The following is an account of four days of filming for Issue #28 of The LVM States Series.
WATCH THIS
"…meeting up with Fred Coriell, Tristan McClaren, Jesse Murphy, and Ryan Casey. John Grace and Adriene Levknett had to pick up some last minute food and they loaded into Tristan's truck, all six kayaks, six people, and enough stuff in the back for an overnighter. We drove down to the south fork of the Salmon River. This road consisted of 40 miles where you could go about 15 the whole way down the mountainside. The crew finally made it to camp and made dinner that was full of meat, pretty much every kind of meat that we had in the truck got put into this kind of nasty looking mush. It ended up tasting pretty good though. The fire got huge and we stood around shooting the shit. It was raining, Grace and Adriene didn’t have any rain gear so they were just trying to stay a little dry. It rained all night and into the morning. About 9 am the crew got up and slowly began rallying for the South Fork of the Salmon. Adriene had never been on an overnighter so she was trying to figure out what to do with herself. She also had a brand new Jefe so she got to outfit that also. We all hung around camp until the rest of the crew showed up around noontime. Dave Simonitas, (who is back in full swing after his broken wrist last year on the Middle Kings River) Jared Alexander of McCall, and Tor Anderson.
Adriene getting ready for her first overnighter.
Ryan Casey getting ready for his third South Fork trip of the season.
We got on the water around 1 pm and made our way down stream. This whole run was full of big water!. We got down to Devils Creek, the first bigger drop of the day and got out to look at it. Left side looked OK, right side looked mankey, and in the middle was a huge hole that could surf everyone in the group all at once. Everyone lined up like lemmings and ran down the left side, thankfully avoiding the hole in the middle. We stopped for a hearty lunch of bagel, salami, avocado, and tomato. We built a huge fire and stood around it trying to dry off, even though we knew we still had kayaking to be done. The famed Mule Kick rapid was right around the corner. This rapid had a huge breaking wave in the middle of the craziness and when you hit it going mach-ten it really does feel like a mule ravaged and kicked you in the middle of the chest. A ways down stream Ryan found a place on river left to set up camp for the night. We built a huge fire and told stories of the day. Ryan broke out the Jim Beam and that warmed us from the inside while the fire warmed us from the outside. Dinner consisted of gourmet ravioli that was amazing. We dried our gear and the crew slept soundly in their bevy sacks, tents, and tarps. In the morning we awoke to the sun trying to come out and found that the rain had mostly stopped. We still had a day of high volume kayaking ahead of us and we all had to make it through the last rapid of the day Fall Creek.
Ryan Casey and Fred Coriell in the meat of Devil's Creek Rapid.
We broke down camp and loaded the boats one last time. After ten or twelve miles of huge waves and hole dodging we made it to Fall Creek. It is a two-tiered drop that had a lot in it. At the top is bust through a breaking V wave and head left through some huge waves. Catch an eddy on river left, catch your breath, and be ready for a big hit. Stay left the rest of the way down, miss the hole in the middle, and don’t get caught up on the wall on river left. Everyone made it through without a scratch and we hung in the glory of successfully doing the South Fork of the Salmon. But now we were faced with a 20-mile paddle out in the flat water of the Main Salmon. By the time we made it to the takeout Don McClaren was waiting to pick us up with beer and pizza ready to eat. That is the best way to end a hot, long, almost never-ending, flat-water paddle.
Tristan McClaren probing Fall Creek Rapid.
Don drove us to McCall where Jared (JayRod) and his wife Julie were nice enough to let some dirty kayakers pretty much take over their beautiful house. At this point in the trip Dave, Tristan, and Freddy all had their cars in the gorge that was three hours away. We didn’t want to waste a day to drive in and then drive right back out so we decided to go to Yellow Pine, where the East fork of the South Fork of the Salmon resides.
Pat Harper and JayRod drove their cars in with Grace, Dave, Tristan, Adriene, Freddy, and Ryan. We drove back into the gorge to do three things; paddle the east fork south fork, get the cars out of the gorge, and party in Yellow Pine for the night. We all paddled the river that day. It was not as wide as the South fork but just as big. The crux rapid is called Flight Simulator and it goes on for about 2 miles. It's all about hole dodging in this rapid. The whole run is 9 miles long but it only took us about an hour and a half to do. We got to camp around dinnertime, made some grub, and figured out what we were going to do for the night. Golfing was the final verdict. When golfing comes to mind, rolling green hills, nice green grass, and no trees. This course was the exact opposite. Trees everywhere, no grass, and green consisted of flattened out sand. The fairway was a straightaway that was cleared of trees but it was only about 20 feet wide. It was a different kind of golf. We only made it nine holes and we all found out that Ryan Casey is a rock star at golf and that Adriene cant hit the broad side of a barn with a golf ball. We then ventured into Yellow Pine. This is a town of 30 people, one bar and one store. Pat wanted to go to the bar for one drink, then two, and then the karaoke machine came bursting out of nowhere. The bar was suddenly full of people, everyone wanted to do karaoke. The bartender whose eyes where about to pop out of her head fired up the first song. Everyone got up to sing at some point during the night, even the Mayor of the town got up at one point. It was a great night. We even got saltshakers thrown at us while we were singing margaritaville. Dave took a saltshaker to the nose and caused him to break his glasses and get a bloody nose. We ended up…"
Stay tuned for more States Series Updates.
Tristan showing us the way they play golf in Idaho
Ryan Casey destroyed the field
It was Pat's birthday and for some reason this is how the bar staff made him celebrate
The Mayor of Yellow Pine
Fred Coriell on The North Fork of The Payette 2800cfs
