Poudre River Kayaks

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Closure

Well its been a while since a post, and seeing as how we have all been back in the states for a couple weeks now its time we wrapped up the trip. After about three months into the trip we decided to sell the bus and call it quits. The bus and our bank accounts were both feeling tired from the constant wear and tear of life on the road. We managed to paddle in six new countries on countless rivers. We also got to see an amazing variety of cultures and people. We made so many friends in all the places we traveled, and would like to thank everyone who helped us out with their hospitality. Though our original goal of driving to South America was not acheived we still feel our mission was a success, and the stories we have now will stick with us forever. I have decided to keep updating this blog with pictures and stories until I actually reach the fu, and the bus mission is complete. Here is a little compilation video of our trip.


One last trip waterfall.

Let's Review

This is going to be hard, but here is the rundown of the last few weeks, and four countries. We left Mexico and headed into Guatemala with little river beta and a desire to see as much of the country as we could in a limited time. We first cruised into Lake Atitlan which is a beautiful lake in the northern part of the country.

The Lake


We left the lake in search of some rivers. It had been 6 days since we had last been on the water and Uldis was going through withdrawls. We knew the names of some rivers in Guatemala, but we didn't really have any info on putins or takeouts. Some creative discussions with a rafting company gave us an idea of the putin for the Cahabon river which according to all of the rafting ads was a class IV river. We made our way to Lanquin, found a river, and naturally assumed that this was like the map and the rafting company said the Cahabon river. As it turns out it was the Lanquin River, which is generally class III-IV except for a 200 yard section of serious class V. Luckily a local warned us of some big rapids below, and we didn't float into the big one, but it could have been ugly. With the exception of the big rapid which we walked the run was a great III-IV play run. We ended up also running the Cahabon which at the time was flowing with huge water. It consists of 3 long big water class IV rapids, and not much else, but it was definately worth floating. Unfortunately we didn't have the camera for this run.

The bus getting into some river running on a ferry in Peten Guatemala


We stopped for a day at the amazing Tikal ruins before making our way to Honduras. The border crossing for Honduras was an interesting two day affair with an interesting layover in the town of Entre Rios, Guatemala. Its a long story, but the lesson we learned is not to make any travel plans to Entre Rios, which is the currently in the lead in the running for sketchiest town in central america.

Tikal


We had planned to run a few rivers in Honduras, but when we arrived at the Cangrejal river we found that the El Nino weather pattern had created one of the worst rainy seasons any of the river guides we talked to had ever seen. We put on the river which was a great steep run, and immediately felt at home. Low water. We were finnaly back in our element. The run was enjoyable, and would have been excellent with 200-300 more cfs, but it wasn't worth sticking around for, so we hightailed it down to Nicaragua.

Maybe there is whitewater in Nicaragua, but we hadn't heard of any so we made it to the Pacific side for some surf. We had never surfed ocean waves in kayaks, but we had surfed in rivers how different could it be. After a steep day long learning curve we were finally surfing some quality waves. Some Pics.






This is what it looks like when someone is about to get trashed. You can barely see the kayak, but its there.







After a week in Nicaragua, it was time for Costa Rica. It was great to be in a place with a whitewater guidebook and people we knew. Turrialba looks like the Trailhead with Poudre guides everywhere, and luckily they don't hold it against us that we work for A-1.

Arenal Volcano


Kristen, Matt, and Lucas have shown us around taking the crew down the Peijibaye, Lower Pacuare, Pascua section of the Reventazone, and Upper Pacuare in our first week in Costa Rica. Costa is great, and I can't wait to see what comes next.

Rafts in Lower Pacuare



Matt above Blood Hole on The Upper Pacuare. It lived up to its name drawing a little blood out of Uldis' nose.


Matt hopefully taking a breath before getting his world turned upside down


Poca showing off. This kid is sick, enough said.


I am going to end every post with a gigantic waterfall from the last post on out. This one is up the hill from Turrialba.

A new rack, the Discovery Channel, and the Alseseca River

We had a wierd last couple of days in Valles. First while driving through town the bus hit a curb which somehow caused our roof rack with 4 kayaks, an oar frame, a raft, 3 tires, and a bike to come crashing down onto the streets of Valles in front of a mexican cop holding a sub machine gun. Nelson, who had been driving was sure he was going to jail, but in Meixco its not even a ticketable offense to drop 1 thousand pounds of gear into the middle of a busy road. However we ended up spending a day in front of a hardware store building a new rack.

Buikding a roof rack in Valles


For no reason at all a dog on top of a car


The next day we were tricked into kayaking micos again for an extreme travel show on latin discovery channel, and because there are give or take five Mexican kayakers in the world we were the only ones around to film. It took all day, but its all worth it for the glory of spanish cable tv.

After finding out that all of the runs in San Luis Potosi were either washed out or horrifyingly high we left for Veracruz. Our first stop was Tlapacoyan where we ran the III+ FiloBobos river which was a beautiful river with some very nice catch on the fly waves, and a good chance for Nelson to improve his oar skills.

The ruins along the Rio Filos


Nelson on the Filos section above the confluence with the Bobos


At the take out for the FiloBobos we met another Jorge, but this Jorge was an excellent kayaker who had lived in California for six years and had decents on Upper Cherry Creek and the Silver Fork. He told us of the Alseseca river. There is a short blurb in the Gringo´s Guidebook about the Alseseca, but at 265 ft/mi it seemed to steep for us, but to the contrary it is a very runnable creek of the highest quality. I recomend this creek to everyone in the area. Above and below the runnable section is V-V+ hair, but for the two miles we ran it contained 30+ manegable drops from 7-30 ft each with some consequence that was seriously lacking in the micos section. The great boofs are almost to many to count, and mixed in with the drops are some tight technical creek rapids. Scout every horizon. It is Jorges favorite run in the world, and the reason he lives in Tlapacoyan. Here are some pictures that look much better blown up so don´t be shy.

Jorge on a fun triple drop rapid


A fun slide


Uldis about to style the drop, and as with every run we are claiming a first latvian decent, but if its not let us know and we´ll retract


As Uldis would say Same,Same but different


This is a great tight drop of about 20 feet on the Rio Altotango. The put in is on this creek for 3 micro creekin drops before it confluences with the Alseseca


Jorge makes everything look good


This rapid was almost too fun.It ski launhces you into a tight slide against a wall.


Boof!


This drop has a sticky hole at the bottom that mystery moved me and my blunt for about ten seconds. It was less forgiving to others who will remain nameless.


Jorge pre boof


We spent two days on the Alseseca, but we could have spent years. After Tlapacoyan we made it down to Jalcomulco for the Rio Antigua. This river contains the Puente Pescados section of big water class four rapids with never ending surf. There is honestly more water in this river now than flowed down the Poudre all season. The waves and holes are incredibly large right now, but its not to hard to miss the meat of the drops if you want to. Downstream from Jalcomulco is the Banos Carizzal stretch. The rapids here aren´t hard, Class III, but it was the best play run I have ever been on with 3-4 quality huge surf waves in every rapid. It´s also a longer stretch, and we were exhausted at the end.

Nelson on the Puente Pescados




The Rio Alseseca entering the Bobos. We didn´t run this one.

Micos!

Well we made it into Mexico an on our second day we made it into the tiny town of pago-pago to run the now famous Cascadas de Micos in the mountainous state of San Luis Potosi. These are a set of seven cacadas or waterfalls that range from 7 to 30 feet. These are all fairly forgiving although the rain brought up the water for our last run down, and the holes at the bottom of the drops started to get a little stickier. They are not to bad though, and are fun enough that we have been lapping he short stretch almost constantly. The high water has made three or four lines possible for each drop which creates an almost never ending variety of slides and falls. We also found some fun surf waves in the class II-III- section below the waterfalls that have sprung up in the high water. We knew the whitewater would be fantastic, but we didn´t know that there would be beautiful rainforest mountains so close to the border. Our preconcieved notions that Mexico was all a desert were quickly erased.

We hadn´t planed on staying long in Micos, but the people and the quality of the whitewater has made us stay. We have many knew friends who are all so helpful. Anna, the owner of Huasteca rafting has helped us with shuttles and beta. Also a mexican kayaker named Jorge has opened his home, offered shuttle help, and has given us a list of his Mexican kayaking contacts for help in some of our future stops. JOrge also brought us some much needed purified water as a gift. We paddled with Jorge and his son down the Micos, and they truly are wonderful people. Jorge, a doctor, explained that while he was living in Colorado for 6 months in the early nineties the climbers and kayakers he met were so helpful that he wanted to return the favor. So we want to thank the Colorado kayaking community for being so cool.

Anyways here are some pictures of Micos. The pictures of the falls are in the order they come in on the run, and some of the smaller ones have been left out. Click on the pictures for a better picture.

This sign means your in the right place


The big falls. We put in below this 70 foot monster. Altough it has been run succesfully many times it has also broken enough backs to make it more or less a crap shoot.


Jorge´s son Jaistemae on the first waterfall


Uldis on the second falls which has a little hole at the bottom. This drop is bigger than it looks here. The first and big waterfall are in the background.


After a decent drop with no good photo angle and a smaller drop comes this drop which is a fun slide on the right, a slide to a five foot drop in the middle, and this drop on the far left. Each are so fun I recomend them all.


After the last drop comes the smallest pool and the largest fall. This is rumored in the guidebook to be thirty feet, but I think it is a little smaller. There are big fun vertical falls on the far right and left and a big slide to a ten foot drop in the middle.


Nelson jumping the big falls.


This is the last rapid. It also has many routes, but my favorite is a long slide, maybe 100 yards, into a drop that is supposed to be nasty hole, but at the flows we saw it was pretty flushy.


The takeout for the lower run.

About to Leave

Well the summer is winding down, and the trip is right around the corner. Our crew had one goal for our second season of kayaking, and that was to kayak Gore canyon, which we did along with many other personal firstd's. Pics of us in Gore are lost in somewhere in Arkansas, but we have them forever in our minds. The bus is nearly completed, and Joe's crazy bunk bed/couch plan works better than I ever imagined. We are now just waiting for Uldis to return from his recent trip around the world, and we can get underway. Here are the bus pics and some pics of the season.

Here are the bottom bunks right after instalation.



These are the top bunks on chains, and the last pic shows them in couch mode. We have some pretty fancy mattresses to go on those beds, but due to time contraints we can't show them to you now.






Though not kayaking here is our raft race team at Gore fest, or as I call it the new christmas.

On the way to Gore with 6 Kayaks and a raft on our newly created roof rack.

The team in Kirschbaum



Tunnel, and amazingly no one swam.


The team holding up bottles of our sponsor's famous and delicious Major Tom's Pomegranite Wheat beer.


In closing here are some kayaking pictures that I just wanted to post.

Uldis underwater practicing for next years Guide Hole Rodeo


One of the last pictures of our friend Lane before he was lost in the trecherous Sea of Elaina


Wheeeeee!


Finally this picture best sums up the summer, and perhaps every day working for A-1 Wildwater.