Tommy Hilleke's Bachelor Party

Talow Creek- A tat-high

2004-09-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Visit LVM Video to purchase the Whitewater Kayaking DVD of this Expedition.
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To watch video #1 Tatlow Creek=>
Click Here
To watch video #2 Tatlow Creek=>
Click Here

This summer season Whistler locals, Jonovan Moore (the man who found the creek) Sam Maltby, Stew Smith and Derek Thomas, pioneered a new gem in the Squampton zone, Tatlow Creek. The Tatlow flows into the upper Ashlu, above the ‘Mine’ run and the ‘Box Canyon’. The creek is a mere 6k long, but it packs a serious wallop. The run goes like this; 6-8-8-20-25-10-4-sieve-25-8-35-20-8-6-3 or some such something like that. The Tatlow run just goes to show how many badass creeks must be left to explore in the area. Hats off to Jonovan for sussing this one out.

Mr Hilleke checking out the zone.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Minivan #2 (in 9 days),right above the put-in for the Box Canyon of the Ashlu.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The lip of 50/50 falls on the Box (at maching high water)

photo by Nikki Kelly

Here is a view of the mountains ringing the Ashlu gorge..

photo by Nikki Kelly

The Talow requires a VERY aerobic hike up to the putin. I believe our stats came out something like 900 vertical feet of elevation and 40 minutes of walking close to straight up the hill.

Tommy hoofing it up the old road.

photo by Nikki Kelly

After walking up the road you descend into the creek through a fine piece of BC hellfuck.

Fred Coriell prior to dropping in.

photo by Nikki Kelly

photo by Nikki Kelly

When we arrived at the putin Mr. Grace realized that he left his drytop at the car and he was forced to plod back up through previously mentioned BC hellfuck, it must have seemed like the end of the world for him.

We had guide Polk Deters to show us the way down, and he was a little concerned with the level at the top, setting an ominous tone right off the bat.

Here is Fred dropping off the first 20 footer. There is a bad cave on the right and a nasty wall on the left. Johnnie Kern swam here on a previous trip, so the tension was on the high side of good.

photo by Nikki Kelly

photo by Nikki Kelly

Tommy scouting the first section on the Tatlow.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Here is a sequence of Hilleke running the first falls. The immediate lead in to this falls is a series of three ledges, all in the 6-8 foot range (w/not small holes).

photo by Nikki Kelly

Justin Beckwith running the same falls.

photos by Nikki Kelly

The second falls is a bit dicey and requires a mandatory plugger at the bottom (see videos for action)
This falls had been walked by many in the past, so here we are debating the pros and cons.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Polk Deters ‘nutting up’.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Tommy, same.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Fred Coriell running the double drop just below the second falls. This drop has a nasty hole at the bottom that caused Mr. Deters to be temporarily separated from his kayak.

photo by Nikki Kelly

A river-wide sieve that blocks the whole flow or the creek precedes the third falls.
The sieve requires a very active portage through more BC undergrowth and an additional scout down the canyon of the third falls.

The third falls is a steep ass slide that drops into a wall, very immediately into a wall.

Here is Deters in the third falls.

Justin Beckwith, same falls.

Here is a series of Toby MacDermott having some issues in the third fall.

photos by Nikki Kelly

The next series of falls caused a good bit of problems for our group. The action began with an eight footer into a 35 foot near vertical slide split into two channels. The left channel was death by decapitation and the right side was a bit tricky to get to. Tommy was convinced the drop was good and gave her straight off.

The rest of the group had a bit of a meltdown concerning the ability to catch an eddy/portage the next falls, which the 35 footer flushed promptly into. With concern on his face Freddy gave the ‘I don’t think its such a good idea at this level’ speech and with risk management in mind we all began the very sketchy portage around the falls. The problem was, we weren’t sure if when we got to the river where Tommy was located, on a rock in the middle of the river, if we could portage the next nasty falls (run only we believe by Corey Boux). After much deliberation we ended up returning to the riverbed and working out the portage.

Here is Justin ‘jumping’ the portage.

photos by Nikki Kelly

The last big drop was genuine piece of shit with no portage options. Here are some innocuous shots from the top.

photos by Nikki Kelly

The last two falls spill into a pool blocked by a large strainer.
Polk Deters and Tommy Hilleke falling through the last hourglass canyon of the Tatlow Gorge.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The big loggen bridge marks your takeout, at which time a congratulatory remark or two will certainly be shared.

A despondent Grace awaiting the team at the get out.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Flood, BC Style

2004-09-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

After our Hurley mission, we headed into Whistler for Toby’s B-Day dinner. That’s when the rain began, and it did not stop falling till the following morning. We slept at the ultra-classic Whister Dump (a real blast from the past) and ran into Eastern Canadian Brad Sutton slumming about. After a bit of catch up we headed down the hill toward Squampton (Squamish). Every drainage we crossed was raging, some muddy brown some a pure tannic color (those flowing from untouched headwaters), color be damned, they were all high as hell.

We headed up to classic Mamquam Falls to give her a look. Here is what we found.

Here is a classic shot of the future (2010) home of the winter Olympics. The Squamus Chief in the background.

After scouting various and sundry falls around town, we headed out to run ‘Fear Canyon of the Elaho’.
As we gassed up the rental van, little did we know that it would be its last voyage with the team.

Somewhere near the Aslu River, Fred discovered we no longer had any brakes, as in NO brakes. Not exactly the vehicle you want to be driving when facing the huge logging trucks that frequent the Elaho valley. The crew was into giving her a go, but Fred made the mature decision to head her back in town.

Mid-driving-without-brakes-on-logging-road discussion.

Hurley River Trip Report- Beatdown right off the bat

2004-09-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

To watch video from the Hurley=>
Click Here

After making our 18-hour southbound mission from the takeout to Williams Lake, BC, we had some options of what to paddle. The ever-elusive Mosley Creek (see ‘03 mission post below) was nearing a state of run ability, but we balked at the exorbitant amount of coin that we would be required to drop on helicopters and seaplanes to run shuttle.

During the high water summer season of ’00, Jed Weingarten, Willie Kern and myself took a scouting tour of the mountains to the East and North of Pemberton, BC. Once on the leeward slope of the Coast Range the conditions become much more arid. The rock has a more shaley consistency and scree dominates most of the river corridors.

One of the most intriguing drainages we came across was the Hurley/Cadwalader River. A brief scout verified that the river was steep, way too high and in a Butt Crack gorge. Then we left.

Last year, just prior to our Homathko trip, Jed and Willie went back and ran the lower gorge. They reported awesome class IV+ with a few class Vs. They also scouted the upper waterfall section. There they found five falls, with two of them being a bit marginal.

We headed out to Gold Bridge from Williams Lake, cruising through some big, beautiful country. We stopped at the Frasier River to check out a big water feature.

The Frasier River Canyon.

Next stop was a pretty little creek draining into the Bridge River.

There we discovered a real big spider guarding the bridge.

Several hours later we arrived at the base of the Hurley Gorge.

That evening we were eating in the local pub (this place is WAY out there, nothing in town but one bar, no gas, no beer store, no nothing) and one of Freddy’s friends from Middlebury College dropped in to say hello. Spencer Lawley and his dad (idahoians) were taking their annual father/son BC biking trip and saw our rigs. Never ceases to amaze me how small the world we live in is.

We camped at the put-in of the Waterfalls section with the Lawleys, and set shuttle to drop all the way down to Gold Bridge.

We talked to a classic local gentleman and he informed us that access that Jed and Willie had used was now blocked off due to the reopening of the open pit gold mine near the confluence of the Hurley and Cadwalader. The mine has produced over 100 million in gold bullion during its lifetime and was back in action. The short of the long of it is that we would not be able to scout the section prior to dropping in.

If you’ve never been to BC before, a review of Tommy’s Top Ten Rules of Survival in BC is in order before you go. Rule #2, “Beware the unscoutable, unportagable, unrunable gorges, they are everywhere”. So here we went, dropping on in to a gorge we knew nothing about.

The crew warming up in the cold fall morning, just prior to dropping into the ‘Waterfalls Gorge’.

photo by Nikki Kelly

…and there we were. 1st drop, bad pocket, two channels, with a couple of drops in a canyon and then off a nice 18 footer. Grace went 1st, dropped into said bad pocket and got beat down (please see quicktime video above for full effect).

Here is Tommy coming to the rescue.

Here are some sweet shots of the 2nd falls of the Hurley.

After Toby and Justin ran down the canyon and rescued Grace’s kayak, Tommy, Nikki and myself had had an opportunity to scout the drop that exploded John’s kayak, and we didn’t want any. Too much flow for that one.

By the time we all regrouped, the day was getting old, the air was cold, and thoughts of dropping into the formidable butt crack gorge below was not high on everyone’s priority list. So we did what one does nearly every trip to BC, we hiked out. The road we found led to the Gold Mine and a potential $5,000 fine, so we had to backtrack and find a mushroom pickers trail back up the car. Big workout.

After retrieving car from bottom, we headed up and over the mountains and into Pemberton, BC (potato seed capital of the world for those who didn’t know).

A view from the top of the hill, looking down into the upper Lilloet Valley.

Stikine River Wrap Up

2004-09-20T09:57:00.000-07:00

Stikine River Wrap Up

Just like Willie Kern said, “Nothing has changed, but everything is different”.

Our trip down the river was an absolute success. We had a blast, visited one of the most beautiful, daunting and formidable places on earth, and made it out the other side to tell the tale. Our level was around 8-9,000 cfs, on the low side for sure. We all are currently having nightmares of returning to the Stikine ‘con agua’. Somewhere around 15,000 cfs that place will just go off, and we can’t wait to be in there.

The drive was epic, both ways, but worth it all. The put-in town, Dease Lake, was a real experience to visit, seeing how the people live up in the far north (i.e. 90% of the town is drunk by 6pm and the hep is rampant). Twin Peaks-esque for sure.

Every one of us, in their own way and time, recognized how lucky and fortunate we were to share such a special place, hoping to keep the memories alive forever.

We are all real proud to have been there with Nikki, during the first female descent of the Stikine, but in the end it was just another trip for the girl.

She said it best, “I don’t really feel like it was an individual accomplishment. We came here as a team and that is how we got down the river.” Modest as always, her actions speak all that needs to be heard.

The formidable Ms. Nikki Kelly, post head wound from Polk Deters’ inner van cabinet, sustained while asleep and riding down a very rough road.

photo by John Grace

The Stikine River Day 3- living in the present moment

2004-09-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

To watch video from day three=>
Click Here
On day 2, after ‘the wall’, the river opened up into an area known as the Garden of the Gods (see day 2 pic of Nikki). The geologic change between the vertical walled inner gorge and the open expanse of the garden was amazing. Huge fields of scree ran off of blocky sandstone cliffs. Light brown in color, the big cliffs presented a stark contrast to the dark, columnar basalt of the canyon.

After a couple of miles we came to camp 2, a big sandbar at the end of a long straight away.

Fred unloading the kitchen sink @ camp 2

photo by Nikki Kelly

The shoe drying rack.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The crew preparing to put on for ‘The Big Day”

Our entire beta on the Stikine river pointed toward day three as ‘the one’. Everyone had told us (including Polk who had previously run the river) that day 1 and 2 were simply a warm-up for the big drops in the lower Narrows. They (Rob, Charlie, Polk) were exactly correct. All of the drops, although generally shorter in nature, were larger than encountered thus far in the trip.

John and Nikki in the Rock Garden.

Here is another random day 3 drop

Justin Beckwith in ‘Wall 2’

One of the finest treats on day 3 (although a couple had been seen high on the walls in the preceding days) was the plethora of mountain goats high on the walls of the Stikine.

Here are a few shots of some mighty goats.

The first monster of day 3 comes on with a fright. Scissors, possibly the most consequential drop of the river, was only run by 3 of the 8 contestants present. This decision was based mainly on the nasty rocks very much in play, located just after the enormous crashing diagonals.

John and Tommy scouting on Day 3.

Here is a sequence of Tommy running Scissors.

Daniel, taking one for the team in Scissors.

Grace giving it all and sticking the meat of Scissors.

The next big drop in the narrows, the fabled ‘Hole that ate Chicago’, required either boofing a very ‘wet’ ledge away from the hole, or riding a diagonal immediately in front of the hole capable of swallowing a major metropolitan area.

Here is Nikki Kelly gracefully avoiding the meat.

The culmination of everything we came up North to accomplish could be summed up in one moment. When we pulled out away from the ramp at V-Drive and pointed her downstream, there was no other place to be than the present moment.

Here are a few of us standing on the pilar above V-Drive.

photo by Nikki Kelly

V-Drive was first run by Idahoan Conrad, sometime in the 90’s I believe, and the reason others hadn’t ventured down there before was pretty obvious, even from 100 feet off the deck.

Well the portage looked downright awful, so back to the river we headed. Tommy took the first run solo, sans wingman.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The immensity of this rapid cannot be described in words, lets just say the first feature you deal with must compare to Mavericks off the coast of California, a face of nearly 20 vertical feet, ending a violently crashing hole, sending you flying toward the inhospitable left wall.

Daniel in the top of V-Drive.

photo by Nikki Kelly

These video sequences might help get a better understanding of the enormity of V-Drive.
Tommy taking the sub aquatic line.

Toby MacDermott getting swallered up by the hole on top of the Mavericks wave.

Justin Beckwith in V-Drive.

Fred Coriell and Daniel DeLaVergne, V-Drive.

After V-Drive, the sense of being somewhere and doing something monumental really took over the whole crew. We floated down through the inner narrows, elated at surviving the monster and proud to be apart of such a monumental accomplishment, not Justus making down period, but being with Ms. Nikki Kelly, the first woman to ever paddle through the heart of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine.

One last obstacle awaited our exit of the Canyon, Guard Dog and Tanzilla Slot. The slot is wide enough to pin a kayak in width wise and features several marginal boiling eddy lines and such.

The Tanzilla River flows in just above the slot, adding extras flow to the river.

Fred clearing the ‘slot’.

‘Rise Up’

It is here that Wille Kern's notes really tell the story of what's going on.

"Gaurd Dog was split by a shoal island, look down on the left for a falls coming in on the right and the n the flows combine and squishes up in front of Tanzilla Slot. Powerhouse is all that remains till the confluence of the Tahltan. And now your are at the end and nothing has changed but everything is different. Be well, be safe, beware, because."

-WK

Could not have said it better.

A scenic shot looking back up into the Tanzilla Slot. The juxtaposition of the rock types is evident in this shot.

Hilleke running the last big rapid before the long paddle out to Telegraph Creek.

The Stikine Day 2-Long and Walled-in

2004-09-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

To watch video from day two=>
Click Here

To watch video from day two=>
Click Here

We awoke on the morning of the 12th, with a passing hope that a repeat of 3 years ago did not occur again anywhere in the world. We celebrated freedom on September 11th by dropping into a canyon so inhospitable to be free of errant terrorists, but we new nothing of what else occurred that day. The place we chose to sleep, Site Zed, is the remains of a Dam project that intended to stop the flow of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine in order to generate Hydropower for foreign interests (read US).

This act of terrorism against the environment, least of all upon one of the most special and pure places in all of North America, was averted when it was discovered to be unprofitable to build the extensively long transmission lines to carry the power south. The Grand Canyon was spared thanks to a few intelligent capitalists who, working off of legitimate Break-Even Analysis, made the call to not damn the canyon in the name of protecting future profits.

Cooking breakfast @ Site Zed

photo by Nikki Kelly

The morning sun rising on the cliffs @ Site Zed. Fall seemed to come upon the area in the short few days we were there.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Onn the after noon of the 11th, Polk, myself, Nikki and Toby, portaged our empty kayaks the 90 minutes around Site Zed Rapid. Site Zed is the last unrun cataract in the Grand Canyon. Tommy, John, Fred and Justin chose to scout the rapid and portage full boats in the morning.

The weather on the 11th was, after it stopped snowing, mostly a constant drizzle. The skies cleared of rain as we made camp, and remained in a near constant state of ‘mostly cloudy’ for the remainder of the trip.

Site Zed

photo by Nikki Kelly

Tommy, wishing he were down there and not up here.

photo by Nikki Kelly

John Grace mid hour and a half portage with 90-pound kayak.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Looking into the gut of it.

photo by Nikki Kelly

John Grace, high noon ferrying below Zed. We finally got on the water at noon and had a challenging ferry right off the bat. Once again the power of the river was overwhelming.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The big ferry kicked everything off and the Canyon only grew tighter as we moved downstream. The big rapid of the day, The Wall, was on everyone’s mind. We new it was tricky and had caused problems for trips in the past.

Before we made it there we ran into a rapid we weren’t exactly expecting. What we now know as ‘always a fucking problem’ or AFP, presented itself as a rather un-open rapid. There were four or five big holes, littered across the rapid and seams joining them all together. I ran first, down the meat and caught a huge seam and went sub-surface for a tentative few moments and returned thankfully angled in the right direction.

“Watch out for the seams” says Charlie Munsey

From the bottom I watched Freddy frantically back ferrying above the drop, lost in the immensity of it. Polk backendered at the top and was unmercifully swept upside down over the edge of the monster center hole, but was swept downstream in a huge flush.
John Grace ran from right to left and found himself headed for the gut of the bad hole. He boofed the right edge with pure abandon, and flushed out all in a matter of seconds.

Lunch found us still walled in and running bigger and bigger rapids, still no ‘wall’ to be found.

Looking upstream of Day 2 lunch.

“What’s in your sac?”

Daniel doing his impersonation of a ‘floater’, lunch rapid day 2.

Polk Deters deep in lunch day 2.

John Grace somewhere on day 2

Finally we got to ‘the wall”. Possibly one of the finest big water rapids out there, all of the elements were in play, big holes, lateral waves, gnarly undercut rocks in the riverbed, all that shit. Tommy and myself set out first and it was awesome. Big ass shit. Just a taste of what was to come on day 3.

Nikki Kelly in the Garden of the Gods, the last drop of Day 2.

The Ultra-Classic Stikine River Day 1

2004-09-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

The Ultra-Classic Stikine River Day 1

To watch video from day one=>
Click Here

We headed to the put in at 8 am. The conditions were cold and snowing a significant amount. The apprehension in the crew was palatable. We set off into the wilds onn the worst of conditions, hopping to make it out the other side three days later.

The crew at the putin

After about 1 hour of paddling we reached the head of the canyon. After a high scout on the canyon wall, river left, we dropped in and, for the first time, flet the power of the mighty Stikine River.

Here are Tommy Hilleke and Daniel DeLaVergne running entrance falls.

photo by Nikki Kelly

photo by Nikki Kelly

photo by Nikki Kelly

photo by Nikki Kelly

Once in the canyon, the rapids were huge, the scouting long and the portage options marginal.

Here is Johnn Grace somewhere in the 1st Narrows, Grand Canyo nof the Stikine.

photo by Nikki Kelly
Daniel somewhere day 1, narrows 1.

photo by Nikki Kelly

One of the big rapids on day 1 is Pass/Fail. Pssing means you make it left of the rock in the middle of the river, failing means you went right. The right slot is somewhat reminiscent of toaster on the Futa.
Well, Toby and Myself both failed, but fortunately we passed the failing side and did not swim.
Toby Fails.

photo by Nikki Kelly
Daniel, failing.

photo by Nikki Kelly
samething

photo by Nikki Kelly
The crew offering support of r thte wayward failers.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Another big rapid, Wassons hole, can be seen in the images below. John Wasson made this drop famous by swimming out of the hole and climbing up the steep rock face on river left. The footage of this daring escape was filmed from a helicopter and forever burned into the memory of those lucky enough to catch it on film.

Here is Tommy at the Site Zed campground, drying out his union suit.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The team's thoughts on the Stikine.

2004-09-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

Kayaking presents itself as both an individual pursuit and a team endeavor. When faced with any expedition, especially one of such a committing nature as the Stikine, these aspects are personified on both ends. The team is there to ensure a safe and well thought out descent down the river, but in the end a swim in big water can leave one alone and relying on no one else to help bail him or her out of the canyon.

Our crew has been interacting as a cohesive unit on and off the river for several years now, and we each possesses an in-depth understanding of what makes the others tick.

Fred and Toby portaging Atom Bomb Falls.

Photo by Alex Ransom

Nikki giving John the thumbs up for a blind run of the Double Pothole drop on Upper Cherry Creek.

photo by Tommy Hilleke

The crew at 'Pothole Camp' just before dropping in to the Crucible Gorge.

Here are some pre-put-on thoughts from the crew.

Nikki Kelly
The longest, and most anticipated river I’ve ever put on. Lethargy overtook me on the long drive to the put in. The mammoth task ahead, the amount of work we were about to have to put in to survive the Canyon, feels like a solid weight on my shoulders.

Fred Coriell
I’ve wanted to paddle this river for 10 years, since I was 15 years old. I distinctly remember that moment in my life, it was the 1st time I paddled the North Fork of Payette, we went down to Cascades and they were watching the Rob Lesser video on the first D of the Stikine, to me that was the shit. Now I am here, and we are going to run the shit.

Toby MacDermott
This is my first trip to BC, I hope it is worth it. Everybody tells me I’m a bitch cause the Stikine is my first BC river.

Tommy Hilleke

Excitement… Nervousness… Freedom….my mind is filled with images of home, people I love and work to be done. There are so many other aspects of life that are important. What is it about a trip like this that is so deeply connected to the core of us that we would drop everything else to experience it? With all of this overloading my mind , I welcome the challenges of this river and the paradigm shifting, ultra-simplifying focus required to Journey through this place. I’m on fire.

Daniel DeLaVergne
I have feared the commitment of the Stikine ever since I started paddling big BC rivers. First it was the Dean and then the Homathko. It wasn’t until the second time surviving the Homathko mighty gorges that I felt like I was ready to tackle the commiting walled in, big water of the Stikine. I’m still not sure if I am ready, but here we are and there we’ll go.

John Grace
This is the hardest river we could drive to and put on (except the Tsangpo, more about that later). I can’t wait to put on.

Polk Deters
I’ve been here once before and the water level doubled to 20,000 cfs and it was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. The level was like this, and the weather was like this, and I swore I would never put on under these conditions again. In fact I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to come back to the Stikine. But here we are, and there she is.

Justin Beckwith
I feel humble venturing to the Stikine—but I also know the potential this remote river offers. It is a great pleasure to be in such strong company. Trying to maintain an open mind. Looking forward to the challenge.

The Stewart-Cassiar Highway

2004-09-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

The Stewart-Cassiar Highway

The last 500 k of the drive to the Stikine rolls north on the classic Stewart-Cassiar Highway, connecting the southern Alsaka town (Stewart) to the Northern BC hamlet of Cassiar.

The final right hand turn on the way to the Grand Canyon of the Stikine.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The voyage started in Vancouver (bottom left) and ended at Dease Lake (high, north)

Tdub's rental van headed up north.

photo by Nikki Kelly

A little black bear on the side of the highway.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The peaks near the Stikine.

photo by Nikki Kelly

After nearly 22 hours and 1000 miles of driving the crew arrives at the putin to overcast blustery conditions.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The group at gathers on the bridge the evening before the scheduled put on of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine.

photo by Nikki Kelly

John and Nikki outside of Gordo's Cafe in Dease Lake, British Columbia. Through a hot tip from Seth Warren we found out that Ulyssess, the owner of the cafe, would be willing to help shuttle us to and from the river (and cook up some mean cheese burgers, too)

photo by Nikki Kelly

200 K from the Stikine

2004-09-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

We are currently a couple hours drive from the put in of the Grand Canyon of the Stikine.

The temps are in the 40's and the mountains have healthy coat of snow.

We plan to put on tommorrow am.

The 1049 mile drive has taken less than 24 hours and was rather easy.

The State of Things/ Headed to the river

2004-09-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

We just recieved word form Seth Warren and crew, that the river is a great low level, real technical. It rained on them the whole trip and it was very cold. There is snow at the put in.

We are headed to Dease Lake right now (4pm 9/9) and expect to make it to the river in 24 hours. It will prove to be a long and harrowing drive I'm sure.

In Seth's party everyone ran V-Drive and survived (all 7), from what we know about the river this a notable accomplishment.

Below is the forecast for the coming days, we plan to put on Saturday morning and take off on Monday afternoon.

Text Forecast from Environment Canada
Dease Lake: Issued 11.00 AM PDT Thursday 9 September 2004
Today .. A mix of sun and cloud. High 11. UV index 3 or moderate.
Tonight .. Cloudy periods. Low minus 3.
Friday .. A mix of sun and cloud. High 11.
Saturday .. Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers. Low zero. High 8.
Sunday .. Cloudy. Low 1. High 12.
Monday .. Cloudy. Low 1. High 12.
Normals for the period .. Low 2. High 14.

The current level.

Here are some random images from the Casiar Hwy.

That is the Stikine River in the valley before the big peaks.

Check out this virtual reality view of the river upstream from the put in=> Click Here

We will do our best to check in before our put on, but if not we will report as soon as we are off the river.

Cheers for now,
Tdub

The Transcontinental Stikine Mission Begins

2004-09-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

At 3:30 am this morning mobilization to the Grand Canyon of the Stikine began.

Fred Coriell and Justin Beckwith left their Vermont home in the wee hours of the morning and headed t o the airport, headed to the team rally point in Vancouver, BC.

Tommy Hilleke, after a stressful and late departure from Asheville, rallied with Toby in Atlanta and caught a 1 pm flight bound for Vancouver.

John Grace and Nikki Kelly, with staggered flights from Knoxville, began their migration as well. Nikki, facing immediate expulsion from the country due to Visa issues, had the added pressure to ensure that all the things she wanted to take home to New Zealand were on her person.

I awoke @ 6:30 am to head out to Transylvania County, NC to film Pat Keller and Austin Rathman running the large, and seldom flowing, Looking Glass Falls.

To watch pat run the falls=>
Click Here
To watch Austin Run the Falls=>
Click Here

On the way back to Asheville, I received a number of messages from folks at Riverside Industrial Park (home of Astral Buoyancy and Watershed), each more and more alarmed. It seemed that the French Broad River was escaping its banks at a rapid pace.

The messages went something like this:

“Ahhh, Daniel, you better get down here and move your Subaru, the river is at the top of your tires”

-Scott Albright

**I had been storing my second car in the parking lot next to the river.

“Daniel, this is Justyn at Watershed, we need you to come get your care before the river does”

“Daniel, its Scott, Dude, your car is loosing, are you coming to get it?”

“Daniel, this is Phillip, we are currently tying your car to a telephone pole, but its 4 feet from current and its not looking good, where are you bro?”

-Phillip Curry

“Dude, its at the top of your door handles, better hurry up.”

Pat and I raced to the scene and this is what we found

To watch video of the extraction, death and draining of the ‘Ruu’ Click Here

After the exciting watery death of my first paddling shuttle vehicle, it was homeward bound to finish packing and head for the airport.

I am currently in Denver, awaiting my connector to Vancouver and a late night rally with the crew.

Stikine Training on The Linville Gorge

2004-09-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night of September 1st, a torrential downpour delivered between 4 to 6 inches of rain in the highland watershed of North Carolina’s Ultra-Classic, Linville River.

The river reached an incredible high of 7,000 cfs (nearly unheard of) and presented a great opportunity to test out our new boats loaded with gear.

photo courtesy of Jerry Greer Photography, to visit his site Click Here

The Linville, an expeditionary, used-to-be multiday, class V run, remains one of the top bigger river (i.e. not a steep boney creek) Wilderness Runs on the East Coast. First pioneered back in the late 70’s, the run and the 100’s of rapids remain somewhat shrouded in mystery and legend.

photo courtesy of Jerry Greer Photography, to visit his site Click Here

The Plan:
To hike in at Babble Towers (45 minutes from the rim to the river) this is the start of the gradient and cuts off the 3.5 miles of easier class III-IV below the classic Linville Falls.

We would then run the heart of the gorge and hike out at Conley Cove (1 hard ass hour straight up hill from river to rim). We would then rally backup to the top of the river, load up our overnighter gear and put back on the river, this time at the falls. We would then paddle down for a bit and pick out a prime campsite and paddle out in the morning.

What Happened:

We hiked in, put on, had a great run, and got beat down hiking up the hill. Facing a falling river and an impending 2 weeks sleeping out in the BC wilds, we decided to call it a day and head for the comforts of home.

Here is a widescreen video highlight reel of the day.
Click Here

The rapids, in order of appearance, are:
Babble Tower, Jailhouse and Homie’s Slot
Paddlers were: Brad Kee, Brent Meadows, Toby MacDermott, Andy Dodson, Nate Helms, and Daniel DeLaVergne

tDub's attempt to run the Stikine River

2004-09-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

The Stikine, located 1049 miles north of Vancouver, has only been run by a handful of the best paddlers, and it constantly proves to be one of the most difficult and intimidating of paddling destinations in the world. In short, a place where our friendships will be galvanized like veterans returning from war, and in the process creating a trip that all of us will surely remember for the rest of our lives.
This is the journal of the trip…

The Grand Canyon of the Stikine

To check out or last trip, The 7 Rivers Expedition=> Click Here

About our '03 Mosely Creek Recon Expedition

2004-08-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

Around this time last year, our crew was gearing up to attempt the first descent of Mosley Creek, which flows into the Homathko River, deep in the heart of the Coast Range.

The goal of our trip to the Homathko-Tatlyoko Protected Area was not just to run the mighty Homathko River, but also to become the first paddlers to ever drop into the heart of the run via the steep and high volume Mosley Creek. During our Sept 11th trip in ’01, Willie Kern made note of the ‘definite’ run ability of the lower gorges, at least from what he could tell nearly a thousand feet off the deck in Gideon’s Beaver sea-plane. I concurred, along with Dustin Knapp and a few others we began to spread the gospel of Mosley.

an article about our trip in the new Kayak Session Magazine.
To check out the mag=> Click Here

It goes something like this;
“Well you definitely want a dry suit. The gradient is only in 9 of the 50 miles, the rest is flat, or lakes or bogs or some such. It’s gonna have to be real cold to turn the glaciers off enough to get the flow down. The first bunch of miles drop at the magical gradient of 183 feet per mile, perfect for the volume of the river, but the last two drop at 250 fpm, gonna be a steep bitch. When we get down to the Homathko we will be right above the three most difficult sections of the river, Class V+ wilderness river running at its finest.”

Winding away from the highway out through the Chilcotin Plateau, Mosley flows through all forms of flat water, from big lakes to dogwater bogs for over 40 miles, as the river nears the place where it turns south and cuts through the Mountains, the river becomes a lake for the last time and gains two very steep glacial tributaries. When it drains from this natural lake the river carves a gorge along the Southeastern edge of Mt. Waddington, the tallest of BC’s glaciated peaks. Mosley then joins, in one great trifluence, Tidemann Glacier Creek (Waddington’s main glacier) and the Homathko River.

Jed Weingarten Hiking up to scout Mosley Creek, with the noble Mt. Waddington on the horizon.
photo by Tommy Hilleke

Our plan was to paddle from the main put in on the Homathko and paddle to this trifluence, we would then set up a base camp and scout the lower/inner gorges of Mosley to determine the feasibility of making a run. The river looked pretty good to go, but the flow was a bit too high. We bailed on the ’03 Mosley attempt, but hopefully will be back in future years to give it a go. But this year our goal is paddle the Ultra Classic big water run, The Grand Canyon of the Stikine.

John Grace running 'The Bet' just below the Waddington Trifluence.

phoo by Tommy Hilleke.

Homathko Quicktime Video
Here is a web version of the “Mosley Creek recon Mission’, part of John Grace’s global kayaking documentary “Amongst It”.
The video files are very large and are broken into 2 parts. Each video is 32 mb long and will require a bit of time to load. If you use safari as your browser they will play as they load.
Click Here For Part 1
Footage by John Grace, Daniel DeLaVergne and Ryan Casey. Edited by John Grace.
Click Here For Part 2

To view the Theatrical Trailer for John’s movie "Amongst It".
Click Here
To order a copy of Amongst It
Click Here

Who is the Team going to the Stikine?

2004-08-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

The Man of Honor, Mr. Tommy Hilleke.

Tommy running some such what not on the Devil's Postpile

photo by Nikki Kelly

To check out some vid of tommy in action on one of his home runs, the whitewater river, => Click Here

John Grace

photo by Tommy Hilleke

John on the Royal Gorge of the American

photo by Tommy Hilleke

To watch some video of John Grace=> Click Here

To view some video of John Grace and Tommy running the Cherry Bomb Gorge in Cali at high water=>
Click Here

Nikki Kelly

Nikki running the Gorrila Falls on Upper Cherry Creek
Photo by Tommy Hilleke

To watch some video of Nikki=> Click Here

Fred Coriell

Fred dropping off 'Broken Arrow Falls' into the 'only way out is down' Crucible Gorge, Devil's Postpile San Joaquin, CA

photo by Nikki Kelly

Fred at second falls of the Postpile (1/4 mile below rainbow falls)

photo by Tommy Hilleke

Daniel DeLaVergne

Daniel "take'n her down the gut" twice

photo by Nikki Kelly

photo by Tommy Hilleke

Toby MacDermott

photo by Alex Ransom

Toby Dropping a falls on day one of the Devil's Postpile

photo by Nikki Kelly

Polk Deters

Justin Beckwith