Monday, June 1, 2009

Clavey River

The Clavey brought our California tour to an end. This was also my first real overnighter. We met up with Evan Garcia, Michael Shields, Max Blackburn, and Charlie Center. We were surfed out for a few days while levels were raging, and it didnt look like anything was going to come down, so we headed to the Clavey which had a good level, and is a very fun creek with cool rapids in little mini gorges. The First day, we put on around 3 I believe, and paddled the upper section. We then camped in a very cool place right next to a sweet rapid. Being on an overnighter is really cool, something about the whole fact that you carry everything you need in your boat is really cool when you arrive at camp, take out your things, and cook a delicious meal, and then fall asleep under California stars. This is what kayaking originated as, using kayaks as transportation, so doing this gives you a feeling of the roots of what we do. We had a delicious meal of mac and cheese, and cheddar wursts, which could be one of the most tasty things after a long day of paddling.
Shortly after arriving at our lovely campsite on day one.
A very nice Crew of Jefe's.
River gypsies put gear all over the place.
The Crew after stuffing ourselves with cheese mac, and cheddar wursts.

The next day we woke up, ate plenty of instant oatmeal to keep ourselves running, and then ran the sweet rapid right by our campground.

Charlie Running our campground rapid.

I thought this was a real cool photo.
We portaged some very nasty holes.
EG Filmin on a crazy rapid on the lower section.
Max running the same rapid.

EG throwing up the brown like it aint no thang.

He than ran the brown like it aint no thang.
Charlie, quite excited to run a sweet rapid.
Charlie running said sweet rapid.
Miguel Shields always makes big drops look so easy.

Charlie stoked to almost be at the confluence with the Toulomne.
Evan decided to Give er on this one, which ended up in a hard piton, and a near surf of a bad hole. We then met up with the toulomne river, and paddled I think 10 miles of huge, fun wavetrains.
On day 2, I got stuck in a gnarly eddy/hole and took a nice swim, one I deserved after blowing a couple lines and getting away with it.

Evan cookin up some good old dirt taters. delicious.

Overall, the day was a success, everyone made it down alive, and we made killer time. I have been in colorado for a few weeks now, so check back soon for good posts, such as yule, which we did today and it was awesome

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