North Fork Salmon and Clear Creekin

  I was frisbee golfing with Wes Schrekengost and some other friends when we got a phone call from Dan Menten asking if we wanted to go kayak for a couple days. This worked out perfect since I was hounding Wes to do this exact thing anyways.
  The next morning I met up with Wes at his house. We loaded up, picked up Dan and headed out towards Willowcreek. About 20 minutes into our drive, we finally decided where to go. We headed for the North Fork Salmon with many options on our plate for day 2. We got to the Salmon, dropped off the dog, beer and bike and headed for put in. We arrived to tiny purple moths exploding all around us at the put in, which was pretty rad. We geared up and put on lovin life! 

Making our way down North Fork Salmon

 

 Boofin

One of the bigger rapids

 Dan punching a hole halfway down

 Trying not to go for a ride

   The North Fork Salmon treated us well. We knew we were going to stay in the area so we decided to camp out near Nordheimer campground.

   The next day we decided on Clear Creek, a tributary of the Klamath. Dan was positive that it would be perfect flows. Well, this was my first time doing the run, but I'm pretty sure he was right.

 Stoked to be at put in. Wes almost made it, but the timer decided to make him look like bigfoot instead.

 Second rapid of the run.

 Dan making sure to not go left. Ugly over there!

 We didn't actually know any of the names besides the portage and the bigger one near the bottom.

Dan decided to call this one Snake Pit since he saw a snake crossing the river at the top.

 Yep, that is a really really ugly piton rock. I walked this one. If you know me, you know

I usually don't have great luck with pitons.

  Clear creek is amazing. Lots of quality whitewater in a short 4 miles. Amazing scenery also! After a couple hours we finally made it to the mando portage. 

Ben Stookesberry's wet dream. Apparently Dan's too.

  The portage is quick and easy. Once finished with the quick walk above some nasty undercuts, you are rewarded with a fun little seal launch!

Weeeeee

  After the portage, there are a couple fun rapids and the mandatory rapid. I believe it is called Copperhead? It consisted of 3 moves. Work your way from center to left, missing some bad looking rock. Stay center left for sweet boof. Move hard right and punch/boof big hole. The rapid went well for all of us. Wes had a quick little hole ride. I almost made it through with a dry head, but ended up doin a little head rudder myself to guarentee my escape. Takeout quickly approached, we hung out for a bit at takeout, before Dan the man ran shuttle. While Dan was shuttling away we made our way down the last couple miles of the run, which consisted of some fun class II and some amazing scenery! 

  All in all it was a sweet little trip with some good friends. North Fork Salmon is a really great run, but Clear Creek is outstanding and I would highly recommend this run to anyone in the area!

All photo's courtesy of Wes Schrekengost

-Jon

 

Did a lil video work from Chile

Here is another vid, lil longer this time. Ill get a real post up soon, i promise!


Chile Trip pt. 1 from Jonathan Hyland on Vimeo.

Weez be camping

  Gonna be in the styx, so here is a little teaser!

Chile Teaser from Jonathan Hyland on Vimeo.

Crazy Times and the Claro

  Its been a bit since I last updated. Since last time we've added our final member to the crew and been to two amazing rivers! On the way to Santiago to pick JR up, Chris, Julian and I stopped by the Rio Claro to have some nice waterfall time. We arrived and started hiking down the river in search of the legendary Twirlybird. After hiking around for a bit, we started to get pretty sick of getting scratched up and battered. We had a group meeting and decided to get a little kayaking on the Siete Taza section and do a little brainstorming before we drop into the extremely committing gorge.
  We were wondering where all the kayakers were in this wonderful waterfall paradise right about the time we got to put in and ran into some River Gypsies! We talked with Leiland, Andrea and Jeff for a bit and decided we would head in together. Julian, Chris and I suited up as fast as we could and started to head for the river. Some Germans started heading out just before us, so we tried to stay hot on their trail. After some wrong turns we finally found the steep trail down to the river and had a quick breather to let the Germans finish roping and to set our system up. While we were waiting I spotted this lil guy.

  The first of 4 we saw on the trip!

  We were able to rope down relatively fast, which brought us to the first teacup and the first awesome drop!

This wasn't the same day, but it is Keegan browning the first drop of the Siete Taza!

  This section was really fun, but a bit of a mission with roping boats down. I ended up running it a couple of times during our week at the Claro.

Me set to plug the last drop on the Siete Tazas. Photo Leiland of River Gypsies

  After running the Siete, the group decided to head to the Viente Dos section. Unfortunately I don't have any good pics of this section, but it was insane and amazing. Probably one of my top tens for sure. It was ALMOST as good as the middle section! We heard a lot of things going into the middle, so we were a little hesitant. Turned out to be totally amazing at our level! The first couple of rapids were pretty fun. We quickly got to the goods and started to really love life!

Coming off the first double drop. Photo Alex

JR and Alex laying the synchronized treats! Photo Jon Combs

Boofing one of the last drops before the bird! Photo Jon

JR givin her. Photo Jon

  After many great rapids, we finally got to the no return point. THE SWEET AUTOBOOF!

Keegan wave wheeling the beast. Photo Alex

  Once above the twirlybird we waited a bit for Devyn to show up with the video cam up top. He ended up getting turned around at the gate and hanging out at takeout. We did the best we could to set up photo.

Chris Shehab dropping into the super committing gorge. Photo Jon

Chris dropping in. Photo Jon

Me in the guts, with the pals Chris and JR down below. Photo Jon

Keegan and Alex just below the amazing drop. Photo Jon

  The drop went smooth for everyone, just some hard hits at the bottom. Once you've dropped in, you're in an insanely tight and committing gorge. Fun stuff though!

JR in busy water after the first rapid in the gorge. Photo Jon

Jon lovin it. Photo Jon

Keegan browning in the gorge. Photo Alex

Me dropping into the scary ass slide just big enough for a boat! Photo Alex

JR droppin in. Photo Alex

Chris Tulley in it! Photo Alex

   After the super slide, the gorge started to open up a lil bit (meaning it was more than 3 feet wide) and there were lots more fun tight rapids!

Me entering a fun lil one with a NASTY undercut on river left. Photo Alex

JR having fun as the gorge starts to open up. Photo Alex

  Shortly after the gorge opened up we got to takeout and to the booz!

JR slicing lemons as the boys get her started with Chile's favorite drink. Pisco! Photo Alex

  This run was amazing with a capitol "A"! We only had a little carnage, which happened on the slide when Jon's paddle front hit the wall and sliced open his hand. Other than that, it was all good times and good lines by all!

  Merry Christmas all!

-Jon

Oh Navatos, how I love thee

  So wow. Navatos is CRAZY awesome. When we were heading to the put in, honestly I was a bit nervous. This is easily the best run I have done yet. The first rapid is an epic slide and then it just keeps going.

Chris checking out the California slide.

  This rapid was awesome. A little over halfway down there is a massive kicker that gets you airborn. You shall see in the upcoming video. Shortly after we got to a 5 meter drop that lands very close to a wall. Thus, Wallfall!

Kyle lighting her up.

  There was a nice little gorge after this drop and then we got the so called mandatory.

Checking out the amazing drop.

Jake firing her up.

  The drop was pretty easy and really really fun. Soon after was a sweet autoboof and after that the Hairy Farry. No pics but lots of fun.

The runout of the Hairy Farry rapid

  There was a stupid little double undercut rapid that many ran, but I was already out of my boat and decided against it. Just didn't look fun.

 Approaching the end of the run we were told there was one more super fun rapid. This thing was crazy! Soooo awesome.

In the center of the gorge. Keegan, Julian and I enjoying life!

  The gorge consisted of a sweet 15 footer into a nice big boof and then some sweet runout. This is an amazing river that I strongly recommend to anyone that has a chance to run it. Till next time!

-Jon

 

Love on the Middle Palguin

  After waiting for levels on the 70 footer to go down, we were stoked to go fire it off. We went up and scouted, everything looking nice, then I realized I forgot my drysuit! After much disappointment the boys decided to go to the upper. When we arrived amidst a thunder storm, we saw the river was murky brown from some flooding upstream! This disheartened many in the group including myself, so we hung out at the stout below waiting for the boys to show up. Once they were finished Ian offered to let me borrow his drysuit for the big boy. I accepted and we headed back down to fire it up. Upon arrival we found the falls murky brown and the nasty boil in the entrance back. This saddened everyone greatly, but we didn't feel like hiking our boats up and decided to give her.

  Kyle decided to give her first. He had a pretty sick line and was stoked at the bottom!

Kyle paddling through the powerful surges.

  Jackson went next and had his skirt implode. Then Alex followed with a good line getting kicked out a bit. I went next not wanting to play clean up and had a sweet line.

Styling the line and loving life! On my last stroke before the tuck.

Rolling up and catching my breath after going super deep!

Chris had an interesting line that ill post at a later date. All in all it was a good day with mostly good lines!

-Jon

Some fun on the Machin / Desague and camping on the Llancahue

   We've been having fun down here! With the rain cleared up we have been trying to get on some different rivers. We were convinced by our new friends to get down to the Machin for some Giant Gap esque style boating!

Getting ready at takeout. I forgot my shorts!

  I realized about halfway there that I forgot my swim trunks, so I decided I'd just have have to suck it up and boat in my boxers! I was told I was gonna be cold, but it turned out fine.

Julian and I watching Shehab make his way down the crux rapid.

  The Machin was really fun and incredibly beautiful! The lighting was a little rough in there so I don't have to many more photos. Props to Ian for making due though!

  Once we were done with the Machin we were still hungry for more boating! We decided to go to the park and huck Ojos de Desague. Chris and I being there once before, we quickly showed the rest the lines and set safety. The lighting here was equally bad if not worse than the machin, but once again Ian makes due!

It's kinda hard to see me, but I'm in the background just entering the water.

This is probably one of the best park and hucks I have ever been to. It's super clean and big everywhere!

Tulley lining up the left side of the falls!

Me at the lip of the right side. You can see a bit of the sketch wood at the bottom.

 

  All and all life is good down here in Chile! Thanks Ian for the photos!

-Jon