Fall-Line Boating-By Jon G.

Well, it’s Monday, and I’m back at work fully feeling the effects of the weekend adrenaline-overdose hangover. We ran Brush Creek this weekend and what a hoot that was. I was not prepared for what I was about to experience. I say I was not prepared, well, that may be an inaccurate statement since I did the run twice over the weekend and lived to tell about it. But when they say creek…they really mean creek. This is not a river…just a creek. It was maybe 12 feet wide in the widest place, except for the pools at the bottom of the falls. And where it was only 6 feet wide, it was only 6” to a foot deep…not a whole lot of water there. But what was really amazing is that this creek has smoothed and polished it’s way down through the canyon over the years and this section is runable. A couple of years back one of the Kayak Magazines rated Brush Creek as the number one creek in North America. It has all the big drops of other creeks but none of the heinous parts where either you make the move, or you die. But that’s not to say there are no consequences, because the consequences can be huge! To me, it’s just not normal to throw yourself over the edge of blind horizon line (read waterfall) where you can see nothing of the terrain below except your buddy sitting in his boat in a pool 30-40’ below with this huge grin on his face egging you on. This is where you really have to decide just how much you trust your friends. Well, lets just say that it’s a real good thing that I never abused them (well, not too bad anyway) on the mountain when they were learning to snowboard. This was their prime chance to get even with me for all the times I coaxed them into dropping in over a cornice and telling them “it’s ok…you can do it…” and they sure took full advantage.

The first section is 10 minutes of immediate eye-opening orientation. You got to make a couple of technical moves to avoid not only ramming the rocks head on with the boat, but also to keep yourself from smashing your elbows on the rocks…instead, you throw your boat and your body against the rocks. The creek is so small that you rarely ever have a choice of which line to take, you go where the water takes you…period. The only exception is at the top of some of the drops where there is a pool and you have a 20 foot wide lip that the water is falling over. There you have a few choices of where to make the drop, left, right or center and scouting each and every drop would be mandatory if you did not have a guide to show you the way. I’m sure the first guys to do this run took hours to do it because in the steep middle section there are gnarly drops every 100 feet or so. It’s kind of like down climbing on really wet, slippery rocks with no ropes, no harnesses, no protection, just a boat you trust your life with, and a paddle.

We scouted the first drop just for good measure. Even though they had done this run a few times before, it was good to give us newby’s a look at what was to come. The first drop is the biggest being about 18 feet, the approach is easy and the pool below is deep…no sweat. All the practice I had done to this point, all the rock slides, all the rock drops, all the paddling skills to this point was all for this moment. I stood at the top and watched as they went over the falls and into the pool below…no sweat. Then why was I sweating? I go back and get into my boat and shove off…paddle around the bend and set myself up to launch off the edge and into free fall into the pool below. All went as planned and I hit the water and tested my boats buoyancy. The only real rule was to not hit the water aimed to the right, because if you did, you would hit the water and jet to the right and slam into the wall. I must have leaned a bit too far left because I hit the water and tipped over upside-down to my left side…no problems though…I just rolled back up. But where were my friends? They were gone! Did they leave me to do the next drop with no help? I THINK NOT! Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Joe and Brian emerged from behind the curtain of water falling over the falls…it was big grins for all and high fives all around. One down…who knows how many more to come. Well let me tell you that this first drop is just the beginning of a series of drops that take you from WAY up here to WAY down there in a VERY short distance. My guess is that it drops maybe 300 feet in a half mile…but that’s just a guess. We paddled into the next series of drops with the knowledge that supposedly the most technical move and the biggest drop were behind us. But that was of little comfort when the next horizon line I came to was huge…I could see way down into the canyon below and way up to the road above where people gather to watch the carnage. But I couldn’t see where the water was going…just that it was going over the edge and out of sight. Brian paddled up to near the edge and turned around paddling upstream but looking over his shoulder to try to see the line, then with a big sweeping stroke he turned his boat and said “go this way” and he then dropped out of sight….a few seconds later Joe followed him…then it was my turn. By this point my attitude was a combination of sheer terror and cautious confidence…but if the worst was behind us, and Brian and Joe dropped in…I felt ok to follow. It was then that I saw Brian waving his paddle from the pool below and that trademark grin…I dropped in. The water flowed over the edge and down a smoothly polished granite surface for a few feet, bounced off of a couple of humps and then dropped another 10 feet or so into a small pool where Brian and Joe waited and smiled….oh my freaking god…I made it. And that’s how the next few minutes were, fall line boating. I would wait for them to drop in and then take the plunge myself…some drops were actually a series of drops and pools to negotiate…some had rocks that would deflect you to the side and threaten to knock you over and send you cart wheeling down the falls. But most were just straight forward let the water take you and follow gravity types of situations. But you really had no choice, once you dropped in you were committed and you were going straight down the fall line unless you bounced off a rock or ledge or something. The main challenge you really had was to keep your boat straight so that any sort of irregularity that you hit, you hit it straight. On one drop I could see that once the guys dropped over the edge I could see their helmet for a moment and I could see that they hit something and it deflected them to the left then back to the right…no problem, just lean into it and drag your paddle along the rocks and brace…it’s easy! HA! Then, on one drop, I got a bit too close to Brian and since the eddies are really small, he took up most of the space I was aiming for. So I went up on the rock next to him to slow myself down. The problem was that I couldn’t grab any water with my paddle since it was only 1-2 inches deep where I was trying to paddle. The water was still tugging at the back of my boat and it dragged me off the rock and over the next drop sideways. Good thing that drop was not a portage with deadly consequences because I was committed. I slid down that drop sideways and it was a good 20’ of mostly smooth rock probably angled at 45 degrees before I hit a pool (more like a puddle) that slowed me down a bit…but it didn’t stop me, then I went over the next drop too, but I managed to drag my paddle and get my boat turned most of the way around before I dropped off the last 10’ drop to the pool at the bottom. THAT was my only moment of sheer terror on the run. Another time, when I tried to eddy up between drops, I didn’t quite make it and the water was pulling at the back of my boat again trying to get me to go down backwards. Well, this time I could see what I was in for and it just wasn’t so bad after what we had just been through. So I let the water have it’s way with me and I dropped in backward and slid down some 10-12 feet and off a 5’ drop into a nice pool below and I ended up upside down again, but again…just rolled back up…WOOHOO!! Where’s the video when you need it???? On one of the drops my buddy John (Brian’s Brother) got conflicting signals from us pointing in different directions as to which way for him to go. He kind of got sketched because you just can’t see what you are dropping into. So he tried to pull up and stop and he flipped over upside down right at the top of a 10-12 foot drop. I cringed in fear when I saw that he was coming over the falls upside down and briefly glanced down at what he was going to fall into. But by the time I looked back up his boat was coming over the falls but he wasn’t in it…he was starting to stand up. He had no idea what he was about to pour over and bailed out of the boat in record time. Luckily, he was in very shallow water that was flowing pretty slowly and it didn’t drag him off the edge. His boat however went over the falls and into the pool below where we were waiting to rescue it, he ended up just climbing out onto the rocks and jumping into the pool where we were waiting. Once he was reunited with his boat we went on our way, but that was a scary moment for sure.

Once we got past the section of major drops and the really scary stuff, we were into a section that was narrow and twisting and you just had to follow the water and fight to stay upright. Having only been down the run twice now I don’t know it by heart, but as I recall, this next section was bunch of narrow channels, technical turns, and small drops. But it was mainly just an issue of staying upright, bracing off the rocks and going with the flow. There were also some sections of nice shallow water flowing over nice smooth rocks at a nice easy slope and all was good. The beauty of the surroundings was really spectacular, it was just hard to appreciate on most sections due to all the stress of the situation. All of the boats we were in are short, small play boats or creek boats, and it’s a good thing! Some of the corners we encountered were so tight that I swore that my boat could not possibly make the corner, but I dove into the corner and tried to turn but I would hit the rocks head on and the water would just grab the boat and yank it around the corner and off I went…same thing on the next corner…and the next…and the next…bouncing off rocks and ducking under trees and trying to look far enough ahead so that I would not decapitate myself by catching my paddle on trees on both sides of the bank.

There is a portage towards the end of the run that we hiked around, and while I was hiking it some other kook comes roaring around the corner and sees me and asks if it’s clear, I nod yes, and he just runs it. He goes flying around the corner and over the 6’ pour-over and bounces off a couple of huge boulders and slams into the rocks and the water at the bottom…but he had been doing that run all weekend I guess and he just smiled and paddled on. We were hanging with him for a while and he saved me on one move. Both Brian and Joe went around one corner and over a small drop. The other guy was there and he asked me if I knew about the rock there…I said “no…what rock?” He said “if you just drop in, you’ll hit a big rock, so you have to aim right and paddle hard to go right, to avoid it”. Great advice…I did just that and missed a gnarly head on with a big rock. Brian hit it head on and Joe hit it sideways…that guy was my hero. It was really no big deal, but it was nice to make a move that both other guys didn’t make. We finally got down to the bridge and to my truck…I have never been so happy to see my truck in all my life.

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