it must be something in the won tons

The Black Canyon of the Bear River in Idaho is an amazing kayak run. Unfortunaly for us kayakers, it is dammed and there is only 2 weekends a year when they release water out of the dam gates. In the spring they have a whitewater festival, so that's what we did. We drove the 3 hours through idaho backwoods. It was a great time for all, and acouple quality rappids kept everyones heads on the horizon. They have a fall release too, it'll be sweet.



So were sitting at China Town, its raining outside, and were passing dishes of rice and noodle varieties around the table. Someone suggests we drive to Boise and rally the North Fork of the Payette. We are all relativly ready to roll, but we don't have a car that can make the drive. We phone a friend, pay the bill and within 2 hours we're stylin out of Jackson in a decked out Suburban with our creekboats piled on top. We make it to the NF the next day and rallied the upper section and camp out under clear skies. The next day we did a top to bottom, a full on 15 miles of in your face whitewater action. It was an incredible experience and I can't wait to go back.
Styling down the North Fork



Last weekend my dad was in town. We took him down the canyon and all of us had a great time. Next time we'll have to take him off mesa...



We've been firing up the Grey's River alot lately. It's been between 500cfs and 1500cfs so it's been keeping us entertained on morning pre work missions.



The Gros Ventre was super low acouple weeks ago, but we got a hot tip and fired it up before work last week....That tip turned out to be a bust. It was however a solid inch higher than the time before, A whoping 7 inches at the bridge...I don't intend to run it again unless it is a foot or higher.




This past weekend we drove up north a little ways. A couple hours north of Missoula to the Lochsa. The first day Dave and I hiked up this little creek and ran it down to the confluence with the lochsa. It was a fast, shallow, eddyless creek. Super fun. We got down, and Matt and Kevin were back from running shuttle and we had a sick run down through the millions of waves that stack up downstream on the Lochsa. We camped at a sweet spot on this creek and had a nice rainy night under the tarps. The following day we ran the upper section and booked it 3 hours north to Lolo creek. We camped at the put in and the next day we rallied bright and early to put on the 13 mile wilderness creek. It is an amazing stretch of river. Class 4,5 ledge drops, and enough boogie water to keep your head up the whole time.

One of the more quality drops on Lolo

The crew taking a break on Lolo




So we take off the river at 1pm. We're out of gas, so we drive 45 minutes to town, gas up, drive 45 minutes back. Run shuttle so the other guys can get thier truck back, and then speed off down the road. We get to Missoula, get some burritos with Glen, and we're leaving town by 8pm. Everything is going good, it's about midnight and we're just north of west Yellowstone, it's snowing and then BAM!! The window is smashed, the hood is all bent up, we got no headlights, and the passenger mirror is swiped clean off the side of the truck. An elk scampers off into the darkness. We drive for a half hour with no headlights, in the snow, in the dark of night, almost hit a Bison and then we realize we can get one of the headlights working again. So we do, and begin our long limp home. We get back to town at 4:30am, I drive straight to work, shower, and sleep on the couch for 3 hours until my 14 hour shift begins. Somehow I made it through the day, called up the insurance this morning only to recieve the bad news I've been expecting...I am not covered on animal collisions. And here we are...back at home, no money, a busted up truck, it's still raining, and it's only monday.

Truck 0, Elk 1