YouTube!

Since I won't be doing much paddling until after the bar, I figured I'd have to go through the archives to find some cool blog stuff. I remembered that I have a bunch of little clips from kayaking trips, so I decided to open a youtube account. Over the next week or so I'll be posting a whole bunch of cool stuff. For now, I've got footage of me, Nate and Dennis running Big Smokey falls. I've got lots more footage of other people doing other things that I'll post in the next few days. Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/user/faceplant010

Lake Superior Scuba

On Sunday Zach, Sam, Adam, Jason and I all went up to the North Shore to dive the shipwreck Madeira. The madeira was an old or freighter that went down after crashing into the cliff below split-rock lighthouse (thus inspiring the state to install the lighthouse). The wreck is now in two sections. The bow is standing in 40-50 feet of water pointing vertically toward the surface. It sits right at the base of the slope of boulders that have tumbled off the cliff. 110' farther offshore sits the wheelhouse and part of the midsection of the ship. This section of the wreck starts in 60' of water and slopes down to nearly 100'. The dive would be simple, except that the water temp is in the 30's and you have to snorkel about 100 yards from shore to get there.

On our first dive, we split into two groups. Zach and I went to the bow while Sam, Adam, and Jason went for the Wheelhouse. Zach and I had a good dive, making a complete circle around the bow and checking it out thoroughly. When we had finished poking around, we headed back towards the beach. We were slowly rising with the bottom contours when my BC decided to malfunction and wouldn't release any air. As a result, I found myself floating towards the surface against my will. I wound up making a semi-bouyant ascent but nothing bad came from it.

Meanwhile, the other guys were fighting their own bad luck out on the other section. First, Adam had problems equalizing his ears and didn't get past 30'. Then, Sam's regulator froze and began to free flow shortly after he made it to the wreck. Jason was still on his way down and surfaced with Sam.

We made a second attempt to see the wreck, but between underwater navigation issues and another free flow, it wasn't much more successful than the first. Zach and I logged about 25 minutes of bottom time from the day, Sam and Jason logged a whopping 16 minutes, and Adam was somewhere in between.

In short, the day was fun and interesting, but luck was definitely not on our side. I guess the Madeira just wasn't in the mood for visitors that day.

Big thanks to Zach for the pics, especially since my camera met a wet and untimely demise.

Lovin' the Lower....

Yesterday Dennis, Dan, Aaron, Arthur, Andy, Swails, Dave, and Myself all ran the lower St. Louis. For most of us it was either the first time on that section or the first time to run the whole thing. We made a fast trip through the tongue, the 210 bridge, the ledges, Twisted Sister, and second Sister all without stopping to scout. All went well, with a bit of a heart stopper when Dan flipped upon entering Twisted Sister and ran it upside down. Much to everyone's relief, however, he rolled up in the eddy afterward not too much worse for the experience. To his credit, he just shook it off and continued downstream. We did get out at Octopus, which was looking even more gnarly than the last time I saw it. Swails and Andy both ran the beak twice and both spent their share of time upside down in it on each run. Swails took the cake, however, by getting the bow of his creek boat sucked down into a perfect ender, then doing a 1/4 rotation before flopping over forwards. I think Arthur got it on video, and it would be really cool to watch.

The Lower 1/2 of Octopus also had its share of drama with Dan getting hung up on the Rock above the last pitch, getting flipped, going over the slide upside down, rolling up and getting stuck in the hole at the bottom. While he was alternating between fighting to get out and rolling back up from repeated flips, Aaron came down (unaware that Dan was still in the hole), flipped in the same spot Dan did, ran the slide upside down, somehow managed to miss Dan being recirculated in the hole, and made it into the eddy where he was able to roll up. After a couple minutes in the hole, Dan made it out and we were on our way again.

The Swinging Bridge Drop was my favorite of the day. It starts with a 25' long, three foot wide chute that the river gets channeled into. It's a steep, splashy ride that's too narrow to use your paddle in. It was crazy fun to go through and spits you out into a hanging pool. To get out of the pool we took a seven foot high "slide" into a narrow eddy. The only problem was that at this level, the "slide" was a vertical falls with a sticky seam at the bottom. I didn't know this, so I went over the horizon line quite leisurely, only to go perfectly vertical into the seam, pop right back out the way I came, and wound up in a side surf with the bottom of my boat on the curtain of the falls. I was able to get out before anyone else came over the falls, but it was a nervous moment. I think Arthur also got that on video, and I'd give anything to see the look on my face.

We all made it over Snakebite without issue and took out at the swinging bridge. Andy, Swails, and Arthur went on to Finn Falls, but the rest of us called it a day. It was a really fun trip and I'm glad to say that I've finally run the lower louey!

The only problem was that I didn't get any pictures from the trip. The pics I have posted here I stole from Nora's blog from a trip she made a couple days prior, or from other places on the web. The paddlers are different, but the rapids are the same.

News... (and the lower Louey)

Well, this weekend is proving to be quite memorable. Today I will graduate from law school, which is something I really wasn't that sure would happen for a while. While it does feel great to have achieved that milestone, the fun is tempered by the bar review classes that start this week.

Second, today is the day that Laura is leaving to experience life outside the Midwest. She's been an awesome neighbor, a great friend, and even a good paddler! I failed to post about this, but Laura made a very successful descent of the upper St. Louis, proving how quickly a beginner can become a solid paddler. Laura - if you get to read this, thanks for making 998 such a fun place, and I wish you nothing but the best in CA.

Third, yesterday was my dad's 67th birthday. He's definitely the coolest old guy around. Happy Birthday, dad.

Last is the thing that probably makes the best blog material. I finally ran (part of) the Lower St. Louis. Dennis, Caleb, and I made the run from the tongue above the 210 bridge down through the Second Sister. The weather was freezing cold (cold enough that the water was steaming), but the paddling was awesome. Our plans to paddle with some Lower Louey veterans fell through when they were all shivering after having already spent several hours on it that morning. So, we got a couple of tips from Scotty (which we tried, but largely failed to, remember) and headed out on our own. The area above the 210 bridge was my favorite, with a variety of features that were all different and packed fairly close together. Our Creek boats (mine was rented) made pretty short work of them, however, and down we went. 210 was followed by a couple of splashy rapids that wouldn't require scouting, though we did look at the second one for fear it was Twisted Sister. We blew through those easily and were having a great time. We hit the first Sister and everybody had a slightly different line off the little rooster tail that forms. Caleb takes the cake, however, by landing in water that was so aerated that he just sunk right through it, completely submerging. He hit his line totally clean, then he just disappeared. Very cool to watch. Second Sister was, as Dennis put it, "God's own low head dam," making a very stick hole at the bottom. We chose a safe route, boofing over a small seam of a hole. Not sure, but I'm guessing that was the chicken route.

That was the end of our paddling, though I was seriously considering a line in Octopus. Warnings about hidden rocks and inability to get a view of the last hole helped me to decide to play it safe, but I would like to give it a try if I run it with someone who can give me some good info about it.

On the whole, it was a great day. Caleb and Dennis were total rock stars and not one of us got flipped throughout the run (exclusive of Caleb's submarine impersonation). It was a great time and finally getting on the Lower after looking at it for so long helps tick off one more memorable moment from this weekend.

Chameleon Weekend

This past weekend was long planned as a weekend for Kim and I to get away. Originally, we were going to head to the Black Hills and Badlands of SD. That fell through, so we decided to make a weekend in NE Minnesota, with one night camping on the North Shore. Thanks to the 30mph winds, chilly temps and scattered storms, that became one night at my cabin, followed by a day in Two Harbors and Duluth (I guess that make Three Harbors?). It was fun, though. We stopped by the Duluth IMAX and the Aquarium, both of which were well worth the admission. Sunday we were back in the cities and I convinced Kim to come fly the trainer kite at the park. She did really well in gusty 20mph winds and seemed to just be getting the hang of it when a gust yanked her off her feet and sent her flying super-man style into the dirt. She wound up a bit dirty, but otherwise OK. Hopefully my decision to take her out in hurricane winds won't scare her off for too long. The rest of the pics are just random things that we saw on the trip.

Famous!

Dan "Monkey Boy" Monskey is putting together some video on outdoor sports in MN, and WCCO TV decided they wanted in on the paddling segment. So Dan, Dennis, Graeme, Rich and I went down to the Verm to do some filming. Nora and Lanny were also there for the beginning, but left early due to other committments. Kim (paddling guy Kim, not my girlfriend Kim) met us late down at donut. While I'm sure that when the editing is finalized everyone but Dan will be little more than a blur in the background, we did our best to put on a show for the cameras. Dennis, Graeme, Rich, and I got in some great party surfing on Donut and we also ran the slide below the falls at the top. This time however, we were able to climb up the river right bank and get a good, full-length slide in right from the curtain of the falls. Really fun. Supposedly the video will be shown on "Out and About" on Channel four at 10:30pm on May 19th, if anyone is interested and has nothing better to do on a saturday night (or has TiVo). In the meantime, I stole a shot that Nora took to put on here. She has more on her blog, so check out the link to it on the right side of this page!

Kettle Run

A good rain storm sent the Kettle level up to about 2000cfs, so Dennis and I headed up for an afternoon session. We carpooled, which meant park-n-play at Blueberry and Teacher's Pet. We also met "Stretch" as we were getting geared up, but he was done for the day. The water was pretty big, but not quite the ideal play level I remembered. Good wave surfing on the Big Wave in Blueberry. Carving was easy and I even managed to get my boat off the water on one or two bounces. The wave was pretty flat, but it was still possible to hit and hold a back surf if you were careful. Dennis met his nemesis on a frustrating wave right below the big one. It looked like a great play feature, but it was a long and difficult ferry out to it and it seemed to fade away the second you got there. Noble efforts were made to make it work, though. After tiring ourselves out in Blueberry, I decided to check out Teacher's Pet. It looked nice and deep, but attempts at both loops and cartwheels ended with my bow meeting the bedrock in an unfriendly way. The surfer's left side seemed deep enough to work with, but I couldn't find any way to get lined up on it. Kind of frustrating. On the upside, Dennis proved himself to be quite a lensman with the big camera. He actually did well enough that someone who doesn't know me might believe I could actually paddle! Big thanks for taking the pics. Finally, we were treated to a beautiful evening for the drive home. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Kettle Day

4 of us (Brian J, Caleb, Roger, and I) headed up to the Kettle to get some play before the water goes away. The level was on the low side, but there was still fun to be had in Blueberry, Dragon's tooth, and Hell's Gate. We also did the cliff drop and went over Wolf Creek Falls. Wolf Creek proved to be the most interesting part of the day. The water was low enough that a couple of us got hung up on the lip. This happened to Roger, who then teetered over and penciled into the pool below. He went in perfectly vertical, causing him to slice through the water and Piton off the rocks at the bottom. He jammed one ankle pretty hard and put a nice dent in the bow of his boat. Thankfully, neither boat nor ankle broke, so he should be back in the game soon. Note to anyone running it at low water: After Roger hit, Brian J and I checked the depth below the falls and found it was less than 4 feet. Still safe if you can avoid going straight in, but worth thinking about... Also, found that if you give a hard stroke off the lip of the falls, you can do a 180 in the air and land soft, but flat. Fun way to go, and it avoids the piton issue.

My water camera is on its last leg, so I'm saving it for Scuba from now on. Brian J took some videos and pictures. When I get the CD from him (hopefully in the next couple days) I'll post pics from this trip and last week's verm trip.

Verm Trip

We had a truly awesome group of paddlers on the Verm on Saturday. Brian J, Caleb, Graeme, and I decided to head there after the cold temps and 2 degree windchills made the Kettle less appealing. It turned out to be a good decision, because the Verm treated us well. It seems like the features on that river are never the same twice, and Saturday was no exception. Railroad was loads of fun, with 4 feet of horizontal shoulder on the river right side and a sloping shoulder coming on from the left. Great spinning and even some low-angle wheels. S-curve was bouncy and fun, and Donut was really fast with a long, low foam pile that could get you back to the front from 4 feet back. It was pretty cool. The most interesting part, however, was probably going up to the falls and running the slide beneath it. Fast, splashy water sliding over the rocks in a giant banked corner, followed by a good sized wave-hole at the bottom and a a couple boulders to dodge. Brian J had his camera along so there's pictures and video. I'll post links to the videos when I get them (probably this week).

Good Water

Went down to the Verm yesterday expecting it to be a puny 150cfs. Once we got there, though, it didn't take long to see that the level was much closer to 300, and the river was actually at a really good level. The water was pretty cold, but the playspots wre rockin. Nick and I got there early and made a 2-hour morning run. I kept gettting flipped in Railroad, then having to roll back up in the hole and surf my way out with an ice cream headache. For whatever reason, I seemed to be the only person all day that didn't just wash out when they flipped. Nick was rockin' in there with some low-angle cartwheels and good spins, but he had some other commitments and had to leave just before the rest of the crew showed up around 11:30. Having had enough brain freezes for one day, I decided to take some pics, rather than make another run. It turned out to be a great day for it with warm sun and good water.