12-08-06
Today, Daniel Lundberg and myself ran the Goodwin Canyon section of the Stanislaus River. It's a class IV- River with a couple of class V rapids. The flow was 500cfs. The last time we were here, the flow was over double what it was today. Needless to say, the river had a different feel to it. Daniel and I were both feeling good, and we were focused on having a safe and uneventful day.
Our first major rapid of the day was Toads Wild Ride. At this flow it is definitely at least a class V. The last time we ran it, the water created an expressway from top to button. You simple entered the rapid, and 3 seconds later you found yourself floating in the pool below. Today however, it was a different scene.
The 1st half of ToadsLooking down on this rapid; we knew we wanted to get left as much as possible. At the bottom, the rapid pushes into an undercut rock wall. The problem is, all of the drops are trying to push you right, towards the wall. The entrance was especially ugly, because it immediately pushed you far right. In the end, both of us had great lines and made it out upright and happy. I filmed Daniel running it, and you can see the video below. Unfortunately, I saw Daniel get pushed right and I let the camera down for a second, but it's still a pretty good shot.
Daniel scouting ToadsNext was Matterhorn. We knew we would not be running this, so we quickly did the portage, clicked off a few pictures and went on our way.
Evan in front of Matterhorn. Notice the rock on the right. That's the horn.
Photo by Paul Martzen Matterhorn Portage
Photo by Paul Martzen 
Photo by Paul Martzen Pinball and Lower Pinball followed Matterhorn, and turned out to be a lot of fun. Lower Pinball took you on a twisting path through good-sized boulders mixed with some sweet drops. We were both smiling at the bottom.
Next up, Haunted Mansion. The last time we were here, we all got pushed into a rock wall on river left. Today, with much less water, the line took you over a 3-4 foot drop into a diagonal wave, and then around a corner over a very small drop. I ran this first and when my boat entered the hole, at the base of the drop, my skirt imploded and I flipped. I managed to roll it up after 2 attempts, and paddled it to shore. That was a drag, but the good news is, the Mega Rocker still floated me well, even when it was almost full of water. Daniel had a clean line and we were on our way.
Daniel scouting Haunted Mansion
Haunted Mansion
Photo by Paul Martzen 
Photo by Paul Martzen 
Photo by Paul Martzen 
Photo by Paul Martzen 
Photo by Paul Martzen 
Photo by Paul Martzen
Photo by Paul MartzenEarlier in the day, we had decided to take one car to the river, and do a bike shuttle. It's only about 4-5 miles, but all up hill. As we arrived at the park, we saw a Blazer pull up with 2 creek boats on top. Montey and his friend (I can remember his name) were nice enough to drive me up the hill to get the truck. We all hit it off really well and exchanged phone numbers and a warm embrace. Just kidding. Anyway, these guys are full on creekers with an impressive resume. They said they were looking for some people to boat with, and hopefully we will be able to do that soon.
In the end, it was mission accomplished. We had fun, ran the some sweet rapids, and didn't have any problems. So far, December paddling has been good to us. Check out the video of Daniel below.
Evan
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