Money Drop

Lance Reif

Boofing the Money Drop (not recommended)

Photo by Joanne Gallagher

January 11th, 2010....It seems so strange that we are now in 2010! According to movies growing up there should be cars that fly, skateboards without wheels, and how come no one is wearing neon colors?  Oh, wait, neon is coming back in...alright, enough of the ramble.  On that fine Monday myself, Trevor Sheehan, Scott Baker, and Dan Laham loaded our boats up and talked our friends John Coles and Joanne Gallagher into jumping in the cars with us and heading to Stevenson Washington.

Dan Laham

Photo by Lance Reif

Our destination for this trip was to head to Rock Creek, specifically the Money Drop.  The four of us had paddled an upper stretch of Rock Creek the week before with some other Hood River locals, but didn't get a chance to check out the big drop known as the Money Drop, so we were fired up to check it out.

Scott Baker

Photo by Joanne Gallagher

This area of Rock creek is obviously a big flood deposit.  The whole area surrounding the falls is a mixture of rounded river rocks and dirt.  This waterfall has fallen in several times, and even while we were there you could see the hill sides crumbling away.  The feeling of this place is pretty strange, and the waterfall itself looks pretty interesting.  

Trevor and Scott Scouting 

Photo by Lance Reif

The lead in to this big drop is pretty shallow and sloping, thus you come to the lip at a pretty high speed.  I personally found out at this speed it isn't necessary to take much, or any stroke, but more on that in a bit.

Dan decided to fire it up first.  I was down river with a rope and camera, so I was not able to see his lead in, but he came hauling off the lip of the drop and ended up breaking his paddle.  The impact of his boat and the water was pretty loud, and he ended up self rescuing himself to the shore in one piece (well...the paddle wasn't in one piece anymore, but you know what I mean!)

Trevor Sheehan

Photo by Lance Reif

Trevor went second and had a great looking line.  Plugged in at the bottom and resurfaced upside down a second or two later and immediately rolled up pumping his fist.  I went next with a not so ideal line.  I am still trying to figure out the waterfall thing and am working on trying to not over pitch.  So I tried to hold a blade in the water at the lip to keep myself from landing on my head, but with the speed I had headed to the lip I don't think it was necessary.  I ended up landing pretty flat and taking a pretty big hit, but not so bad for 50 or so feet.

Trevor about to plug

photo by Lance Reif

Scott went last and did a barrel roll but entered the water with a nice angle.  Being a perfectionist I was pissed that I blew my line and decided I couldn't take much of a harder hit than the first time so I hiked back up to run it again.  Turns out people were trying to get me to stop so they could set up for video and photo, but I missed any signals and headed to the lip hauling ass.  For the first time I decided my paddle wasn't needed anymore, so at the lip I hucked it with both hands into the air, hugged my boat and tucked up.  I had a much softer impact at the bottom but still ended up blowing my skirt.  Luckily I surfaced upright and didn't have to attempt any hand rolls.  Unfortunately no one got any photos of my 2nd lap and the video barely caught it.  

Well, a few days later and I have to say my back is pretty sore, but hey, you don't get to carnegie hall without practice!

Video coming soon!

Cheers,

Lance

British Columbia!

Looking into the Box of the Ashlu

photo by Lance Reif

This fall I was able to finally head north of the border and experience some of the amazing rivers that BC has to offer.  After working a weekend guiding on the Tieton river I headed north to meet up with Michael Shields and LJ Groth at the Ashlu drainage.  The previous week some of our buddies had been getting on Tatlow creek but unfortunately levels had come down so we got to paddle some other classics in the area.

 LJ Groth in the Mine section of the Ashlu

photo by Lance Reif

I arrived at the Ashlu drainage at about 4 AM after getting lost in Vancouver for a while.  With the rain coming down, I drove up the dark canyon of the Ashlu river outside of Squamish.  The brown star (aka Michael's car) was parked where they said they would be, but being about 4 AM there was no sign of the other guys, so I just decided to sleep in my car.  LJ and Michael woke me up when the light was entering the canyon.  After cooking up some food we started to scout the Box section of the Ashlu.  It is a pretty committing stretch of whitewater.  As the name suggests, the canyon boxes up and opportunities to walk off the river are limited.

Michael Shields at the 30 footer on Callaghan Creek

photo by Lance Reif

The put-in rapid on the Box is called 50/50.  Its a 30-40 foot stout drop that the 3 of us decided to put in below.  So we climbed out way down to the river and committed ourselves to this magnificent gorge.  The first rapid we ran felt a lot bigger than it looked from the rim of the gorge 100 or so feet up, but lines were good.  After several more big rapids the three of us began talking about how big it felt.  We were only about 5 rapids in and we came to a point where we could hike out.  We scouted the next rapid and after some talking we decided that flows were pretty high and we should hike out and come back another time.  Michael was the only one in the group who had been on this stretch and remembered hiking off last time with some locals and he thought the flow was lower than what we currently had.  So off into the jungle of BC we headed.  

Lance Reif on Callaghan creek

photo by LJ Groth

We all felt good about our decision to hike off the Box, but without beta on the other stretches of the Ashlu we headed into Squamish to find an internet cafe and find some other rivers to run.  Michael and LJ called some friends and with the help of the internet we were able to get beta on Callaghan creek, the Cheakamus river, and the Mine section of the Ashlu.  So the next few days we were able to get on these classic runs.

Callaghan creek was awesome!  The flow we had seemed a little low, but all the good rapids went.  There is a sweet 10ish foot waterfall the is followed up by a nice rapid that leads into one of the best looking 30 foot drops you will ever see; super clean, into a nice pool.  LJ and Michael were scouting from the lip when I got there.  I asked them what the line was and they replied "do whatever you want."  This seemed strange to me with such a big looking horizon line, so I stepped out of my boat to take a look for myself.  They were right though, it looked good to go, so I got right back in my boat and fired off.  All three of us had great lines.  Michael and I dropped our bows into the pool while LJ decided to boof the crap out of it and stomp it down, making it look easy.

LJ Groth stomping the 30 footer on Callaghan creek

photo by Lance Reif

The Cheakamus river was super fun.  The road to the put in was pretty rough, so we were not able to drive all the way up it.  Having a bum knee, LJ decided to pass on hiking his boat up the road but Michael and I shouldered out boats to the put in.  The first rapid was a nice big 10ish foot boof and then from there to the takeout was continuous class IV+ whitewater.  I was having so much fun on this stretch, and just when I didn't think it could get any better a group of girls hiking alongside the river decided to drop trow and give us a full moon.  I pulled into the eddy formed by the rock they were on and thanked them for the beautiful view then pealed out and headed to the take out.  Quality stretch of whitewater and what a view.  Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos from this stretch, sorry.

 

Lance Reif

30 footer on Callaghan creek

photo by LJ Groth

We then returned to the Ashlu and were able to get on the Mine section.  We knew of 2 portages and that one of them kinda snuck up on you, luckily we got good beta from a friend of LJ and Michael's.  So we got around the first one easily, and then the 2nd one had 2 options.  Hike early and through the woods, or catch a must-make eddy right above the portage.  So we scouted the eddy from the rim of the gorge along the other portage trail.  It looked small, but not too hard of a move.  I volunteered to go first, mainly because I had no interest in hiking my boat through the BC jungle again.  I was able to catch a smaller eddy than we scouted from above and then hiked down to the next eddy and signaled them in.  The whole run was sweet, I got tooled a few times and swear that is the fastest I have ever moved downstream while upside down.

The dam on the Ashlu

photo by Lance Reif

Overall BC impressed me.  Quality runs, and tons of them.  Unfortunately the Ashlu river is in danger.  Currently they are working to dam it up and divert water through a tunnel carved in the mountain to create hydro power.  The project is nearly complete, so get up there to check out this amazing river.  In my opinion, the Ashlu is one of the most beautiful river canyons in the world.

For my parting shot I give you Spirit falls on the Little White.  This is in Washington, but it reminds me that although BC is sweet, the Gorge aint so bad!

Lance Reif

Spirit Falls, Little White Salmon

photo by Max Blackburn

Celestial Falls: another classic PNW park n'huck

committing myself

Photo by Scott Baker

Fall here in the Columbia river gorge was better than I had imagined.  I guess I expected that I would miss all of the colors of fall, but the Pacific Northwest didn't fail me.  The many orchards in the area were a variety of brilliant colors and to keep me occupied my staple run, the Truss, was in at a low, but good flow.

Big Brother in the Fall

photo by Scott Baker

Although I do love the Truss, I was itching to get out and run something else.  Unfortunately not much else was in, but we got a little bit of rain and the White river in Oregon came up a bit.  There isn't an epic whitewater stretch of the White river, but what it does have is a nice park n'huck 40ish footer, Celestial Falls.

Lance Reif

photo by Scott Baker

Celestial Falls is a state park, and it is technically illegal to run the falls, so just don't get caught!  So early Halloween morning myself, Scott Baker, and Dan Laham headed out of Hood River and towards this classic park n'huck.  

Scott Baker looking like he is about to boof it

photo by Lance Reif

fading it down

photo by Lance Reif

We knew the park ranger was there, luckily Scott and Dan scouted out other put in options the day before.  So we put in at an alternate spot and paddled downstream towards the falls.  There are two falls, the top one is about 80 feet or so and lands on rocks.  So we portaged the top drop, seal launched in above the 40 footer and each gave her a go.  

Dan Laham

photo by Lance Reif

Dan went first and had is paddle knocked out of his hands at the bottom and was able to hand roll up.  Scott fired it up next with a similar line.  I went last, tried to melt it but my stern got kicked and I ended up with a not so perfect line, but no harm no foul.

Now the rains have come!  The Gorge is full of things to do, but unfortunately I am out with a bad back for a few weeks.  So I am working on getting better so I can get back out on the water.

Until then......

Cispus river: Scary moments on The Upper Upper

Looking back upstream at the 1st rapid

photo by Lance Reif

The Upper Upper Cispus is a great run that is in late season.  Of Coarse when you live in the Hood you run the classic Little White and Truss all spring and into the summer, but when the flows get low head up through Trout Lake to 23 and in a little over an hour you are at the take out for this great run.  These photos and trip report are from several weeks ago, but I currently have TONS of free time, so here it is.

 1st rapid, Lance Reif

Unfortunately for me most of my paddling buddies had already been on this run, but I was going to get my chance.  So myself, Trevor Sheehan, and WV Garrett loaded up in Trevor's truck, through a bike in the back for shuttle and off we went.  With shuttle set we put on the river to see what the Upper Upper Cispus was all about, and it was going to be a personal first decent for all of us!

Behemoth and the rapid after

It might look small here, but Behemoth is about 30 feet tall

After about 100 yards or less of class II and you get the the 1st rapid.  It is a sloping/cascading 15ish foot drop.  It looked like it would be hard to style it, but it dropped into a small pool that had some wood issues for the exit.  Luckily a week or so prior to us getting in here, our buddy Drew Austell climbed out on one tree and cut off some branches to make the exit runnable, but by runnable, you have to duck hard while in the exit rapid.  So I decided to go first, had an alright line, but plugged in and resisted the stern squirt.  I quickly paddled over to river right where I got out to take photos of Garrett while Trevor remained holding a rope.

Garrett in the 1st drop

photo by Lance Reif

Garrett dropped in, plugged like me, but had this epic looking blast out of the water.  He then missed a few rolls while Trevor and I looked on as he floated upside down towards the rock garden with trees.  He ended up swimming around the corner from my view and while I was trying to get back in my boat Trevor let me know that he had gotten into an eddy.  Turns out Garrett dislocated his shoulder in the drop and that was why he was not able to roll.  

So we hiked him out of there  and back to the car, which luckily for us was really close.  Trevor and I decided to continue on and look for the lost kayak and Garrett would drive to the take out and meet us there, or atleast that is how we thought it would go...

Garrett launching out of the water upside down at the 1st rapid

photo by Lance Reif

Well the next few miles are supposed to contain various low volume rapids and lots of tree dodging.  Just around the corner form the 1st rapid was a nice sized log jam, and in it, floating upright, was the boat that Garrett had swam out of.  So I climbed around on the tree pile and was able to hook a rope to the boat and throw it to Trevor whom pulled the boat out.  We hiked up upstream a bit to the same spot we hike Garrett out at and decided we would come back for it once we finished out run. 

After some small rapids and tree dodging, we came up to a small rapid that had a tree in it.  It looked good to go but I had remembered my buddy Curt telling me about a tree that he just barely made it out, and I pulled into the eddy for a second look.  The eddy was small and as Trevor approached the eddy he looked and decided to go.  I watched him enter the rapid and was about to pull out of the eddy and follow when I saw him get rejected by the tree, roll, and then suck under it. 

I quickly headed to shore, looked back downstream to see his arm in the air moving, his bow pointing upstream from under the tree, and his head was underwater.  A lot of things started flying through my mind.  I tried throwing him a rope, which he was only a few feet from the bank, but that didn't work.  I tried hooking my rope to his bow and pulling, but i didn't give.  So while I was grabbing gear out of my boat to try something else I could see his hand signaling me.  So I ran back to him and in a last effort jumped on the tree he was pinned under and tried pulling him up to breath.  My body made an air pocket big enough for him and I to talk and I asked him what he wanted me to do.  In the end I was able to provide him with a big enough pocket of air that he could breath and rest in between going underwater and pulling himself out of his own boat.

When he got himself out he was no longer wearing his skirt.  Turns out it was pinned between the cockpit rim and tree even though I pulled it for him.  We were able to get the boat un-pinned and as I was putting the break down together realized my paddle was no longer by my boat.  somewhere in the craziness my paddle floated down stream.

Within a few minutes of hiking out river right we came to a road.  We followed the road downstream and found some friendly campers who offered us a ride back to our truck.  I did get back on the Cispus several more times this season, even found both of the lost paddles.

By far this was the scariest moment I have had on the river.  Guess it was just one of the days, maybe we weren't supposed to be on the river that day.  I did learn alot that day though.  I am glad I have the training that I do for situations like that.  If your going to boat class V make sure you have proper training, so be responsible, take a class if you need to.  It will help!

Ecuador Video

This is an older video from a few winters ago when I got to travel to Ecuador.  I just figured I would post it up here so people can check it out.  Cheers!

Ecuador: A Glimpse of Its Waters from Lance Reif on Vimeo.

Mexico Video

Finally, after nearly a year of being too lazy to take the time and put this together I have finished!  So here it is, a video from my Mexico trip last December....enjoy!

Mexico 2008: Veracruz & San Luis Potosi from Lance Reif on Vimeo.

Who needs a backyard run when you got one out the front door?

On line at the lip of Big Brother

photo by Curt Joyce

So some town boast about having great backyard runs.  Asheville, NC has the Green.  Boise, ID has the North Fork of the Payette.  Crested Butte, CO has Oh Be Joyful.  I can't say I have been on all of the backyard runs, but I am fortunate enough to have the Little White as a backyard run, and to be correct, the Green Truss is my front yard run. 

Falling at Big Brother

photo by Curt Joyce

I have to admit that it is pretty sweet to have 2 world  class runs in my area.  Both the Little White and the Truss have easy access for put-ins and take-outs, and both of them run for the majority of the year.  The Little White is a little far, but I usually put up with the 15 minute drive to be able to paddle such quality whitewater.  The Truss on the other hand is about a 5 minute drive to the put in and I take out at my house (tent to be exact).

Curt Joyce at Big Brother

photo by the author

So here are some photos from this season on the Truss.  Unfortunately I still have no photos from the Little White, but enjoy these.

Curt Joyce at the 2nd ledge of Bob's Falls

photo by the author

upright and on line at the bottom of Double Drop

photo by Curt Joyce

Drew Austell getting the salmon launch at Double Drop

photo by the author

Tyler "fast-lane" Houck at double drop

photo by Curt Joyce

Drew Austell dropping into Lower Zig Zag

photo by Curt Joyce

Drew Austell at Lower Zig Zag

photo by the author

Stay tuned for the next post...a lot has happened recently.........

Eagle Creek, round 2

Waiting to take my stroke

Skoonichuk falls, Eagle Creek OR

photo by Nicki lynch

So I know that I already posted some photos from Punchbowl falls on Eagle Creek, but a group of us headed back up there to check out some of the other drops.  The group this time included: Heather Herbeck, Tyler Houck, Curt Joyce, Ryan Copenhagen, and myself. 

Skoonichuk falls from below

photo by Curt Joyce

This time up Eagle Creek the group stopped off and hiked to the lip of Metlako falls to check out the 85 foot beast.  We scouted the lip and entrance for awhile and decided to keep on hiking past Punchbowl and up to Skoonichuk falls.

  

Curt Joyce below Skoonichuk falls

The group scouted out Skoonichuk for awhile before sitting down to rest after the 4 mile hike. The drop looked to be about 35-40 feet with a small pool then off another 10-15 feet.  We talked about the drop for a bit before returning back to check it out again.  After several more minutes of scouting we again stepped back to talk about it.  By this point our friend Nicki and her dog had caught up with us, and people were making their decision on whether or not they were going to give 'er a go.

Tyler Houck tucking up for the plug off Punchbowl

After scouting the drop and walking away to think about it several times I decided to gear up.  Ryan and Curt hiked their boats down to the pool below to set up safety while Tyler held rope from the top.  Nicki and Heather grabbed the cameras and when they gave me the signal I dropped in.

Ryan Copenhagen firing up Punchbowl

It felt like a long time to wait to take a stroke, but I hit it right when I wanted to and resurfaced upright and headed towards the second part of the drop.  I was so stoked to nail the big part that I kinda forgot about the second drop and managed to kinda fall off it and roll up in the pool below.

Tyler Houck boofing into the high bridge canyon

I was stoked to nail my line off Skoonichuk, I had looked at this falls last year and it had been on my mind for a while now.  The rest of the group put in below and we headed on downstream.  There are several cool rapids after Skoonichuk and then the high bridge gorge.  This is one of the most amazing places of the run.  The water in the gorge is flat and there are these huge trees all in one stack stuck in about a 10 foot wide 200 foot tall basalt gorge.

Curt Joyce about to tuck up off Punchbowl

After the gorge there are several other rapids, 2 tree portages, and then you arrive to Punchbowl falls.  We scouted it for about 2 minutes before Ryan decided he had seen enough.  Up to this point the biggest falls Ryan had been off of was about 18 feet, and Punchbowl is easily 30+ feet.  So, I ran up with him and we got in our boats.  I had been off of the drop twice earlier in the season so I offered to go first.  I didn't hit my plug like I had hoped, but I did have a soft landing so it went well.  Ryan then followed, threw his paddle and tucked up.  He kinda twisted off of it, but managed to re-submerge upright and celebrating. 

The crew in high bridge gorge

Tyler fired off next with the textbook tuck and plug.  Heather also had a sick line off of it.  I guess she wasn't going fast enough because she paddled the whole way down and tucked up just in time.  Curt was the last in the group to fire off.  He got the highest up on the boil and tucked up nice for the deep plug.

Heather Herbeck making it look easy

At the beginning of this trip I kinda told myself I would consider running Metlako if I hit all my lines, but I didn't stick Punchbowl like I wanted to so I decided to pass on the big one.  I guess I will just have to return to Eagle Creek next year....

Owyhee River, OR

This Spring I got a chance to take a trip down the poor man's Grand Canyon, otherwise known as the Owyhee.  I, along with 2 other guides from Wet Planet Whitewater took the alternative high school from Hood River down this scenic stretch of river for 4 days.  The first day was by far the worst wind  I have ever experienced on a river trip, but the trip overall was great.  This high school kids were awesome, they cooked all of the meals and helped out around camp.  We did manage to wrap a gear raft early on day 3, but luckily we didn't loose all of our food.  So here are just a few photos to check out and I promise I have more  updates on the way!

PNW classic: Punchbowl Falls

Tucking up to go deep on my 2nd run

photo by Susan Hollingsworth

photo editing by Nick Franchi

Punchbowl falls on Eagle Creek in Oregon has to be one of the most photogenic waterfalls in the world.  I hiked the trail beside the creek last year to check out all the falls and haven't been able to get it out of my mind since.  There are 2 more big drops on this creek that will have to be run at a later date, but for now 2 laps of punchbowl with a bunch of people was pretty fun.

Jesse Shimrock approaching the lip while WCKA students watch from above

The World Class Kayak Academy (WCKA) had been in the gorge for a few weeks taking classes and firing up the goods in the area, when I got word that they would be hiking up to punchbowl.  This sounded like a great opportunity to hike in to the drop since I would get to watch several people go off the falls instead of just a few.  Normally the park n' huck style of boating is not my first pick, but sometimes your just in the mood to hang out with a bunch of people and huck off a sweet waterfall.

My first time off this thing

photo by Susan Hollingsworth

So Drew Austell (aka Drewguy), Susan Hollingsworth (WCKA teacher), and I loaded gear into good 'ol Linda and drove on out to eagle creek to join the show.  Unfortunately for Susan, she was nursing an injury so she was just along for the ride and to take some photos.  

 Eric Parker sticking his line

Head coach and teacher, Jesse Shimrock was the first to run the falls this day.  Jesse made it look pretty easy in his new baby blue Biscuit, but ended up taking a hard hit on the nose.  Next up were a few of the WCKA students.  Each of them had different lines, but all fared well in the end.

Drew Austell boofing the $#it out of it

photo by Susan Hollingsworth

After taking some photos and watching several of the WCKA students go off the falls I Drew and I decided it was our turn.  I felt really good coming off the lip and tucked up at the end but slightly over-pitched and took a small hit.  Drew then followed and decided plugging was not his thing, so he fired off a huge boof and stomped it down at the end.

Drew Austell trying the plug on round 2

photo by Susan Hollingsworth

The WCKA only hiked up a few boats for the 13 students so Drew and I both offered up our boats to some of the students and again watched and took photos.  Both of the students in our boats stuck their lines, which was pretty sweet since neither of them had paddled those boats before.

Nate Garcia proving that he might be the youngest brother, but he can still fire it up

Once we got our boats back, Drew and I hiked up to run it again.  Drew went first this time and decided to try the plug, which he stuck.  My 2nd line went really well.  I took a slight stroke at the lip this time hoping I wouldn't over-pitch, and it worked!  I plugged in pretty deep and shot back out stern first and upright.  

In the end it was a great day.  We got to watch about 16 people go off Punchbowl, and some ran it more than once.  There were many different lines, some landed on their heads, some on their sides, 2 paddles were broken, and no major injuries.  Watch out kayaking world, some of these WCKA students might be young, but they are solid.