Welcome to New Mexico

Last wednesday, Nate Elliott, Mark Miller, Rob Hurst and I loaded up Grace’s brand new truck and hit the road. After rigging some bomber racks onto the truck and figuring out how to squeeze 5 people’s gear, a pa system, jumbotron, and hundred or so DVD’s into the truck we were ready to go kayaking.



Our destination was the Rio Embudo, which we knew little about other than Atom Crawford was hosting a race and party there and it was supposed to be a killer run. 25 Hours later we found Atom’s place at the takeout, just in time to tag along with a group down the river.



The Embudo is 6-7 miles of continuous, tight class V in a beautiful granite gorge in the middle of nowhere. If that’s your game, be sure to check it out sometime. Big waves, holes, and curlers keep you booking down the gorge at a steady pace.



The river picks up pace as you continue downstream finishing in a small gorge with some sturdy rapids.



Saturday, Atom and some other local boaters organized the first ever, unofficial, annual Embudo Team Race. 3 people had to race as a team down the river, first team to the bottom wins. High water reduced the field to two teams. Tons of spectators hiked in to catch a piece of the action in the crux of the run, a rapid called Slots of Fun. Fun it was. The crowds were delighted with lines both smooth and terrifying all day.



Evan Ross, Tim Kelton, and Rolf Kelly from the first team pulled away with the win and some nice lines through the slots, both fast and slow. Tim displayed his more reckless side, but Rolf was by his side to keep an eye on him. On a side note, Rolf stepped up to race after fighting a bout of food poisoning all night but managed to vomit only once in the race. Props to the second team as well, Oliver Deschler, Kyle McKutchon, and Luke Pennington worked hard but didn’t quite come through fast enough. Here are some more pictures:

Kyle tapping in to some laminar flow.

Grace posing for the camera.

That evening, Atom hosted a great party complete with raffle, awards, and jumbotron screening of the day’s action. More on that later, we’re going kayaking…

A good party indeed.

Grace and his famous Jumbotron

The Winners: Rolf, TK, Evan, and Atom

Winding down.

Photos: Rob Hurst