to have finished the run as successfully as we had, and we all have planes to head back in for another attempt at the Big Banana. John and I also had the thought that we could get Johns camera back out of the canyon without running the whole thing again. So the next morning tired, hung over, and our legs cut scraped and beat to a pulp we hiked back in swam down threw some pools and got to the rapid we had swimmers on three days before. Right there on the shore line was Johns pelican case, camera safely inside. Another hour of hiking and swimming back out, and our Big Banana adventure was truly concluded.

Another Adventure by
Chris Baer