ROLLIN' IN A RIVER CALSALMON'S CLASS V RAPIDS ARE SURE TO TEST YOUR METTLE.Byline: Story and photos by Bill Becher Correspondent ``Class V: Very violent rapids, which expose a paddler to added risk. Drops may contain large, unavoidable waves and holes or steep, congested con·gest·ed adj. Affected with or characterized by congestion. congested ENT adjective Referring to a boggy blood-filled tissue. See Nasal congestion. chutes with complex, demanding routes. Scouting is recommended but may be difficult. Swims are dangerous, and rescue is often difficult even for experts.'' - from AmericanWhitewater.org ON THE SALMON RIVER Salmon River River, central Idaho, U.S. It flows northeast past the town of Salmon, where it is joined by the Lemhi River, and then northwest to join the Snake River south of the Idaho-Oregon-Washington border. It is about 420 mi (676 km) long. - On a trip with Bio Bio Expeditions, I'm going to run seven rapids rated Class V. A dozen adrenaline junkies have gathered for a weekend of rafting on one of California's last undammed rivers. Called the CalSalmon to distinguish it from the Salmon River in Idaho, the river slices through a remote granite canyon Granite Canyon is located in Grand Teton National Park, in the U. S. state of Wyoming.[1] Granite Canyon was formed by glaciers which retreated at the end of the last glacial maximum approximately 15,000 years ago which left behind a U-shaped valley. east of Eureka in the Klamath National Forest Klamath National Forest is a 1,726,000 acre (6985 km²) national forest in northern California, with a tiny extension into Oregon. The forest contains continuous stands of ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, Douglas fir, red fir, white fir and incense cedar. . We met at the Nordheimer Campground on a Friday night and got acquainted by a campfire. Bio Bio (pronounced bee-oh bee-oh) is the name of a once-wild and now dammed river in Chile where the company got its start about 10 years ago. Bio Bio Expeditions co-owners Marc Goddard and Laurence Alvarez-Roos have been rafting together for 20 years, including stints as members of the USA National Raft Racing Team. My fellow rafters on this trip include five attorneys and three 60-ish friends looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. adventure. At sunrise we wake to sounds of birds chattering and the whump-whump of rafts being pumped up. After breakfast we're running the easier Class III and IV rapids on the Butler Creek section of the Salmon as a warm-up before Sunday's Class V run. At the river we get a safety talk from Alvarez-Roos. ``If you fall out of the raft in the rapids, curl up in a ball so you'll bounce up,'' said Alvarez-Roos. Then we're to float downstream, feet-first, on our backs On Our Backs (ISSN 0890-2224) was the first women-run erotica magazine and the first magazine to feature lesbian erotica for a lesbian audience in the United States. . Hazards to avoid include ``strainers'' - low tree branches lining the shore that can snag you and hold you underwater. Rocks in the main river current can break a leg, so finding a calm eddy before the next set of rapids is essential if you're a ``carp.'' (That's what the guides call people who fall out of the raft.) ``Flipping a raft is part of the program,'' said Alvarez-Roos. ``If the raft flips, there's total chaos Total Chaos is a series of simple turn based strategy game / card game / board games for the Amiga. They were written by James Conwell and a group of developers known as Team Chaos. .'' The question you're supposed to ask yourself in this situation: What do I need to do to bring order into this chaotic situation? Answers include getting on your back and working your way out if you're under the raft, grabbing the perimeter cord and helping flip the raft right side up, and holding onto your paddle and getting back into the raft quickly, because another rapid is coming up soon. Alvarez-Roos, who has a poetic bent, tells us to splash some water on our lips to get acquainted with the river and pay our respects to the river gods. Rafting is a team sport. We shove off and practice turns, back paddling and ``high siding,'' which means piling onto one side of the raft if it runs into a rock so we don't get ``wrapped'' - what happens when the raft gets plastered on a boulder like a wet handkerchief and thousands of pounds of pressure from the river keep it pinned. We want to avoid this. A heron floats by on an air current as we drift through a calm stretch. The granite walls surrounding the river are slathered with moss and lichen lichen (lī`kən), usually slow-growing organism of simple structure, composed of fungi (see Fungi) and photosynthetic green algae or cyanobacteria living together in a symbiotic relationship and resulting in a structure that resembles neither . A creek cascades down a rocky staircase. This is one of the most scenic rivers in California List of rivers in California (U.S. state), grouped by location and sorted by name. North Coast Rivers that empty into the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco Bay (arranged north to south; tributaries with those entering nearest the sea first)
We make our way through rapids with names like Big Drop, Gaping Maw and the Room of Doom. It's a very soggy ride. We're wearing wet suits, paddle jackets, personal flotation devices A personal flotation device (also named PFD, lifejacket, life preserver, Mae West, life vest, life saver, cork jacket, life belt and bright yellow helmets, but there's nothing to prevent us from getting drenched drench tr.v. drenched, drench·ing, drench·es 1. To wet through and through; soak. 2. To administer a large oral dose of liquid medicine to (an animal). 3. when we plunge over a drop or ride a wave train. Alvarez-Roos is in the back of the raft steering and shouting commands at the six paddlers. We stop at Jumping Rock, where you can hurl yourself 30 feet into space like Butch and Sundance before splashing down in some very cold water. After lunch we scout Big Ikes. This rapid, below the confluence of the Salmon and Klamath rivers, is notorious for flipping rafts. The first raft makes it through unscathed, but the second disappears in a wall of spray and reappears, bow up. Five paddlers are in the water. Bio Bio uses a rescue kayak on their trips. Piero Vellutino, an expert kayaker from Peru, tows the swimmers to shore. Chaos subsides into wet, bedraggled grins. On the ride back to camp we stop at a turnout high above the river canyon and see Last Chance and Freight Train, the grand finale of tomorrow's ride. Freight Train is a long stretch of churning white froth that funnels into a narrow chasm. It's no place for a carp. One member of our group says he's not going to look at the river. ``I want to sleep tonight,'' he says. At the campground, we relive the day's experiences and eat some prime chow. One of the attractions of rafting is that you can explore the wilderness and eat like a gourmet. Dinner includes chicken kabobs, teriyaki ter·i·ya·ki n. A Japanese dish of grilled or broiled slices of marinated meat or shellfish. [Japanese : teri, glaze + yaki, to broil.] Noun 1. steak, rice pilaf, salad with walnut-gorgonzola dressing and Dutch oven-baked chocolate brownies. The first day's Class IV rapids were the fire test, says Alvarez-Roos, and we've all passed. ``This trip is definitely not for everyone,'' he says, ``but if you're having fun on the first day, you're ready for Class V.'' Much of Bio Bio's business comes from word-of-mouth, and that acts as a prescreening. The company wants to make sure customers like adrenaline and aren't here because of peer pressure. All of our group has rafted before. The company will take beginners if they are athletic and adventurous, but getting some experience paddling less-intense rivers is recommended. The CalSalmon trip is also a way for people to check out Class V rafting and see if they like it before they make the commitment to one of Bio Bio Expedition's longer trips to South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. and Africa. On the river the next day, we hear the rapids before we see them. We shoot through the Maze and Airplane Turn. The difference from yesterday's white water is noticeable. We're flying off bigger drops and the water seems more powerful. If we fall out we're going to be tumbled and spun like laundry in a Maytag gone berserk ber·serk adj. 1. Destructively or frenetically violent: a berserk worker who started smashing all the windows. 2. . Before Cascade Falls Cascade Falls may refer to:
We drop into the chute and hang on as the raft is flushed down the narrow passage and nearly submerged in the pool at the bottom of the drop. We pop up and slap the paddles overhead in a rafter's high five. Now it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to go for the gnarl, as the guides say. Last Chance rapid is so named because it's the last spot to eddy out before Freight Train. We get a briefing and a reminder to curl up in a ball if we end up swimming in the rapid. The raft bucks and drops as we paddle hard though a series of towering waves. We're working as a team now and we do the ``must-make moves.'' Too soon we're through and everyone's still in the raft. ``It's amazing how much you can pack into a weekend,'' says one of the paddlers. IF YOU GO Bio Bio Expeditions offers weekend white water rafting trips on the Salmon River during May and June. Cost is $350 for two river days or $450 for three river days including camping fees, food and guides. Wet suit rentals available. Other Bio Bio trips include rafting and hiking in Peru (June-July), Zambezi River Zambezi River River, south-central Africa. It rises in northwestern Zambia, flows south across eastern Angola and western Zambia to the border of Botswana, then turns east and forms the Zambia-Zimbabwe border. rafting in Africa (August-September), climbing Kilimanjaro (September-October) and multisport mul·ti·sport also mul·ti·sports adj. 1. Composed of, involving, or accommodating several sports: a multisport competition; a multisport stadium. 2. adventures in Patagonia in Chile (December-March). Information: (800) 246-7238; www.bbxrafting.com. CAPTION(S): 3 photos, box Photo: (1 -- 2 -- color) Rafters careen through churning rapids below the confluence of the Salmon and Klamath rivers in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern , top. Before taking on treacherous Class V whitewater, rafters routinely ``scout'' the rapid from the shore, above. (3 -- color) Rafters put their training to use on a trip with Bio Bio Expeditions as they try to tame rapids on the Salmon River. Bill Becher/Special to the Daily News Box: IF YOU GO (see text) |
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