Baptism Video

I should have posted this a long time ago, but got too busy with actually paddling to remember. Here's a video of the Baptism from Eckbeck campground to Illgen Falls. More to come soon!

Illgen Falls!!

Finally!  After about 5 years of trying I was finally able to get up to the Baptism River at a good level for a first run down 35’ Illgen Falls.   Illgen is the trademark feature of the Baptism and one of the highlights of Superior’s North Shore.

Standing at the top of the falls, you look out at tree tops straight ahead of you. Below, the curtain of the falls slams into the pool, pulverizing the water into foam. It’s exciting, inspiring, and scary as heck. 

We had 11 people in our group total, so we had split into two groups when we put on the river.  I arrived at the top of the falls with the second group just in time to see Anthony’s green helmet disappear over the edge.   Even though I knew from watching photos and videos of others running the falls that it was a prime level for a first attempt, it was still comforting to see Anthony paddling around the pool below, still in his boat.  With that, we knew that the game was on! 

Our group hung out at the top taking photos and standing safety with ropes while Todd, then Dylan both had great runs off falls.  James was up next and had a great start, but over rotated a bit and landed a little past vertical.  The impact pulled him out of his boat’s seat, but luckily didn’t pop his spray skirt off.  He had the presence of mind to try to re-seat himself while he was still upside down, which was definitely impressive. 

Next up was Aaron, who threw just enough of a boof stroke to give his boat some positive angle and managed to stay upright.  Kyle was up next and had a great run, though his boat twisted sideways in the air and he landed a bit more forcefully than he had hoped.  The impact blew his noseplugs off, but he took the high-power sinus flush and still managed to hit his roll. 

That just left me.  I had planned the run in my mind for years.  I knew exactly where I wanted to be, how I wanted to position my body, and where I wanted to land.  Naturally much of that went right out the window when I actually got out into the current, but I still managed to keep the run pretty close to the plan. 

Once I pulled out of the eddy, the nerves dropped into the background as I concentrated on finding the spot I wanted to hit on the lip of the falls.  It seemed like by the time I had spotted it and lined up, I was already going over the lip and spotting the landing.  At the last second I tucked tight and gripped my paddle as I hit the water. 

The plan was to go in nearly vertically and use the deep pool to slow me down, then bob back to the surface.  Even with that technique, though, I was amazed at how hard the water slaps you when you make contact.  It’s definitely something you notice! 

Another thing that was tough to miss was the big popping sensation I felt while the boat was under water.   The pressure of the water had squeezed my plastic boat, compressing the air inside it.  That pressure found its way out by popping the spray skirt that seals the boat and keeps the water out.  So, when I rolled up I got the unpleasant surprise of my boat being 1/2 filled with water.  Thankfully I was able to paddle it to shore that way, though, so it was all good! 

I’m super grateful to have had Joi, Nace, Amy, and Nora there catching all the action with photos and video.  It was an awesome day and I’m stoked about the footage.  Congrats to everybody who ran it!

 

Nora’s video of my run

Baptism!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything! It was an amazing summer, with too much going on to even bother trying to sum up. Of all the great things, though, the best was when my beautiful girlfriend of nearly 5 years and I said "I do" on a gorgeous fall day in October. When we get all the pics back, there will be a post, but for now, here's something that I do have some pics of:

The huge storms that rocked the entire state sent the Kettle River soaring to over 9,000 CFS and the North Shore creeks into flood. Luckily, the rain fell on a Tuesday, so by Saturday the Baptism gauge was lookin' good!

We spent the night in Two Harbors, then met Dan, Dave, Andy and for the run Saturday morning. Joi and her husband were nice enough to come along as drivers and photographers for us. The new gauge for the river said 12.7', which was supposed to correlate to 2.7' on the old gauge. That would be a nice, moderate level and keep the river at mostly manageable class IV run. More importantly, it would give me my first shot at running 35' Illgen falls.

We didn't have to get far down the river, however, to find out that the correlation is not very accurate. The river was definitely higher than 2.7, making everything bigger, faster, and pushier.

Confinement Canyon had some nice big waves and a big pourover towards the end of it that forced the boater to make a very quick S-turn to avoid getting sucked into the hole. It looked like a good boof would have allowed a kayak to fly right over the hole, but I was too rusty to give it a shot. That rapid went fine, though there was a scary moment when Dave got his leg caught in the rigging of OC-1 and was getting swirly-ed by an eddy. He made it out, though, and we continued on.

There was lots of class II-III boogey water until we made it to Kramer's choice, where the river is split around a car-sized rock in the middle. At this level, the flow funnels right into a very large wave/hole about 5 feet upstream from the rock. With the water moving extremely fast and so little room to maneuver, we decided to walk it.

Just downstream was Gustafson Falls, where the river falls over several big rocks into a hole in the middle. We hiked down and took a look, then Dan gave it a go in his canoe. He had a great line right down a tongue through the rocks, then his OC-1 floated over the hole like it was no big deal. It was pretty fun to watch. There was a kayak line along the river left, but nobody was feeling ambitious enough to bring down the boat and give it a shot. In hindsight, I would have liked to have run it, but at the time it seemed smarter to move on downstream.

After more class II-III, we came to Illgen Falls. It was a beautiful, thundering sight to behold. At that level, the entire pool is filled with the boiling, churning outwash. The force of the water looked strong enough to just about rip a boater in half if they wound up in the curtain. Since none of us had ever run it before, we decided it was a bit crazy to try at this level. I've since heard that the super-aerated boils make the drop boof-able at that level, but that's a big chance to take for a first try. I definitely want to run it, but I'm willing to wait for a level that I can tuck and huck.

After seeing the river level, we decided that the lower sections would be lots of portaging for very little paddling and so we called it a day. Despite the short day, it was a really great experience. The scenery was gorgeous, I got to put the boat on a new river, and I got to paddle with a great group of friends. I had a smile on my face all the way home.