My trip log - Day 2 - Upper Alseseca
This section is the origin of the Alseseca and starts below a 200 foot waterfall. We hiked about 2 miles down to the river. As we got down to the river, Ben and Eric (who had done this section 2 years ago and again a couple days earlier) noticed the flow. It had been raining all night and morning and the river had risen significantly from the day before. “What do you think of the level?” Eric asked Ben. “It should be pretty full-on.” Ben replied with a squirmish smirk on his face. “I’m a little nervous to go, Ben!” I said. But my decision to go was made when Ben answered back, “Well, Heather, this is the hardest of the easiest whitewater we will be doing on this trip, so you decide!” I shut up and put my gear on. We got into our boats and headed downstream. I tried to focus on each individual drop instead of the high water and all the big drops - this made me a lot more focused and less nervous. Less than a ½ mile downstream, we came to our first rapid - Either a river right boof into another 6 foot vertical boof or enter river left with a slide into the 6-foot boof at the bottom. I managed to get into an eddy that would allow me the only option of river left. EJ gave me the “go”. I started my slide descent, working my way right, into a boof stroke at the bottom. “Sweet, nailed the line.”
As we headed downstream, Ben gave us the signal to eddy out. As he went around the corner, EJ followed. A whistle blow was heard, so one-by-one, we went around the bend. We were at our mandatory portage. We needed to reach a one boat eddy on river left, so we could portage. The worse thing was, was that this eddy was surrounded by branches from a river wide strainer above the entrance into the falls. Ben got to shore as Eric, Nick, myself and EJ were all eddied out amongst the branches. My turn came, I wiggled my way out of the branches, got my ferry angle and ferried through the branches about ½ foot above the strainer. Darin was there on shore to grab my boat. We hiked our boats up about 150 feet and 400 feet downstream. It would take all of us to make this portage successful. Eric went down first, using a rope tied to a tree for support, he slid his way 120 feet down. Next, EJ, Nick and Darin went to position themselves to collect gear. Ben and I stayed up top to lower boats.
Our portage brought us to the top of a 40-50 foot waterfall, called the “rib”. Two years earlier, Ben had ran this drop at lower flows and hit a kicker rock, landing him sideways and spitting up blood. We spent some time scouting and Ben and Nick decided to fire it up. As we positioned ourselves for photos and video, fog and thick clouds rolled in, making it hard to see. Ben and Nick both styled the drop. Right below the “rib” was a 25 foot curved slide into a 20 foot domed waterfall. Nick ran it first, corkscrewing a bit at the bottom and broke his paddle. I ran this drop after EJ, entered the slide river left and it curled me center-right. As I approached the lip of the 20 footer, I tucked (you didn’t want to boof this one), landed and split my paddle. We ended up with 2 broken paddles and only one break-down. We could have played paper, rock, scissor for who would C1 down the rest of the river, but Nick was more comfortable C1ing than me, so he stepped up. We had 3/4 of the river left up to this point. “Thanks, Nick” I said. “Good luck, man!” (We didn’t get anymore pictures on this section of river due to the thick fog).
Soon after this slide was the “Pooper” rapid. I had been hearing about this rapid all morning. “The Pooper rapid is sick!” I’d hear. So, I had to ask how the rapid got its’ name. Ben replied, “The reason it’s called the Pooper is that you slide into this narrow chute, barely wide enough for a boat to go through. As you approach this shoot you don’t think you’re going to fit until, bam! you get through the slot and explode out the bottom of the chute into a 20 foot waterfall.”
“You gonna run it?” Nick asked. “I’ll wait and check out your guys’ line before I commit”, I replied. So, Eric hit it up first. He slid down river left over some chunky rocks, which ended up pulling him off line a bit. He entered the “Pooper” slot with too much right angle and pitoned the wall. He bounced off the wall, and continued through the chute over the waterfall - Didn’t like attempt #1. So, Darin hit it next. Now, up until this point, Darin seemed to be this quite guy, very laid back and reserved. His line was down the middle, which would place you directly in the center of the chute. The thing about this line, was that you would be shot through the chute so quick that your chance of boofing the waterfall below was fairly high. Darin got buried in the center of the chute, came flying out, almost tipping over sideways. However, Darin shifted his weight just enough to stay upright, but the speed and current going over the waterfall hit Darin so hard, that he pulled the first ever Air Screw over the waterfall - what a little show-off! (You can check out this footage in Hotel Charley coming this spring. . . it will definitely be a highlight) The amazing thing is, is that he landed the air screw at the bottom of the waterfall . . . upright. Attempt #2 wasn’t a sell for me, either. I watched Nick go next. He took Erics line, entering left and boofing into an angle that would get him through the “pooper” chute. He also pitoned, but came out upright. No one sold me on this drop, so I portaged it, along with Ben and EJ. What I did get from this drop was all lot of laughs and entertainment . . . thanks guys!.
After the Pooper rapid, the river changed features to more ledges. Now, keep in mind the flow was very high this particular day. As we continued downstream, Ben eddied out and asked, “This section here is the one with the sticky hole in it that we hiked into the other day, right?” Now, if it was sticky at lower flows, it’s probably very trashy now, I thought. Ben disappeared downstream and we then heard a whistle. This whistle told us that it was all okay. So, I continued downstream. As I was rounding a curve in the river, I saw Ben eddied out downstream and a horizon line directly parallel to him. I still figured everything was fine, so I got speed and boofed. Once landing this boof, I felt myself being pulled back in. “Paddle, paddle, paddle,” Darin yelled. I managed to get myself out before I got a beat down. Darin, Eric and I continued downstream a bit to a bigger eddy and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, Darin and Eric walked upstream as I waited in my boat downstream. I saw everyone pull out their throw ropes. Keep in mind Nick was C1ing the river, which is a bitch when you need to boof or roll. Nick went over this drop and got stuck. As Nick was getting a beat down in the ledge hole, EJ boofed over the drop, landing on Nick. EJ managed to get out, Nick pulled his skirt and swam. Nick came out of the ledge hole after awhile, but his boat was getting worked for about 2 minutes. One of the guys had to reach in, clip the boat and pull it out.
As we continued downstream with yet more ledges, we came around another corner with a horizon line. I knew I had not gotten enough speed to get a good boof, but I took my stroke and waited to see what would happen. I got turned sideways and got stuck in THE perfect side surf, facing river right. As I was sitting in this surf, bracing myself with my left paddle blade, hoping not to tip, Darin flew over me. Both of us thought he had cleared the hole, but he landed in the boils and was getting pulled back in with me. He swam right away to get out of my way. His boat came up stern first between my paddle and my body. I let go of my paddle with one hand, pushed Dari n’s boat out of my way, tipped, hip snapped back up and continued in my side surf. Next EJ and Nick flew over me. Finally, Nick approached me and told me to hold on to the bow of his boat as he back paddled me out of the hole. I grabbed onto his boat, but even though he was paddling hard to get me out, he was also being pulled into the hole. So, EJ scrambled up to shore, threw a rope to Nick and yelled, “Heather, hold on to Nick’s boat hard. I mean really hard.” I let go of my paddle to hold on to Nick’s boat with all the strength that I had. EJ then started pulling Nick to shore and pulling me out of the hole. “You held a good side surf for 2 minutes,” Eric praised. “Way to hang in there!” Now, the question that literally just popped into my head: How was Nick back paddling with only one blade. I had such tunnel vision at the time, that I didn’t realize Nick was C1ing at the same time as he was trying to pull me out of the hole. Maybe someone threw him a regular paddle, I don’t know! I’ll have to ask him! Anyhow, that kid ceases to amaze me . . . Thanks, Nick!
We continued downstream, finishing this run with the 25 footer and the double drop from the day before.
As I laid in bed that evening, I got to thinking about a few things: What does it take to do an expedition like this? What does it take mentally, physically, logistically? I was about to find out. Day 1 and 2 where typical paddling days. You put on, run a section of river that at least 2-3 people in your group had ran before, take out and go home. From day 3 on, changed my life as a person and a paddler and I’d like to share with you not only what our trip consisted of, but how, as a women and only female paddler on the trip, this expedition affected me mentally and physically.
~Heather~