4-Wheeling fun

Santa brought me a video camera for Christmas, and I decided to take it for a spin. I grabbed my little brothers and we hit the trails behind our house. Although they are not pulling X-Games moves, it's still a lot of fun. Enjoy.

Click To Play

Fossil Creek

Happy Holidays. On Christmas Eve, my family and I decided to go down to Fossil Creek for some fun. The road to FC is pretty sketchy, but worth the effort. Once we arrived at the creek, we were greeted with crystal clear warm water.

Beautiful Water

Fossil Creek is fed by a warm spring that spills 35-40 cfs all year round. The best part is that the water is 75˙, which makes winter boating every enjoyable.

Grand Daddy Falls

To get to Grand Daddy, you have to hike up the trail for about a mile. It's a nice little hike that gives you a chance to scout the creek.

Below Grand Daddy

Once at the top, the trail stops at Grand Daddy Falls. These falls drop in to a very deep, very beautiful pool. There is also a cave right next to the falls, that is fun to check out. This spot would be the perfect camp site. You could set up your tent, and huck yourself off the falls for hours. Good Times!

Nice Deep Pool

The creek itself is pretty boney. I'm sure it would clean up in the spring, with a little snow melt. However, at the 30-40 cfs, the falls are the main attraction. I should also mention that Fossil Creek is a travertine creek. Travertine is fragile, and the AZ forest service is still on the fence as to whether or not to allow kayakers to run the creek. If you go, clean up after yourself, don't harm the creekside, and stay on the trail. Also, travertine is hard to slide over, so get ready for some gorilla walking in your boat.

Fun 8' drop

At the bottom, you will find the 2nd big drop. I don't know it's name, but drop #2 has 2 channels. River right is a slide into a 10' drop. River left is a 9' drop, into a small pool, followed by another 10' drop. I ran it on the right and had 2 good rides.

Lower Falls

Here is a trailer of the footage I took. I'll have a 8 minute video up soon. Enjoy.

Play Trailer

Play Full Movie

Popping Dan's Cherry

Dan Hogg and I took yet another trip to the Stanislaus, but this run was special. Dan was paddling his brand new 2007 Wave Sport Habitat 80. It's a beautiful blue boat that Dan loves very much. Here is a video of him seal launching it off the rocks at Matterhorn.

Click To Play

I'm off to Arizona for the Holidays. I'll be kayaking down Fossil Creek Saturday. It should be fun. I'll blog it when I get back.

Happy Holidays
Evan

Mountain Biking at Squaw Leap

Rock on some parts....Hans up high followed by Evan. (A great shot if I do say so myself)

Evan so proud he made it to the top!
A view of the powerhouse and the park at Squaw Leap.

Finally down....
Up...

UP....
UP....
Evan on the bridge.

Evan ahead of me, thank goodness it wasn't dusty!
Me getting left behind....

Hans closing the gate.

The bridge that crosses the San Joaquin River.

At the first gate.

Hans and Evan getting ready at the car.

Willow Creek Mt. Biking (Click here)

Saturday December 9th, 2006

Today Hans, Jeff, and myself went up to Willow Creek to do some mountain biking. The last time I was in Willow Creek was in spring while kayaking. It's a very beautiful place and we were there on a nice overcast winter day. Since Jeff had biked there before, Hans and I followed his lead and made our way up the hill. To our dismay, we had to push our bikes most of the way up the trail. This slowed our progress, but the relaxed pace allowed us to frequently scout the creek. Hans checking out Devils Slide

It was fun seeing it without much water. It gives you a different perspective on how rapids are formed.
After we made it to the top, the real fun began. Hans and I followed Jeff as we made our way down the steep terrain. Hans on the steep stuff

I did my best to take pictures and not fall on my face, while Hans and Jeff made it look easy.
Jeff taking a much earned break

Both of these guys have been biking for many years and they ride really well. I on the other hand feel like at any moment, I’m going to go over the handlebars and roll down the mountain. Luckily, that never happened and we all had a great time.

Enjoy the pictures and videos
Evan

Click here for Video #1

Click here for Video #2

Goodwin Canyon=Good Kayaking (Click here)

(Updated 12-15-06) Dan Hogg, Daniel Lundberg, Geoff Jennings, Paul Martzen, and Myself ran it again today. The level was 925 cfs. It was a great day. Check out the new pictures below. Thanks Paul for the great shots.

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 Toads

Looking 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 Toads

Next 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

Dan Hogg seal launching beyond Matterhorn

Photo by Paul Martzen

Geoff catching air

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

Daniel Lundberg Entering Haunted Mansion

Photo by Paul Martzen

Daniel resurfacing

Photo by Paul Martzen

Daniel dropped into Haunted Mansion, submerged his boat, came up in a stern stall, and held it to the bottom of the rapid. Well done!

Photo by Paul Martzen

Evan Entering Haunted Mansion

Photo by Paul Martzen

Where did Evan Go? Spooky!

Photo by Paul Martzen

There he is!

Photo by Paul Martzen

Safe and Sound

Finally, we went down Air Mattress. It was a fairly technical rapid that was easy to pick through, and was a lot of fun. After that we paddled into the park and had a great stroke of luck.

Earlier 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



Click here to see Daniel run Toads Wild Ride

December kayaking on the Mokelumne (Click here for river details)

This time of year it's often hard to find decent places to paddle. In an effort to stay fresh and keep our gear ripe, we made our way to the Mokelumne river. The Elektra section is only class two, but makes for a good teaching platform. We worked on the basics of going in and out of eddys, ferrying, boofing, and paddle placement. Eric, an instructor at California Canoe and Kayak, once told me that, "The best place to practice class 4-5 moves is on a class 2-3 river." That was our mission, and the results were good.

After the run I had the joy of running a bike shuttle back up the hill to get the truck. It was good exercise, but I still prefer a car shuttle.

Take care
Evan

Check out pictures and video of Jeff and Larry below.

Jeff was all smiles today


Larry at the top of S Turn


Jeff styling this rapid


Jeff resurfacing


Larry ready to launch



Check it out ya'll
Click here to see video 1

Click here to see video 2

Click here to see video 3

Click here to see video 4