Something south for everyone

Something south for everyone
This is the time of year that folks start digging out the ski gear. It is starting to get cold and the local rivers and creeks have started to go into hibernation. A few runs like Gore, baileys, shoshone and the upper box are still flowing, but ski mode is in the air. When this happens, I begin to dream about Mexico. A lot of kayakers head south for the winter. Going to Costa Rica, Belize, Ecuador, Chile and a ton more places. For me, Mexico is the closest and the cheapest. My friends and I can leave Santa Fe, NM on a Friday morning and be running some fun drops Sat afternoon. The best part about Mexico is that it has runs for everyone. You can be a class 3 boater and have a blast. Or you can be a hardcore creeker and find some amazing stuff. Folks on Mountain Buzz have been chatting about Mexico, So I thought I would post a couple of videos of the Cascados Micos and the Salto. These runs are just about having a blast and having everyone enjoy them. I stand by the saying that "Kayaking in Mexico is for everyone"! Adios, Atom...
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A Vid of the Cascados Micos (press the left hand play button to watch)
and pump the volume on your computer


A Vid of the Salto (press the left hand play button to watch)
and pump the volume on your computer


If you end up heading to Mexico, I recommend getting some good dry pants to keep the bugs of off your winter legs. The bugs are bad if you head for Vera Cruz and the pants also protect ya from the Mexican Jungle.

IR Splash Pants

UPPER BOX Oct 28th 2006

This past Winter and Spring, New Mexico had one of the worst droughts in history. It sucked. No skiing equals no boating and no boating equals "Hell". So it has been a pleasant suprise that the Rio Grande has been flowing this Fall. The playboating has been good and the Upper Box is IN! This saturday I headed to the Upper with Tim Kelton, Ed Lucero and Steve White. There was a bit of snow on the ground but the temps were around 60 degrees and the flow was a low, but very fun 500cfs. We put on about 1.30pm and were done at 5.30pm, this included the hike down and out, with a few scouts along the way and one minor boat extraction. I would have to say that it was one of my favorite days on the Upper ever.


Parking at bear crossing, the start of the hike down.


TK watching his step


Ed dialing in his new boat


Atom heading toward h2o


Ed making the move Hell Hole. At this level the landing has a nasty seam that wants to flip you and send ya upside down into the river left sieve. upon landing, Ed was buried to his helmet, resurfaced and made the move right.


TK also making the move at Hell Hole. His line was a bit hectic. He got caught in the seam and flipped, rolling up just before the sieve.


Tk rolling up just to the right of the bad ju ju sieve. I walked the drop after watching that line.


TK with some pleasure at Pleasure Plunge


Ed getting the pleasure on.


Ed's favorite rock room on the Upper


TK running the first part of Boulder Fan. The hole he is boofing is very sticky. Steve got backendered here and rolled into the undercut river right rock shown in front of TK. This resulted in a quick cold swim.


Ed in the second drop of Boulder Fan


Tk in the second part of Boulder Fan


Steve chillin in the great calm, the flatwater between Pleasure Plunge and Boulder Fan. Awesome to see a C1'r running the Upper. Wish I had some photos of him running stuff but he was following my line the whole time. He styled it..(except for one part)


TK, Ed and Atom getting the last rays of sunshine before the hike out


Heading to camp


No ice cream for NM misshaps, Beer bootie always.

Low h2o Upper Box

Since we have had a non existent year for creeking, we decided to hit the Upper Box when it came up to a boatable flow.


Had to get a new car with the price of gas these days. Toyota 2007 Yaris sedan. 35-40mpg fully loaded. Love it.

Looking into the box from the rim

Same

nice views hiking down

Bones running Hell Hole

Repa in NCO

Looking up at Long Rapid

The brutal hike out

The price we pay for a mis-judged line

OH BE JOYFULLLLLLLLLLL

This weekend I headed out to Colorado to see Oh Be Joyfulllll. I couldn't boat due to a pulled back but I thought that I would head out of town anyway. Had a blast camping out with a bunch of folks. Met Freemont from Golden at the takeout for OBJ. He fired the run up a couple times. It was pretty darn low, but a ton of folks were there. I didn't get any shots of Freemont running the drops, seems that he was so fired up to hike his boat that he ended up on top of the pass. Got a few shots of Boyd from Tenn, he was running it solo while his girlfriend took vid and stills. He had it made. I managed to get some dirtbiking in with Freemont while on painkillers, probably not recommended but still a blast and probably safer than creeking on them. Blazed the bikes up to the headwaters of Daisy creek. Super sick slide way up there. Nice to see snow still. On a side note, my friend M###o had her 38th birtday that weekend and rumor has it she got to stay warm with a guy 10yrs younger. Way to go. Oh ya, it was high comedy watching the drunk folks crossing the Slate river in there 4x4's ond getting stuck. One guy did it at 3 in the am and woke everybody up in camp by yelling and screaming, good fun dumb stuff.


Cottenwood pass heading to OBJ from BV

Same

Shot of the leadin to the first big falls

The lip of falls

the falls

Boyd running the falls

Boyd in the runnout

Random slide

Avalanche, one of the big slides

Boyd halfway down avalanche

Boyd making the critical eddy

Portage around beaver dam

Below avalanche

boyd again

Sunset

recent snow, June 26th

Back pain driving

"Oh Be Brokeback", actually rumor has it that this is the young stud that kept M####O warm on her 38th

GATORS IN COLORADO

Driving up to Colorado to run the Ark we have passed "Colorado Gators" for years. It is just north of Alamosa. It is a big Gator farm or something like that. Anyway, there were lots of gators and other animals. Well worth the stop.