Cheoah 5/20/2012

This last weekend rick, the professor and I head down to the Cheoah River for a nice weekend warm up before the big Memorial week trip. We meet Raymond and three other Southern Ill. Paddlers at the dam put in. The Cheoah only releases a couple times during the year and Saturday was big water with 1,000 CFS release and Sunday was 850CFS. Saturday rick and I had a blast trying to remember all the lines from two years ago. The river was much bigger then we both remembered. Saturday we ran the falls straight up and Sunday we ran the creek line. We figured it was better to have the higher water on our side so we wouldn’t hit any rock boofing. On Sunday I broke out the GoPro for some video. Enjoy until the next adventure (aka all next week)
Full edit of the Cheoah!

Colorado part dos: Get You Some

We assembled an excellent crew for the second Colorado trip of the year with my main men Tyler Surman and Chris Polley and the pride of Scotland, Bobby Smart, making a special appearance to help celebrate his 21^st.

GoPros and Red Bulls

We had high hopes for good powder, but it didn’t take long for things to go awry. At 3 a.m., while gassing-up just inside Colorado, we realized the 2 for 1 lift coupons we were planning to use for all three days of skiing wouldn’t work at any of our destinations in our current plan for the weekend. An en route change of plans moved Winter Park to our first stop, and put us well ahead of schedule. 

A short and uncomfortable “nap” in the truck put us at Winter Park by 7:30. An hour later the lifts opened and it was on. The runs were long (4.5 miles even) and the tree skiing was awesome, top 10 in the country apparently. We spent the day in search of fresh pow and it was glorious. We closed down the lifts, headed back to Georgetown, showered, ate and we’re in bed by 9 p.m.

Winter Park

The next day brought a 5 hour roundtrip drive to Monarch outside Salida, CO. It was another excellent day with perhaps the best snow of the trip. A short hike to the Mirkwood Basin gave us a taste of some backcountry skiing and Tyler provided the video highlight of the trip. 

Hiking to Mirkwood Basin for some back bowls

After delicious burgers at the Boathouse Cantina, overlooking the Arkansas River’s best play wave, we made our way back to Georgetown for the night. We spent the final day skiing Loveland. Though the weather wasn’t as spectacular as our first two days, the powder abounded. Skiing down from the top of the continental divide definitely makes a Loveland stop worthwhile.

 After the lifts closed, we dropped Smart off at the airport, with news that he would return once more this summer. Dinner at the Irish Snug in Denver and it was early to bed to get a 5 a.m. start on the drive home.

Knee deep powder at Monarch

Denver weather professionals missed the Monday forecast though. We left at 5 a.m. and made it about an hour and a half before the interstate was closed. A bit of snow and 50 mph winds made for white-out conditions. We spent 6 hours in Limon, CO with no road in or out open. It was sad that we found ourselves wishing for a Wal-Mart for something to do.

The Crew

  Eventually we made it back on the road and 21 after departing Denver, we returned to St. Louis. It’s always an adventure, but I guess that’s what makes the trip. 

Nomadic Adventure CEO looking like a Boss

Here’s a trailer for a forthcoming full-length feature from CEA Productions and Nomadic Adventure Films. Its release date is unknown for the moment. Until next time, enjoy.

First ski trip of 2011

I know this is old, but over Christmas break Kyle, David, Tyler and I headed out to Colorado for some early season skiing. After meeting up with Nate we headed over to Loveland were we skied two days, then Winter Park, and then two more days of Loveland. Was a great trip followed by partying like rock stars new years eve in Denver, all thanks to Joel. Here is a short video, enjoy until next time.

Russell Fork, part DOS

Last weekend marked my third consecutive weekend of paddling class V water. While many people dislike and fear the Russell fork gorge, over the last two weeks I have found myself every comfortable running it. This last weekend I meet Alex and his dad for one last run before the release season stops. The trip started off with me driving the whole 9 hour drive by myself.

 Alex was in West Virginia so his dad went to pick him up for fall break and then headed over to meet me. The plan was to meet at breaks Interstate Park, which I rolled in around 1:30am. As I drove in I spooked a black bear about 50 yards from the campground. This was the first Black bear I have seen while on a kayaking trip. As I lay in my sleeping bag, all I could think was what a great start to a trip.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the lodge for breakfast. With the US wild water trials going on the releases were starting at 7am, which allowed us to get on the river at an early time. This was Alex’s first time down the gorge, and with no other boaters around it was just the two of us heading down. We scouted tower and triple drop before we ran into some other guys. Alex ran the hairy ferry, while I walked it (I’ve done it before and feel the risk, if you were to mess up, isn’t worth it). I ran fairly clean lines until triple drop where I went over the third drop backwards. After triple drop we meet up with Kevin and Scott, too other kayakers who helped us down the river.

Next was El Herando, I thought I had a good line but at the bottom of the drop I got flipped. While upside down I heard my shoulder pop, after missing my roll, I finally popped up. I’m not sure what happened but my shoulder really hurt, and there was a sharp pain. Being only half way down the gorge, I had to continue through the pain. Needless to say the rest of my run was not the greatest. Once at the take out I decided it would be best not to run another lap so Steve and I went to set up camp while Alex ran another lap.

The next morning I was in enormous pain while lying in my sleeping bag. I was about to tell Alex I wasn’t going to boat but I decided I didn’t drive 9hrs to hang out in the woods. My run on Sunday was amazing. I focused really hard on all my lines and ran the gorge the cleanest I have ran it yet. Overall a great trip, I didn’t take any video as I was focusing more on guiding Alex down. I did get a nice time lapse of the clouds over the gorge. Here is the video. Enjoy until the next adventure.

Russell Fork, Take 1

This last weekend I headed over to the Russell Fork River in Elkhorn Kentucky. This is one of my favorite runs from last year, and with it releasing water all October, it was sure to be a good time.

The Russell Fork gorge starts in Virginia and ends in Kentucky. It is the deepest gorge east of the Mississippi. Besides the beauty of the steep canyon walls and trees changing colors, the amount of drops in the gorge make it a boofing (landing flat off a waterfall) paradise. The trip started off with Curtis Elwood, Rebecca, Coby, and I. We rolled in late into the campground and in the morning were greeted by the professor, Freddie, Raymond and the SLU kayak club kids.

After a nice breakfast at the lodge we rolled out to set up shuttle for the upper. Once on the river and through the first rapid, we already had two SLU kids swimming. All I could think was “that did I get myself into!” Overall the upper was ok, but knowing the gorge was below made it seem really boring. Once at the take out, everyone got off the water except for Elwood, Raymond, Professor and I. We headed down and into the gorge.

The Gorge is a Class IV-V run with sieves and undercuts. Overall our group was good; the professor took a severe beating at tower. At one point it looked like things could have been very serious. There were a couple of swims by other people, I didn’t have any. My Saturday run was super clean, I was very happy but once again the box boof got me at the end. Sunday was a different story, being tired; my lines were not the cleanest.

The Russell fork is one heck of a river and I will be returning this coming up weekend for some more action. Here is a little video I made, I tried a new camera angle and it makes everything look flat and small, it’s not. Enjoy til next time.

Gauley 2011 Trip

Two weeks ago I received a phone call as I was heading down for a Saturday night cape run. On the other line was Rick letting me know that once again I had a spot on the Gauley overnight trip. WOW! Last year was a blast and this year was even better. 

The trip started off by leaving St. Louis Thursday night with The Upper Yough in our sights; there was a scheduled release for Friday. After driving til about 2am we called it a night, we still had another 3 hour drive in the morning. We left St. Louis with blue skies and warm weather and woke up to cloudy and cold. 

Slim getting his Boof on at National

As we pulled up to the take out, there were only a few cars, and the wind had picked up. It was going to be a cold day on the river, but a much better day then teaching back in the lou. Having never been on the Upper Yough, I found it to be a lot of fun. Once the rapids started they seem to continue throughout the whole river. This will be another river to hit up during the summer. 

Gauley Dam 3200Cfs

After paddling all day we headed to outback for a man’s meal and after a couple of drinks, head to the Gauley. It was now raining and cold; we were all tired and decided to get a hotel for the night, what a great choice. In the morning we meet up with Steve for breakfast, traded Dustin for  Alex and headed to the upper G. The overnight is a long process because we have to haul and pack the rafts at the put in, plus the shuttle takes a little over an hour to set. 

Overall the trip was great, more water than normal, at 3200Cfs. It did rain all Saturday and Saturday night but we made the best of it. We ate and drink like kings. 

Here is a little video of the trip, I had more footage but after Pure Screaming Hell on the lower I decided I didn’t like the camera anymore and dropped it in the river, and took a little swim(to clean my boat of course,lol). Needless to say GoPro’s do not float. The Russell fork is this coming this weekend, so stay tuned for some creekin’ footage. Enjoy til next time.

Gauley 2011 from Curtis Ahlers on Vimeo.

Labor Day weekend on the Ocoee

Last weekend the crew headed down to the Ocoee for some Labor Day weekend fun. Once again Nicky was the trip leader, figuring out meals, beds and the cabin. While every trip is great, this time Nicky really out did it. I meet Matt at my house after work and after receiving a phone call from Chris, which his car wouldn’t start, Matt and I headed over to Wal-Mart to pick him up. While the drive isn’t a long one, I do like to take my stops. As we pulled up to the cabin (around 2am) we could see Rick’s and Larry’s trucks parked outside. At first glance my jaw dropped. Once inside all I could say was how awesome the cabin was.

front pouch view!

Everyone was passed out from a day of kayaking except for rock, who wanted to welcome us, so we toasted a drink and soon after, went to bed. After getting a late start we put on the upper around noon and made our way down. Chris wasn’t feeling so good so he sat the morning out. The upper crew was Rick, Jim, Larry, Matt and I. After running alien boof multiple times we headed down to the race course.

Photographer for the weekend

Race Course Boof

Rick Flying!

Throwing down in Callahan's Ledge

At the third drop matt went over a poor over and just as he boat came out, so did he. We didn’t really get to run the course because of the boat chasing but still had another day.

Don’t swim or else you’ll get to drink a booty beer

By the time we finished the middle it was already 6:45, which gave us 15minutes to get back to the top if we wanted to run the middle in the long boats we decided not to rush and instead enjoyed some tasty beverages.

Long boats loaded and ready to go

Rain? what rain, the boats are covering the windshield

Sunday was a fun filled day. Rick and I started the day by bombing the middle section in the long boats and then headed to the upper. While at alien, rick told me the line, which at first I didn’t believe him. After watching him run it, I kind of understood. Rick was right and with the longer boat, you went flying over the falls. It was unreal; when I landed I had a smile from ear to ear. It was awesome.

getting ready for some high speed whitewater

Racing the middle section

Going BIG at Alein

Big boat BOOF!

Monday started off with heavy rain from the tropical storm that was heading up the east coast. With the rain and an 8 hour drive home, nobody wanted to boat except for Chris and I. About an hour before we headed out, Chris was back in the bathroom throwing up. With Chris not feeling good, I took out the stinger for one last bomber run. With a 50 min run plus an 8 hour drive, we were back in the lou by 7:30pm. Not a bad weekend at all. Enjoy the pictures, until next time.

that's one long ass boat!