tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74019212011-07-09T20:31:24.633-07:00The second annual Charlie Beavers Memorial Expedition. aka "The Pray To God But Row Toward Shore Tour". Expedition Goal: To run the 7 Great Rivers of California. Never before have all of the major High Sierra multiday river expeditons been completed in one season. This is the journal of that trip.LVM my brothas and sistashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05981143093766211317noreply@blogger.comBlogger371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7401921.post-1090115084162320222004-07-19T18:38:00.000-07:002005-07-02T08:15:55.046-07:00

Visit the Offical 7 Rivers Website to Purchase the Whitewater Adventure DVD Click Here Visit the official DVD Periodical of this Whitewater Expedition. Click Here 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

LVM my brothas and sistashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05981143093766211317noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7401921.post-1091103945110941402004-07-18T05:23:00.000-07:002004-08-10T13:33:57.363-07:00

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

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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

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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

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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

LVM my brothas and sistashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05981143093766211317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7401921.post-1089697527203633322004-07-12T22:38:00.000-07:002004-07-13T12:22:48.463-07:00

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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“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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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”

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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.

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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 “

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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

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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

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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

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