Hey Donziweasil......Grand Canyon

[Last Real Texan]

Hey thought you may like these.....I too love Big western water....Big time paddler in the season , however have slowed down with a 2 year old at home....actually have not been in my boat in some time due to work and the kid thing but that will soon change ....I was digging around and found a couple picture of me running Lava Falls ( follow th bubble line and you will only catch the edge of the big hole) on the Colorado river a few years ago @ 20,000 CFS..... Big water for sure but my favorite rapid on the colorado was Hermit.....20 foot exploding waves with haystacks mixed in...nice anyhow here are the photos.
What a great trip that was 17 days and 276 miles in a 6 and a half foot play boat....we had 10 kayakers in that trip and 4 rafts running support oh to do it again! As you know pictures do noy do it justice in the acurate aspect of how big it really is...
Tex

[Donziweasel]

LRT- Hedgehog had told me you were into boating. The pics of Lava on the Grand are sweet. Rapids never look as big in pics as they are when you are heading into one, especailly in a kayak. You might want to think about coming out here after a big snow year at some point. There are probably 15 rivers with 2 hours of Jackson with good whitewater and a few class V runs to boot.

The Grand Canyon is my white whale. Twice I have been going and something came up and I had to bail out. I am really jealous you got to run it. One day! Was it a commercial or private trip? I should be getting close to getting a permit. I applied 4 years ago and last year I was getting into the low 100's on the permit process (I started at 959). I have done some other big western river trips. The Middle Fork of the Salmon has to be my favorite. Done it 5 or 6 times. Torqoiuse beautiful water, blue ribbon fishing, and very technical class IV whitewater, 7 day trip. They have some big straight foward runs at the end, but many of the rapids are fairly technical with a lot of manuvering.

Also, have done Hell's Canyon a couple of times. More big straight foward whitewater with a couple of IV and many big III's.

I will run anything in a raft, but I am only really comfortable up to class III in a kayak as I only started 2 years ago. Will probably try some IV's this year though.

I found out Hedgehog was into boating when I started posting some stuff about how big the Snake is going this year after our record snowfall. It is nice to find some other boaters on the site. We will definetly have to stay in touch and get together one day.

[Donziweasel]

BTW, the beast is still sleeping. Snake only at 5000 cfs this morning. Warm sunny weather in the forecast next week and the beast should wake up. Looking at over 40,000 cfs this year, and the previous record of 38,100 should fall.

[The Hedgehog]

Wow,

I just got back from the Cheoha. That last section was around 130 feet per mile at 1,000 cfs. That was the the hardest thing I have ever run in a raft. very technical with big drops.

We launched a 12 foot raft off a 16 foot waterfall. It was like a train wreck. I will try to get some pics.

[Donziweasel]

I'd love to see pics. Never dropped anything that big on a raft. I did a 6-7 ft drop and it was intimidating to say the least. I was on the sticks and when I hit, I slammed my head into the back of the person in front of me. Saw stars for a few minutes and my neck was sore for a week.

[The Hedgehog]

It was huge. I saw a commercial trip later that day almost get pulled over it backwards. That would not have been pretty. Lot's of hurt people would have been swimming in the class IV runout. The guide pulled it out at the last minute and they spun around to hit the sneak.