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| by Cody Howard June 2007 |
After countless hours of trying to lock down a “gas efficient” car, i was able to score a Baby
Blue Scion TC....total chick car. I felt like a freaking idiot loading my creeker into the
passenger seat and driving around town. Although it didn't matter, because i was headed
out to the infamous Cherry Lake, to do some gravel driving, route finding and water flow
scouting. The plan was to do West Fork Cherry Creek. No not the one with Cherry Bomb.
The other one, the forgotten one.
Fast-fowarding 16 hours of boring driving by myself, i was pulling into a lonesome point on
Cherry Lake. Finding a Subi packed with boaters looking for their party as well, we set up
camp at the end of the road. Exhausted, i had no intentions of paddling across the lake,
since i could already HEAR the flow from a mile away. Meaning the Upper Cherry was a
huge mess of whitewater, and West Cherry would be perfect. I ended up shooting the shit
with some paddlers and passing out in the mosquito infested paradise. And as usual i was
awoken by Nathan and Rok cooking breakfast. Macy Burnham arrived with Culley Thomas
and we were off to go find the put in for West Cherry. Somewhere along the way we passed
Devon Knight and Evan G looking for the same put in. After a mess of backroads and wrong
turns, we arrived and started the two mile hike over the ridge.
Blue Scion TC....total chick car. I felt like a freaking idiot loading my creeker into the
passenger seat and driving around town. Although it didn't matter, because i was headed
out to the infamous Cherry Lake, to do some gravel driving, route finding and water flow
scouting. The plan was to do West Fork Cherry Creek. No not the one with Cherry Bomb.
The other one, the forgotten one.
Fast-fowarding 16 hours of boring driving by myself, i was pulling into a lonesome point on
Cherry Lake. Finding a Subi packed with boaters looking for their party as well, we set up
camp at the end of the road. Exhausted, i had no intentions of paddling across the lake,
since i could already HEAR the flow from a mile away. Meaning the Upper Cherry was a
huge mess of whitewater, and West Cherry would be perfect. I ended up shooting the shit
with some paddlers and passing out in the mosquito infested paradise. And as usual i was
awoken by Nathan and Rok cooking breakfast. Macy Burnham arrived with Culley Thomas
and we were off to go find the put in for West Cherry. Somewhere along the way we passed
Devon Knight and Evan G looking for the same put in. After a mess of backroads and wrong
turns, we arrived and started the two mile hike over the ridge.
This put us on the creek around noon
and we were off for one hell of a day.
The day began with an opening
waterfall to slide combo that only Macy
had opted to run. In fact i'm not sure if
anyone has run the entrance to that
drop, since the fall (12'er) landed onto
a sheer rock self. But Macy laced it
and came off with just a bumped up
boat. The exit was a sik slide that i
had seen video of before. Further on
downstream, we came to a 20'er that
landed onto a self with a 6' exit. This
drop had been the drop that was
burned into my mind as “the West
Cherry drop”. After a quick look, i
decided to run the boof. Scared for
penciling, but excited for the drop, i
charged the lip and launched
into the air before anyone could turn
their cameras on. Unscathed, i happily
dropped into the next pool! What a
cool creek this was turning out to be.
and we were off for one hell of a day.
The day began with an opening
waterfall to slide combo that only Macy
had opted to run. In fact i'm not sure if
anyone has run the entrance to that
drop, since the fall (12'er) landed onto
a sheer rock self. But Macy laced it
and came off with just a bumped up
boat. The exit was a sik slide that i
had seen video of before. Further on
downstream, we came to a 20'er that
landed onto a self with a 6' exit. This
drop had been the drop that was
burned into my mind as “the West
Cherry drop”. After a quick look, i
decided to run the boof. Scared for
penciling, but excited for the drop, i
charged the lip and launched
into the air before anyone could turn
their cameras on. Unscathed, i happily
dropped into the next pool! What a
cool creek this was turning out to be.
The Exit of Charle Beavers Mega Rapid
On downstream, we finally arrived to the main event. Charlie Beaver's Mega Rapid. This
was a stout bad boy with tales of carnage at our flows. The entrance being the crux of the
drop. After careful deliberation, i was “a go”. The entrance was crappier than i thought,
and all of a sudden i shooting a un-timely boof over the lip of the monster. White-Out and
arrival brought me to cheers and the pool below.
With everyone tired we set up camp below the drop and Macy broke out the fishing pole.
Pulling trout out for Ben to eat, we all sat next to the camp fire drinking out military canteen
of wiskey. Morning came and with it came more portaging down to the confluence with
Upper Cherry. The ride out was juicy and a highlight for sure. We paddled across the lake
and rallied for one last push to South Silver.
was a stout bad boy with tales of carnage at our flows. The entrance being the crux of the
drop. After careful deliberation, i was “a go”. The entrance was crappier than i thought,
and all of a sudden i shooting a un-timely boof over the lip of the monster. White-Out and
arrival brought me to cheers and the pool below.
With everyone tired we set up camp below the drop and Macy broke out the fishing pole.
Pulling trout out for Ben to eat, we all sat next to the camp fire drinking out military canteen
of wiskey. Morning came and with it came more portaging down to the confluence with
Upper Cherry. The ride out was juicy and a highlight for sure. We paddled across the lake
and rallied for one last push to South Silver.
South Silver was of course an amazing stretch
of classic whitewater. All lines imaginable were
run and we routed down blue angel style for
the finish line. Everyone parted their own
ways and Ben and I went to East Fork
Kaweah....which was quickly becoming an epic
in the making. East Fork Kaweah was full of
great drops, but after losing my paddle in a
strainer and breaking the breakdown paddle,
we were forced to hike out through private
land. The landowner surprising greeted us
with beers and we talked about his backyard
wonderland!
After looking back on these runs, i would almost
have to agree with Devon about his comment
on West Cherry being the better of the two
runs (upper vs. west) There is still endless
potential to go huge in there and we left a
coupla drops to be run for the next time we
would like to test our luck.
of classic whitewater. All lines imaginable were
run and we routed down blue angel style for
the finish line. Everyone parted their own
ways and Ben and I went to East Fork
Kaweah....which was quickly becoming an epic
in the making. East Fork Kaweah was full of
great drops, but after losing my paddle in a
strainer and breaking the breakdown paddle,
we were forced to hike out through private
land. The landowner surprising greeted us
with beers and we talked about his backyard
wonderland!
After looking back on these runs, i would almost
have to agree with Devon about his comment
on West Cherry being the better of the two
runs (upper vs. west) There is still endless
potential to go huge in there and we left a
coupla drops to be run for the next time we
would like to test our luck.
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