Upper Cherry

Upper Cherry has to be one of the most well-known runs in the world... and this is justified! Amazing granite slides, dome gorges and pretty much everything is good to go. Although I tried to sack up and carry my boat in there, after I had an a nights rest I realised I still wasn't up to it so ended up hiking it out. But not after hanging out at Flintstone for a few days with the drove of kayakers that were around there. Barny, Snarley, Cheese and the Canon were the first crew down to me at Flintstone, with Barny, Snarley and Canon running Cherry Bomb at high flow late in the evening. The next day was lifestyled at Flintstone, ate dank food including a 2 1/2 pound steak, done some laps of the tea-cups, caught fish and just chilled! The last day I hiked out to the trail and took my boat out and the boys walked up to run Cherry Bomb and then mob out in time to make San Fran for Barny's Birthday celebration. Barny's camera died on this trip but here are some of the photos he got from this super classic trip!

The canon on the early slide (p. Barny)

Snarley entering Gorilla Slide (p. Barny)

Peacher rolling into Cherry Bomb... switch! (p. Barny)

Cheese on the Tea-Cup's (p. Peacher)

Barny about to fly after a HUGE seal-launch (p. Peacher)

Needless to say, this was a sick trip for the boys and even for me just chilling at Flintstone... and we definitely had a sick time in San Fran for an more than memorable birthday!

West Cherry ... and the end of my season

Well unfortunately this would be the end of my paddling season in cali. After Fantasy we made the annual pilgrimage to Three Rivers, for some laps on Hospital Rock. But on my second lap I took a kayak to my ribs in the hole below little Niagra and that was that... no more boating for me Cali 2011.

ANYWAY, Barny and the boys would obviously continue to charge and the next thing on the agenda was West Cherry. After our low water trip last year, Barny and Snarley were keen to catch it with a lot more water and also walk up to check out the infamous Graceland. The crew for this trip was Barny, Snarley, Smurf, Korbulic and Jake. Barny fired Graceland first, followed by all the boys! But it wasnt over, Charles had some how managed to piton on the 15footer in the top half of Graceland... he decided to clean it up and Korbulic thought he might run it again. After this was a series of burly rapids, portages and good times. From the confluence the boys found a huge amount of water in Upper Cherry, most notably in the Bottom Gorge. The boys took care of it all and had a sick trip in there. Here are some of the snaps of their trip.

Graceland (p. Barny)

Barny routing Graceland (p. Snarley)

Charles roosting on his second lap! (p. Barny)

Jake cleaning the West Branch (p. Barny)

Barny on chuck's (p. Smurf)

Korbulic dropping in (p. Barny)

Smurf charging! (p. Barny)

The boys had a sick trip and the next thing on their agenda would be a lap on the bottom section of Middle Cherry while they waited for Upper Cherry to come in.

North Fork of the Mokelumne - Fantasy Falls

After last season's exhaustive schedule there were still a couple of torns in our side, and Fantasy was one of these. By doing Royal twice we had missed the minute 2010 window for Fantasy but were told that not to worry as if there was one to miss, Fantasy was it. Bullshit!!! We had a group of virgins on our trip, Mancheese, Snarley, Barny, Pruett and Myself and we basically moulded in with Smurf, Nugget-Charger, Riley and Josh Hill. We had a healthy flow, not high but everything was well cushioned, and such an amazing trip. White-water that rivals any run I had done or know of, scenery that is unbelievable and some of the most amazing camping I have done. Apart from the lake paddle at the end, I cannot fault this run at all. Yeah there are a few portages, but I would say all but 'The Untouchables' go, and the start of day one is manky... but both of these facts are overshadowed by how amazing the rest of the run is. Here are some of the MANY shots we got of this run, enjoy.

Me charging a mushroom (p. Barny)

Cheese Greasing it (p. Barny)


Snarley.... smiling! (p. Barny)

Barny lapping the Fantasy Falls (p. Jordy)

Smurf between the two Fantasy Drops (p. Jordy)

Pruett CHARGING... (p. Jordy)

Cali 2011..... Mob-a-thon!!! (p. Barny)

There is nothing else to say really, this is one of my top 5 favourite runs in the world... hands down! Do not ever think about passing this one up!

Royal!

This seems to be the HOT run in California at the moment with lots of people looking to go big, and this is the place for it. After umming and arring for a day or so, Snarley finally got his way and convinced us to sack up and put on at just above 1300 (lows 1100), and we would be the first crew to go in for 2011. This time the crew was the usual culprits (Barny, Snarley and Myself) accompanied by Preacher, who was the only Royal Virgin in our crew. We enlisted the Canon for our drop off (thank-you), and the trip was on. Between Snarley and myself we remembered the first few miles of steep low-volume creeking down to Heath Springs Gorge.

Preacher! (p. Barny)

Barny the Carny, loving a good water leverl (p. Jordy)

This gorge is infamous for how is can hold up a teams progress... and this would be more then true for us, we had a mini-epic! Firstly, heath one... our lines were good but then Preacher lifted his knees at the lip, causing him to land SUPER flat and hurting his back. This would be the end of the trip for him, as he elected to hike out the following day...

Too flat! (p. Jordy)

Another angle (p. Barny)

Next, Snarley decided to fire up Heath Two. A 60 footer with a magnetic (for kayakers) cave on river left. Although he styled it, with his paddle intact, he was pushed left at the base of the falls and after numerous attempts accepted that he could not ferry across the base of the falls to freedom. So, as is with Heath Two, it was time to vertically extract him... twice! When we was almost at the top, after handing his paddle to barny, the bag his was attached to tore and he fell 30foot back into the watery prison of the cave. After he was finally extracted the next tragedy struck, literally. While Barny was trying to get around for a vector pull on the line to Snarley's boat he accidentally dislodged a soccer ball size rock, sending it careening down the crack that everyone was standing. The rock kicked up as Barny yelled and it struck Taylor Cavin, who along with Smurf and Chris K were now helping extract Charles and his boat, in the chin/should/chest knocking in to the ground in a daze. Fortunately Taylor had his full-facial helmet on and is tough as houses, and after an hour was smiling albeit in pain. This would be the end of this trip for Taylor, who elected to walk out the following day. So we decided to camp at Heath Gorge that night and then carry on the following day, with a new group of us three, smurf and Chris K.

Snarley firing (p. Jordy)

Chris K running Heath One after all the mess

(p. Jordy)

The next day was sick! We elected to portage the Crux Gorge, I felt the hole with the narrow exit looked dodgy so made the short portage and then it was all on. Lower Crux, Rattlesnake, Perfect 20, Split Falls and plenty more. We all elected to portage Scotts Drop, its burl, and just when I thought everyone was going to portage Wabena I heard a 'whoop-whoop' to see barny in the eddy right above the lip. Fire! Barny had a pretty good line, actually great considering some of the stories and footage I seen of other lines in the ensuing days, and then we were on the paddle out, pushing down almost as far a the Dream Gap section.

Chris in the hallway (p. Barny)

Barny routing into Rattlesnake... blind (p. Jordy)

Snarley watching me route the

rattler (p. Barny)

Smurf about to take a hit (p. Jordy)

The next morning, after waking up at a lifestyling 9am, I was startled to see three paddlers charging towards our camp. An older man and two younger fella's. The man introduced himself as Phylex, and his two sons, Sven and Lars, and then went to to pronounce that all three of the had paddled all the big ones. I would be lying if I didn't say I was dubious, but this would be my first of many encounters with...."The Swiss"!