Despite many areas experiencing the most rain in 80 years, Sao Paulo’s freeways and the thoroughfares through Brazil’s expansive interior were in as good of shape as I have seen them. The rivers on the other hand are incredibly full and treacherous, with our first descent of the Expedition demonstrating the true power of a Central Brazilian river. At or near the scour line, the Rio Das Mortes (River of the Dead) sped into the jungle with 15 – 20 thousand cfs at the put-in. Surrounding the river corridor of thick jungle are massive Agricultural complexes; however, the riparian vegetation has been maintained throughout the watershed so even at this extremely high flow the water is transparent and appeared quite clean.
Three years ago during my first trip to Mato Grosso a local kayaker told me about this unrun section of river, containing the big class V we like. Finally, a month ago I came across the whitewater laced canyon on Google Earth located in the upper watershed near where we would enter Mato Grosso from Sao Paulo.
From the satellite photo I saw massive deforestation around the river and expected to be overwhelmed by the destruction of the natural Serrado forest. Once on the ground though, I began to see the place through the eyes of the extremely hospitable land owners and farm workers that have developed the area for the last 50 years. These are the people we have to thank for many of the conveniences of the modern world, i.e. the supermarket.
In addition to providing us with directions for put-in and take-out, the gracious farmers took us up in a crop duster to give us a look at the dense jungle canyon of the Das Mortes. From the air at about 85 miles an hour and 60 – 150 feet off the deck the river looked huge but very manageable. At about 15 – 20 miles an hour and a torso length off the boiling, swollen current, things looked very different from the seat of our Super Heroes.
This incredible descent of a big water canyon on the edge of the Amazon could not have provided a more exhilarating and informative start to the trip. Unfortunately the Das Mortes River and its intact jungle corridor is slated for inundation by hydro-electric development over the next 5 – 10 years. From this first encounter with river, jungle, and agricultural plantation it seems that the biggest threat to the Amazon now is from the promise of “cheap and clean” hydro power. The biggest example of this is a massive neighbor to the Amazon called the Xingu. Once dammed, the Xingu will be the third largest dammed river on the planet.
Through the rest of the journey into the Amazon we will be in search of more amazing rivers, and more perspectives from agricultural concerns to the indigenous peoples of the area that are entrusted with the last natural expanses of rainforest.
Team Kokatat paddler Justine Curvengen has had a busy last few years. After putting the wraps on a series of award-winning sea kayaking films called “This is the Sea,” Justine has been back behind (…and in front!) of the camera promoting the less attention grabbing (but equally fun) discipline of canoeing. The product is Justine’s latest venture, “This Is Canoeing”, where 12 short films examine the styles and personalities of the canoeing community. Justine takes you on a worldwide tour of storied canoeing destinations in the US, Scotland, Canada and Wales In about three hours, filmed with POV perspective via head-cams and boat-mounted cameras.
As a sponsor of “This Is Canoeing”, Kokatat wants to congratulate Justine on winning two best-of-category awards at two different paddling film festivals: Reel Paddling Film Fest’s “Best Canoeing Film” and the Waterwalker Film Festival’s “Best Canoeing Film.”
Justine has showered Kokatat with compliments for the way her apparel performed during the making of “This Is Canoeing”. She said, “I relied on two pieces of apparel during the filming, and depending on the conditions my Kokatat dry suit or bibs kept me warm and dry. Thanks to Kokatat for sponsoring the DVD, which brings family adventure, exciting whitewater & interesting stories into every canoeists living room.”
“This Is Canoeing” will see its world premier during Canoecopia, March 12-14 in Madison, WI.
You can check out the trailer for “This Is Canoeing” on YouTube, and pre-order the DVD from Justine’s website.
Today (Feb 24th, 2010) we head Northwest of our current position in the heart of the second largest city on earth to the largest tropical wilderness on earth, the storied Amazon Basin. Just under a 100 years ago an expedition including ex-president Theodore Roosevelt, and led by famous Brazilian Colonel Cândido Randon took two months to penetrate the unmapped southern reaches of the Amazon basin following the Telegraph line that Randon’s regiment had constructed the year before. Today, remnants of those same telegraph lines are visible in Google Earth, but also visible is a 100 years worth of burn and clear tactics that have eaten away at the emerald green edge of trackless forest. Now connected to the economic center of the country by a network of interstate style thoroughfares that eventually degrade into unpaved and often impassable transamazonian mud pits, it should only take 19 hours of non-stop driving to reach our first destination in the huge central state of Mato Grosso. This is where a ever expanding peneplane of soy meets the still intact Chapada forest and the stunning crystal clear tributaries of the Amazon.
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This trip, as in the previous 2, we are led by Brazilian Pedro Oliva in search of some of the largest runnable waterfalls on earth, both by height and volume. Of course, with the developments last spring, the task of establishing a world record has increased many times in difficulty and danger. I say difficulty because simply finding a drop above 45 -55 meters is a task in itself and danger because the speed at which one would hit the water would be in excess of 100 miles per hour. Tyler Bradt made it with a perfect line and drop selection, but the massive hit begs the question of survival of a higher fall.
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At the end of the day the goal of the trip is not to break records, but rather to advocate preservation of the world’s rivers and explore new venues for a discipline that already boasts the most diverse set of experiences of any sport. From hardcore multi-day mountaineering-style descents of the Himalaya, Andes, Alps, and Sierra Nevada; to the massive freestyle features of Eastern Canada, Africa, ect.; to the adrenaline injected world-class waterfalling of the Colombia River Gorge, Mexico, Chile, and now Brazil. To every variation imaginable on those themes, ours is a sport of unlimited opportunities and possibilities from our own back yards to the other side of the planet. This is why I love to kayak.
Kokatat Ambassadors Taylor Robertson, and Ben Stookesberry complete the 3rd descent of the Grand Canyon of the Mad. Taylor recounts the high water mission!
“For the past couple of years, I have heard rumors of an amazing class V stretch of river in the northern California Coastal Range known as the Grand Canyon of the Mad River. Only two known prior attempts have been made on this isolated twenty-five mile stretch of whitewater, one resulting in a hike out in darkness, and the other taking 3 days to complete. When Ben Stookesberry called the night before our descent with ideas of tackling the Grand Canyon of the Mad in one single day, I thought hard and long before committing to what I knew would be a difficult but significant undertaking. Thoughts of logistics clouded my brain, knowing that one of the toughest parts of this adventure would be getting to and from the river, and finding a shuttle driver. Luckily, my friend and paddling partner Danny Salazar needed to drive to Arcata for a business meeting and volunteered as shuttle driver.
Our trip began in Chico with an early 3:30 a.m. wake-up call to get a jump-start on the day! A quick check on Dreamflows noted that the Mad River at the Arcata gage (at the mouth) was running 4,200cfs. Danny and I met up with Ben in Red Bluff and began our three-hour drive over Highway 36 in blizzard-like conditions. Ben managed to keep us on the road in very treacherous driving conditions. Thankfully, Ben’s safe but speedy driving put us at the river for an early arrival time of 9:00am. We checked the flow at the put-in and we were welcomed with a full 1,200cfs instead of the 400-500cfs which Charlie Center reported on their previous trip. The river was high and it was still snowing/raining hard.
After equipping our boats with sleeping bags and provisions in case of an overnight stay, Ben and I slid into the river for an epic adventure. The river starts off slow with about nine miles of class III and IV rapids. We had heard from previous trips that the first nine miles would be scrappy and low. To our dismay, we found great holes and play waves, a somewhat scary indication of the amount of water we had. We pushed hard downriver through the top stretch, knowing that we needed to make up as much time as possible before arriving in the steep section of the run.
Around mile 10 the river took on a drastic change. We meandered through a magnificent gorge complete with vertical; moss covered walls, and waterfalls that ended in a significant rapid. After scouting the first rapid it was very apparent that we were going to experience the toughest run that costal stream geology had to offer. The large boulders constricting the river were very sievy and unstable. I imagine the run would be a pile of dead end rapids at low water, however we had huge massive holes to deal with due to the water flow. Landslides littered the sides of the canyon, creating constricted rapids and debris flows like no other river I have ever seen.
About thirteen miles in, we were forced to catch a last minute eddy to scout what looked to be a huge horizon line. Sure enough, it was a sixty-foot cascading drop that needed to be portaged. The only problem was that we were on the wrong side of the river, requiring us to perform a must make ferry just feet above a death rapid! Upon completing the ferry we were introduced to another perk offered by the Grand Canyon of the Mad: quicksand. We were ass-deep in this stuff, and I was glad to have my Kokatat GORE-TEX® Meridian dry suit on. At one point, the mud sucked my shoe off and I had to go back and dig for it.
The scale of this river was starting to become very obvious. Delusional visions of camping in the cold winter weather were running through my head. The river was perhaps 500-1,000 cfs too high and certain moves could mean life or death. We negotiated some of the biggest class V+ rapids that I have ever run, boat scouting and land scouting whenever possible.
A scout at one particularly dangerous rapid revealed no reasonable portage routes. I decided to position myself in the middle of the river where I hoped to find a clean line. I was disappointed when I reached the top of the drop to find a 20’ labyrinth of jumbled rocks and logs. With no other option, I signaled Ben and went sliding into the first drop, successfully avoiding a root ball guarding the entrance. I saw a clean ledge that looked like a great boof but I was greeted at the bottom of this ten-foot drop by a rock to the ribs. I negotiated my way around the rock and through the next blind spot, which, much to my surprise was clean sailing. I yelled to Ben knowing that he would soon have to take the hit; luckily he joined me without injury in the eddy for our next hurdle. After safely managing to make it through a monstrous blind drop, we found ourselves in the middle of the river having to make an extremely difficult ferry/attainment to safety. I gave it my all to ferry across the top of another enormous un-runnable rapid, making it to the safety of the upstream eddy. Next it was Ben’s turn and he had a harder time with the attainment due to the short length of his boat. After his third attempt (with me yelling encouragement at the top of my lungs, he made it to safety where I greeted him with much relief. Failure to make the eddy would have resulted in utter chaos and potential for loss of life.
The next ten miles or river was more of the same scouting, boating, portaging, and trying to make eddies. We estimated the water level at 3,500cfs at this point. We kept our heads down, not even stopping for lunch or photos knowing that we would have to hurry in order to make it out before dark. While portaging around mile twenty, we ran across a cabin about one hundred feet up off the river. We met a nice couple that owned a plot of land where they had hiked in to enjoy the day. They informed us that the river eased up downstream, and observed “I can’t believe we ran across humans in such a remote place.”
Fortunately for us they were correct, downstream the riverbed opened up into some excellent big water class V, reminiscent of the N. Payette at high water. The rapids were excellent and much more manageable than the steeper section up stream. We charged ahead chasing the clock to get out before dark. The thought of sleeping in the cold messy weather only made me paddle harder. At approximately 5:00pm as the light was fading, we paddled around a bend in the river and spotted my buddy Danny’s jacket hanging from a tree, marking the takeout. My yellow lab ran down, barking at rivers edge. I have to say that seeing my dog and Danny’s jacket was a sweet sight. The possibility of spending the night in the canyon was avoided. As we hiked to the top of the trail, Danny had cold beers and a fire awaiting our arrival.
Ben and I spent 8 hours total in the Grand Canyon of the Mad, with 6 solid portages. We had to push our endurance levels to keep moving and to avoid paddling in darkness. Ben Stookesberry had this to say about the Mad: “The river was treacherous and high, however it was totally worth it. The scenery and wildlife are amazing and the canyon offers an unbelievable class V+ experience, coastal style!” Ben just returned from paddling some big Himalayan rivers in India a week prior to our descent of the Mad. He mentioned that it was comparable to some of the big stuff he paddled over there.
The Mad River is a serious endeavor especially if done in one day as the gradient is close to 200ft per mile in spots. One mistake could cost you big time, resulting in a cold night in the canyon at best. Our descent is the only complete one-day descent to date that I am aware of. The only reason that we did not end up having to camp is that everything went safely according to plan. At that flow, one missed eddy or one wrong move could have meant disaster. With that said, I would love to go back at around 2,500cfs instead of 4,000 on the Arcata gauge and do two days preferably in the late spring. The camping looks to be excellent with some nice beaches to sleep on.
Have fun, be safe, and most importantly do not underestimate the Grand Canyon of the Mad!”
Paddle Humboldt has the trip report from the second descent of the Grand Canyon of the Mad at lower flows. Kokatat employees Martin Belden, and Arcata local Dustin Stoner were on that trip.
The 5th Annual Reel Paddling Film Festival has started its tour around the world anew. RPFF kicked off it’s nearly year-long tour last week in Toronto with the winning films from nine different categories being premiered for the first time.When all is said and done the festival will show the best paddlesports films to upwards of 20,000 people, and Kokatat is the sponsor of the best adventure/travel paddling film category. The tour plays to audiences in Canada, the US, and other countries around the world. Kokatat’s sponsorship isn’t our only contribution: Team Kokatat paddlerJustine Curvengen submitted and won the Best Canoeing Film for her film “This Is Canoeing”. TIC is a production that celebrates canoeing and showcases some of most talented paddlers, wilderness explorers, and whitewater adventures.
Kokatat was an expedition sponsor for J.J. Kelly and Josh Thomas’ “Paddle To Seattle” – a trip they documented and later turned into a film of the same name. It won Best Sea Kayaking Film, and documents Kelly and Thomas’ use of homemade wooden boats as they kayak the 1,300-mile Inside Passage from Alaska to Seattle.
Josh
Justine
Bryan
Last year Kokatat had two sponsored films as winners: Bryan Smith’s“Eastern Horizons” won best sea kayaking film, and Justine Curgenven’s “This is the Sea 4: New Zealand circumnavigation” won best adventure/travel paddling film. Finally – for you Canoecopia attendees – Justine’s film will debut outside of the Reel Fest for the first time during the Canoecopia show weekend. Congrats Justine, J.J., and Josh!
For a list of all world tour films, schedule, and hosting information visit www.reelpaddlingfilmfestival.com. Tour hosts usually sell tickets for their local screening, and use the world tour to generate preseason excitement as a fundraiser or an evening’s entertainment for a paddling event or festival.
Kokatat Ambassador Paul Kutheis one of the stars of a new web television series developed by Bryan Smithand Fitz Cahall, called The Season. Here is how he got started with the project:
“We were headed up to the Butze tidal rapids near Prince Rupert last June. The Butze (butzee) is not one wave, but many separate features, including big whirlpools, jaw dropping pour-overs, and huge exploding waves that form then disappear as 30+ feet of tide water squeezes back and forth through narrow channels between the densely packed cedar covered islands laced across Fenn Passage. A couple hours into the 30 hour ferry ride from Port Hardy, Bryan started talking about this new project he was working on, called The Season. We hoped to get some amazing footage of this incredible tidal zone, but none of us really knew much about it. Bryan had agreed to join us and shoot the trip over a year ago, but this was the first time we knew where the footage could end up… if we found anything to surf. We were not disappointed – humbled perhaps, but not disappointed!
The Season follows myself and four other athletes through the course of a single season in the Pacific Northwest. Check out the first episode free at http://www.arcteryx.com/.” - Paul Kuthe
Team Kokatat member Nick Troutman sent in his yearly report:
“2009 will be a tough one to top! I guess I will just start from the beginning; make sure to watch the video re-cap of 2009, I will try to post a video for each point.
JANUARY
Shared the new year with my friends and family up in Canada
Got the new “Dynamic Duo”
First ever run down Gorilla of the Green Narrows
FEBRUARY
Bought a house with Emily
Trained at RI: ran the Spout, Sieve City, surfed the new put in wave, the top hole, the top third wave, the main Rock Island Hole, and Brave Wave. High water RULES!
MARCH
NAWFest in Alabama: 1st overall, 2nd freestyle rodeo, 2nd freestyle off the lip
JK team week
First ever run down the Bear Creek. We were late putting on and had to hike out in the dark around half way.
APRIL
Went to Mexico for a week of creek boating with Clay, EJ, Dane and Trevor Clark: Nick’s bachelor party
Got married to my beautiful bride Emily in Riviera Maya, Mexico
MAY
Reno River Fest in Nevada: 3rd freestyle rodeo, 1st boater-cross
Went Creeking in California: got on Big Kim Shew, South Branch twice and Middle Cosumnes
CKS Paddle Fest
BV Pro Rodeo in Colorado: 1st place in rodeo
Paddling Life Pro Invitational in Colorado: 1st overall, 1st freestyle rodeo, 5th creek race
My first ever run down Barrel Springs
JUNE
Got my first new ALL-STAR!!! Boo Ya
Teva Mountain Games in Colorado: 2nd pro freestyle rodeo, 3rd 8-ball race, 30th steep creek race
Lyons Outdoor Games in Colorado: 2nd pro rodeo, 8th steep creek race
FIBArk in Colorado: 2nd freestyle rodeo
Rallied back up to Canada for the Ottawa River and to see family and friends
JULY
Coached with the Keener Program
Surfed up High Tension wave
Surfed Buseater for the only 4 hours it was in
Went to the Summer Outdoor Retailer show
AUGUST
Continued surfing High Tension
Completed the Back Airscrew
Trained for the World Championships
SEPTEMBER
Won my first ever World Championship title
Went canyoning with EJ and Dane is Switzerland
Went mountain climbing in Switzerland
Competed at the Charney Beach Comp in France: 3rd place
My best friend Joel’s 21st Birthday, also on Green Race Day
DECEMBER
Another couple of runs down the South East Classic: Bear Creek
Took out the New Villain for a spin: going to be SWEET!
First Christmas with Emily in our new house
My family came down for the holidays
New Years Eve was shared with close friends and family, playing lots of games, champaign and wine, and shooting off fireworks
It was an amazing year, one that will be remembered for the great times with friends and family. Stay tuned for what is in store for 2010’s adventures!” - Nick Troutman
Kokatat is donating Ronin Pro life jackets to February’s “Kayakers for the Kimberley”, an expedition that seeks to raise awareness for the environmentally compromised Kimberley region of Australia. The team will attempt to record the highest documented descent of the Kimberley’s Fitzroy River followed by first ever descents of both the Wynne and Hardmen creeks.
Team Kokatat athlete Anthony Yap is one member of this five-country, eight-athlete collective. Led by Yap and fellow Australian paddler Lachie Carracher, this trip is the fourth consecutive year a group has explored the Kimberley in an effort to educate the public on the exploitation happening to the one of the world’s oldest, largely untapped regions.
After a nearly 4,000 kilometer drive northwest from Melbourne, the team will board a chartered aircraft to the upper reaches of the Fitzroy. Once on the water, the expedition will be made all the more challenging by the Fitzroy’s peak monsoonal flows.
To maximize safety in these demanding conditions, the team wisely chose Kokatat’s Ronin Pro as their life jacket for the duration of the trip. Advantages of the Ronin Pro include a trimmed-down profile and unique internal harness, which provides a comfortable secure fit, full spinal protection and improved side protection. Kokatat worked with representatives of Underwriters Labratories (UL), the United States Coast Guard (USCG), swiftwater rescue professionals, fire departments, recreational user groups, and other manufacturers to help update the standards of Type 5 rescue certification.
Working closely with Australian Conservation Foundation advisers to draw attention to the environmental issues that are facing the area, the team’s experiences will be documented in a feature film to be produced in March 2010. The film will showcase the area and the team’s exploration of one of the world’s most inhospitable environments. Additional information available at www.kayakthekimberley.com
Kokatat Team member Anna Levesque reports on her recent adventures in Mexico:
Our flight to Mexico City took off just before a major snowstorm hit Western North Carolina and buried the area under 15 inches of snow. Talk about good timing! Jalcomulco, Veracruz is one of my favorite places. The town of about 3000 residents is located in the Antigua River Valley surrounded by beautiful hillsides of Mango orchards. The river’s indigenous name is Huitzilpan which means river of the swallows, and there are lots of swallows that fly overhead and around you as you paddle down the Barranca Grande (Pescados and Antigua sections of the river). I really enjoy the pace of life in the village, how people greet one another and spend time outside. The people are friendly and welcoming, the food is delicious and the scenery is stunning.
We arrived a week before our first trip to spend some time paddling on our own and doing recon trips on all of the rivers. Our friends Jason and Kara McClure also decided to check out the paddling around Jalco the same week. Once we were down there I got to catch up with some Canadian paddlers and friends who work and live in Mexico whom I hadn’t seen in a few years. It turned out to be a really fun week of paddling and hiking.
We paddled the Pescados, the Actopan, the Antigua and the Alseseca. We also did one of my favorite canyon hikes starting in the village, following burro trails up to and past a natural swimming hole into a long, deep canyon. As you go up the canyon you have to do some bouldering, climbing and crawling over, around and under big rocks. Eventually you get to a spot where you scurry up the side of a steep hill through a grove of coffee and tangerine trees to wooden ladders that take you up the canyon wall. There’s nothing that tastes better when you’re hot and sweaty than tangerines that you’ve just picked from the tree! From there we walked across the meseta to another burro trail that lead down the mountain and back to the village. The view of the valley from the highest point was breathtaking.
Along with the paddling and hiking we also enjoyed delicious food. Our favorite place is El Navegante taco stand. El Navegante use to be a raft guide, and now he makes the best pork and pineapple tacos ever! The bad thing is that he only sets up on weekends.
Even though it didn’t feel like Christmas to us because we weren’t with our families, the locals definitely got into the festive spirit. One of my favorite traditions in the village are the groups of kids who decorate a tree branch, make rattles and go door to door singing Mexican Christmas carols. If they come to your door and sing you give them a few pesos and then they carry on to the next house. There’s a similar tradition on New Year’s Eve, and adults get into the action too. Groups get together with instruments, one or two dress up as elders representing the old year going out. They sing and dance for you and then you give them a few pesos. It’s really fun.
The day after Christmas Andrew and I hosted an awesome group of paddlers for a week of fun and kayaking. There were different skill levels in the group so we split up and tackled different rivers on different days, coming together to paddle for a few runs. It was a great trip and we’re so glad this group got together and wanted to come to Mexico! In addition to the singing groups on New Year’s we were also treated to an Afro-Cuban band and African Dance performers as well as a fire show. Everyone was so tired from all of the paddling that only a few of us made it to midnight!
On our way home Andrew and I spent a day in Mexico City where we were surprised to find an ice rink, an artificial snow tube run and a snowball fight area in the middle of the Zocalo. There were beautiful Christmas lights on the buildings surrounding it. We ate at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Los Girasoles – that was a delicious way to end our holiday trip to Mexico. Luckily I get to go back this week to run my women’s trips! Below are some more photos from my camera
- enjoy!
Anna Levesque
For more information on the Girls at Play Mexico trips go HERE.
“This summer I embarked on a new project with Fitz Cahall of the Dirtbag Diaries called the Season. The idea sprouted during some late evenings at the Banff Mountain Film Festival in 2008 when we both realized we had a mutual interest in trying to bring professional adventure media and strong story telling to the web. I had just finished two sea kayaking DVD’s and was looking for something new. Fitz had been wanting to bring the video medium to his work on the web. We asked ourselves a couple questions. First, could we take compelling stories from our community, combine it with tightly crafted footage and create small installments that reveal a bigger story? Second could the events of a single season reveal the bigger stories of individual athletes? I’m not sure we knew the answers and we still remain to find out, but we were confident that we had something that just might work, so the Season was born. We started working on the story lines, pitching the project and shaping the look. Then we spent an entire season lugging big HD cameras, a cable cam and various other tools around the Pacific Northwest chasing after five athletes. This has been a labor of love, but we are both excited to share all of our hard work.
The Season is a 22 episode, web TV series following five athletes through the course of a single season. A veteran climber invents a new piece of gear. A pro snowboarder searches for a way to return to the roots of his sport. A boulderer returns from a series of injuries with new perspective. A family man goes to Whistler to test himself against the mountain biking’s elite. A young sea kayaker with a troubled past sets out to reinvent his sport. Kokatat paddler Paul Kuthe is the featured kayaker and we captured some incredible new tidal locations for his epsiodes up in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. You can subscribe to the HD downloads via itunes at www.theseasontv.com. The trailer has just gone live and the first episode releases at the end of the month. Enjoy!”
