Wolf Creek, Colorado, Pat Keller lightning riding…

This is the second and final installment of the Upper Creek adventure had by Toby MacDermott, Andrew Holcombe, Pat Keller, Will Lyons, Dustin Marquart, Nate Elliott, and John Grace. Seems like the river took this well rounded and highly decorated team of pro kayakers and gave them a proper spanking! Full coverage coming to LVM #33.

Here’s a little story about what happens when you get a late start on a sunny January day on an unknown creek. Toby MacDermott, John Grace, Pat Keller, Andrew Holcombe, Nate Elliott, Dustin Marquart, and Will Lyons took a little trip down Upper Creek near Linville Falls, NC and had a wholesome adventure. Here’s how it went, part 1.

This Monday Will Lyons, Toby MacDermott, Andrew Holcombe, Nate Elliott, Pat Keller, Dustin Marquart, and John Grace dropped in at the top of Upper Creek near Cold Springs, N.C. This was a run that John had been eyeing for some time with various stories of paddlers biting off little chunks here and there. With the combination of a big rain and a marginally willing group they put on the river some 2000 vertical feet above the takeout car. What ensued was the top to bottom exploration of quite possibly the high countries most rugged and steep navigable canyon. During the day a combination of a micro Linville, mixed with the Toxaway yielded countless drops and huge slides some well over 100 feet tall. This epic day resulted in only one paddler, Toby MacDermott, making it to the takeout with the rest of the crew abandoning boats and scrambling up canyon walls for three hours in the dark until reaching the road. Here are a couple of photos from early in the day and stay tuned as we report on the full story. Photos: Dustin Marquart

Pat Keller at the third good rapid of the day...notice the smooth bedrock.

A view from the top of Upper Creek Falls, our first big portage.

We ended up in Bellingham for the Ski to Sea event a few weekends ago.  The event went great as we were supporting and documenting a team commissioned by the Disabled Veterans Association.  Check out Team River Runner and the DVA for more info on these great organizations.

Any who, after all that work I was hungry for some brown kayaking action.  I began pestering Cody Howard of HuckinHuge.com for beta on any sweet waterfalls to run, he mentioned that Racehorse Creek Falls may be good to go.  After using Barneys I-Phone and checking out some google images I made the decision that it was a viable option.  That night I partied with my cousin Mark Landvik, who just finished a huge season of filming snowboarding for Travis Rices new video, Thats It Thats All and standard films new movie Aesthetica.  Mark and his buddies came out to come check out the waterfalling action the next day.  I was stoked to have them there.

The falls looked great.  Starting with a log slide to a 25 footer, then a ten foot slide followed by the big transitioning slide that stacks up to 60-70 feet.  The top few drops went according to plan.  Then, I eddied out to rescout the “Stout”   I decided I had to be far river left to land in the smoothest part of the transition, then I would just slide into a nice little pool. Right?

It all went according to plan until I skipped into the pool at the bottom.  Instead of stopping or at least slowing down I felt like I accelerated.   I skipped across the pool  careening towards the rocky riverbank.   Fortunately,  I was paddling a Liquid Logic Jefe.  The forgiving bow of my boat took the shore and turned it into a ski jump instead of a piton.  I was then launched through the air  and into the rocks at least 15 feet.  I landed upright and wobbled for a moment in disbelief.  We celebrated by roasting bratwursts at the base of the falls and telling stories.

Dropping the upper 25 footer, I love the way the Jefe boofs.

About to stick the transition on the big one.

Hitting the shore and about to launch!

Happy that I stayed upright.

~Erik Boomer signing out from a coffe shop in McCall Idaho.  Water is high here.