DW Issue One - Dreaming of Whitewater

Dreaming
of Whitewater
A R OYA L A D V E N T U R E
P. A . S. E
CLEAR CREEK
C L E A N I N G YO U R G O R E - T E X
ISSUE ONE
Welcome to
CONTENTS
DREAMING OF
W H I T E WAT E R
Sometimes the closet we get to kayaking is dreaming about it
Dreaming of Whitewater is a way to think about kayaking while
off the water... Sometimes the closest we get to kayaking is
dreaming about it.
COVER SHOT
Havasu Creek,
Grand Canyon National Park, AZ
Photo: Daan Jimmink
I
CONTACT INFORMATION
Dreaming Of Whitewater
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Murchison, 7007
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All photos are property of
Dreaming of Whitewater unless otherwise
stated. If you are interested in
any of the images, please contact us.
Dreaming of Whitewater is a project that has come about through
the ideas of people we have worked with. We are often asked
about what we have been doing, adventures we have been on,
any trouble we have gotten into - and how do you do that thing
again?
The Dreaming of Whitewater magazine is a way to share some
of our ideas, information, photos and stories. We aim to create
a resource that you enjoy receiving, so your input is valued. We
want to hear your ideas about what you would like to see in the
Dreaming of Whitewater magazine.
We hope that Dreaming of Whitewater will help keep your
kayaking and paddling inspiration alive while you are off the
water.
Welcome to DWW 2
A Royal Adventure 4
Tech Tip: P.A.S.E 10
Trip Report: Clear Creek 12
Enjoy Issue One!
Daan Jimmink
Jess Matheson
Gear Talk: Cleaning Your Gore-Tex
14
Photo Gallery 17
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Dreaming of Whitewater is a digital
whitewater kayaking magazine written by
Daan Jimmink and Jess Matheson.
DWW is distributed free to readers
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DREAMING OF WHITE WATER SUPPORTERS:
4
12
14
DWW 3
A ROYAL ADVENTURE
R o y a l G o r g e, N F A m e r i c a n
A ROYAL ADVENTURE
By Jess Matheson
As per our usual, we had a window of time to go
paddling. We were fired up to get a mission underway and had a team of friends on standby who
were just as keen. There were a couple of trips that
we thought would be good-to-go in that time so
we were pretty excited, but as things would have
it Royal Gorge, Dinkey Creek, the South Merced,
Devil’s Canyon and Bald Rock Canyon all came
“in” within a few days.
Most California trips have a “window of optimum
flow”. On one side the flow will be too high and
on the other, the flow too low (and in some cases,
finished) until the following season. The eternal
California challenge lies in being in the right place
at the right time with the right team to catch the
best flows.
The sudden availability of so many trips meant a
couple of things for us… 1: Spoiled for choice,
we were in a position to pick and choose a mission from some of Cali’s best multi-day trips and
2: we would therefore unfortunately miss a bunch
of trips due to coinciding windows of flow.
Looking into Heath Springs, Royal Gorge on the North Fork of the American.
A decision was made and we had a team of seven: Shannon Mast, Matt Coles, Louise Urwin, Tyler Fox, Gordy Bulford, Daan and myself… Royal
Gorge was on.
Royal Gorge is a three day wilderness trip in the
upper reaches of the North Fork of the American River, famous for its big waterfalls. The Royal
Gorge section itself is about 16 miles paddled
over the first two days and then a monster paddle
out on Generation Gap and Giant Gap (26 miles)
on the last day.
This year Royal Gorge had a window of about a
week – early in the week the flow was still on “the
high side of good” and a few days later “the low
side of low”. The quality of your trip can depend
greatly on which part of the window you are on the
water for.
We needed a way to get to the river, and for Royal
Gorge – a shuttle driver. Seven boats, seven kits,
seven paddles, seven paddlers and a shuttle driver… Enter Mum (the mini van) and Ryan.
In typical Kiwi fashion we started late (we actually
had five Kiwi’s, one Aussie and a Canadian). Some
major fluffing around, some navigational glitches,
a mismatch of vehicle and terrain, mud puddles, a
lot of snow for July and an empty gas tank made
an early put-on impossible. We ended up hitching
a ride for the last five miles on quite a big truck
driven by a very nice man, which saw us finally
putting on for day one of Royal Gorge at approxiDWW 5
very exhausted state) his boat was hauled out and
back onto land. It was a great relief for the team
to have Matt’s boat back as without it, he would
have been forced to hike out.
By the clock it was now 12.30pm and the team
concluded that as we had lost a good bit of our
“team flow” at Heath Springs, it would be wise to
portage the next part - Crux Gorge that begins
at the bottom of Heath Two. Things were quiet
as we each walked and pondered our situation:
lucky Matt got to the side, lucky we got Matt’s
boat back, one split paddle left between seven,
technically still on the day
one section yet half way
through day two with at
least another three big
drops to go (portages for
us due to a sudden lack
of spare split paddles and
remoteness of our situation) and a lot of other
rapids between.
Shan on the Breakfast Drop, early on day two.
mately 5.30pm… We did consider this to be
less than ideal.
A ROYAL ADVENTURE
The locals kindly reminded us that the first five
miles would be through private property so we
would not be able to stop until after then. A
late start, some fun rapids, an induction into
Royal Gorge portaging and fading daylight saw
us have to ignore the plentiful “No Trespassing”
signs and pitch an incognito camp about three
miles in.
Against typical Kiwi
fashion, we woke
early to try and
catch up on what we
should have paddled
the first day. Unfortunately we needed
to start a little slower
after Daan spread
word of his nasty
night of sickness and
resulting
low-to-no
energy.
Alas, we put on about
9am
and
started
things off at a pace we hoped to continue. We
paddled through some beautiful mini-gorges
and making what we felt was good time, before
arriving at Heath Springs. This was a milestone
(actually mile fives) for us – a gauge of how far
down we were as none of our team had done
the trip before. Heath Springs is the home of
Heath One, a quite clean 40 foot drop into a
short and moving pool that leads straight into
Heath Two, a 60 foot drop into a completely
walled in pool complete with scenic cave.
A bunch of our team fired Heath One resulting
in one clean line, one very flat landing, one skirt
implosion, two broken paddles and one swim.
Matt’s swim wasn’t too bad (he swam to the
side pretty quickly, as you would). The problem was that we failed to rescue his boat and
paddle from the short, moving pool before they
disappeared, in a very serene manner, over the
horizon line of Heath Two.
On the steep descent
back to the river, I slipped
and didn’t let go of my
boat fast enough. There was some forward flipping
action down a reasonably steep rocky bank before finally (and very fortunately) coming to a stop.
One seriously sprained ankle and a smashed elbow, thanks. Having trouble bearing my own body
weight let alone my 80+ pound boat, I ended up
shuffling the rest of the way down to river level on
my bottom while everyone else helped get all the
boats down.
The good news of Royal Gorge: the majority of
the river between the “big drops” is mostly Class
IV+ read and run boogie with a few bigger rapids scattered in there to keep things interesting.
We paddled some beautiful boulder gardens and
drops down to Rattlesnake Falls, a 50ish footer
that signals the end of day one for most people.
Not being most people, this was us at 3.30pm on
day two. Although we would have loved to have
stopped and camped we still had at least another
10 miles of Royal Gorge to paddle and at our rate,
we were on track to run out of food, or river flows,
but probably both.
The rest of the afternoon
passed pretty quickly as
we put our heads down
to try and make as much
distance as we could
before dark. The team
was getting tired with all
the scouting and some
long portages. When we
chose our Royal Adventure we didn’t know that
Royal Gorge was such
a portage-fest if you
weren’t running the big
drops. Maybe we would have done things differently. Maybe bought a split paddle each.
We portaged Scott’s Drop (the drop is m-a-s-s-iv-e) and with daylight fading on us (for the second
time in two days) we started to portage around
Wabena, a 70 footer. This particular portage involved climbing up a wickedly steep and rocky
gully with your boat, followed by vicious Manza-
Some
creative
rock
climbing led to a view of
a broken paddle in the
pool and sure enough,
Matt’s
boat
floating
deep in the massive
cave on river left. As the
sixty foot deep pool is
walled in and said cave
is 40 feet high and severely undercut, rescue
options are a little limited. Thanks to Daan
and his talent for rope
work, we were able to
set up an anchor for a
sixty foot high, vertical mechanical advantage
system from a giant crack in the rock above the
cave. It took six of our seven throw bags and
nearly every karabiner and prussic we had to
create the system.
Matt abseiled (rappelled) down into the cave
from the anchor, clipped a line onto his boat
and started ascending back up using a set of
prussics. Once he was back at the top (in a
Tyler Fox, Heath One.
Matt ascending back out, Heath Two
Lu flying sometime after Rattlesnake, day two.
DWW 7
nita and steep boulders onto an oak-infested,
mosquito-laden semi-trail to get you back to
the river. Starting this part at 7pm, after 10
hours already on the water, led to what was
later described by the team as a “below average” experience. Most likely, it seemed worse
than it actually was. We were tired.
A ROYAL ADVENTURE
The boys chose a sweet beach across the
river to camp at which, after 11 hours of adventure and post-Wabena portage, looked
amazing. Spirits were high with a fire, food and
the prospect of rest and sleep. But before long
we heard a helicopter
thumping up the valley, which promptly
noticed us and began
circling low overhead.
Quietly dreaming of
a helicopter but certainly not asking for
one, the chopper finally landed on the
beach across from us.
It turns out we weren’t
the only team having a
Royal Adventure: the
helicopter was looking
for Heath Springs to
heli-evac out a guy who had broken his back
on Heath One earlier in the day, sometime after
we were there. And then, just to top off our
day, we had spent 20 minutes hobbling around
our beach extinguishing all the fire embers that
were scattered when the helicopter took off.
Setting fire to the wilderness area would have
really topped things off.
Another early start and we were on the water
again. A morning surprise: on a toilet excursion
someone noticed a cinnamon-coloured black
bear that had recently drowned. From what we
could tell, it was entangled in a thick wire cable
that had obviously been left behind by someone. It was a little surreal given that we did still
feel quite remote and made for a momentarily
sad start to our day.
The paddling seemed to mellow a bit after Wabena and we felt like we were back to making
good time. Our destination: Euchre Trail between Generation Gap and Giant Gap. We had
left a vehicle at the trail in case we wanted an
earlier take out. (It was actually so we could finish Royal Gorge early and get to Dinkey Creek
but on our Royal Schedule that was never going to happen). The day started to drag on
and on, as did the miles of paddling. Some
scouting, some portaging and one swim
but mostly just trying to make distance.
At best we estimated
that from Wabena we
had four miles of Royal
Gorge left and then 12
miles on Generation
Gap to the car. Those
miles turned out to be
the longest 16 miles,
ever.
By 4pm, we were
pretty sure that we
had missed the trail to the car. Shattered and
broken, we momentarily rested on a sunny
beach and laughed about life while munching
up on the last of our food. For some reason
team spirits were still reasonably high, even
as we pondered the approaching likelihood of
paddling Giant Gap that evening and probably
camping out, with only a bottle of Jagermeister
as all food was now gone.
that did a 90 degree bend, passed a small tributary
on river right and discovered a footbridge across
the river.
It was 5.30pm and we had finally made the trail.
Two hours of boat-hiking, group separation, the
most savage mosquitoes of the trip and 2000 feet
of vertical gain over two miles of steep switchbacks
saw us finishing our Royal Gorge trip at the Euchre
Trail carpark. Tired, broken, sick, injured, hungry
and thirsty but we had finally made it…
And we celebrated.
Matt and Shan
Kayaker and photographer Darin McQuoid has a fantastic website that documents many of California’s
harder river trips. He has a very good write-up of Royal Gorge (and some beautiful photos) that you can
check out here at:
www.kayakphoto.com/darinmcquoid/royalgorge.html
For further California inspiration, his other trip reports (in the River Directory section) are well worth a
read and his photos are outstanding.
Semi-rested but well-laughed, we put back on
the water and ran a few more rapids… Tired,
over it and hoping for something, anything. We
had our heads down and were working hard
when, in a truly astonishing moment, the River
Gods briefly shined on us. We paddled a rapid
The landing of Heath One,. Photo: Tyler Fox
DWW 9
TECH TIP
P. A . S. E
By Daan Jimmink
Good kayak technique comes down to having solid technical foundations, so it doesn’t make
sense to go into the advanced stuff before going through the basics. We hope this information will
make more sense than listening to a bunch of Kiwi’s yelling at you to “idge” and “iddy”.
As we come from a teaching background, making moves with ease and feeling stylish is our goal.
There is a lot of technical kayak information out there including many written documents about
the following information. We are not trying to reinvent the wheel, but simply summarise what we
are teaching as we believe that it works the best.
P.A.S.E: Position, Angle, Speed, and Edge. These are some fundamental components of kayaking; whether you are crossing the current, surfing a wave or lining up a boof. In this article we talk
P.A.S.E in the context of exiting an eddy (and works in a similar way for entering an eddy).
ANGLE
“Angle” is considered the direction you are pointing when you cross the eddyline. The amount of angle
you have translates to the amount of surface area of your kayak that is exposed to the current as you
cross into the new water (the current). The more area that is exposed (a flatter angle, maybe 70° to 90°)
then the faster the kayak will turn downstream and the harder the turn is to control. A higher or steeper
angle (40° – 50°) means there is less area exposed so your kayak will turn downstream slower which
gives you more control over the turn.
45° to the eddyline is the angle used in most situations as it is the best balance of surface area exposed
to the current and control of turn. Depending on your situation, it will be sometimes appropriate to adjust the angle to be steeper or flatter.
There is a “sweet spot” where if you have the correct angle, everything else will work and the turn feels
relatively easy. Angle is the component that will make or break your turn and it is well worth spending
time on this. A good angle will save you a lot of trouble.
SPEED
Control of your speed as you exit an eddy is important. When exiting an eddy, you want to be moving at the same speed or a little faster than the current you are about to enter. In general, more speed
will make it easier to cross the eddy line, however it is possible to have either too much or not enough
speed. Too much speed can overpower the turn, which makes it hard to turn where you want. If you
do not have enough speed to cross the eddyline, the kayak will spin out on the eddyline. It will turn
downstream quickly which is hard to control and will lose whatever speed you did have.
Most of the time between 3 and 5 good strokes will be plenty to get your boat up to speed. If it is a fast
eddyline, you will want to be moving a bit faster and if it is a more mellow eddyline then you won’t need
as much speed. Starting further back for more of a run up may occasionally help, but most likely will
make you tired from all the extra paddling. Experiment with how many strokes it takes to get your boat
up to a good speed… It’s probably less than you think.
POSITION
TECH TIP: P.A.S.E
POSITION
“Position” refers to where you are within the eddy and relative to the eddy line. Are you close to
the bank or right next to the eddyline? Are you squished at the top of the eddy, or floating out the
back? Having the correct position within the eddy allows you to develop momentum and cross
the eddy line in the best spot. If we start too close to the bank, it can sometimes be hard to get
a clear run to the eddyline. If we start too far back in the eddy, we can lose control of our direction before we have made it to the eddy line. If we are too close to the eddy line or too high up
the eddy, it can be hard to generate enough speed to make it across the eddy line in one piece.
To develop momentum in the correct direction of travel, you want to…
* Generally start a third to half way down the eddy, so you can exit near the top
* Be about 3 – 5 strokes from the eddyline, to get speed and stay in control
* Have a clear path, free of obstacles between you and the eddyline
EDGE
EDGE
“Edge” refers to the amount of sideways tilt your kayak has as you cross the eddyline into the current
and we talk about lifting the upstream knee to do this. The amount of edge you need is relevant to the
speed of the current. The stronger the current the more edge you will need and a slower current will
require less edge.
In your acceleration to the eddyline your kayak will be flat (no edge) and as you cross the eddyline into
the current you need to lift your upstream knee. Some people find it helpful to think about their edging
on a scale: where 0 is flat and 3 is extreme (the most you can hold without flipping over). A “2” edge
seems to work best in most situations.
ANGLE
As we all know, every eddy is different and the information in this article is quite generalized. Part of
becoming a proficient kayaker is being able to adjust your P.A.S.E to different situations… Application
of personal judgement on demand! Play around with your P.A.S.E in a friendly eddy or on a run that you
are comfortable with and it will certainly help you improve your entering and exiting of eddies.
DWW 11
TRIP REPORT
Clear Creek, Northern California
By Jess Matheson
require some creative boat scouting, or bank
scouting to avoid some nasties in the form of
undercuts and wood. The rapids themselves are
really fun, full of boofs and chicanes, each ending
in a big deep green pool. There is a potential
portage about a third of the way down the Upper,
and one mandatory portage near the end around
a burly, narrow slot drop number. This is about a
half mile below the high road bridge and before
the can’t-scout-can’t portage-must-run rapid.
The scenery is absolutely incredible, especially as
the run drops into a deep, steep walled gorge.
After the bridge, the portage and the must-run
rapid comes the end of the Upper and the start
of the Lower. You can access the Lower without
paddling the Upper. There is a Forest Service
fishing trail/river access sign and a clear area
used for parking, before you cross the high road
bridge over the river.
The Lower is a beautiful Class 2+ - 3 run with
lots of great eddies and crosses to do. The rapids
are fun with some cool moves to make inside a
very scenic mini-gorge. Things slowly mellow out
towards the take out at the Highway 96 bridge.
Jess enjoying the quality water of Clear Creek.
TRIP REPORT: Clear Creek
Clear Creek (Upper and Lower)
Tributary of the Klamath,
Northern California
Zak in part two of the unscoutable, unportageable rapid.
2 - 4 hours
Class IV+
Off Highway 96 near Happy Camp
We got onto Clear Creek this summer with
Rush Sturges and Zak Shaw. We planned on
paddling with Silas Beaver but like lots of things
in kayaking, that part didn’t quite work out. He
told us where to put on for the Upper – about
20 minutes up the trail - so we were left to figure
out the rest. Silas was on the river at the same
time of us so we didn’t see him but he did kindly
do our shuttle for us.
Clear Creek was quite different to what we
had been regularly experiencing in the Salmon
Valley, which made for an awesome trip. The
Upper section is a lot tighter and has this cool
googley-bedrock going on for most of it. The run
is mostly Class 4+ to 5- and it certainly deserves
this rating given that near the end of the Upper
there is a can’t-scout-can’t-portage-must-run
stacked rapid. Fortunately we had Rush and
Daan, The Probes.
The water is amazingly clear (Clear Creek!?) and
is mostly pool drop in nature. Some of the rapids
Rush dropping back in after the main portage.
Although there is no specific gauge for Clear Creek, you can reference a flow estismate using the
Dreamflows gauge for Indian Creek, near Happy Camp (see link below). Clear Creek is usually paddleable
when Indian Creek is reading between 600 and 1200 cfs. These photos were taken at a flow around
750cfs.
www.dreamflows.com/graphs/day.216.php.
DWW 13
GEAR TALK
C l e a n i n g Yo u r G o r e - Tex
By Daan Jimmink
CLEANING
To clean your garments you will need:
* A sink, tub or washing machine
* Nikwax Tech Wash
* Nikwax TX Direct
Note: Do not machine wash garments if taped seams have become
dislodged. Do not use detergents. Clean all visible detergent from
machine. Remove all non-washable parts of garment. Attach any
Velcro together. Do any zippers up. Follow care instructions found on
garment.
IF USING A WASHING MACHINE:
PART ONE: Clean using Nikwax Tech Wash (NTW)
GEAR TALK: Cleaning Your Gore-Tex
When I brought my first GoreText garment, I remember being so impressed with it that I ran it
under a tap just to test the waterproofness and then showed the rest of my family. This season
after meeting a client by the name of Clifford, I started to realise that I wasn’t looking after my gear
as well as I could be. His Gore-Tex products still looked like new, and when I asked him how old
his kayaking gear was he replied “it’s ten years old and twice a year I give it a clean with Nikwax”.
Here is some of what I learnt from Clifford.
Gore-Tex is a multiple-layer waterproof fabric
that relies on the fibers staying in line to remain
waterproof. The outer layer of fabric is also treated
with a Durable Water Repellent polymer (DWR) that
penetrates the fibers and causes water to bead up
and roll off. Over time and with garment use the
fibers will become dirty and scuffed up.
The DWR coating will naturally wear off through
regular use but some things can accelerate this
including dirt, insect repellent, sunblock, oils and
detergents. Keeping the fibers clean and straight,
and maintaining the DWR coating will help to
prolong the life and beading of your garment.
There are two ways to restore the waterproofness to your GoreTex products: cleaning and heat treatment. Cleaning is a two stage
process using two Nikwax products: Nikwax Tech Wash to clean the
fabric and fibres, and Nikwax TX Direct to restore the DWR coating.
If the item is clean and beading already, a light heat treatment can
enhance the fabrics water repellency.
In the following instructions, “garments” refers to kayaking gear
such as Gore-Tex drytops, drypants and drysuits. Zippers and latex
seals are ok in the wash as long as the water is warm, not hot and
only the Nikwax washes are used (no other detergents).
These methods have since been tried and tested and I can confirm
that it does indeed increase the water repellency of Gore-Tex. I
hope that this information will help to increase the life span of your
own Gore-Tex gear. Remember that if you look after your gear, it will
look after you… Good luck!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Shake NTW well before use.
Pre-treat stains using NTW and a sponge or soft brush.
Remove all detergent build-up from detergent dispenser.
Place a maximum of two garments in washing machine.
Use 2-3 full caps (100-150mL) of NTW for 1-2 garments.
Warm machine wash (check garment label for details)
PART TWO: Reactivate DWR using Nikwax TX Direct (NTXD)
You do not have to dry your garments between these washes.
1.
Shake NTXD well before use.
2.
Remove all detergent build-up from detergent dispenser.
3.
Place a maximum of two clean garments in washing machine.
4.
Use two full caps (100mL) per garment.
5.
Warm machine wash (check garment label for details).
TO HANDWASH (SINK, TUB)
PART ONE: Clean using Nikwax Tech Wash (NTW)
1.
2.
3.
4. 5.
Shake NTW well before use.
Pre-treat stains using NTW and a sponge or soft brush.
Use 2-3 full caps (100 - 150mL) of NTW for 1-2 garments, in a tub of warm water
Agitate to mix, leave to soak for 5-10 minutes then agitate thoroughly.
Rinse with cold water until the water runs clean.
PART TWO: Reactivate DWR using Nikwax TX Direct (NTXD)
You do not have to dry your garments between these washes.
1.
Shake NTXD well before use.
2.
Immerse one item in 6L (1.5 gallons) of warm water.
3.
Add one full cap (50mL) of NTXD.
4.
Agitate to mix, leave to soak for 5-10 minutes then agitate thoroughly.
5. Rinse with cold water until the water runs clear.
After washing either dry your garment in the shade outside (if it has latex seals) or by tumble drying on a
warm heat (if there are no latex seals) and the garments' care instruction mention this. When garments
have dried, the water repellency should be restored and the garment waterproof again.
DWW 15
HEAT TREATMENT
To further increase water repellency, there are a couple of ways to straighten the material fibres.
As Gore-Tex is a nylon fabric, when heat is used the stray fibres melt back to the original shape
promoting the fabric to become waterproof again.
If you have tumble-dried your garments, then the next part will not be necessary. If you have airdried your garments then this step will further improve the water repellency of the fabric.
TO IRON
Steam-iron with a warm iron. Before you begin, place a towel or cloth between the garment and
the iron to avoid melting the fabric. You do not need to iron the garment until it is completely dry.
The heat helps to straighten the fibres and restore its waterproofness.
www.nikwax.com
www.gore-tex.com
Tyler Fox dropping into Cherry Bomb Gorge on Upper Cherry Creek, California
(Daan Jimmink)
Ryan Lucas on day two of the Clavey, California
(Daan Jimmink)
PHOTO GALLERY
GEAR TALK: Cleaning Your Gore-Tex
For more information, check out the Nikwax and Gore-Tex websites.
DWW 17
PHOTO GALLERY
Tera Muir on the Breakfast Slide, first rapid of Upper Cherry Creek in Callifornia
(Daan Jimmink)
Barny Young on the Upper Hokitika, West Coast of New Zealand
(Daan Jimmink)
Jordy Searle on the Upper Whitcombe, West Coast of New Zealand
(Daan Jimmink)
DWW 19
PHOTO GALLERY
Daan Jimmink on the Jedi Slides, Upper Cherry Creek in California
(Jess Matheson)
Pete Lodge getting air on the South Branch of the Middle Feather, California
(Daan Jimmink)
Taylor Cavin on day one of the Devil's Postpile on the Middle San Joaquin, California
(Daan Jimmink)
DWW 21

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