Lower Nevado

So we wanted something new, and we got it. The lower Nevado starts at the demshitz drop, this thing is sketchy to say the least a burly technical lead in into a 50foot unclean drop. My decision came quick, NO. So we (Bryan Kirk, AJ, and myself Chris Baer) put in right below the drop and right above another great rapid.


AJ in the put in rapid, known as the little devil, This thing has an amazing boof just up stream of it. photo by Bryan Kirk

As soon as you come out of the little devil slot you find yourself in a sieve pile. Rocks everywhere that where slick as snot, a 20 foot portage took 15 minutes of slip sliding around. Once back on the water it was right back into blind big drops.

Bryan paddling away from the sieve pile


Bryan charging off the second drop, Nutrience

After Nutrience there is another stout rapid, it had a great 5 foot boof to start it off and then all the water pushed left, and off a bouncing 10 footer.


AJ with a big boof on the set up drop


Chris Baer boofing off the bounce ledge, photo by Bryan Kirk

After this drop it mellowed out for a bit, we rounded the corner and confluence with the Liucura. Once on the Liucura it took only minutes to arrive us at the "magic canyon" this thing starts out with a heinous sieve, (portage left). Then it is really one rapid boof hard right over a nasty walled in hole, and then boof over a few more small ledges. The gorge eases up and the next thing you know your at the Tres Saltos bridge.
This is one of those small gems that not enough people know about or enjoy.


a little closing shot

Chris Baer signing out from Chili

Tallulah,

yea its Oceana and yea it's rowdy, Jeff Clewell dropping left


random dude sending the right side, this side is easier but puts you scary close to the ledge in the "Thing"


Drew Austell, I thought he was going to start threwing cartwheels in one of the gnarliest eddys any where


Drew Austell making the left line look smooth


more randoms in a shredder
That is that short and to the point. This run is supper fun the walk down the stairs is beautiful, and there is plenty of goobers walking the big drops and swimming all over the place.
Stay posted as I am currently in the airport headed to south America

Toxaway

This run has been on my hit list for years, and last Wednesday i finally got it. Chad Pickens texted me at 8 am "Toxaway" I sprung from bed! I cruised into Brevard to meet Chad and a posse of other boaters, the rest of the guys wanted to run a section that i had ran the day previous. That left Chad and I separate we wanted the Toxaway. We headed towards the upper east fork of the Tuckasegee and turned off to see if anyone was at the Toxaway take out. There they where Billy Jones, Drew Duval, Garth, Lorra Farrel, and Jacob. We piled boats and equipment in and took off to the put in. The hike down to the river only took a couple minutes, and as soon as we got there I knew all the dreams and fairy-tails of this run where true. The put in slide is really low angle but covers a huge distance.

Base of the put in slide

Down stream it was heads up read and run class 5 slides into slides into boofs into into into it just kept coming and my smile kept growing.

As we entered into the big ones I knew I was going to have one of those amazing days everything felt good the skis where blue and the water level was spot on.

I hate seal launching.... well I'm just not good at it and looking at the seal launch for pungy sticks, or mini land bridge as Billy would like it to be called, or possible pungy bridge, or i like mini stick, lol, I realized it was game on. It was a 8-10 foot seal launch into a crack by the time i reached the bottom of the slide 5 seconds later i had a huge smile and was ultra fired up.

mini land bridge, Billy Joans


pungy bridge Chad Pikins

The big ones keep on coming


feeding trough Chad Pikins


feeding trough Garth


feeding trough Chris Baer


top of energizer Garth


the bottom of energizer

I missed photos of land bridge as I was puckered about another seal launch.

After land bridge there is another small portage and I crossed the pool to meet up with Drew and Garth the only two not scouting and Drew asked me simply if I wanted to just run it.
I didn't hesitate a bit with "I love running shit blind!"
Drew gave us a tiny discreption, of a huge rapid, Winter Green. Drew then instantly peeled out of the eddy, Garth hollered at Drew "I'm right on you", in turn I hollered at Garth that "I'm on you". All three of us where within 30 feet of each other at the lip. As I slid off the lip down the 20 or so foot drop into an explosion of water I quickly cleared my eyes to see a huge horizon line that just domed over. All I could do was smile.

Winter Green Chad Pickens


Winter Green Chad Pickens


Winter Green Billy Jones

We got to the bottom within seconds of each other and a bunch of hooting and hollering ensued. We then turned our attention, and cameras towards the rest of the crew everyone looked pretty good for such a big drop. Billy even came down the second half with only one hand on his paddle, we all thought he was showing off. Turns out Billy hit something in the landing zone of the first drop and really hurt his ribs, he was holding his ribs all the way down the second slide. We reconvened at the bottom of Winter Green. Billy was going to hike out with Garth, and the rest of us where going to boogie down to the take out.

We cruised to the take out, threw blind corners sticky holes and lots of wood. Once there the second half of the adventure begins a 4 mile hike out, it sucked.

All said in done Toxaway is the shit. The slides are huge and dangerous, the portages are nasty, and even with an incredibly strong crew this is an all day affair. Especially with that ridiculously long hike out.


Toxaway from 7 Finger media on Vimeo.

check out some video from Gareth Tate

Another adventure brought to you by Chris Baer



Stay tuned, Nov 10th I leave to Peru, Chili, and Argentina for 4 months it's about to get epic.

 China,

lol, I got a call from Ron Burke a couple months ago asking me if I wanted to go to China for a raft race. "sure.... what's the details" well the details were very slim. With a week and a half before the competition I bought two tickets to Chengdu, China. We filled our visa papers last minute, and the day of before our departure I received a phone call saying that the visas will not go threw in time. So we decide to do what any good raft guide would and wing it. We headed to denver and got to the ticket desk and the ticketing agent wants to see our visas, we don't have. She books us just to L.A. and tells us it will be up to the next ticketing agent if we can continue, so we wing it. When we arrive in L.A. we get the official shut down, "they will send you straight back to the states if you don't have a visa". So we spend the night in L.A. go to the Chinese consulate early in the morning expedite the process and have our visas in hand by 2 p.m.. We head back to the air port catch the flight, and 12 hours latter land in beijing. Ron finding the Chinese equivalent of red bull Immediately hop on another flight and get to Chengdu. Ron getting off the plane in Chengdu Ron and I had almost no expectations of the event and staff, and were given an amazingly warm welcome. They picked us up at the air port took us out to an extravagant lunch, drop us off at our plush hotel, (located just into the hills surrounding Dujiangyan). Our palace of a hotel We were really hoping to be able to practice on the course, but practice was concluded that morning and we were to hop on a bus for some sight seeing. We were taken to the birth place of religion or at least that is what the sign said, all in all it was a beautiful area tucked right in the side of the mountains. That night we had dinner, and I passed out after 3-days of traveling. The next morning we ate breakfast hoped on the bus and headed to the race venue. When we arrived we started to get the feeling this was going to be a big thing. A huge stage tons of people milling around and 5 star treatment. We went down got a quick glimpse of the river and got dressed. The opening ceremony, wow, we had a few thousand pictures taken of us, there was cute girls with signs depicting each country the racers where from, there was a speech by the mayer, fireworks, canons, more photos, a gymnast act, a dance act, and all this was to start our little raft race. We jumped back in the bus, 5 teams from other countries the Netherlands, Australia, Check Republic, Great Britain, and Ron and I representing the USA. There was also 6 teams representing different club groups in China. When we got to the put all the silly stories the other teams were saying came true. The rafts themselves were 8 foot long with tiny diameter tubes, no thwarts, tiny bailing holes, and no way to stay in the boat for that matter. The boats where designed to sit in the middle, on the pads that where attached to the floor and holding onto the handles on the top of the out side tube. It looked as if we where going to race in Wal Mart boats. The river itself was very odd it had been seriously altered. A damn above and below where we were to raft and the hole river basin looked like it had been dredged again and again. The rapids where simply really step gravel bars, that where definitely changing as we spoke. There were signs along the way that read (sit down and hold the handles) super funny. Ron and I jammed ourselves nearly shoulder to shoulder in the boat instantly took on two inches of water and started the race never seeing the course before. We where doing well for a while but managed to slide into a rocky shelf and Ron flopped out of the boat into three inches of water. Ron pushed himself off the bottom and back in the raft, and we took back off down threw some fun little rapids that actually felt rather large do to the fact we where in such a tiny goofy boat. The boat was easy to turn and even easier to fill to the brim with water that took minutes to slowly drain out threw the tinny drain holes. We paddled hard, and when we got to the finnish line there was a 1000 people cheering for us. We had a proper huge awards ceremony. The international table Then back on the bus into town for some sight seeing and to get some very traditional food. When we arrived at dinner we were told there was going to be a beer contest, being a bunch of rafters there was little hesitation on agreeing. The part we didn't see coming is that the Chinese don't really drink beer they take shots of it. Big bottles were dolled out along with 3-oz glasses, fill the glass cheers the people around you and shoot the beer, then do it again and again and again. After the first 20 minutes most of the international teams were all starting to get drunk and then came the food, Our interpreter told us it was all the best parts. Pig tail, duck neck, intestine, liver, frog, Eal, and that was the stuff we could figure out. Sure am glad we had an endless supply of beer shots to get my inhibitions calmed. Chengdu, After the post race activities and a nasty hangover we headed to Chengdu a city of 13-million, (that is bigger then new york) and we stayed right down town. We had two days to travel, see the Pandas, drink beer, flirt with Chinese girls, get lost, and most importantly try not to eat any more pig tail. Shopping in Chengdu The Panda exhibit Down town Chengdu We took a peek in the paper the day after the race and found some articles, we weren't able to translate 24 hours latter back in Granite CO getting ready for another commercial trip.

Mexico Video Finally

So it has taken way to long to get the raw video, but now I have it and I pumped out a fun little video check it out.
You can all so go back in the blog to December and January to see the original write ups for each area and some cool pictures.





Check in soon for some Minnesota Kayaking
Chris Baer

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