I-DA-HO!

Over Labor Day weekend, I finally made my first trip to Idaho. I was fortunate enough to meet up with ex-Boise-local Erik Larsen and the "Boise Boaters" crew, and head up highway 55 to the Payette drainage.

(Sara and I saw this crazy looking rainstorm just outside of Pendleton)

(Ya! Idaho!)
We got in Friday night, met up with Erik and his friend Kelli Pavelko, and set up camp at the Alder Creek camp site. The campsite was awesome, and by Saturday night, it was loaded to the gills with boaters. Chris Arnold and Eric Arlington got in super late On Saturday night. Erik, Kelli, Chris, Eric, and myself met up with a huge groups of Boise locals and headed up to do the SF Payette Canyon section. It was an awesome twelve mile class III-IV (V) run, with warm water, great scenery, awesome playspots, and one huge and scary drop: Big Falls. Big Falls drops about thirty feet in four or five steps through monsterous holes. When we got out to portage Big Falls, we heard that someone had decided to run it. We watched some dude totally clean the whole thing. It was impressive. Unfortunately, I decided not to bring the camera that day, and ended up with no shots. On Sunday, we headed down to run the Staircase section on the SF Payette. The Staircase section is another quality run on the SF. After the SF, the plan was to head up and run the NF Payette. We hooked up with local Mike Copeland (who runs the Boise Boaters yahoo! group) to lead us down. Now I haven't had the chance to paddle much big water, and I was really nervous about paddling this river. Just a week before, a NF veteran paddler of ten years drowned on the upper section, and I'd definately heard horror stories from this river. We made a plan to run the lower five section. On the scout, Eric Arlington and I decided to play it cool and stick to the warm-up.

(Scouting the NF)


As we got to the put-in, I started to get really nervous. Sara later said that she'd never seen that look in my eyes. Whether we were NF vet's or virgins, the tension was in the air.



(Eric Arlington putting on)

(Erik Larsen: "NF have many big holes!")

(Me nervous, and Sara calming me down)

(Houndstooth)

(Myself taking the boof line at Hound's)

(Eric Arlington at Hound's)

(Chris Arnold takes the main line at Hound's)

(Erik "sack-up" Larsen, aka "Uncle Lar-Lar" boofing it up at Hound's)

After Houndstooth, I started getting in to the swing of things on the NF; which is very different than the tight, technical creeking we have in Portland. At this point, the river became a lot of big and pushy fun!

(Chris Arnold somewhere in Otter)

I don't know if there are any named rapids between Houndstooth and Otter, but we cruised through what seemed like a mile-long, continuous rapid, and got to Otter. Mike told us the lines, and we headed though Otter. Halfway through, we eddied out on the left after a huge hole, and then ferried across to the river right. Mike said this was the "Scary Ferry".

(The group, minus our leader, Mike Copeland, halfway through Otter)

(Erik Larsen at the "Scary Ferry")

(Eric Arlington at the "Scary Ferry")

(Myself at the "Scary Ferry")

(Eddied out at the bottom of Otter)

(Chris Arnold in Juicer)

(Erik Larsen in Juicer)

(The crew finishes off Juicer)

(Looking upstream at Crunch)

(Mike Copeland, Chris Arnold, and Erik Larsen at the top of Crunch)

(Mike Copeland gets ready to punch one of many, many holes at Crunch)

(Chris Arnold at Crunch)

(Erik Larsen at Crunch)

(Looking downstream of Crunch)

All in all, Idaho was f-ing amazing, and I can't wait to go back. A special thanks to Erik Larsen for inviting us PDXer's out... To Kelli for taking pictures... To Mike Copeland for leading us down... To Ben, Mike and Cathy, Jim, and Phil, for being super friendly and giving good beta. Hit me up if you guys ever come out to PDX.


(Lasty, I'd like to give a big F-you to the obnoxious 1:00am guitar player for not letting me get any sleep! I'll find you SUCKA!!!!! Just Joking, I'm not really THAT pissed.)