We scouted in the morning and with everyone feeling a little nervous we decided to head down to the town of Phillips to check out some other drops that Mark and I had scouted at super low water in the fall. The drop in town was pretty constricted compared to the rest of the river, had a lot of volume, and a river wide hole shoving water into 1, a slot full of wood, 2, a large undercut boulder in the river center, and 3, and pretty manky hole on river right. None of us were stoked about the options, and after a couple minutes we loaded back up and took our chances with the waterfalls.
Mark and Dane set safety on a ledge below the first fall, even though we all kind of agreed that they couldnt do much from there except get a good view of some carnage. Dan M, Alex and myself made small talk about who would run first, and with no one stepping up I figured what the hell. Someone has to go first, and it really isnt THAT different than going second or third.
I dropped into the eddy above the first fall, saw my line and peeled out. It was nice to stop thinking about what I was going to do, and actually do it. I saw the rock gaurding the falls, brushed by it with my left edge, and threw in a hard left stroke as I went over the lip. The landing was soft and before I knew it I was looking for the next horizon line. I re-grouped with a hand on the river right wall, peeled back into the current and headed for the second drop. The 10-12ft fall normally required a boof to the left to avoid a large rock outcropping on river right just downstream, but the low water exposed some rocks on the river left and we all agreed to boof towards the center. I paddled hard to the left, turned downstream and boofed, just missing the rock wall to the river right (just like I meant to...right!). The last drop was a small slide/fall into a little hole that was over before I knew it. Needless to say I was very excited at the bottom and let out of a few yelps to no one but myself!
Dan M and Alex had some interesting lines, and both came out okay. Lets just say some clutch, last second rolls were made and Alex threw in the high brace of a lifetime (mere mortals would have dislocated a shoulder on this one, but not Alex). Both were psyched and ready to take another crack at it. Unfortunately Dane had to catch a boat to Vinylhaven for work and we all had to boogie out of there. Mark and Dane both opted to wait for the next time, and we loaded up and headed out.
This was a pretty sweet find, given that is only about 2.5 hours from door to door, and it looks like there was a lot of snow left in the area. I bet we will be back for another sunny day at smalls falls soon.
This is the only picture we took of the day, Dan(blue boat) and myself getting ready to run the quick slide at the top.
I am trying to figure out how to post videos, so here are some links --some might work and some might not. The files are all pretty large (like 40 megs) so I have a feeling it will take a WHILE for anything to actually download. I would say try to right click and save the file, and then come back in like 20 minutes. Soon I'll have this all figured out!
Happy Paddling
Dan
DanA Runs one of the smaller upper drops, that could use a little bit of water.
http://photos.imageevent.com/aquaticevolution/video/MOV01781.MPG
DanA makes a clean line through the falls.
http://photos.imageevent.com/aquaticevolution/video/MOV01783.MPG
DanM just makes it down the falls!
http://photos.imageevent.com/aquaticevolution/video/MOV01784.MPG
And Alex had what would have been the line of the day, except for the self-induced flip.
http://photos.imageevent.com/aquaticevolution/video/MOV01788.MPG
