O aaRghh T : It Never Rains in California Part III

The Western Whitewater Champioship Series (WWCS) keeps rollin on.

We drove through the Scott River Valley on the way to the Cal Salmon. Just 2 weeks prior we had run the Scott River, on this occasion we had made the drive down from Portland to run the Scott’s sister river, the Cal Salmon, which is also part of the Marble Mountain Wilderness area. I had never seen the entire South Fork of the CS, a wrong turn rewarded us with some new scenery.

We were the first party into the lower Nordheimer Campground this season, the grass and trails were completely undisturbed and the sun shining through the tree tops began what would be a very special weekend. The ORT Grey team soon arrived and Ben hopped out of the back of the truck already in his pirate costume, apparently he had been busy frightening folks all the way down the I-5 corridor from Ashland.

We rigged the boats, set the shuttle, and off we went to do a practice run with 5 kayaker friends in tow. After a quick scout, the Grey team dropped into Cascade and got hammered against the left wall in quick fashion. The Red team confidently discussed our line and then charged in with the same result, yet the outcome of missing our line was even worse as we wrapped on the rock near the exit. Aargh! I hope nobody sees this. Bryan made sure they did by showing the video to everyone in camp when we got back so by 9pm or so the entire event knew we choked. Achilles, Last Chance, and Freight Train went without incident, our confidence coming back, we cruised back to camp for a hearty pasta dinner and some down time.

Race day we woke up, wolfed down some pancakes and fruit while getting the gear all dialed in the 70 degree sun. This included putting on make up and ear rings and placing little rubber pirate duckies on the bow and stern of the raft. Aaarrghhh! After stealing a foam sword I ran all over the campground in a caffeine induced rage yelling Aaarrghhh! until the race began.

We started towards the end of the mass start pack which included rafts, kayaks, and catarafts. Without formal prompting Paul yells go and the water erupted with all sorts of frenzied paddling and yelling. After getting beached at the start last year, we chose to hang back a bit and let the chaos cancel itself out. Sure enough a few holes opened up and like a tailback reading a double team we burst through the line. By the second corner we had passed all the rafts, and dueled with Tom in his cat for a bit before breaking free with the faster kayakers. 1 mile downstream after Bloomer the field had pretty much, settled in. We would terrorize one green kayak in particular for 6 miles by reeling him in on the flatwater, then losing a little ground in the rapids. It became quickly evident that this guy did not want to lose to a raft and pushed quite a bit harder than if left on his own accord.

We approached Cascade to see crowds of folks lining the walls to get a good view. This run we timed our approach into the top ledge and charged in with a sprint and hard angle right. Blowing through the nasty entrance lateral we smoked through Cascade in a hard all forward and never looked back. Despite sprinting through most of the flatwater, we still greased the lines at Achilles, Last Chance, and were fortunate enough to actually be smooth through the bottom of Freight Train.
Aaaarrrgghhhh!
We were super stoked. I told the boys that with their aggressive and enthusiastic paddling, that was probably the best single run I had ever had in 20+ years of boating. Good energy, chemistry, and a sense of brotherhood were the unseen variables that made it happen.
Big thanks to Ox, Hoser, WFE, Rasta, and Jeff for just getting after it.
Also a big shout out to the Tony and his crew at AIRE for getting our boat out to us in time for the race. http://www.aire.com/AIRE/Our long time supporters help ORT keep the momentum building:
http://www.aquabound.com/http://www.whitewaterhelmet.com/http://www.immersionresearch.com/And our new sponsor Viso for giving us the juice to run the juice!
http://drinkviso.com/
Just a few events left, hope to see you all at the:
http://upperclackamasfestival.org/And the big daddy, the USRA National Rafting Championships which will determine who represent the USA in Bosnia at Worlds next year.
http://www.pbrkayakevent.com/
The Divine is not something high above us. It is in heaven, it is in earth, it is inside us.
- Ueshiba.

Upper Klamath and Scott River Weekend.

4 events in 17 days.

North Fork American Race, Canyon Creek Race, Fundraiser/Season Kickoff Party, Upper Klamath Race.
(+ 3 midweek flatwater trainings.)

ORT coordinated the UK event and of course our fundraiser, drove like hell to get to the other, and hucked like lemmings at CC. This all took a lot of organization, teamwork, effective communication, and dare I say a little love.
Brother it was all worth it.

It took many phone calls and emails beginning four months ago to get the permit approved through the BLM for the first ever Upper Klamath Race. When we glanced at the forecast and saw that it would be snowing on this special weekend, the boys didn’t miss a beat, just another time to dig a little deeper and finish out the push.

Character may be defined as : The complex mental and ethical traits marking and often individualizing a person, group, or nation. The development and maintenance of character especially as it relates to resiliency and community is what outlines the soul of ORT, and as you will find yet another example below, this also inlcudes the soul of our region’s boating community.

Bart Baldwin of Noah’s Rafting http://www.noahsrafting.com/ in Ashland Oregon is an old friend of mine. Steve, Justin (Ringworm), Andy, and the rest of the Noah’s crew kept us warm all weekend by allowing event participants to sleep in their heated warehouse as the snow fell outside. On the river many well trained and experienced guides were staged throughout the runs. Noah’s also provided transportation to both the Upper Klamath and Scott Rivers as did Rich and Barbara of Rogue Klamath River Adventures http://www.rogueklamath.com/upper_klamath.htm. Bryan from Next Adventure of Portland http://www.nextadventure.net/ provided a free shuttle vehicle and personally drove down a crew of kayakers after work on Friday.

Saturday morning we loaded up around 40 rafters, 8 kayakers, 1 cat-boater and headed up Greensprings Highway, literally a wagon trail of a road to the UK put in. At the Spring Island launch site we were greeted with the churning brown water the UK is famous/notorious for at a generous 2,800cfs. After a non-eventful 4 mile paddle in to the canyon the crew was rewarded with a horizon line that marks the beginning of Caldera (IV/V) and 6 continuous miles of the “juice”. I can still remember the first time I scouted Caldera 14 years ago and immediately thought what the hell am I doing here? Huge holes and pourovers have to be negotiated at the very top and you can’t really see the bottom of this long rapid.

I’ll take the first group!
50 solid paddlers glanced back at me with that “I gotta pee you go first” look.
So off we went, had a good run, and peeled into the bottom eddy to set safety and shoot some video. Eventually everyone made it safely to the bottom with big smiles and white knuckles, this was going to be a good day.

Hell’s Corner was the next major test, not really scoutable, boaters rely on auditory processing (remembering verbal directions), and follow the leader river running strategies as even if you can read water well, there are a few hidden surprises in this long rapid which at this level includes; 4 entrance ledges, a pushy ferry to the opposite side of the river, 2 huge boat stopping curlers, a ledge behind those, some boney/grabby features, another hard left to miss the meat of the “Dragon”, which feeds you right into another boat stopping 7 foot curler.
YEE HAW. The whole durn party made it through HC cleanly! After 4 more miles of big but straightforward class III-IV excitement we met the bus and the vans at the State Line TO. The vehicles had somehow managed to cut a bunch of time off the long shuttle to greet us in a timely manner.

To summarize what happened next:
The kids went to a lasagna dinner-
Tired, I went to a friends house to crash and left the keg unsupervised at the warehouse-
The next morning when I returned, the keg was nearly empty and it was reported that;
- a bon fire had somehow encouraged bystanders to frolic about it’s flames.
- amateur cage fighting had taken place.
- a variety of angles can be utilized in the consumption of beer.
This was all evidenced by;
- an empty keg.
- a black eye.
- difficulty in locating some members of, and waking up the crew…
- and, there was now snow on the pass and we couldn’t get the buses up to the UK...

So let’s run the Scott instead, read and run race, and, it never rains in California!

Thus, we dusted the snow off the boats and rolled the debaucherous crew into the nearest vehicle and rambled south down I-5 to the Scott River which was running at a technical but fun 800cfs. http://www.c-w-r.com/rivers/scott-river.htmlWe set the course; the start would be in the big eddy at the first bridge below Canyon Creek Rapid (how ironic) The 3.7 mile run would conclude about .5 mile below Tompkins Creek Rapid. This would give us about (7) Class IV-IV+ drops and a potpourri of features in the II-III range.

It was also sunny outside.

We had a “boaters who would be paddling fast” meeting, the safety boats staged, and the kayakers, in no shape to race, stumbled down ahead to take pictures and puke.
7 full raft crews ripped off the line to bang there way down the Scott. Following a full contact battle with a determined and rather verbose Bigfoot team, the ORT Red team was finally able to pull ahead and reach the take out first. Luckily, a few bystanders were able to record the times which went as follows:
R6
ORT Red : 29 minutes, 10 seconds.
Bigfoot : 29:52
Caliwomen : 31:04 (1st place women)
Noah’s : 32:15
ORT Grey : 33:33
Twinkies : 40:19 (2nd place women)

Cats
Zach Collier (ECHO River trips, event sponsor) : 31:48
http://www.echotrips.com/Nate (Who also made the NFA Race) : 34:33

Kayakers
All physically accounted for.

All participants then enjoyed chili, refreshments, and we handed out shwag and really cool awards provided by:
Whitewater Designs
WRSI
Gerber
NRS
Cascade Outfitters
Next Adventure
Viso Energy Drinks
Andy and Bax

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Cal Salmon in 2 weeks!

Please join us as we strengthen the character and spirit of ourselves, our teams and our river communities one event at a time!

Tim
http://www.oregonraftingteam.com/

ORT Fundraiser

Great turnout!
Our boating community rocks!

For a variety of reasons some serious positive energy exists in the Portland whitewater community.

The wave of mojo is flowing south this weekend to Ashland Oregon to stage for the first ever Upper Klamath Race.
http://www.oregonraftingteam.com/

Very special thanks to:

Fire on the Mountain for the accommodations and kick *** wings.
Viso Energy Drinks
Cascade Outfitters
NWRA
NA and posse.
ENRG- for the video equipment.
LVM- for the vids.
AIRE
WRSI
Aquabound
Kells Irish Pub

Whitewater Designs - high quality safety gear manufactured in Eugene Oregon.

Wilderness Adventures - Roger Lee has more first raft descents and has trained more class V guides than anyone on the West Coast.

pdxk, and pnww for gettin the word out.

Please check the schedule for the Western Whitewater Championship Series on the ORT site and join us for what is turning out to be likely the best season of racing and development of river communities ever!

Remember-
Free shuttle to Ashland from NA for the event.
Free sheltered, wood stove heated camping at Noahs Rafting when you get there.
Dirt cheap river shuttles inlcuded in the entry fee.
8 safety rafts piloted by seasoned and certified Noahs guides on the water.

Hope to see you soon,

Tim

Canyon Creek Race TR

It was actually a good thing to come rolling down the hill to the registration area and find absolutely no place to park. Canyon Creek had been settling back in a state of competitive dormancy for many years as if to save it’s beauty and geological luster for that one special day when the sun came out, and boaters could gather to flourish in a river environment rich with positive energy and community.

The flow went in the right direction all day from registration, put in, start, finish, shuttle, and coordination of the event party. The energy must have been special as evidenced by the fact that we were finally able to stay in the boat all day. “I didn’t know rafts could do Canyon Creek”, the ranger commented at the put in. Not only could the raft pilots successfully huck waterfalls, but the ease and style of which this was executed by the top two teams, which certainly was not us, was quite impressive. ORT was satisfied on this day of getting two teams in the top five of this 12 boat field. Further indication that our whole, an R6, is greater than the sum of our parts.

Special thanks to Mike and Brenda Olsen for opening up their home and river property to the paddlers of our region. Next Adventure (NA) http://www.nextadventure.net/ for their continued efforts towards the proliferation of whitewater sport in our area. NA will be providing a free shuttle service down to the first ever Upper Klamath race next weekend. Kayakers are encouraged to contact Luke or Bryan at their earliest convenience to reserve a spot in the Sprinter which will leave NA headquarters at 6:30pm Friday April 17th. If these 8 spots get filled up, Rob of Kayak Attack http://www.kayakattack.com/ will drive down his Econoline van with trailer.

Noah’s Rafting of Ashland will be providing free camping which includes shelter if it rains. This section of river is exceptional.
river-whitewahttp://www.noahsrafting.com/klamath-ter-rafting.php. The UK is not commonly done by a lot of boaters simply because at summer flows the rocks can be a bit problematic, and the shuttle is long and expensive (4.5 hours of driving, $100 for the shuttle driver, another $100 for gas). Event participants which includes racers or river runners get 2 days of shuttles for $20. ORT has been working hard for months to provide this opportunity for all boaters.

FREE shuttle from Portland courtesy of NA.
FREE camping at Noahs.
Dirt cheap river shuttles provided by Noahs, Rogue Klamath River Adventures http://www.rogueklamath.com/index.htm, and Wilderness Adventures http://www.wildrivertrips.com/.

Ashland is a special town and will serve as the home base for the first ever Upper Klamath race.

We all hope to keep the momentum building as the Western Whitewater Championship Series moves on. For more details go to http://www.oregonraftingteam.com/.

Tim

Western Whitewater Championship Series : Race 2

North Fork of the American River

It never rains in California….

The girls always warn ya. It was nice and sunny all weekend. After completing an 11 hour drive from Portland Oregon to Colfax California, Dottie from the Cali Women’s Team greeted us at 2am at the Mineral Bar campground. ORT had waited up for the Cali Ladies after they drove all night for the Wind River Race in Washington two weeks ago. These two rafting teams have taken whitewater racing to the next level this past season by creating and promoting quality river events in addition to supporting each other. Just another example of developing positive and even nurturing river communities which has and continues to be the goal of the Western Whitewater Championship Series. (WWCS).

After a few hours of sleep, Sikbird, Otter Boy, and Timber rolled out of the sack to get a quick practice run in on the Chamberlain Falls section of the North Fork while the Red Team rested up for the race. We downed a yogurt and a few bottles of Viso
http://drinkviso.com/ and we we’re off into the cool morning mist. The 4.3 mile race course was characterized by three Class IV drops, and a number of tricky but entertaining Class IIIs. Our read and run practice trip was not exactly clean, but that’s why they call it practice. Bogus Thunder presented the most significant challenge, especially considering that the line that appeared to be the cleanest had a kayak buried in it.

15 rafts had entered the race on this day which included several teams of guides that knew this section very well. We had our work cut out for us. The boys geared up and we began our warm up jog knowing that I was the only member of the Red Team that had seen this section before, and no one was going to give us style points for driving all night. Ox, Action, Hoser, Rasta, and WFE were up to the challenge. They nailed every line and pulled with a purpose. There was no backing off from the rocket ship start to the push through the long sections of flatwater at the end.

ORT finished the roughly 4.5 mile course in 41 minutes.
The Cali Women’s Team took second overall approximately 2 minutes behind our time, and a men’s team from WET took third with a time approximately 2 minutes behind that.

The ladies then hosted a barbeque and awards ceremony. The ORT boys kept themselves in check knowing we would have our hands full when we took on the Giant Gap section of the North Fork the following morning. Mostly kept in check anyway, next trip we’ll move WFE’s tent a little further from the team’s camping area.

At 7am we awoke to hammer a quick breakfast and prepare for the 1.5 mile hike in to the put in for Giant Gap. 2 rafts and all the necessary gear had to be managed down the steep trail to the put in. The hike went without incident until WFE lost control of his personal gravitational field, and caught a stick in the eye. Funny that, he had full control of gravity the night before…anyway. Around 11am we shoved off for what was basically a read and run descent of one of the most gorgeous and dynamic sections of water in the USA. The Gap contains three Class V drops and a number of technical class IVs. To summarize, our R2 and R5 boats ran everything. We actually scouted two of the Class Vs and simply charged through Locomotive which may have only been IV+ at this level which was likely around 750cfs. At this lower level, we did wrap a few times but got off rather quickly and without rope. Of course the flip was a hoot, especially since we flipped, wrapped, and then I got guide launched all in the tricky little drops leading up to Dominator. Nothing like having your cage rattled a bit before the big one. At Dominator, OX and I intended to R2 the bigger boat down the right side but once we got stuck near mid channel, I announced we’re goin big instead. So we peeled off the rock and charged into the evil looking pillow which funneled into a dark 8 foot ledge. All the other boats on the water that day had avoided this line, yet after we moshed through cleanly we quickly high fived and paddled easily to the bank as if to say “we meant to do that”.

At around 4pm we reached the take out and hastily packed up to begin the 10 hour drive back to Portland. Encoded in our memory banks was a weekend like we had never experienced. Challenge, competition, fatigue, laughter, resiliency, accomplishment, peace, all of these feelings/experiences produced a strong sense of brotherhood. ORT, we are more than just a whitewater rafting team.

For some sweet Bogus Thunder race footy by Daniel, go to:
http://www.awetstate.com/NFARace08.html(We’re the second raft going through).

For WWCS points standings go to:
http://www.moldygear.com/
Canyon Creek this weekend, keep pushin on,

Tim

Canyon Creek Training

Human behavior.
Never fails to intrigue me.

Rivers.
Never fail to fascinate me.

The synergy of humans running rivers, an abstract of life itself, a synapse of energies which create a mirror of being.
We can learn a lot from a simple river trip.


Last weekend the boys we’re tied up for 48 hours with the Wind Race.
This coming weekend we roll down to the North Fork of the American so I wasn’t too surprised when only Ox and Oyster showed up Saturday morning for a Canyon Creek run.
Oh sure everyone had an excuse/reason; mom’s in town, bachelor party in Vegas, flying back from spring break in Arizona(x2), gotta work.

For what might be the same reason folks rubber neck when driving by an accident about 8 kayakers showed up at the put in. Of course we didn’t disappoint. We ran 90% of the drops fairly well, it was just that the 10% was an 18 footer we body hucked sideways. Sure we might have seen the guard rocks we got hung up on had we scouted it, but we won't be able to scout during the Canyon Creek Race, training makes one stronger, IF ya can survive it.

Once all control was lost and we were peering the wrong way into a bad situation, during the next millisecond the concept of fate and luck crossed my mind.

Tchaikovsky explored the concept of fate with his Fourth Symphony and described it as, “ This is Fate, that fateful force which prevents the impulse to happiness from entirely achieving its goal, forever on jealous guard lest peace and well being should ever be attained in complete and unclouded form, hanging above us like the sword of Damacoles, constantly and unremittingly poisoning the soul. Its force is invisible and can never be overcome. Our only choice is to surrender to it, and to languish fruitlessly”.

Ox and I surrendered to gravity as we body gutted the reversal at the base of Big Kahuna and languished fruitlessly in the frothy run out. Kayakers watched, and our teammates will hear about it from a safe distance.

Human behavior, classical music, whitewater.

When it all comes it apart it all comes together.

Yin and Yang, another day on the river with ORT.

Tim

Check out the vid by Corey Morton at:
http://wondermidget.blogspot.com/

2008 ORT Wind Race

Season Kickoff for the:

2008 Western Whitewater Championship Series (WWCS)

What a blast.
29 racers suited up to brave the cold rainy weather, early start time, and wrath from mom for not attending Easter dinner to attend the first downriver Upper Wind race in 14 years.

Joe Stumpfel in his super mongo Wave Hopper was the only racer to break the 20 minute barrier finishing the roughly 3 mile (Class III-IV+) course in 19minutes:17seconds.

At approximately 6.7 feet on the gauge at race time the Upper Wind held on to it’s reputation of being technical while still smashing paddlers with solid holes.
Ram’s Horn was said to humble several fatigued paddlers on this day.

Dave Hagmeier proved yet again that he is the man to beat in a cataraft, while Greg Mallory beat all comers in the competitive under 9 feet kayak class. Greg represents what is right about competition, his inner strength and modest demeanor was unmatched. I really hope you get to meet Greg on the river someday.

The California Women tactfully took full advantage of their downriver starting position and cleverly held a solid line throughout the first 1/3rd of the race completely disallowing ORT an opportunity to pass. When the channel finally widened up just above Initiation, ORT snuck by on the inside but blew their exit line after the first big ledge which let the opportunistic ladies from Cali to slip by. ORT was again forced to wait patiently for an opening and about 4 boulder gardens later were able to crank by just above Ram’s Horn. Our line at the Horn wasn’t real clean but it was good enough to take a solid lead and settle in for the remainder of the gorge.

At the finish line we waited anxiously for new ORT recruit and first year paddler Matt King who had never seen this section of stout water before. Additionally, he was racing it (R2) in a 12 foot Aire Puma with a classmate he had just “drug” off the campus who may have only been in a raft a few times, ever. We let out a big cheer as this crew finally came around the corner, Matt with a big grin and his bro with the thousand yard stare.

Back at the cabin racers and volunteers were stoked with some spicy chili served up by ORT, Easter Eggs by Kate and April, and PBR which was donated by Zach from ECHO River Trips.
83% of the racers went home with gear or prizes provided by:

Gerber Knives
River Connection
Whitewater Designs
Cascade Outfitters
Next Adventure
NRS
WRSI

A very special thanks for:

Event insurance and timing provided by Bob and Kerry of the Northwest Rafters Association (NWRA) who will be hosting the 25th annual Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival May 16th – 18th.

Registration and event support by Mark Rettmann.

Shuttle and tent by Next Adventure.

Gerber knives and parking by Rob Virostek of kayakattack.com.

And of course the great folks at Aire, Aquabound, WRSI, and Immersion Research, who continue to provide the boys with the best equipment on the river.

Come join the fun next year with practice on Saturday March 21st and the race on Sunday March 22nd.

Next stop on the WWCS is the North Fork of the American April 5th.

ORT, we are more than just a whitewater rafting team,

Tim


EVENT RESULTS
Long Boat Kayak
1st Joe Stumpfel 19:17
2nd Austin Rathman 20:04
3rd Nate Bell 22:06
4th Christie Glissmeyer 22:48

Kayak (Under 9 feet)
1st Greg Mallory 21:42
2nd Tony Skirvanek 22:33
3rd Rob Virostek 23:10
4th Jim Kennedy
5th Roberta Grant
6th Luke Spencer

Cataraft---Times “rained out”
1st Dave Hagmeir
2nd Zachary Collier
3rd Val Shaull


Paddle Raft
1st Oregon Rafting Team (ORT) 22:44
2nd California Women 23:17
3rd Bigfoot (R2) 27:09
4th ORT Rookies (R2) 28:55

http://www.oregonraftingteam.com/