|
|
After a stretch of generally uninteresting paddling, one comes to the first significant falls (above left). The river is squeezed into a left-hand channel and accelerates through a series of offset holes into a sharp right-hand bend and a brief pool. At usual levels for this run, numerous rocks litter this pool, creating a bit of an obstacle course leading to the lower part of this falls (above right). The river pitches down a steep slide into a grungy pool. Piton potential abounds.
|
|
|
There are a number of other good rapids and slides, leading to the main event --the upper reach (I believe) of where the DNR has 'redesigned' this river by dynamiting steps into the bedrock (to allow fish passage further up the river than the natural slides and falls which were there had allowed). This is the start of a drop we call Energizer Bunny ('cuz it "keeps going, and going, and going"). The slot (above left) has a nasty piton rock in it, so the usual route is to cut hard river-right to sneak down the grungy chute which stays high, then cascades into the pool below the slot. Below this brief pool, the drop continues in a great series of steps and pools (above right).
|
|
|
The end of the Energizer Bunny series (above left) is a few more steps carved into a river-left narrow chute (just off-frame right), before a welcome pool. The next significant drop I like to call Flip-Flop (above right). It has a couple of offset holes which tend to back-ender boats, often tending (in the process) to flip you first one way, then the other. (Be prepared for a quick brace on either side!)
|
|
|
The next couple main drops are quite similar. Again, the DNR has dynamited steps into the bedrock. The short boiling pools created thusly can be very tricky to negotiate, as shown by the two photos above.
|
