From the Dirt

oregon dunes

2011-09-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

hiking in the marble mtns

2011-09-10T11:24:00.001-07:00

mas de Cuba

2011-08-31T13:09:00.000-07:00

photo by max pollock

photo by max pollock

photo by max pollock

photo by max pollock

busy beavers

2010-05-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

springtime here in the gorge you can find us beavers very active , venturing forth from the warm confines of the lodge to romp in the cold pure waters that abound

one weekend we found ourselves deep in the State of Jefferson, putting on a river I have always wanted to do- the Illinois. the Illy is but a class IV float but easily one of the most beautiful places I have been...

inspired by the visit of good friend Rodrigo from Kayak Pucon, we hiked up Eagle Creek to connect with the spirit of the salmon on Metlako falls

also of note, a burly new tradition has begun on the L Dub, with LJ's catching of the west coast's "birthday eddy" on his birthday. check the sequence...

but the best days here are passed on the bless-ed waters of the Little White Salmon, which may see a shorter than average season. the river is already dropping, but there is still snow on the mountain and fire in the bellies so who knows.... it's all part of the mystical nature of the L Dub

Justin Wiley layin it down

Son B#tch of the Mother F@cker

2010-05-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

we made the long drive through the night, over mountains and valleys, highways and alleys, with jah by our side. From the Columbia Gorge we arrived to the lovely Feather drainage, far from the reaches of Babylon and before the post-Reno crowds. what we found were marshmallowy levels, endless waterfalls, blue skies and sicklines, as you can see in the photos....

life is a dream

2010-05-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

portraits of cuba

2010-05-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

pedaleando por cuba

2010-05-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

some shots from biking across cuba this february. if you ever go to cuba bring your bicycle, some patience, a good spirit and a few bottles of hot sauce and you will be stoked.

the church of the pristine waters and the bretheren of the beaver lodge

2009-06-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

"On a day to day basis the Little White provides the norishment and care to us members of the Beaver Lodge. Without the presitne waters to clense our senseable sole's we would melt away like the Wicked Witch of the West" - young Evan Garcia

so enjoy these meager attempts to capture the essence of the pristine waters that we hold so dear...

california is...

2009-05-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

..one of the finest places in this world for white water boat-riding. some of us gypsies here left our humble shack in the land of pristine waters and headed south for a week to the sierra nevada

i was so happy above superslide i made a jig dance

we boofed many holes. this one is on the Clavey river

a nice park'n hike'n huck on the south Tuolumne

classic drops on the south branch of the Feather above, and the south fork of the Yuba, below

a gypsy cooking up some delicious dirt 'taters in a parking lot near the Yuba

in true style and tribute to Lars Holbek, we decided to put on the South Merced without shuttle and hitch back to the put in after a sweet two days on the river. i was stoked when i got picked up by a hot climber chick...

max routing the superslide of the south Merced

bbrrrooowwn

some mid-atlantic shit-running

2009-04-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

it was raining last week so we went to west by god virginia to paddle some of the classics

me myself gettin some on great falls

the rest are from the north fork of the blackwater at a medium/low level

...and lastly Matt Filthian on the upper B at a nice connesiuers level

photos courtesy of max b.

migration time

2009-04-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

the day came to say goodbye to pucon, after another long crazy summer. so much thanks to Rodrigo, Ema, Kayak Pucon, Nate, Kurt, Ecole and all the good people out there, who know who they are. what a great place to spend the past two summers...

the last month I spent between Bariloche, Futa, and Buenos Aires without a photo machine but still having high times in high places.

to get home i rode 30 hours of buses from Futa to Buenos Aires, then took a plane for 12 hours. now its back on the east coast, cold as shit, about ready to do the ultra classic east to west cross country road trip to our home that is the white salmon.

summmer

2009-02-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

On our last journey to the middle Fuy I left my camera on the roof of the car as we drove out of town and lost it. so here are some random pictures from the summer that give a little glimpse into the life here in pucon and some of our adventures.

a beautiful sunset on lake villarica

demshitz checking out the Exportacion rapid on the Palguin

pollito master

rodrigo keeping the MP free earlier in the summer, despite what the landowner thinks, this waterfall has no dueno

demshitz climbed this volcano

mystico

2009-01-31T17:41:00.000-08:00

some middle fuy photos by Nicolas Buenaventura and Kurt Casey

the office

2009-01-14T11:57:00.001-08:00

I been workin here with Rodrigo and Ema in Pucon for KayakPucon, the best company around. check the website www.kayakpucon.net

pucon chile- the shit
all fotos by el maestro rodrigo

week 2 in chile: gol gol, nilahue & fuy

2008-12-19T13:37:00.001-08:00

After returning from the cochamo, we left again for points south, this time heading to argentina, where the middle aged mulletted asshole customs man would not let us enter the country with our kayaks because he claimed we would sell them. Denied, we drove back through the taint, re-entering chile and putting on the gol gol.

me on one of the coolest drops on the run. fred norquist photo

boofing salto princesa. again, fred norquist photo

then the burl, salto indio, which sent us all deep and popped a few skirts. my skirt stayed on but the boat was bent a bit when i resurfaced. fred took this photo as well.

Then we drove the dusty road to Nilahue Falls, which was pretty high flowing, so only a few stepped up to the plate. Here is Rodrigo dropping in the maw

dave fusilli riding the dragons back

this is what happens when you shrimp brine

la puma on the middle fuy

we then drove some more dusty roads to the rio Fuy, which is another Chilean river slated to be dewatered by a hydro project

evan boofing the upper Fuy

Rodrigo in a nice spot

Jared on Leona

myself, boofing pretty hard. Jared Seiler photo

another fine drop. J Seiler photo

evan running the weir hole

one week in chile: rios cochamo y negro

2008-12-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

So I arrived in Santiago early in the morning, December the 2nd, with my kayak and all my gear, spent all day at the bus station, argued with a bus attendant who did not want my kayak to get on the bus, and made it to Pucon the morning of the 3rd after another full night of travel. The next day we left to paddle the Cochamo, one of the coolest rivers in Chile. We were nine, including myself, the brothers Seiler, Evan Garcia, calm Dave Fusilli, Fred Norquist, Toro from Switzerland, legendary explorer and pucon local Kurt Kasey, and the one and only Cool Dave from Colorado.

we arrived in Cochamo after a beautiful drive, and the river looked to be at a good level

it wasn't to hard to find a place to camp and some old gauchos with horse for hire to take our boats and gear up the 9 mile trail

the Cochamo valley is known as the Yosemite of Chile. needless to say, it was beautiful, and the trail we climbed is one that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid used to run their cattle from the mountains of Argentina to sale on the Pacific coast

after a full day of hiking and pulling the horsed through mud and ruts, we got to the granite valley and found a bad ass waterslide at a place called La Junta. Jared wasn't the only one who busted his ass fly out of control down the slide
.

we camped that night in a pasture surrounded by granite domes

the next day, we began the descent. Cool Dave on a cool boof early on

then the river got steep, but we picked it apart drop by drop, as you can see in the following photos

there were many siphons and a few portages but all in all it was quality class V whitewater

After the Cochamo, we drove further south along the gulfs and through some dense coastal jungle to Hornopiren (aka Hornytown) to paddle the Rio Negro which has been done a few times but does not see too much action. The river turned out to be sweet, with some beautiful ledge drops, a marginal 50 footer that we all portaged and some sweet gorge rapids. Also had some chill camping at the take out.

looking up the mighty Rio Puelo which flows out of Argentina into the Pacific

la vaca de mala leche, pa cementertio va

dave on the first drop

fred about to boof the same drop

e.g. boofing a nice 20 footer we all ran that flows right into a chunky rapid and then falls 50 feet, mostly onto rocks. we eddied out and portaged right

after the big boy there was some mank

kurt kasey on the next clean ledge

Jared monkeyin another fun drop...

..that bucked some

Toro boofing..from here the rapids became more gorgey

one of the last drops

after two days on the Negro we drove some more and caught a ferry to Puerto Montt

the scenery was enjoyable

and the seafood was bomb

we came, we saw, we ran the shit, we drove back to pucon

Isaac Ludwig

2008-10-07T16:02:00.000-07:00

Our good buddy Isaac on his way to the river, his favorite place to be. RIP brother

BC the promised land

2008-10-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

looking downstream at the siphon rapid on the Ashlu, one of the most beautiful gorges I have been through

yours truly on 10 footer #1

then 10 footer #2

Max airing it out

the lake where we camped when it wasnt raining

the Squamish valley

Paul gettin' sum

Sick Lines

Stoked to finally make it to BC, the land of sick whitewater and beautiful women, Max and I were fired up. Unfortunately we got to the province a tad too late to really tap into the goods, but we made do and still had a damn good time. We shredded skook for a few days and then hit up the whistler/squamish area with a posse of good friends met along the way. The blue skies lasted for a while and we got on the classic upper Cheakamus and then the Box of the Ashlu- maybe our last chance to run it while it is still free flowing (Before Ledcor finishes raping and daming).

Then the rains came and before we knew it we were balls deep in the vertical walled Box at high flows and rising. Pretty f-ing stout if you ask me, but the Everests dominated and we hiked our asses out. From then on every creek we scouted was raging and we figured we'd cut our losses, get drunk and find our way to the border. Needless to say, BC was the shit and the people we met there were incredibly cool and hospitable. Be back next year...

the river of rogues

2008-10-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

A nice way to cap off another summer of pushin' rubber. Big ups to our bosses for footing the bill on this trip, which was a sweet three day journey down the Rogue canyon in southern Oregon. I have to say, although the whitewater was not huge, the Rogue is a beautiful place and a great way to pass happy days with good friends...

a raft of gypsies

putting smoke in the air

music on board our ship of fools

the Rogue

Night time at the Beaver Lodge

Also big ups to Wal Mart for the camera haha.

a glimpse into life at the beaver lodge....

2008-07-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

these photos highlight some White Salmon appreciation whikst laying some treats on the kenobi gorge,karens box, big brother and the farmlands...all photos on the same river, which we live next to

Ecuador

2008-05-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

This is long overdue, especially considering Ecuador is a home away from home for me. This winter was my third time in the country and although our stay was short and plagued by low water, we were able to have fun firing down some of the classics. Here are some pictures...some from when I lived there a few years ago and some from this past winter.

rio guayas, guayaquil city

canoa

sketchiest portage ever on the lower Misahualli

jared on his way into the Quijos

first boof of the Jondachi

falls of the Pusuno- Jared Seiler photo

sunrise in Montanita

the upper Misahualli

max entering the land of the giants

bombing down the papallacta

jondachi boogie- photo J.Seiler

more Jondachi boogie- by J.Seiler

my good buddy BoBaines on the volcanoe known as Cayambe

me, the only gringo, at a celebration in the middle of nowhere

verano sin fin

2008-03-10T11:01:00.001-07:00

Some random shots from Washington and Montana this past summer. Soon the rafting season will begin and I will be out there at our home...the Beaver Lodge

me at the top of the gambler

our frontyard run

getting buried

max

me on one of the last drops

max & big t falls

the crazies

Amazonia to Patagonia: band of f**king gypsies

2008-03-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

This jonx was started in Chile while our truck was getting fixed at the Maipo and for some reason the internet was working really fast. That was not until towards the end of our trip though. Before then and since then we have seen and done some sweet and savage shit.... It started in the Amazon basin of Ecuador, bombing down steep boulder rapids in the oppressive jungle heat, and ended in Chile and Argentina, living the dream. The gypsies: Max aka Moses, Jared the Chicoco, Calm Dave, Graham-bone, Mr. Ludwig, EG, myself and some others. The gypsy wagon was delivered to Santiago on a sad sunday and now we are all home. It was good while it lasted.
3 countries, 36 sections of river on 29 different rivers, many many waterfalls, and who even knows how many liters of wine

Some Chile photos

Some Argentina Photos:
1) boof into the maw, los alerces by ill will lyons
2) below the alerces, rio manso by will lyons
3) ill will on the cali drop, entering the heart of the ojodeculo
4) jared on the slide of alerces
5) el pueblo mapuche vive
6) exiting the ojodeculo gorge
7) from a highway campsite

futa

2008-02-07T06:20:00.001-08:00

Futa is a special place. It would be terrible if the river is damned, as is planned

1) Dave entering Inferno Canyon
2) Friends
3) Doin what we do at the cara de indio camp
4) Casa de Nate Mack at dusk. This hostal is sweet and Nate is the man
5) Stratton and Van down at the magic carpet ride
6) the town of Futaleufu
7) Severn seal launching below Zeta
8) Me on the left side of Terminator