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......

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.

Mexico part 2: The Rio Verde....not the green.

Dropping off the 3rd waterfall with the other 2 in view (the 45 ft. is in the back)

After some good runs down the Micos and El Salto the group was itching for something harder. Aaron Koch and I talked it over and after getting some beta from our buddy Rocky we decided to go check out the 1st canyon of the Rio Verde.  This is not the Green that you hear so much about, but it is still some quality whitewater.  The group again consisted of: Chris Baer, John McConville, Aaron Koch, Fil Payne, and myself.

Only a few hours from Ciudad Valles and we were on the dirt road heading for the put in.  when we got to where we thought it would be we couldn't see any way down to the river.  So we drove back out to a farmer we saw working in the field and sent Aaron to get directions from him.  I guess the guy decided he would just show us the put in, so he with an orange in one hand and a gun in the other hand the farmer got in Aaron's Jeep and back we off we went to find the river.

Top of the 45ish footer

We knew that there were several waterfalls on this run, one around 40-50 feet, one 120ish footer, and several smaller ones.  So after running shuttle we put on and after a few small rapids we came to the first big horizon line.  This one looked to be 40-50 feet from the top, but a good landing and take off.  So Chris, John, Fil, and I played several rounds of paper, rock, 
scissors for who got to go first.  Chris won and fired off it with a good line.  I went next and although it was not the best looking line it worked out well for me.  Last, John gave her a go with another good line.

John McConville with style on the 45ish footer

Chris Baer making it look easy

The next drop looked to be about 20 feet, but there unlike the first one there was a cool class III lead in that made it fun, and then you could boof the s#!t out of it.

Hitting my boof on the 20ish footer

Aaron Koch getting ready to fly over the 20ish footer

Again there was a short pool before the next waterfall.  This one looked to be about 15 feet and there were other possible lines to the left and right depending on water levels.

John McConville on the 20ish footer

The center line on the 15is footer

After the 15 footer there was another 10 foot waterfall and a few rapids before we got to another big horizon line.  This waterfall was massive.  We guessed about 100-120 feet and at the water level we had it didn't look very runnable.  So Aaron and I hiked river right through cactus and then down a steep and narrow trail with barbed wire fence as a handle.  Then the rest of the crew lowered boats to us and hiked on around.

The trail around the 120 footer

Lower boats down the 120 footer. Notice the orange boat being lowered, 

and you can even see John and Chris standing on top of the rock.

Once all the boats were down Aaron and I got in and started to paddle downstream to check out the next rapid.  This one looked familiar from photos our friend Rocky had sent us. We decided to call it the "atomic elbow crusher" for various reasons.  We had heard that one of the paddlers of Rocky's group had dislocated his shoulder here.  It was a chunky lead in into a narrow slot with a big hole.  After looking at it for awhile Chris fired it up first and I wasn't far behind him.  Both of us got some downtime, but I won the award that day for longest down time.

Getting some downtime at "Atomic Elbow Crusher," notice my paddle blade

We knew the rapids would start to mellow out after the elbow crusher, but there was one last good rapid before a 45+ minute paddle out.  When we got to the take out it was dark and out shuttle bunny Marjie was sitting on the river bank hanging out with some locals.  We grabbed some take out beers and started driving back to Ciudad Valles, but we did stop for some tacos al pastor (al pastor is kinda like thick bacon, thus it is the meat candy of Mexico).

Fil Payne boofing the last real rapid on the 1st canyon of the Rio Verde

Mexico!...part 1

So I know this is a little overdue, but better late than never right?

Lance Reif running Big Boy on the Cascadas Micos

What do kayakers do in the winter?  Some of us head to the ski slopes, some travel for more whitewater, but I wanted both.  So me, John McConville, and Chris Baer met up in Brownsville, Texas and crossed the boarder into Mexico for a month of paddling before I head to Tahoe for the winter.  Getting across the boarder was simple, we payed car registration and insurance and that was it.  We then drove about 7 hours to Ciudad Valles where my friends Aaron Koch and Marjie Young spend their winters working and playing for Adventura Huasteca.

Chris Baer making it look easy on Big Boy

On our first day Aaron and his friend Phil took us to the Cascadas Micos for some class III-IV waterfalls.  All the waterfalls have nice rolling lips formed by travertine rock.  Travertine is kinda like sandpaper.  It is really sticky but also quite soft, but it does make for some interesting features.  Only place I have ever been where you can walk back up the same waterfall that you just went over.

El Torro, the typical put-in for the Cascadas Micos

  The typical put-in for this run is at the base of a 70ish foot waterfall known as "El Torro."  We scouted it and all decided to stick with the normal put in.  It was a fun day of running drops forwards and backwards since there is not much consequence on this run.  

enjoying a stress free first day in Mexico

The hardest rapid on the section is "bad boy," which has a twisting slide lead in which if you bust over one of the waves it sends you into a big angled boof with potential for beat down.

Running the left side at Bad Boy

On day 2 of our trip we all headed to the El Salto for some more fun on travertine.  This run was similar to the micos but with more technical drops.  It is the same river as the micos, just further upstream.  The take out drop, El Mecca, has been run by a handful of boaters and it has tooled a few.

John McConville checking out El Mecca

Running the 20ish footer on the El Salto

John on the 2oish footer 

The last real rapid before El Mecca has a 15 ft. waterfall on the right of this nice line down the left, but just when I thought I nailed the line I got reminded how sticky this travertine is.  I stuck to the last "rock" to get around and fell off of it sideways and threw some cartwheels in my Everest before I paddled out.  I wasn't too worried about any danger, I could hear everyone laughing and cheering me on.

About to rodeo my creekboat

On day 3 we hopped on with Adventura Huasteca for a trip down the Tampaon, one of their commercial rafting runs.  The Tampaon is a beautiful river at the bottom of a deep canyon.  The trip was pretty entertaining for me to see what it would be like to raft guide in Mexico.  Marjie guided one of the rafts while Aaron took photos for the trip and the rest of us enjoyed some big waves and great views.

The crew enjoying the 5th canyon of the Santa Maria, aka the Tampaon

Day 4.  Chris, John, Aaron, Phil, and myself loaded into my Saturn (which we now named Linda) and headed off for the Rio Ojo Frio.  After asking for directions a few times we found the put in and decided to put on and worry about getting back to the car after the run.  The river was pretty similar to the El Salto, being that it was also travertine.  It was much lower volume than the things we had run so far and the trees overhang most of the run.  When we finished the run Aaron and I hitchhiked back to Linda pretty easily.  When we got back to the others they had got some great pictures of a man passed out on a gravel road.  Classic Mexican photography. 

Mexican Siesta!

Stay tuned...more to come!