Well after a long, cold, blue skied, not so much snow winter paddling season is just about here. I have off 3 days a week with my job, and since the last post almost each and every one of those 3 day weekends has been used as an excuse to go flop around in the icy cold river for a few hours. We've gone up to mesa falls acouple times, ran the lower drops on the henrys fork, sessioned winter wave, ran the canyon, and most recently heard a rumor regarding a spring dam flush 5 hours away so we jumped in the car for a quick surf sesh down south.
The first mesa mission, we hiked in towing our boats on the snow behind us. It turned epic when we were faced with a steep frozen snowy hill. We let the boats go and hoped for the best and jumped on the snow and slid down on our butts behind our boats. As the trees got closer stopping became more and more of a pressing issue for me. Luckily no one hit a tree, and only one person got taken out at the legs by an out of control kayak. We made it to the lip, ran the drop and paddled the flatwater out. Two days later we found ourselves back at the parking lot at mesa only this time with a snowmobile and tow ropes. We got towed in the 7 miles or whatever in our kayaks behind the sledd. The creekboats were surprisingly easy to manuever around on the frozen snowed over road. Going in and out of the drainage ditches, airing over speed bumps, smashing into each other. It was not until the put in that we discovered the gaping slash in the bottom of Austins kayak which later caused it to fill up like a bathtub when submerged in the water. Our sledd driver grilled up some hotdogs, fed us lunch and sent us on our way. We ran the drops, portaged around big mesa and ran down through the lower falls. We hiked out the scree field to our awaiting sledd taxi out. We got to the road (after linking the boats 1 behind the other with carabiners and webbing to negotiate the forest as our driver sped us through while simltaniously just a few yards behind him an epic snow ball fight ensued between us kayakers. There is an advantage to being in the lead boat!) So we make it to the road, stop the sledd to better arrange the tow situation on the open road and were all ready to go, and our driver pulls the handle off of the pullcord and the cord retracts back into the sledd. Disaster Strikes! well it wasnt that bad, and after more than a few tries using a throwbag to jump start the engine we are back on track). More extreme kayak snowcross on the way back, and we are at the car without any problems. An epic trip for sure. The whitewater and waterfalls were ok too.
Thursday was jeromes birthday so we climbed taylor and skied down. The snow was not good, but the day was so much fun. We got acouple good turns, but that was about it. It was great to get out for one last day and make some turns with my friends. Have fun jamming splitter cracks in the desert buddy.
Yesterday we drove 5 hours each way to go surf at the casper whitewater park. We got up early, set off down the road and got in casper right on time. We got some food, got dressed, realized Austin forgot his helmet, went to the store and bought a helmet in our kayak gear, got back to the river, with night setting in, the water still rising, we surfed for an hour or so and set off back home. The hydrolic was sick for sure, but it is hard to justify the drive again in the near future for a damn flush and only a short window to surf. We also had some excellent chinnese food. If you find yoursef in Casper wyoming, check out the Ming House.
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