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| Photo: Liam Fournier |
Just polished off day 2 of our trip, day 1 started and ended
with bad weather unfortunately. Had to layer up a lot under our drysuits but
the levels were sweet. We got on Beauty Creek in the morning, a lovely class 5
small volume creek just outside of Jasper with some great drops.
We all ran
everything and no carnage occurred so that was definitely a success. We moved
on to the Big Horn River. None of us really knew anything about the run so we
were a little cautious especially with the recent rain and the take out pumping
brown water. Once we were in the canyon we quickly realized that none of the
drops looked like the guide books and we must be running it really high. It was
definitely a little on the scary side due to the unknown factor of the run at
this level but we all made it down safe and sound and decided to run it again
this morning.
Had much better weather today were able to dry our gear and not
be soggy any more. After Big Horn in the morning we drove to Johnston's canyon
and hiked in. It was definitely on the low side of good but still runnable so
we fired it up. The first couple of drops were awesome though Phil’s Folly has a
big tree in the center of it. We tried getting it out with ropes but because of
its position on the lip and the force that its wedged with we weren’t able to
move it. We ended up jumping the cliff next to the falls and tossing our boats
down. The rest of the run went easily and we’re staying the night in Canmore
looking to hit the Sheep River and Cataract Creek tomorrow!
Finally an ode to
Werner paddles, Liam’s Powerhouse blade cracked earlier in California and has
still been hanging on through all of his boating since despite its increased flex. It will serve as a great wall ornament when it finally bites the dust.
Peace,
Luke
Day 4 report
Yesterday was a little more chill. We ran the Middle Sheep
in the morning with a little down river freestyle session on Sheep Falls.
Unfortunately Zac broke his backband attempting a switch free wheel sending him
back into Calgary in search of a new piece. We had a fun sunny run and met up
with Zac mid-day in Longview. We did a quick levels check and decided that Cataract
was high but should still be runnable and set off to fire it up. It turned out
to be just as high as expected and delivered and amazing run. There’s lots of
class 3 read and run in between all of the big drops and all of that just gets
faster and better at higher levels. Took a bit of a beat down in the very last
hole but clawed my way out just fine. We found a campsite fried up some
taquitos (charred to perfection) and got some much needed sleep.
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| Photo: Liam Fournier |
Today we went
to Lundbreck Falls for a park and huck off the right line. It delivered some
hard hits but made for a super fun morning. We drove to Pincher Creek and
looked at our options. It looked like Drywood Creek was out because of a lot of
wood in the canyon so we had to change our plans a little. We decided to go
and run Cameron creek which was an absolute blast . Wild Thing has to be one of
the best rapids I’ve ever had the chance to paddle, it looks super intimidating
but paddles easier than it looks. We’re staying in Waterton for the night in
order to give us an easy wake up to get on Waterton lake in the morning and
paddle out to Boundary Creek for the final day of our trip. Really looking to
polish of the trip with an epic day!
Cheers,
Luke
On Monday, we posted Luke's pre-trip report check it out here
