The 7 Rivers Expedition is Complete...

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John and Toby, along with our friend Travis, completed the eighth and final free-flowing river in our expedition lineup.

The boys and girls are headed home with lots of pictures and film. Here is all I have for now.

From Nikola Kelly via Email

"Hi Daniel,

Here’s my part of the Grand Canyon, Toby is giving the paddlers view. we are having problems getting my photos to take on this computer, john the wizard is sorting. ps can you do my spell check!

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, the last of the great high sierras, it was always dubious if we were going to be able to obtain this one, water shortage and the scary usa government seemed to be against us. But whilst driving out of the Kings Canyon, jacked from the trip of a life time, plans for the final descent of the illegal last river were set in place, maybe a little in denial that our dreamful kayak trip could be coming to an end.

So there we were, only three left from the team plus our friend, sifting around the Yosemite national park madness, we were weekend visitors trying to blend in. Scoping out the scene, Monday was our put on day, the day we were too bet the Man. Because of Homeland Security threats, excessive ranger activity and my fragile visa existence in America I opted to be trail support. An innocent Kiwi girl taking a walk down the river, radio in hand to warn the boys of possible threats, rather gripping experience for the boys I think. I enjoyed the different pace, waltzing along the track, light pack, but must admit, water passage is a much more efficient and exciting form of transport.

I will let Toby tell the story from the on-water rats.

Hope that’s ok we are hitting the road so a quick jobby."

Grand Canyon of the T paddler report

Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, from the water.

Four AM wake up, five AM put on. It was rough, but as the guidebook says, useful for “avoiding conflict” with the rangers. It worked pretty well until John discovered that his helmet was still in the van. During the run to get his helmet, John, um "soiled" his pants. Now we have one more thing to give John (AKA Isheet MeDrawers) a hard time about.

Once on the river, it was mad bombing to the top of the portage above Glen Aulin. The rapids were pretty runnable, but the water was very low. We were very exited to get past Glen Aulin without seeing anyone else. The best rapid of the river is right below G. A., a big slide with a couple of moves on the way down. It is the slide where one of the Knapps does an aerial 360 spin in the old liquidlifestyles video.



Below that slide it was flat meadows, interspersed with mostly unrunnable huge waterfalls all the way down to the top of Waterwheel Falls. I think that we may have run one rapid in this whole section.

Waterwheel Falls is enormous, not good to go at any level. We knew that we would have to portage it just from looking at the postcards at the gift shop in Tuolumne Meadows. So on to the shoulder went the boats. And there they stayed for the next hour as we switch backed down the hill. Below Waterwheel it seemed that all of the cool bedrock that we had expected was covered by enormous rock piles. We would bang through one section of manky rocks only to discover that the river disappeared into sieves in the next rapid. Back on the shoulder went the boats. Every now and again we would get back into the river when it flattened out and the sieves became less heinous. Even then it was a butt bruising experience. This was pretty much the routine all the way down to the top of the Muir Gorge. I think that we ended up being able to run two or three good rapids in this section.

Once at the top of the Muir Gorge we got on the radio with Nikki, she reported very difficult hiking around it. We had been told by Scott that it was all good, just when you get to the unscoutable one, run it five feet off the left wall. It was supposed to be an easy plop into the pool below. We found nothing that was good to go five feet off the left and nothing that plopped into a pool. All that was in there was one sketchy rock pile after another. Luckily we were able to scout everything and portage a lot. The last portage was the scariest. It involved a marginal jump onto a rock in the middle, then a traverse down the sharp spine on another rock to yet a third rock. In order to get from the second to the third rock we had to lower ourselves as far as we could hang and then drop down to the slick, wet rock from which we could seal launch. Passing the loaded kayaks from man to man through these moves was no picnic to say the least.
Below the Muir gorge it back into the rock piles and the portaging. We camped for the night at the first flat spot that we could find; exhausted and very glad to have survived the Muir gorge.



Day Two there were two more cool slides and a lot of rock piles and portages down to Pate valley. Below Pate Valley it gorged up again and many manky rock pile rapids and sieve portages brought us to the lake.

All in all we ran seven good rapids, hiked about as many miles with our boats and all swore that we would never go back. The consensus was that the guidebook is right, a backpack is the best way to see the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne.

Middle Kings Day 5 "9 The Bottom Nine"

Having seemed to perfect it, we awoke and were, once again, deep in the shit. Or more accurately, right above 'the shit.'

Toby on the lower nine

photo by Nikki Kelly


*** Allow me to set the stage. We were 9 miles from the confluence, with a 2-mile hike up a big hill, then a 5-hour car ride direct to Sactown. Tommy Hilleke had a 1030 pm flight out of said large valley town on same said Day 5 of our Middle Kings trip. As you can imagine, we didn’t arrive at the airport on time (or even close to on time). Par for the course for Mr. Hilleke and crew.

Our original plan was to make miles into lower 9 on Day 4, but we underestimated the distance from our Fourth of July camp to Tehippiti Dome. When we arrived at the meadows below the dome most of the group was wore out and not ready to pass out of site of the ‘big rock’.

Still planning on giving the ‘airport on time’ plan a good college try, we awoke at 6 am, ate the last of our foodstuffs and hit the river. The sun was still a good two hours away from cracking into the gorge, and it was a bit cold and dark dropping in. Tales of the bottom nine usually feature comments like; “Mad-Bombing”, “we should have scouted more”, “hell, we should have portaged more”. Buffy remembered a lot of blind luck and wishful thinking delivering their crew swiftly through this final section of the river. Tommy claimed we would ‘bomb at will’ and ‘not get out of our kayaks for an hour at a time’. Not.

For Video of Day 5.
Click Here

Once again not a whole bunch of the action was caught on tape by myself, reason forthcoming.

The riverbed was littered with huge boulders and every corner presented another skyscraping horizon line. We began with some immediate “must-lookers”, meaning a scout was advised for all boaters by a ‘point’ man, who did not feel comfortable enough to send everyone through with just oral directions. The third big rapid saw Nikki take a hell-a hole ride, I was sure she would swim, twice. After fighting the hole for a good minute, she won the rodeo and pulled into the eddy, looking a bit disgruntled. She muttered something about, “to early after breakfast for shit like that”.

The next big rapid (conveniently located at the end of the pool from where Nikki surfed) was recognized as the cataract from which Nate Helms had swum two years prior. Tommy of course ran it without scouting and immediately signaled for everyone to get out and look at it. “Big Hole” was the specific sign utilized. We scouted and found a long boulder entrance featuring a well-formed 5-foot pourover with boxed in sidewalls at the exit. The backwash (the water returning upstream after a nasty hole which hinders the downstream progress of a paddler) seemed to be uniform and some distance from the fall. Determined to stick it, I set off on my proposed line. Right near the bad hole a piece of water deflected me right when I thought I would have gone left and I ‘augured’ into the right wall. The next 60 seconds saw my boat locked in sideways and me getting my ass beat. I tried the ‘upside down Jesus pose’, where a paddler rolls upside down and attempts to grab the water at the bottom of the river, like Jesus with his arms outstretched to the sky, and pull his or herself out and away from the hole. At one point I thought I had won my freedom, but upon returning to the surface found myself just as locked into the hole as in the beginning. Sensing the futileness of my situation, I released my paddle and pulled my skirt.
From years of experience of swimming out of nasty holes, I always find the easiest way to freedom is to ball up and head for the bottom and hook into the outflow almost always found there. As soon as you make contact, spring out with your legs in the direction of the water going downstream. Worked like a charm, only problem was there was a large ‘fence’ of rocks on the river floor, and I ran headlong into them with a pretty good deal of speed. The result was a big flash of light and a disorienting spin. I broke the surface and caught a rope provided by Mr. Hilleke. My head and ear hurt like a somofabitch and my balance/equilibrium was shot. Worst thing was I had to watch my 3500 camera float off the top of the next big drop.

Through the course of the next 30 minutes all my gear was retrieved, the camera dried out and my bell became a little clearer. This being 830 a.m., and only two miles into the nine, we were still optimistic to make our 2 o’clock takeout. The first big drop I ran I melted down underwater filling my ear canal with water and producing a shocking pain, a clear indicator that I had done something to my eardrum.

Every horizon line proved to be long, involved and littered with large boulders. With my head all wobbly I chose to walk some of these earlier big ones, but Tommy, Nikki and the crew managed to run most of the rapids.

And Toby again

photo by Nikki Kelly


After an early lunch I got to feeling better and joined in the “Mad Bombing”, as our 2 o’clock takeout time overtook us we were still working through big ass drop after big ass drop, with no end in site. We portaged a few times, but most of the lower half of the lower nine proved to, overall, be spectacularly clean.

Daniel post bell ringing

photo by Nikki Kelly

Just like they said in the Driftwood film,
“We arrived at the confluence tired and amazed that such a steep river could be so runnable”
-or something like that.

A group photo at the get out. Certainly an incredibly motley crew for such a big undertaking.
One Kiwi, an Alabamian, two Floridians a Tennessean and a Hoosier.

Nikki Kelly, Tommy Hilleke, Daniel DeLaVergne, Buffy Bailey Burge, Toby MacDermott and John Grace.
photo by Nikki Kelly


We took between 54 minutes and an hour and half to reach the top of the Yucca Point Trailhead, two steep miles above the confluence of the South and Middle Kings.

Relieved to find cold water and colder beer, we had little time to enjoy the grandeur of the Kings Canyon. We loaded fast and headed out for SAC, most sad to see such a prolific whitewater odyssey coming to a close. Others were deep in thought, trying to logistically put together what would be the sketchiest river of the Eight, and the final piece of the puzzle.

Day 4 Video

Here is a short bit of the film we shot on the fourth day.

Sorry for the lack of kayaking footage. Grace was on video point most of the day and I don't have any of his footage yet.

Click Here

Middle Kings Day 4

Day 4

Awakening to a warm, sunny day, we set off for Ant Camp and the Big Dome. We ran a bunch of class III-IV down to ant camp. It is here that the rapids get real big and bouldery, not as big as day 5, but big nonetheless.

Tommy enthusiastically avoiding a large sieve.

photo by Nikki Kelly

And again.

photo by Nikki Kelly

We made our way through a myriad of boulder drops, not getting out too much to video or take photos. Instead we got into our groove and enjoyed a continuous class V boogie, boat-scouting, bombing session.

After hours of running the shit, we came to the aweinspiring Tohippity Dome (sp?).
This huge granite dome shoots straight out of the river right bank straight to the sky.


photo by Nikki Kelly


photo by Nikki Kelly

We made camp just below the dome, and right above “the Bottom 9” miles. These rapids turned out to some of the biggest, most challenging of our entire trip.

"Whitewater Classics" on the Middle Kings

Here is what a new guidebook “Whitewater Classics”, by Tyler Williams, had to say about the Middle Kings River.

Note: this book has some badass rivers in it. I had not seen it till over at the Burge’s, great read, I highly recommend it.


“Running the Middle Fork of the Kings is the ultimate whitewater adventure in the Sierra Nevadas. A trip down the Middle Kings crosses the breadth of the mountain range, and finishes in the foothills 50 miles downstream. En route, the river drops nearly 8,000 feet in elevation. The journey requires one to two days of hiking to reach the put-in, followed by five to seven days of paddling. There are class V rapids every day of the trip, and a handful of class VI drops. One could hardly create a more perfect setting for cutting-edge wilderness whitewater than the Middle Fork of the Kings.

The first exploration of the river was just one piece of an audacious plan to run all three rivers that bisect the southern Sierra Nevada. The rivers are the San Joaquin, the Kern, and the Kings. The adventures who made it their mission to descend all three in kayaks were Reg Lake, Royal Robbins, and Doug Tompkins……

They systematically ran the three major trans-sierra rivers in consecutive seasons, starting with the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin in 1980. This descent is considered the most impressive of the three, as the group had to employ a great deal of problem solving technique gained through their climbing experience to portage their way through the San Joaquin’s sheer-walled gorges. It was the Middle Fork of the Kings, however that Royal Robbins remembers as the “toughest of the three”.

“Whitewater Classics, Fifty North American Rivers Picked by the Continent’s Leading Paddlers” , Tyler Williams, Funhog Press, Flagstaff, AZ, 2004.

** Hats off to Robbins, Lake and Thomkins for their bold plan and attainment of the goal. Cheers to Scott, the Kerns, Buffy, The Knapps, Mark Hayden and BJ for sticking the modern day descent.


****There is lots more to the Middle Kings story in the book, check it out. There are also great stories about the Fantasy Falls Run and northern classics, the Homathko and the Stikine.


For the FUNHOG PRESS website
Click Here

Here is a link to purchase the title from REI
Click Here

Also in the book is a great bio on Buffy. and I quote

"The Middle Fork of the Kings remains her most memorable Sierra Nevada descent. Thus far, she is only one of three females to have made the grueling wilderness trip."

Well, lets see, two of those girls are Buffy and Nikki, sooo, they have both paddled the river twice now, seconded only by Tommy Hilleke, John Grace, Scott Lindgren (3 peater, the man) and thats it. Fellas looks like you're a bit behind.

Middle Kings Day 3 Video

There is a pile of rapids on this day, so I broke the video up into 3 sections. The basically represent the three 'gorges'.

Day 3 Gorge One Video (quicktime)
Click Here

Day 3 Gorge Two Video (quicktime)
Click Here

Day 3 Gorge Three Video (quicktime)
Click Here

Middle Kings Day 3 "The Meat of the Run" aka The Gorges

Toby dropping in day 3.

photo by Nikki Kelly

We awoke and immediately were in the shit, thick. All negotiated the first part of the upper gorge successfully. Buffy was second to last to drop into the middle and got stomped in a nasty hole. She swam and self-rescued herself by fighting up a big boulder on the river left (ironically the same cave where Tommy was vertically extracted two years prior). Unfortunately, her boat took off and ran the huge slide before she had the opportunity to re-board.

Tommy in the first gorge

photo by Nikki Kelly

The boys in the second part of the first gorge.


photo by Nikki Kelly


photo by Nikki Kelly

After this action you roll onto the biggest slide of the river.

Here is a shot of Tommy from the top of the slide.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Right below this slide comes the gorge with the waterfall and then a portage.


Toby running the waterfall gorge.


photos by Nikki Kelly

Buffy Bailey Burge running the waterfall.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Tommy hauling boats up the portage.

photo by Nikki Kelly

After the portage you drop back into the river and run the classic Willie Kern meltdown rapid. Here is a shot of Buffy.


photo by Nikki Kelly

This gorge leads to another, even tighter gorge with some serious “stuff”.

Here are the boys giving Nikki “the Stare”, mid scout gorge three.

phot by Nikki Kelly

Scouting the 30 footer deep in the third gorge.


photo by Nikki Kelly

Tired and with a broken kayak we made our Fourth of July camp in a flatter section of the river.
No big party, just a little bit of potato vodka and a couple of flint bombs and our fireworks show was over.

Middle Kings Day 2

Day 2

We awoke early and made our way down to the river. A foreboding sky was already building and we were anxious to get on the river. Right before we left, the forerunners of a group behind us made it to the river. JD Batove, Reiley Cathcart, Rick Smith, a kiwi and a guy named Dave were planning on a seven-day trip down to Pine Flat res. We were on a tighter time schedule and planned on 4 days of kayaking, with a takeout at the confluence of the Middle and South Kings.

John Grace somewhere day 1 of paddling.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The intial steep and manky section of the river was rather low and was easiest to navigate via the PCT located on the side of the river. After making several confluences we made it to the high meadow section. This winding flat section seen in the Driftwood movie is perhaps the greatest natural fish hatchery in the high Sierra.

John Grace somewhere up high

photo by Nikki Kelly

After dropping out of the Meadow we ran some great drops, highlighted by a REAL tight slot leading into a 15 foot cauldron. The boys portaged this drop on their high water mission 2 years ago and we were fired up to get to run it.
Here is that falls again.


photo by Nikki Kelly

Lunch Day 2

photo by Nikki Kelly

After running numerous big slides and such we were over it and ready to camp. We made our way down to what is known as “sick camp”. A medium heavy, cold rain began to fall as soon as our drytops came off. We sat around a raging fire while the skies unloaded.

After a hour the rain subsided and we fixed dinner and simply relaxed. Just before dark we walked the next section known as “the gorges” section. The river drops over 650 feet in just over a mile. Needless to say the action was thick and stacked up. We feel asleep with eager anticipation to run all of the badass rapids we had just scouted.

Middle Kings Day 1

Middle Fork of the Kings River

After our 5 hour Devil’s Postpile shuttle ride through Yosemite, the strain of the trip could be seen on everyone’s faces (or maybe it was the strain from John Grace’s driving. Still glad to be alive and on the other side of the Crucible, we were facing a steeply dropping Middle Kings. The High Sierra had been experiencing massive thunderstorms since before we set out on the San Joaquin. We needed to rest and recoup, shop for 6 days worth of overnighter foodstuffs, and organize our pack mules for the trip over the pass.

Buffy flew into LA on Monday for a visit with friends, and then headed to Bishop via bus. Clay Wright and Jed Weingarten caught wind of our trip and rang up to see if they could join our group. We gave them a big “thumbs up” and planned a sunset rendezvous at the Hot Creek Hot Springs just outside of Mammoth Lakes.

The hotsprings, very rejuvenating.


photo by Nikki Kelly

Al g taking the dare and swimming across the “hot spot”.


Sunrise at our high desert camp.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Along with Jed and Clay, Dixie-Marree Pricket and Christie Dobson joined us at our desert camp. We spent the next two days fixing kayaking, loading gear and related off river work. We spoke with several mountain climbers in Bishop trying to arrange human porters to help schlep our gear the 13 miles to the put-in. We found prices high and enthusiasm low, so we headed up to the Rainbow Pack Station to work out a mule train at least to the top of the pass.

The bizarre weather of the previous 6 weeks had led to a minimum of snowmelt at the highest elevations. The packers felt that the chance of clearing the pass was grim to none. Faced with the reality of hauling our fully loaded boats most of the way to the river, we repacked our gear, attempting to save valuable ounces of weight. Due to a previous ankle injury and lack of porters to carry all of his gear, Jed bailed out the night before we were to start. Our group called it an early night, falling asleep to the sounds of Clay packing his bags.

To our surprise we awoke to Clay also saying he was out, fearing the 6.5 miles of downhill into the Le Conte canyon would ruin his knees. Fred, who suffered a lower abdominal tear also backed out, due to his inability to perform even the smallest sit-up.
So we headed to the pack station three less and six strong.

The hike to the top of the pass (5ish miles) was a real pleasure with just our kayaks and no gear. Sooner than later we reached the first snowfield and decided to wait to ensure that the donkeys could clear it. Sure enough they made it most of the way to the top, but were stopped mid switchbacks. Our crew attempted to clear the way, but the first Donkey fell and was unable to get up until her pack was cleared from her back. It was here that we reunited with all our gear. Day hikers Clay Wright and Al G helped the boaters get their gear to the top of the pass.

The top.

photo by Nikki Kelly


John Grace and Baloo the Dog

photo by Nikki Kelly

After a short break we headed down the hill into Dusy Basin. We hiked for another four hours fully loaded until we reached ‘the brink”. The river right wall of the LeConte Canyon of the Middle Kings lay across the large pit below us. We hiked half way down “the switchbacks from hell” aka the Knee Buster walk and made camp on a lower bench. We met two Pacific Crest Trail hikers who were headed to Bishop for a resupply. The one who had come from downstream informed us that there was “some stuff” down there and that we were going to have to get out of the river a lot.

The view of LeConte Canyon from the brink.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Kicking it at “the Brink” after 8 hours of hiking.

photo by Nikki Kelly


Video from Day "The Big Hike"
Click Here

Middle Kings River- "Trip of a Lifetime."

We made it out of the Kings river in 5 days. The trip was more than words can explain. Hopefully the following pictures and video and stories can help bring this amazing place to you.

Gotta run for the day but here are some images from the beg. of the trip.


Fred Coriell, Al Gregory, Buffy Bailey Burge, Nikki Kelly, Danniel DeLaVergne, John Grace, Toby MacDermott, Tommy Hilleke at the trailhead for Bishop Pass, 13 miles from the river.

Our gear headed up Bishop Pass (Donkey's no make it, we carry all stuff long way.)

photo by Nikki Kelly

Buffy Bailey Burge at the top of the pass. This is girl is smiling way too big for what she just did.

photo by Nikki Kelly

A snow storm that hit us at the top of the pass.

photo by Nikki Kelly


Corection: This the "Brink" looking into LeConte Canyon.

photo by Nikki Kelly


A fall on day one. Top of the rapid where a "squeeze play" is neccesary.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Tommy post sqeeze play. Day one falls

photo by Nikki Kelly

Headed to the Middle Kings River

We are headed out to the Rainbow Pack Station to coordinate our mule porters for our hike tomorrow. We will start hiking in the morning, 13 some-odd miles and to the put in at LeConte Canyon. The hike climbs 2500 vertical feet to Bishop Pass and then drops down the other side through a series of killer switchbacks. Hope fully the mules will be able to clear the pass and carry our gear all the way to the river. Otherwise we will have to carry our fully loaded, 100-pound kayaks down the knee exploding trail.

We will take 1 day to hike and 4 days to paddle the 6400 feet of gradient that makes up the Middle Kings River.

More reports to follow.

Devil's Postpile Day 4

Day 4

We awoke from “Purgatory Camp” to a bunch of restless energy. Tommy and Fred went to retrieve the safety line and climbed up the lone cedar tree once more. They eked their way to the very top and were able to see a bit better into the right side of the river. They felt we would be able to paddle down the right hand wall and reach the pool with the exit crack above the last falls.


They removed our safety rope (our exit strategy below Broken Arrow, should we find our way impassable) and headed back to camp. The rest of the crew awoke to the finality of their decision and began to go to “war” and make it out the other side.

The first drop


photo by Nikki Kelly

We portaged the first drop and a team dropped in via the ultra-classic “Broken Arrow” Falls. The rock we planned to scout on proved to be too marginal, with most of the flow draining into a huge sieve pocket, not passable by kayak, we began to boat scout the right slot. All appeared to go down the right hand wall and the three of us dropped in. We proceeded down the right wall through a huge hole, splatted the wall and paddled into the pool above the last drop.

Daniel and Tommy dropping in to the crucible.


photo by Nikki Kelly



Tommy scouted from the left, felt the 9 foot drop was marginal due to the pocket in dropped into, but it was better than the portage. Feeling anxious, I took his directions, paddled like a banshee, dropped into the pocket and fought my way to freedom. Never have I ever been so happy to be one the other side of any place on any river ever as I was at that moment. Trust me.

Tommy on the last drop of the crucible.


photo by Nikki Kelly

We spent some time in “Shangri-La” checking out the falls and celebrating our “graduation” from the Crucible. We set out downstream headed for the confluence of the South Fork and an exit from the Crucible Gorges and the foreboding wall of the Balloon Dome.

The falls below the cruicible

photo by Nikki Kelly



To our surprise we found another four to five gorges with vertical walls shooting up forever high. To our good fortune the huge boulders in the streambed allowed us to portage the overwhelmingly huge sieves at river level. We wrapped around the end of the Balloon Dome and enjoyed a long lunch at the confluence.

For some reason or another we thought we had 4800 feet of gradient to drop total, and had still another 1200 to go. We headed down the now enlarged streambed (which held the river’s water much better). Tommy ran some big drops we chose to portage, but after a while we joined the mad bombing and made good downstream progress. Around 530, thinking we were in for another night, we rolled upon a huge blue heron and Osprey, and then there was the lake.

We made it, all we had left to do was paddle 7 miles across the reservoir to the Mammoth Pool Dam.

Good fortune was with us, and a fine gentleman named Leon and his family gave us a ride across the lake in their pontoon boat. Al G met us at the boat ramp wit h Pizza and Beer.

On the way to Fresno we came across a huge mountain lion in the road, a real special treat, topping off one of the finest river missions any of us had ever been on.

To check out footage from Day 4

Click Here

Devil's Postpile Day 3

Devil’s Postpile Day 3

Starting out of Pine Flat we were hunting down the confluence with the North Fork of the San Joaquin. The Driftwood boys schedule put us camping here and we were trying to keep up with their schedule.

We ran a number of big water gorges with lots of water; we then dropped into a large meadow featuring incredible camping. It seemed as if we were going to get away with our high water run down the Postpile.



Toby in the bigwater action.
Photo by Nikki Kelly

The words from the guidebook, “half the group hiked out at Miller’s Crossing”, and “most of the big drops are below Miller’s Crossing”, nagged at our thoughts. We arrived at the crossing and were looking downstream into one of the most foreboding Granite Gorges I’ve ever seen. We prematurely dropped into the vertical walled canyon and immediately bailed out.

Fred instigated a big scout on the river right and found a high, somewhat intensive portage. We made it around the dome in about 30 minutes and proceeded to drop into another series of gorges. This was where we found the river to go completely under granite bedrock, very bizarre.

We floated around the corner into a heavenly meadow, situated right below the ever-impressive Balloon Dome. It was here that we encountered the most vertical walled section yet. Another high scout revealed the gorge to be paddlable, so after a long lunch and a fish slaying, we dropped in.

We ran some walled in drops, rolled around corner through an inescapable gorge. We portaged 2 drops and found ourselves at the top of an unscoutable gorge. We walked out the river right wall as far as possible and found the “Broken Arrow” falls, indicating that we were in fact within “the” Crucible Gorge. Paddling into this place has been defined as the defining moment in a kayaker’s career. Who ever said that was right. With our high flow we were very hesitant to drop into this gorge that we could not scout. We could see a beautiful pool and a 100 some-odd-foot falls cascading into a wooded meadow. It was as if we were in Hell with Shangri-la 200 yards and a million miles away. Toby crossed a very marginal piece of granite, climbed the only tree around and gave a “very sketch” report on the rapids below our eyesight.



Scouting the crucible day three
photo by Nikki Kelly

Discouraged from the river we set out to find a way out and around the gorge. After a disheartening and ever-increasingly lonely jaunt around the surrounding granite gorge, the reality of our situation set in. It was then 5 pm and we had not one acceptable solution for exiting the gorge. We once again set out on to the river right slab and set up a safety rope to the tree. Fred climbed even higher in the tree and felt that if we could get out on this steep rock in the middle of the river, then we could rock jump around the first two rapids and be in a position to ascend the crack the Driftwood boys had used on their second trip.

With the plan in place we found only one spot to camp, a sand pothole right at the top of the Crucible. That night, be it due to stress, exhaustion, food poisoning or a mix of all, Toby became ill and was puking out the back of the eddy at camp.

The view from "purgatory camp".


photo by Nikki Kelly

“I have never felt so lonely with six people in my whole life.” - Tommy Hilleke

That night a sense of heaviness pervaded camp. We truly had no option but to drop into the unportagable gorge and hope everything worked out all right. I lay down, watching the moon rise on the big pool below the Crucible. I awoke several times during the night, only to be reminded of my predicament by the soaring granite cliff above our heads.

To check out footage from Day 3

Click Here

Devil's Postpile Day 2

Day Two of the Devil’s Postpile


We awoke at what we now know as the spot where Clay Wright pinned his boat and hiked out. We began our descent into the first deep gorge. After running several slides, one over 300 feet long but low angle, we came upon a tight corner with a tricky rapid with a big hole at the bottom. Tommy ran down the meat and the rest of us chose to portage. After dropping back in to the gorge we ran three drops, the last an excellent 15-foot falls/slide.


John Grace

photo by Nikki Kelly

After paddling through this gorge we began to enter the upper crack in the earth gorge, where the river cuts through the high Sierra.

Using the safety link method we began to drop deeper and deeper into the gorge. With only six people we had a maximum of six drops of safety. Meaning that we could only exit the vertical walled gorge by ascending the river upstream, with each paddler providing the anchor point for the next paddlers down to exit. We ran out of safety line 3 drops before the end of the gorge. Feeling severely claustrophobic, Tommy and myself began a short mad bombing session, delivering us to the brink of a large falls. After setting up an anchor in the wall to “dock” our boats, I poked my head over edge and to my delight saw the ultra-classic “boof-o-matic falls”, a 20 some-odd foot slide into a ten-foot kicker.


photo by Nikki Kelly

After the falls was a gorge with 3 huge poor over holes. After a bit of contemplation by our scout Toby, we decided to portage the lower gorge on the river left. A short session of rope work later we were at the base of the gorge and realized that the drops would have gone. Next time.

We had lunch right above Fish Creek. It was here that I tested out the Blue Fox “Vibramax” 1/16 oz spinner on the local trout. 15 casts later I had hooked landed and released 15 trout, from 6 to 12 inches long. The finest trout-fishing spinner ever invented. Hands down.

After fish Creek the river flow doubled and we were definitely floating on the ‘juice”. Some of the best big water rapids were run near the end of Day two.

We made camp at “Pine Flat” where we ran across two rattlesnakes in our camp.



“Age 16-34, Male, between the forefinger and elbow.”

Messing with the rattler.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Watch Video from Day 1 in widescreen format

Click Here

Watch video from Day 1 normal aspect

Click Here

Watch Video from Day 2

Click Here

What the Guide Book has to say about the Postpile

What “The Best Whitewater in California” by Lars Holbek and Chuck Stanley has to say about the Devil’s Postpile of the Middle San Joaquin.

“This section was first run by Reg Lake, Doug Tompkins and Royal Robbins in the summer of ’80. Chuck and I completed the in three and a half long days in July ’86 and came away elated and impressed. My hat is off to the first descenteers.”

“This is the most demanding run I’ve ever seen. In many places it is like Yosemite Valley, but the walls are only a river’s width apart. The scenery is awesome, as are the portages. The portage through the Crucible area near Balloon Dome requires delicate friction climbing, lots of precarious rope work with people and boats, and flawless teamwork. We ‘blitzed” it in 5 hours”

“This run makes Bald Rock Canyon seem like a Cub Scout campout.”

“If you’ve done all the other high Sierra runs, and want more, this is for you.”

“To quote Chuck, “You’ll have to figure out the shuttle yourself. If you can’t find the put-in, you’ll never get down the river.”

Lars Holbek “The Best Whitewater in California- The Guide to 180 Runs” Watershed Books, Holbek, Stanley, Copywright 1984.1988,1998

A river report from “The Best Whitewater in California” written by Hayden Glatte had this to say about the Devil’s Postpile

“The first time I ran the Middle Fork San Joaquin, in 1988, it was just as intense as it is now. Phil DeRiemer and I had an estimated 50 portages, a few of which we slogs through poison oak and manzanita around impossible mini gorges. After 4 days of adventure we came out on the other end torn, scraped, thrilled to be alive, amazed at the beauty witnessed, and friggin’ dog tired.”

“The next two times I ran it, in ’96, the goal was to stay in the riverbed until absolutely forced higher. We had about 34 portages at the higher flow (650 cfs at Miller Crossing), and 26 portages at the lower flow (410 cfs). We made almost all the portages close to the river; on a few we had to go up and around. At the higher flow we made three rope-assisted portages. One of these, in the Crucible section (just above granite creek), requires roping the boats up a bluff on the river left and then down a slab to a tree still 25 feet above the river. From here we threw the boats in and jumped after them. Anchor slings made life much easier and basic rock gear is useful.

To check out the waterfall at the base of the Crucible Gorge.

Click Here

Video of the Balloon Dome, forming the left hand wall of the Cruicible.

Click Here


Even though we didn’t do any technical rock climbing, there is plenty of very exposed rock clambering. We also still had 4-6 no-option-but-to-run V+ drops due to vertical rock walls. One of these, in the Crucible, is not even scoutable. This run is one of the most beautiful and scary there is. It’s full-on adventure.”

-Hayden Glatte, “The Best Whitewater in California- The Guide to 180 Runs” Watershed Books, Holbek, Stanley, Copywright 1984.1988,1998


"Exactly" -Daniel DeLaVergne

"What they said." -Tommy Hilleke

"You're telling me" -Nikki Kelly

Devil's Postpile Day 1

Devil’s Postpile of the San Joaquin River Day 1

After a leisurely morning at the Devil’s Postpile National Monument campground with lots of coffee drinking and other such pre-expedition activities designed to stall out the inevitable and approaching high water putin, we began a solid crack of noon start.

All we really knew about the river is that you want the “perfect” water level, which according to Willie Kern is 550-650 cfs flowing into the Mammoth Pool. Rick Smith and Scott Lindgren both told us that we want a meager flow at Rainbow Falls, with the brink of the fall having water all the way across, but barely. They also said that the first rapid should look “not runnable or barely runnable” and that the river should be almost not floatable. We were facing ample flow, easy to float on and the first rapid was “Awesome”.


Willie also told us we were facing a seven-mile “portage” down the river to the “slides”.
We had a pleasant chat with a “bro-bra” ranger who informed us of the new “CFR”, Code of Federal Regulations changes, which made it illegal to kayak in the National Monument. But he did say if he saw us the he would give us the Devil’s Horns hand signal and say “awweeaayeeah”. From the appearance of the volcanic rock in the riverbed and the potential for trouble with the law we elected to drive a mile downstream to the Rainbow Falls trailhead and walked a mile and half to the base of the 80-foot falls.

Earlier in the week we found a postcard of the falls that appeared to have the recommended amount of flow for the run, and the water spouting off that 80 footer that morning was certainly more than we were supposed to have in the riverbed.
]

Tommy and Freddy ran the first gorge we came to and then we started walking high staying out of the riverbed and on the granite bench on river right.

Right at the end of our long portage Tommy and Toby dropped in early and ran a nice double drop.

Toby paddling the Bliss-stick MAC somewhere above the first crack in the earth, Devil's Postpile

photo by Nikki Kelly

Toby portaging after the sweet double drop.

photo by Nikki Kelly


Near the end of the day we came upon a pothole into a slide affair with a huge recirculating hole. Tommy ran it and barely made it out of the backwash.

We ran some big slides and then deicided to camp mid slide section.

We survived (barely) the Devil's Postpile of the San Joaquin

Well we made it. We will have a day by day report of what happened with pictures and video up soon, but lets just say that it is without a doubt the hardest river trip (aka river mission) that any of us have ever been apart of.

When Royal Robbins paddled the river in 1982 he reported 64 portages, lets just say he was real close on those stats. The water was high for our trip and we kept thinking it was gonna be the end of us. At the end of the trip the level only forced us to walk 4 rapids (several of which Tommy ran, of course). But the continual and enormous piles of boulder/sieves forced us to walk an uncountable number of rapids.

The river went COMPLETELY under rock (no sign of flow on the surface) at least 4 times.

If any of you know much about the Devil's Postpile, you will recall tales of the "Crucible Gorge". An unscoutable, unportagable section with the river left wall shooting straight up out of the river to the top of the balloon Dome summit, thousands of feet above the river. The river right wall does an equally impressive number and forms a ridge of domes which essentially rules out any exit from the gorge, but more on that later.


This river is the finest fishing I've ever seen. We paddled a full 8 hours everyday and I still managed to catch 72 trout, some in the "Trophy" category.


Fred at the Putin
photo by Nikki Kelly


looking into the crucible
photo by Nikki Kelly


big trouble
photo by Nikki Kelly


the upper river

Report from the Trailhead of the Middle Kings

While in Bishop today some of the boys headed up to the trailhead to the Bishop Pass. While the flow is right at 1800 (just about ready) the temps were "very cold" and there was "ample" snow.

Here are some pics from the trailhead

the trail itself





And here is some video of the pass

Click Here

Update and Some Bonus shots and vid

We have postponed our putin for the Devil's Postpile till tommorrow AM.

Access is only allowed to the river during the hours of 830pm -730am for vehicular travel other than the designated shuttle bus.

The flow, which have once again asertained from myseterious sources, reads 850 inflow to Mammoth Pool. Willie Kern reports an ideal flow of 550-650 and we are looking at a drop of about 50 cfs a day. We are putting in tommorrow morning with an extra day's supplies in case our water does not drop according to plan.

Some news, Tommy has got a hold of Johnie Kern's new creek boat "El Jefe Grande" and will be taking the second protoype for a four day jaunt down the San Juaquin to figure out a few final adjustments to the design.

Buffy Bailey is reportedly in route via LA for our planned trip down the Middle Kings next week. Buffy was on the 1997 expedition with Scott, Johnnie, Willie, Chuck, Mark, BJ, Dustin and Brandon. Needless to say we are fired up to have her along.

We have Jed Weingarten also potentially in route, with he and Buffy we will be looking at crew of 9, with 4 people having previously run the 42 mile, 6400 foot gradient river.

But first the San Juaquin.

Here are a few bonus pictures and video from earlier in the trip

Fanatsy Falls Random
Click Here

Royal Gorge Random
Click Here

Some pics

Toby digging into his closet




Tommy running the "Grove Tube" rapid on Upper Cherry Creek

The Here and Now

The Team, minus one, is now gathered in the eastern Sierra mountain town of Mammoth Lakes, eagerly awaitng a dropping flow on the Devil's Postpile of the Middle Fork of the San Juaquin. We visited the falls and inspected the flow, what we found was slightly above the recomended level.

The Devil's Postpile is the supposed hardest run in California and was first run by Royal Robbins a long time ago.

Scott Lindgren and crew have been in the river 3-4 times, but all before the 1997 flood. Rick Smith and crew paddled the river last year in 7 days.

The river flows through the "Crucible" gorge past the Ballon Dome Batholith. The granite rises right out of the river, forcing 5 big rock piles in between a hell of a butt crack gorge, more on that later.

The river is the only one of the 7 rivers that cuts through the heart of the Sierra, starting in the volcanic Basalt of the Minaretes and flowing into the fine Granite we love so much to paddle.

There are many rock pile portages to be found in the river, and a bunch of great trout fishing.

This is the headwaters of the river.

photo by Nikki Kelly

We managed to assertain the flow into the Mammoth Pool to be 1000 cfs on Wens and are looking for 550 inflow, we are trying to kill time, but Tommy already has his lifejacket and helmet on, so it seems to be a losing battle.

We are going to inspect the flow again this evening and are planning on putting on Thursday or Friday afternoon.

Here is a shot of John Grace and Nikki Kelly with the Rainbow Falls in the background.

photo by Tommy Hilleke
Heading into town after our touristing trip to the Devil's Postpile National Monument we cruised the grocery store in town, stocked up and headed out into the desert to find the supposed hot springs.

Here is a shot of the sun setting east over the desert and on a thunderstorm.


photo by Nikki Kelly


photo by Nikki Kelly

Upper Cherry Creek Trip Two

“The one day descent turned mandatory 5 day overnighter”

With temps and flows on the rise, we found ourselves facing a long stretch till our next river would drop into a runnable level. Tommy had concepted the goal of running the entire Upper Cherry Creek in one day (10.5 mile hike/ 12 mile paddle + 3000 feet of gradient). We had nothing else to do so set off for the river and a mid day rendezvous with Lindgren, Little Dave, Shannon, Bennie, Matze, Jason Hale and on and on.

Al G, our trip leader, had stayed within the gorge when we paddled out the first time and was awaiting a food re-supply from us and was on radio contact for our intended Monday rendezvous.

Feeling the spirit of the alpine start I (Daniel) headed out at 330 am from the Kibbie Ridge trailhead. Armed with a headlamp I began the 10-11 mile schlep up the hill and through the impenetrable forces of mosquitoes.


photo by Nikki Kelly

I got lost about 4:15 am in a burnt out section of the trail. It was still utterly dark out and I was in a deep dark place in the woods. Reluctantly I put my boat down and began to walk in concentric circles. The fire was so intense that the trail was obliterated in sections with burnt out ash lines looking like the trail.

Frustrated as hell I wandered farther into the darkness in search of my trail, the LED lamp hardly doing much justice in the ash-out of the forest floor. All of a sudden a heavy big noise came from the woods near my wandering path. At that moment the reality of the deadly mountain lion came to me in a shocking start. With my trusty paddle I was determined to defend the death leap of the lion if it should come. Just two years earlier we saw a huge mountain lion at Kibbie Ridge. The bears and rattlers I can take, but the lion scares the hell out of me.

Fortunately, the “chipmunk” inflicted no harm I found the trail and drug myself into the putin at 832 am to some high ass water. Happy with my decision to bring my 1 pound sleeping bag I dropped out for a bit of shut eye after my 5 hour/ 10.5 mile slug up the hill, and awoke to Tommy dropping into camp at 11 am.

Good news was he also had a sleeping bag and a bit of food, bad news was the rest of the crew bailed out 2 hours in after talking with Al at base camp and getting the highwater report from within the gorge.

With the clothes we had on, a sleeping bag and 1 and half worth of food, Hilleke and myself set off for base camp, just below the Cherry Bomb gorge.

The two of us essentially bombed the very high water upper down to the top of the Big Gorges, understanding the way too high nature of the flow, we schlepped our boats the 40 minutes down to the top of the Money Potholes Gorge. It was there we boomed through some huge holes and slid into camp (after a lap on the potholes of course).

John Grace running the gorrilla rapid during the first trip

photo by Nikki Kelly

In Base Camp we found over 25 people, most were happy to portage and get out, but a few were there on an HDTV assignment and really wanted to drop the gorge.

A day later our crew invaded base camp from all sides.

After a couple of days of deliberation the big game hunters dropped in and pulled off one of the highest descents of the Gorge to date (Alex Nicks, Toby MacDermott and Gary Edgeworth also have high water runs from 2003).

The next day we watched the SLP crew paddle out and run ALL of the big drops and gorges below. Of note were Shannon Carroll’s money line at “Kiwi in a Pocket” and Little Dave’s determination to not land in green water going off the left side of DeadBear Falls.

After the SLP crew bailed we stayed in the gorge for 2 more days.
During that time the water level remained very stout. Tommy (who ran the gorge with the SLP crew) dropped in for a solo, unprotected run through the gorge. He came around the corner and into camp telling stories of big surfs and an epic fight to escape the gorge. He was berated by the rest of the crew for not waiting for Nikki and John who were behind him.

Nikki and John ran through later that day and had stellar lines through all of the holes. Nikki fought proud, becoming the first woman to run the gorge at high water (and the only woman as far as we know).

The next morning Tommy headed up the hill for his 6th trip down the gorge this year (John Grace in tow).

Here is a 16:9 format video of that run.

Click Here


After their run the whole team paddled out to the lake. Of note was the vertical extraction of Mr. Hilleke from the “Kiwi in a Pocket” pocket (named for the previously mentioned Nikki Kelly named during the first descent of the falls 2 years ago.

We set up a Z-drag and Tommy clipped into his Astral “Grab That Bitch” loop and up and away he went. The rescue team was a bit overzealous and drug a good bit of skin off Tommy’s knuckles.

Tommy running dead bear falls after said extraction


photo by Nikki Kelly

Upper Cherry Creek Trip One “aka The Greatest Sneak of the Year”
(Main River)

Days 3
Miles 12 river, 10.5 hiking on Kibbie Ridge Trail
Vertical Drop 2800
Level Perfect
Portages 2-4
Peeps Nikki Kelly, Toby MacDermott, John Grace, Fred Coriell, Daniel DeLaVergne, Nate Helms, Tommy Hileke, Drew Refsauge, Caleb Copeland, Polk Deters, Reiley Cathcart, Josh Bruckner


Fun Facts: When we took off the West Cherry Creek and had just barely managed to survive the lower section of the Main Upper Cherry, we gave it almost 8 days before the level would be right for paddling through all of the upper gorges on the river.

Upoun inspection of the approaching cold weather, talk of a sneak into the river during a short piece of potentially low water sprang up. The gamble was huge, if we hiked our loaded boats the 10.5 miles to the putin and the level was high we would have to portage the main gorges.

Feeling that our prediction of a major level change was accurate we took off for the putin.

Fred, the forerunner, made the hike with loaded boat in just 5 and a half hours. Others spent time lost in the huge fire pit of the recently burned forest along the ridge, some dragging in 7 hours after starting out. The physical exhaustion of schlepping our 100 pound loads up and over the ridge was apparent on everyone’s face.

A view of the upper reaches of the river, a gloomy cast just before a bit of precip. The low temps made the hike ideal.


photo by Nikki Kelly

The speculation of the flow at the put was varied, but the general feeling was that we were gonna be paddling through the heart of the gorges, one of the most special places a river runner could go.

We awoke in the morning to an even lower flow and set off with beaming smiles. The first 3 miles are some of the most spectacular granite settings one could hope to paddle through. As we began to drop into the upper gorges some of the group began to predict that we would be able to paddle through the Cherry Bomb Gorge with our loaded kayaks. When our group made the first descent of this pit of gorge 2 years ago, all of the overnighter gear was walked around the falls and a comprehensive scout was made from the bottom.

This time we chose to drop right into the Cherry Bomb, locked and loaded. After some stellar lines and some hairy surfs the crew cleared the other side of the gorge and dropped into the “Money Potholes” gorge and right into camp. The sense of big accomplishment was evident on everyone’s face.

Amped by the shear committed and mystical feeling of being so deep in a granite buttcrack, Tommy Hileke and Daniel DeLaVergne made the hour long trek back up and over the big dome and ran the entire set of Cherry Bomb gorges again.

Here is a sequence of the second run that day, sans gear.

photo by Nikki Kelly

photo by Nikki Kelly

That day the level began to rise and the crew was faced with a bit of action when they hiked up to run the Bomb again in the morning.
The following morning Reiley Cathcart became the first man to swim within the inhospitable Cherry Bomb Gorge, with his boat pinning in the horrible looking rock rapid at the bottom of the gorge. With assistance from Fred, the Salto was removed from the sieve (looking more like a Kendo than a Salto) and Reiley paddled out of the gorge, successfully completing the first CBG swim.

John Grace preparing to film tghe gorge, high on the "Media Ledge"


photo by Nikki Kelly

The remainder of the big gorges treated the crew well and the various 20-40 foot falls and pothole gorges were enjoyed to the utmost.

Toby MacDermott in the Double Pothole drop


photo by Nikki Kelly


We headed out to the border town of Groveland where residence was taken in the M2 mobile home rental unit. There we ran into Scott Lindgren and crew who were headed into the gorge to film a HD TV show. We offered warnings of potential rising water levels, but the warnings were not heeded.

All of our pictures were taken by Nikki Kelly, look for more great shots to come


photo by John Grace

West Cherry Creek

West Cherry Creek
(main river)

Days 3
Miles 9 (2 miles on main upper cherry creek at high ass water)
Vertical Drop 2600 ft
Level medium high
Portages many
Peeps Toby MacDermott, John Grace, Fred Coriell, Daniel DeLaVergne, Nate Helms

Fun Fact: The most scenic kayak-assisted backpacking trip in the Yosemite region.

Also a fun fact is the massive ash pit / mosquito den we walked through from Box Spring to access the Domes and eventually the river.

Camp on night three was made below the massive pothole gorge and found to be a timber rattlesnake den, we ran across 3 different fully mature snakes RIGHT in camp. Luckily no one had a wayward visitor in their bags that night.

Also of note was the flow on the Main Upper Cherry below the confluence with West Cherry. The flow was estimated about 1000 cfs with a gradient reaching the 250 fpm, and the words “Zambeziesque” was utilized to describe the raging flow within the riverbed. We portages 6 individual holes/ledges and ran “The Nozzle” in the bottom gorge. “Action” is about how we would describe the run.

here is some video from this amazing place
Click Here

Royal Gorge of The North American

Royal Gorge of the American
(Main River)

Days 2
Miles 33 miles
Vertical Drop 3800
Level Low (550 into Lake Clementine)
Portages 3
Peeps John Grace, Nate Helms, Daniel DeLaVergne, Fred Coriell, Toby MacDermott, Nikki Kelly, Tommy Hilleke, Pat Keller
Fun Fact: Got to use your southern charm to get into the putin.
Tommy and Pat drove from Asheville to run the river and turned around and drove to the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, making for 60 hours of driving for 1 river.
We saw 3 bears, a bunch of dear, a scorpion, a rattlesnake, an osprey and a black widow spider.

Tommy performed an over the handlebars flip off a 50 foot falls. The boys goal to run the entire river with no portages came up short by a few.

Also of note is the teams blistering paddle out on Day two. Over 28 miles of river lower than 600 cfs with big rapids and falls was paddled in one day.
We began our journey at the double falls Scott Lindgren ran (at 930 am) and arrived beat and tired at the takeout just after dark.

Here is the oh-so-talented Nikki Kelly greasing the first falls at Heath Springs

Click Here

Here is a funny shot of Nate Helms in a trifold celebration after surviving the same falls

Click Here

Nikki Kelly's Royal Gorge Photo Gallery

While we were on the Fantasy Falls at rocking high water, our next river of the '7 Rivers Expedition' was the lowest. We knew that in order to logistically pull it off we would be running a river or two too high and one or two too low. This was our low guy. The river flows off the backside of the Lake Tahoe area and has a relatively small watershed. The North Fork of the American River features a classic progression of harder and harder runs. The Chamberlain Falls, the Giant Gap and the Generation Gap, all runs downstream of the Royal Gorge, were run in a progression of years as skills increased.
The Royal Gorge was finally run by Scott Lindgren, Clay Wright, Knapps, etc, etc and has only been run a handful of times since. This is the river that has the multi drop thing that Scott ran in 'Thirst', this drop remains one of the most impressive cataracts ever run (IMHO). No takers on this trip, or ever again for that matter.

The putin of the gorge is on private land and a good bit of luck, skill and southern charm are neccessary to get past the agro protectors of said land. We do not advise attempting to run this river because of the legality of the situation. But the land holders are ultra rich old money railroad folks, so screw 'em.


Nikki on the first Heath Springs Falls. This is a classic shot, first seen in a slide by Jenning Steger of Scott L in a big ole pink Diablo.

phot by Pat Keller

Here is Nate Helms on the first Heath Springs Falls.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Here is pat running the notch below the second Heath Springs Falls, a 50 footer (not shown). Mark Haden ran this falls on a trip years ago, dislocated his shoulder and was arrested for tresspassing on his hike out.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Here is Fred Coriell pumping water below the 50 footer and Notch falls.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Here is Hilleke jumping off the big ass Rattlesnake falls.

Photo by Nikki Kelly

Tomy on some random drop still in the gorge.

photo by Nikki Kelly

The 3rd Bear of this trip, a big one, out of focus, but its a bear, I promise.

photo by Nikki Kelly.

John Grace on the 30ftr somewhat near the horrible falls pictured below.

photo by Nikki Kelly.

Wabina Falls, a 70 ftr that marks the end of the Royal Gorge. It is a real shitty portage, so most of use just put our spray skirts on our loaded boats and sent em off sans paddler. Young Pat Keller almost learned a tragic lesson when he did not tie on the spray skirt and it blew off. Luckily Tommy and myself were catching boats and noticed the black skirt floating away. Whew!

photo by Nikki Kelly

Bald Rock Canyon

Bald Rock Canyon
(ancillary river)

Days 2
Miles 7
Vertical Drop 540
Level 1200
Portages 1
Peeps John Grace, Nate Helms, Daniel DeLaVergne, Fred Coriell, Toby MacDermott, Alex Ransom, Ryan Bell

Fun Fact: Don’t ever run this run without a boat to pick you up on Lake Orville. 13 miles of flats for 7 of river = sucks ass.
We decided to paddle the run as an overnighter due to desire to escape the Memorial Day rush. We were greeted by upwards of 4 inches of rain that night with just a few ratty tarps to protect us. A fine family of Peruvians gave us a lift to the other end of the lake in the morning, alleviating a hell of a flatwater paddle.

Nikki Kelly's Dinkey Creek Photo Gallery

Here are some select shots from the first trip of the 7 Rivers Expedition. The Dinkey Creek waterfalls section was shrouded in mystery and proved an elusive run to hit right for many. The trip is fairly dialed at this point, but many a misadventure has occured here.

This spring Jason Hale and crew pulled a double dink (first ever double). The guidebook has a story from two somewhat random Cali paddlers with tales of mandatory walled in "jumping" portages and other fun stuff. The goal is certainly to go with one who knows the river and the access trail. Two or three years ago Ben Coleman and Shannon Carroll dropped in without exact knowledge of the trail system to the river. They entered the gorge too high and were forced to bail out after many, many hours of manzaneta hell hiking. Willie Kern blew up his knee and was helied out a couple years back as well.

The Dinkey Creek waterfalls run is, without a doubt, the finest run in the Sierras under 3000 feet.

"Poison Oak only grows below 4300 feet."
-Scott Lindgren


Howard Tidwell killing it on his first Class V overnighter.
photo by Nikki Kelly

Fred Coriell on a big one

photo by Nikki Kelly


photo by Nikki Kelly

John Grace

photo by Nikki Kelly

Toby MacDermott

photo by Nikki Kelly

Tanya Faux

photo by Nikki Kelly

West Cherry Creek Photo Gallery by Nate Helms

We are currently awaiting Nikki’s pictures from the Grand Canyon of the T.

Until then here is a photo gallery provided by Mr. Nate Helms of the West Fork of Cherry Creek. As far as we know there have only been three trips down this section of the river. The first made by Johnnie Kern, Willie Kern Jed Weingarten and Polk Deters. The second and third trips were made by our group in 2002 and this summer. The first group allegedly used the same trailhead as us, but ended up at the river much lower down than our crew.

Our first trip in ’02 was a nightmare in route finding to the river, and the flow was medium/low. This time around the level was rocking and we had a blast. Of note was the extremely high “Zambeziesque” flow we found in the main Upper Cherry Creek after the confluence.

Putin Slide

A many falls, paddler Fred Coriell

Rattlesnake #3


Toby wiping out, day 2

Fantasy Falls High Ass Water/ Cold Ass Air

Fantasy Falls
(Main River)

Days 3
Miles 25 (5 on reservoir)
Vertical Drop 3400
Level High end of High (1500 at the lake)
Portages 4
Peeps Toby MacDermott, Fred Coriell, John Grace, Nikki Kelly,
Tanya Faux, Daniel DeLaVergne, Nate Helms, Ryan Bell, Travis Richardson, Alex Ransom, Jason Parker



We were facing a long cold stretch in the High Sierra and our plans of heading straight to the Royal Gorge were somewhat stymied by a low flow on the North fork of the American.



Going out a limb, we speculated that we could sneak into the Fantasy Falls section at low enough water due to the abnormally frigid conditions above 7000 feet. We arrived at Ebbitts Pass to temperatures in the 40s and 50s and way to much snow in the headwaters of the river.




The flow in the river was higher than any of us have ever seen it, but it seemed good. We made it through the first day by the skin of our teeth; with the afternoon gush overtaking us we made camp. At about 9 pm John Grace and Daniel made an inspection of the flow and conceded that we would most likely walk the rest of the river if the flow remained at this level.




Thankfully the temps dropped into the 20’s and the level receded to a marginally runnable level.




Amazingly we ran almost everything we normally run.

Of note is Daniel’s hell-a swim out of the bottom hole at the big slide on day three (see video).

Click Here

And a bit of some other fools trying to run the big Island slide, there were no other contenders.

Click Here

Nikki Kelly's Fantasy Falls Gallery

The second main trip of the 7 Rivers Expedition was the North Fork of the Mckolomne River. Otherwise known as the 'Fantasy Falls' run it is typically paddled in 3 days. The putin is located on higway 4, East of Bear Valley ski area, and just over the hill from Markleeville, a quaint sierra town with a kick ass sandwich shop and not much else.

We gambled big time and putin real early in the season. The snowpack in the headwaters is not supposed to look like this.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Nate Helms makes an AM run down the actual Fantasy Falls. There is an amazing campsite located below the falls on river right in a huge grove of pine trees. Best part about it you can walk up and run the falls again and again.

phot by Nikki Kelly

A portage on day two, we walked around three big gorges over the top of some huge granite domes.


Here is Tanya Faux on some big rapid somewhere in the day one zone.

photo by Nikki Kelly

John Grace running the twisting cataract that we all went into blind in 2002 (big carnage).

photo by Nikki Kelly

Fred avoiding a big hole.

photo by Nikki Kelly

This is the big slide that everyone gets beat in in the bottom. To me it appeared as if the Zambezi river was flowing down the side of a granite mountain.

photo by Nikki Kelly

Grace avoiding another big hole

photo by Nikki Kelly

South Silver

South Silver
(ancillary river)

Days 1
Miles 2
Vertical Drop 700
Portages 2
Level Med-low
Peeps Nate Helms, Daniel DeLaVergne, Eric Strittmatter

Fun Fact California Hollywood run.
Run up the granite sidewalk for shuttle.
Warm up for Cali overnighters running laps on the “Skyscraper”

Silver Fork of the American

Silver Fork of the American
(ancillary river)
Days 1
Miles 3.5
Vertical Drop 600 ft
Level 350 cfs
Portages 2
Peeps Nate Helms, Eric Strittmatter, Daniel DeLaVergne, Reiley Cathcart

Fun Fact: Helms swam below the 25 ft Diaper Wiper falls and pinned his boat. A Z-Drag extraction was setup by Eric S. and the boat was successfully freed from the riverbed.

East Fork of the Kaweah

East Fork of the Kaweah
(ancillary river)

Days 1
Miles 7
Vertical Drop 1600
Level 600 at 3 rivers
Portages a multitude
Peeps Toby MacDermott, Fred Coriell, John Grace, Nikki Kelly, Tanya Faux, Howard Tidwell, Chris Young, Todd Scott, Josh Bruckner, Drew Refsauge

One of the finer southern sierra one day runs.

Fun Fact: Don’t drop in at high water!

Nikki Kelly executed the finest “Grab That Bitch” moment when she rescued herself from a bad pin.

For the record a “Grab That Bitch” moment is when a paddler in need is removed from the river bed with speed and gusto by his or her fellow paddlers.

River highlights include big runs on the Deadman’s Alley.

Dinkey Creek “The Waterfalls”

Days 2
Miles 9
Vertical Drop 2100
Level 280 above Nrth Kings
Portages 4
Peeps Toby MacDermott, Fred Coriell, John Grace, Nikki Kelly,
Tanya Faux, Howard Tidwell, Chris Young, Todd Scott, Josh Bruckner, Drew Refsauge

The first main river of our expedition (short a few still working in East Coast) the Dinkey Creek Waterfalls section is not officially within the High Sierra, but truly worth the work to get there.

“Dinkey waterfalls is the finest run below 4000 feet elevation.” –Toby

“The oldest FORESTS of poison oak exist within the gorge, and we walked right through them.

Trip Highlights
Bruckner portaging 4 peoples fully loaded boats above the death sieve.

Howard Tidwell’s first class V overnighter.

Tanya lost here paddle right in the thick of it.

Due to too many Mad Bombers, Toby was forced to swim on belay to grab boaters and pull them in to the eddy. “It was a very tenuous moment to say the least” – Toby

Drive from Northern Lake Superior to California

After two weeks of river exploration on the North Shore of Lake Superior with Nate Helms, John Grace, Nikki Kelly, Tanya Faux, Dave Garrienger, Fred Coriell and Nate Helms, the core four headed cross-country in John's $800 1987 Toyota Van, aka "the tortoise".

Utilizing the northern route the team made there way from Chicago to Jackson Wyoming and then on to Auburn California.

"It was a 8.5 on the suck meter" -Fred

"Our average speed was 58, on the highway"
"We overheated every 200 miles, requiring a 20 minute stop." -Toby

"One time Toby took off the radiator cap (before it cooled down) and antifreeze exploded all over the van" (the engine is in the cab of the van)- Fred

"There was a geyser inside the tortoise" - Toby

"We went all the way to the North Fork of the Payette and it was not running, so we just drove strait to Cali" -Fred

Total drive time:4 days

John Muir's description of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River

John Muir, a High Sierra adventurer who needs no introduction, had this to say about the final river of the '7 Rivers Expedition"



"Every one who is anything of a mountaineer should go on through the entire length of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, coming out by Hetch Hetchy. There is not a dull step all the way. With wide variations, it is a Yosemite Valley from end to end.



"The Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne . . . is from twelve hundred to about five thousand feet deep, and is comparatively narrow, but there are several roomy, park-like openings in it, and throughout its whole extent Yosemite features are displayed on a grand scale...

-- domes, El Capitan rocks, gables, Sentinels, Royal Arches, Glacier Points, Cathedral Spires. . . . Its . . . cascades or sloping falls on the main river are the crowning glory of the canyon, and these in volume, extent and variety surpass those of any other canyon in the Sierra.


For miles the river is one wild, exulting, on-rushing mass of snowy purple bloom, spreading over glacial waves of granite without any definite channel, gliding in magnificent silver plumes, dashing and foaming through huge boulder-dams, leaping high into the air in wheel-like whirls, displaying glorious enthusiasm, tossing from side to side, doubling, glinting, singing in exuberance of mountain energy."

--"The Yosemite", John Muir



***** NOTE: These are not pictures from the '7 Rivers Expedition' , They were taken by this person, whoever they are.
Here is a link to the page I got the shots from.

To check it out, try
Clicking Here

The text was lifted from an article about Hetch Hetchy. See it by
Clicking Here