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

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......