Lava Beds National Monument

Team Kettle made a quick trip this weekend to Lava Beds National Monument along with our friend Emilie. Lava Beds National Monument is in Northern California and Southern Oregon. It is about two and a half hours from I-5, just about an hour outside of Klamath Falls in Southern Oregon.
The first stop in our trip was at Petroglyph Point. This is where the Modoc Indians, that once inhabited the land, paddled out in boats on the lake that used to exist to a volcanic tuff island, and carved symbols into the soft rock.



We also stopped to enjoy the beautiful scenery of this area.

Next we arrived at our camp site. For only $10 a night this place is a steal, and has a truly incredible view.


Finally we got to explore the caves. The caves vary greatly in difficulty, from a cave with a lighted path to those where you must duck and crawl.



This was a fantastic overnight trip for Team Kettle. The geology is stunning. The history is fascinating. The views are breathtaking. We strongly recommend this trip. And we strongly endorse enhancing the trip with a bag of Death Valley Chipotle chips!

Team Kettle Gets Recognized

We're a shy bunch here on Garfield Street in Ashland and have been too timid to tell the folks at Kettle how we feel.  I guess we were worried they wouldn't reciprocate our love.  That was all proven wrong when we received an e-mail the other day from Kettle Foods Brand Ambassador Jim Green saying Kettle Foods loves Team Kettle!

Evidently, Kettle Foods discovered us with a little aid from our friend Wes Barnhart, and as a token of their love, sent us a few bags of assorted chip flavors.  As a token of ours, we're eating them, raving about all of their great flavors, and continuing to be their biggest fans.

Here at Team Kettle, we'd like to thank Jim and the rest of Kettle Foods for their recognition and making wholesome, delicious snacks, and Wes for spreading the word.

Willamette Pass

On Friday March 13th Team Kettle went on a team trip to Willamette Pass Ski Resort . We were accompanied by our good friend Angela Bombacci on this trip, and it was the first time riding at Willamette Pass for all of us.
Angela, Verelle, and I left Ashland around 10 pm and arrived in Corvallis at Dan and Cullen's place around 1:30 am. Going to bed right away was not an option because Thursday was the fourth annual Irish Car Bomb night. After a couple beers and a Car Bomb we all crashed on the living room floor.
We had a late start to the day due to the late night we had, we managed to be at the ski resort by 11:30 am. Even still there was plenty of fresh powder to spare.
The snow was amazing. It was very light and plenty deep. The forest that Willamette Pass is in is very mature and had little to no underbrush which meant amazing tree runs for us. The tree's are spaced out perfectly and we got some of the best tree runs we have ever had. Willamette Pass is also home of the steepest run in the state of Oregon. Dan and I ventured down the 52 degree slope, and it was definitely steep.
We rode hard until 4 pm and then jammed it back to Corvallis and dinner at Mcmenamins. The combination of good snow, good friends, and awesome hosts (thank you Cullen and Dan!) made for an awesome trip. Willamette Pass is a resort we will definitely ride again soon!

Enjoying a lunch break.

The lodge at Willamette Pass.

One of the many beautiful trails.

Bavarian Night!

You all voted on where Dan would sleep on Bavarian. The majority of you voted on Dan sleeping in Jail, but he out foxed you again. Dan did sleep in a tent, with two other, not so stranger, people from the Mt. A ski school. Zana brought so many blankets she could have survived a night on Everest, and Colin well Colin made it into the tent mostly. Colin decided it would be best for him to sleep half-way in the tent and with his goggles on. Good decision Colin.

The two main highlights of Bavarian night are the Torch Light Parade (drunk skiers and riders are entrusted with roadside flares that have ski-poles attached to them) and the fireworks that proceed it. Mount A Ski School Director Robert directed the parade this year, and while it was not as organized as it has been in the past it still wound its way majestically down the mountain. The fireworks went off in a big bang. The fireworks almost didn't happen this year due to the high wends experienced earlier in the day.

After the "official" festivities were over the majority of the participants still hanging out went to the back side of the mountain where a bomfire lite up the nights ski. The party went deep into the night and the hangovers went through the next day.

Well see you again next year Bavarian night!

Big water on the Smith River, CA

Over the weekend of January 12th and 13th, we had another marvelous SOU Whitewater Club event. Will and Leland came up from Ashland, Tanner, Johnny and I came down from Corvallis, and we met up in the Smith River drainage. The Smith lies is the far northwestern corner of California near Crescent City and Jedidiah Smith State Park. It is the longest free-flowing river system the the state and has beautiful pristine water, even when it gets high.

On Saturday, we left early and ran the North Fork, a 14-mile wilderness run with a 2-hour shuttle drive in. We had fantastic flows on this run and everything went extremely well. We were joined for the day by Todd Merrill, a fellow kayaker from Grant's Pass. The North Fork was running almost 14 feet on the pipe gauge in Gasquet, making it extremely continuous with tons of big holes, crashing waves, and amazing surf. We scouted a couple of the drops and had an altogether beautiful day on the river.

That night we stayed in Gasquet at a friend's house (you rock, Tom!) and woke up early for another run the next day. Sunday Todd came back out and brought his girlfriend Sasha to paddle in the raft. We scouted the roadside run on the Middle Fork and made ambitious plans to combine three separate runs for a total of 14 miles. The gauge at the the river's mouth was reading around 13,000 cfs, so we had plenty of water to make things exciting!

We started things off with the Patrick's Creek run, a six-mile stretch of class II-III with one class IV rapid near the beginning called Cal-Trans. At our higher flows, there were several more class IV rapids we ran without scouting and the run got very continuous!

Will and the raft crew running Cal-Trans rapid

It was super fun and we avoided any carnage. If you wander down here at high flows, be extremely cautious: there are lots of willows growing in the river channel that create strainers. Don't be afraid to scout.

Will punching a hole

As a heads up, the biggest rapids occur just below the first bridge, just above the third bridge, and right after the highway gets cantilevered out over the river for the second time.

The Patrick's Creek run ends at the confluence with the North Fork at Gasquet, where the Gasquet/Mary Adams run begins. These six miles are pretty slow overall with the only flatwater on the whole stretch. Still, a couple rapids kept us all entertained. The calmer nature made for a good rest before we dropped into Oregon Hole Gorge.

The gorge is the final flush of the Middle Fork before it joins the South Fork and meanders its way to the ocean. The canyon gets sheer and narrow and gradient steepens dramatically. We had scouted the run from the highway earlier that day and determined that it was runnable, but looking at it from 200 feet above the river doesn't really do justice to the size of features in there. At this point, our flow was probably between 6000 and 7500 cfs. The run is generally rated class IV, but one guidebook calls it class V above two grand...


The entry rapids to the gorge are normally insignificant, but transformed into long monstrous wave trains with our stout flows. The gorge itself is very short and only contains a half mile of serious whitewater, but four class IV rapids are jammed into that stretch after the aforementioned entrance waves. We pulled over to scout the first rapid and discovered that the first three rapids were virtually indistinguishable from one another. It was now just a single 300-yard long class V cataract with big lateral waves exploding off each bank. the best line involved avoiding a few laterals, punching others, and using the rest to surf you from side to side.

I led the charge and lost track of which lateral I was in halfway through the rapid and got slammed by an unexpected feature. I went over and swirled around for a bit, rolling up just in time to recognize a big feature off the right wall. I avoided it and caught an eddy before the last two holes of the rapid. I looked upstream and, to my horror, saw Todd's boat bobbing along with him swimming 20 yards away. Thinking "people first, gear second," I watched his kayak bob past me knowing we may never see it again. Todd was able to make it to shore himself and I plucked his paddle out of the current. Soaked and exhausted, Todd crawled out of the water on to the bank. Will came down with the raft after a clean run and eddied out just below us.

We were really lucky here, as Todd's boat went about 50 feet further downstream and got stuck in a little pocket against the wall, right below where Will's raft was. With a little rope work and the help of the raft crew, I got a line on Todd's boat and extracted it. No gear was lost in the rescue and once Todd was recuperated, we continued to downstream to face the final drop.

Oregon Hole rapid is the namesake of the gorge and creates a very intimidating horizon line. The scout provides an even more intimidating view. The rapid starts with a river-wide six-foot ledge with massive holes. From there most of the water pushes left into a retentive hole backed up by a rock. Todd was the least excited to see this drop after his swim and none of us saw any particularly inviting lines. After a little pondering, I decided to gamble with a narrow seam that split the two worst holes in the ledge, but would likely flush and position me well to avoid the big hole at the bottom. Once in my boat again, I was reminded of the sharpness of the drop. I couldn't see any features on the ledge, so I went upstream, peeled out, and lined up off the right bank where I guessed the seam to be.

As I gathered downstream momentum and committed to the drop, I picked out a tiny breaking wave that was my marker. One draw stroke later, I was looking down at the deep seam and hauling ass into it. I pulled a delayed boof stroke and dug deep on landing. I came flying out of the ledge barely getting my head wet and traveling toward the lower hole. I turned quickly and paddled hard to make it through the rapid unscathed. Todd followed suit with a great line.

Will loaded up his crew and had a different route. He punched the softest part of the ledge on the far left, then pulled hard back right to avoid carnage at the bottom.
Everyone stepped up for this last rapid and we congratulated each other in the eddy below before paddling the last half-mile to the take out. Another great weekend on the river!

Enjoy the video:

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River

25 days
300 miles
a couple thousand feet of elevation drop
1.6 billion years of preserved rock record.
The Grand Canyon. Most boaters regard this as the ultimate rafting trip in the world. I've been hearing about the canyon for over ten years now from friends, family, and co-workers. Most of what I hear about is the whitewater. There are plenty of stories about different hikes, side canyons, overlooks, campsites, caverns, wildlife, and geology, but mostly the rapids. Just before I left, someone gave me the best advice yet: This is not a whitewater trip. Sure, the rapids are huge and powerful and exhilarating, but there just aren't that many of them. It's really about being one of the only places in the country where you can float the river in one of the most spectacular places in the world for such a long period of time. For us, it was just that.

First off, here's a quick run-down of the crew:
Keith and D Bond and their two children: Eric (15) and Laura (17). Keith was the permit holder and the kind gentleman who invited all us strangers to join him. Dee was a blast to be around and had great positive energy. The kids skipped 10 days of school for the trip and had homework to catch up on. Laura will be a guide in Idaho soon, I just know it.

Randy, a.k.a. The Crippler, is a retired Marine vet who's sole purpose seemed to get us young men f***ed up every night, day and morning. He did well.

Keith A. had run the canyon once before and flipped four times. We all learned that second part on day 3.

Ryan and Danielle have been married about a year and are super fun! We'll see more of these two on the river for sure. Both are avid photographers.

Dan and Sherri have never been rafting before and bought a 16' cataraft for this trip. Dan (Danielle's father) was learning how to row, or at least how to run big holes sideways.

Scott just got married to the owner of Galice Resort a month ago, then bought a brand new raft and took off to Arizona for the month with us. He likes things that are red and likes to talk (smack).

Alan is a solo traveler of about 50 paddling an old-school kayak with an old-school helmet and PFD. But don't be misled, he's a bad-ass.


Andrew and Kyle are students in Moscow, ID. Andrew guides on the Main Salmon and Middle Fork. Kyle guides on the Kern and is learning to kayak.

Will is one of my best friends and roommate of two years. He's my connection to the trip and probably the best oarsman I know.

And then me, a worthless piece of kayak scum who just gets in the way.

The people were great, weather was fabulous (60's in the sun), hiking conditions were ideal, we had a white (day after) Christmas and were never short of beer or liquor (or Kettle Chips, but I rationed those big time). I was bracing myself for a fair helping of misery and it never came. On top of everything else, the whitewater turned out to be pretty damn fun, especially after I dropped my expectations.

In the early to mid 1900's, the recreational value of the canyon was not fully appreciated. Explorers of the time were more interested in fully utilizing natural resources instead of just enjoying their splendor. But the Grand Canyon doesn't have much to offer in that respect. The rocks have very little economic value and the cost of extraction far outweighs the potential revenue. Damming the river appeared to be the only way to get anything out of it, particularly since it's about the only major water source in the Southwest, where everyone seems to want to live. Fortunately, environmentalists of the day were able to save the Grand Canyon from damnation. It has come to the attention of everyone that the beauty of the Grand Canyon is not in how we can change it, but in how it can change us.

Everyone has been asking me about the trip. I don't know how to describe it. Spending 25 days on a river trip is a pretty surreal experience. After about day four, I hit a whole new level of "river time:" I forgot the day of the week, the day of the month, and even the day of the trip most of the time. I quit looking forward to any of the sites and was simply pleasantly surprised when I'd wake up to learn that we were running Crystal that day, exploring the Matkatamiba Narrows, or having a lay-over at Bass Camp near Shinomu Creek. I quickly fell behind in my river journal and forgot what we did on what days, but a few highlights still stand out for me. So, in no particular order:

Clear Creek was a fun hike, wading up through a sinuous slot canyon cut through the Vishnu Schist to a lush waterfall.

Poor old Keith A. with his heavy boat got tossed out and nearly flipped in House Rock. Fortunately we got video footage of it from two angles. Oh, and he was OK. That's good too.

The Chicken and dumplings meal was delicious. We had a great cook crew and I got too drunk to remember anything after I finished eating.

Tapeats Creek is definitely not runnable with the flows we saw. More water might make it doable, but there would be no eddies.

Smitty and I had pretty good elf impressions when we excitedly returned to our chasm.

I went big in Horn and plugged through the folding wave train down the right side. It was outrageously huge and I went from underwater to airborne several times.

Below Redwall Cavern, we strapped three rafts together and slowly barged our way to camp with music playing, cocktails circling, and the best of company.

Scotty spent an hour around the campfire asking everyone to describe Hance and was trying to plan out his run even before he saw the damn rapid. Then the next day, he was so focused on the big one downstream that he flipped in an innocent little class 2.

Our enormous 9-person, 160-square foot tent held up well and was kind of a pain in the ass to set up, but great living space once we had it.

Something unknown compelled me to surf the hole at Crystal. I dropped into the world-famous boat muncher and had about two seconds of an amazing surf followed by a severe beatdown.

The canyon is really big.

The wall behind camp at Grapevine offered great bouldering. It would be fun to come back down here with the intention of doing some rock climbing.

Alan is the shit. He is one of the most impressive people I've ever met. He lives simply but well, stays fit, works hard, packs light, helps everyone, demands nothing, has wisdom few will ever match, and all with the utmost humility. He's my hero.

Somewhere in the roaring twenties I found a couple of caves at river level that went way back. I kayaked back into one and got far enough from the river that I needed a headlamp. There was a nice little private beach at the back and the cave kept going.

For the first time ever, I saw preserved dune stratification in the Coconino Sandstone. On the hike up North Canyon, I gleefully traipsed about on the dune slip faces as little critters had done 300 million years ago.
Cacti are neat and make it feel warmer than it is.

I almost drowned when we encountered an major unexpected rapid on the motor out. We narrowly avoided a disastrous wrap only to run a huge lateral sideways with all the rafts strapped together.

After hours of hiking, scrambling, creek crossing and route finding, I spent Christmas Day with Alan squeezing leftover enchiladas out of a ziplock deep in a cave at the headwaters of Tapeats Creek.

Saddle may have been my favorite hike, where we had a mile on the trail and then a quick technical scramble in the slot canyon to reach a gorgeous waterfall

I picked up a star guide before the trip and managed to learn 15 new stars, clusters, and constellations along with a little bit of the mythology behind them.

Smitty learned to shred on this trip. He swam every rapid on the first couple days and then rafted for a while, but got back in for the gems and was nailing tough combat rolls in Emerald, Bedrock, Serpentine, and Upset, then he aced Deubendorf and fired up Lava Falls with a big grin.

Speaking of Lava, I got a pretty good workout there. I ran it once, got stuffed and Smitty swam. I finally towed him into an eddy halfway through lower Lava. Then we both shouldered our boats and hiked a quarter mile back upstream through a jungle of reeds to run it again. Smitty rowed a raft for round two and I got another spanking.

Here are a few more pictures I might as well share:

I'll be coming back for sure!

Illinois River Trip

Dan and I rafted the Illinois River on November 17th and 18th. Rogue River Journeys, SOU White Water Club, SOU Outdoor Program, and the Galice Resort made this trip possible. This trip was my first down the Illinois River, and we were expecting a lot of precipitation. The flow of the river can spike quickly on the Illinois, so I found myself with some apprehension when we showed up to the put-in and it was pouring down rain. The level was already close to 3,000 cfs and rising quickly. I, personally, was not sure if we should continue on with trip, however Dan and Will have been on the river several times (Will alone has rafted the Illinois 11 times), so I put my trust in them and their judgment. We rigged our boats quickly in an attempt to stay ahead of the rising water.

There were five rafts and five kayakers on the trip. I was going to be paddle assist with Leland Fulton in Will’s raft. I was happy to be in a boat with Will because of his experience in boating and on this river. We had a long distance to go on Saturday so we didn’t mess around a whole lot for the first few hours. Our time was spent reading and running most of the class IV rapids and one of the rafts almost flipped three times, causing the guide to swim a rapid and his passenger to swim another rapid. I was extremely impressed with the beauty of the canyon, the speed of the water, and the giant waves and holes in the first six miles.

The first rapid where I really started to understand how powerful this river was is called York Creek Rapid. York Creek Rapid is an s-curve rapid and our boat was the lead boat so we got through the rapid first. Once through the rapid we eddied out and set up safety. Watching the other four boats come through the rapid was the first time I realized how fast the river was moving. The 18 miles leading up to the Green Wall Rapid went by very quickly due to the speed of the river.

At Green Wall, we stopped to scout. Scouting took about an hour because of the long hike to get to a location we could scout from. Once back in our boat, we ran the rapid as the second boat. Chip’s boat ran lead and while they plunged into a big hole, they had a really solid line. As we entered into the rapid we were aiming to run the left side of the monster whole which would take us right over a rock and then would allow us to hug the left side of the rapid the rest of the way down. However, instead of flowing right over the rock, we got hung up and spun around 180 degrees, dropping into the big hole backwards. Leland almost got sucked out of the boat, but somehow managed to stay in. Will recovered quickly and spun the boat back around.

However, a few seconds later we got hung up on another rock and were facing upstream dropping into another hole. Somehow we all stayed in the boat and Will got us facing downstream in time to miss the big flip rock on river right. Exhausted, we caught an eddy on the left and set up for safety. We watched every other boat have a clean solid run through Green Wall. After Green Wall is a three-mile gorge that is consistent and fast with big waves, holes and countless class IV rapids. The wave trains in this gorge section were the biggest waves I have ever seen. We camped below Collier Creek at a camp framed by waterfalls.




The camp is the best river camp I have stayed at. After setting up the kitchen and some tarps, Dan and I set up our tent and devoured some Kettle Chips. The Chips were the all new Organic Chipotle and they were amazing!!!



Day two started slowly as people worked off their hangovers and then moved quickly once we were on the water. It took us only an hour to travel eight river miles to the take-out. At the take-out, Dan and I shared some Sour-Cream and Dill Kettle chips and then settled down in the shuttle van and began the long drive back to the Selma House. A few hours latter and a rescue lock-smith we were all safely back in Ashland.

This was my best river trip ever!