An epic three days in Newfoundland, expedition wonderland

October 12, 2007

I’ll start with Tuesday. We drove to Eddie’s Brook and got beta on getting to a waterfall that is supposed to be about 50 feet with a good run on it. Another first descent attempt, but after driving for 4 hours on 4×4 full on roads, super muddy, and no turnarounds (don’t forget we are pulling the U-haul trailer for our gear), we found the creek with too little water. In the meantime, a local hunter told us about a waterfall "As big as Niagara" that can be seen from a logging road he hunts off of. We made out way over there and after about 2 hours, we came upon a mammoth of gradient and tons of water in it. From about a mile or so away, Dane said that the top drop landed on rocks. It looked like about a 10 footer into a 20 foot slide into a 50 footer, onto a 20 foot slide, into a 30 footer, and then kept going behind the trees. We "suited up and committed to the attempt", ran shuttle to a bridge over the creek downstream, and started hiking across a field of marsh, HEAVY brush, and across a creek before getting to the creek we were interested in. I worked with Dane to get his equipment to the base of the big falls. This is tough on both of us, since his boat is loaded with too much gear for near vertical climbs for him, and double carrying (two trips) is tough on me, but certainly good exercise. For me the biggest deal is not sweating so much in my dry suit that it renders it useless to keep warm. I think I poured a cup of sweat out of my drysuit booties on this hike, compared to a quart on the Doctor’s Creek hike.

On the way up we kept getting a great preview of what we were in for with this falls just taking up the entire vista above us. Once we got to the base of the first drop, it was a rocket ride into a 50 footer onto 6" of water with only about a 30 degree transition on the landing. Meaning a body breaker and unrunnable without a perfect landing bow down, in a Rocker with the Uni-shock bulkhead, and then in the next 4 seconds being shot through a big hole in the slide and over a 30 footer into shallow water. We decided to leave the first two drops alone, but Jesse scouted the lip and upstream of it anyways. Ben, Dane, and I scouted the next drop from a small island in the middle of chaos at the lip. The river left side went, but it looked a little shallow too. Ben went first, peeling out at the base of the last drop, sliding down the narrow bouncy slide over a rolling horizon line into a double kicker on the way down going for a boof on the second kicker but getting knocked sideways. His landing was fine and he was happy, giving the "OK" for run signal. I went next and followed his line but paid special attention to keeping the boat straight off the first kicker, knowing that any angle will be accentuated by the second one (something that you learn by going second!). The lead in was fast water and a couple of #$%$$ rocks that you had to steer through. The drop seemed bigger than when we scouted it but I kept it straight and got a good boof, but still dropped into the hole and went completely under, popping up in the backwash, wow, fun!! Dane went next and styled his line. The next group, (that spent extra time considering the second drop, but skipped it) came next and everyone did great.

Meanwhile, Dane, Ben, and I started scouting the next big drop. This one was a technical challenge, both in paddling and picking a line. This would also prove to be the biggest drama of the trip so far and remind us all that we are mortal. The drop has a lead in stage where the water coming in banks high up on the river left bank and then drops about 5 feet into a 2 foot wide tongue that shoots back to river right at a 45 degree angle. Both sides of this narrow tongue (with a small tubing curler in it) are very boily strong eddylines. The main flow of the current goes into the 25 foot drop which is a double slanted drop with the river left side falling off before the river right side and the water falling to the left also. On the river right side was a funky rock shooting water straight up and creating a big hole behind it. Finally, that hole was a super diagonal hole that went all of the way to the lip on the right of center of the drop. The only deep landing zone was to get over that hole and do it right at the lip. The only way to get there was to hook slightly behind the rock making the hole which you were already over the horizon line and blind to it on the way in. Ben and I chose different lines on this one, and he wanted to go first. His line was to peel out in a micro-eddy on the river left bank and drop right into the tongue with a little right angle to set him up for the point of boofing the hole before boofing the drop (.5 seconds apart). He nailed it perfectly but has so much speed that any mistake, bobble, or slight miscalculation of the target would make it impossible to correct. I chose a different line where I bopped over a shallow 3 foot ledge on river right into the eddy and paddled out the bottom of the eddy towards the horizon line fading into the fast current right at the horizon line where I could see the target. It was more of a left hand paddled than I thought but I saw it in time, hit the gas, took a left boof stroke over the curler right at the lip, and got my right boof stroke in time to launch the drop and land flat over the burly hole, and paddle away. Now is where it gets interesting. Two good lines, and, other than Dane, everyone was still looking at the drop like, "Hummph". Dane went and took my line but lost his bearings at the top and was too far right. He went straight over the screw you rock and hit the top part of the hole slowing his momentum down to almost zero at the lip and rolled off and went slightly over the handlebars landing just past vertical. His boat never went in past the stern logo as he petoned the bottom hard and was partially ejected from his boat. His paddle immediately came out and his boat almost bounced out of the hole. He was clearly in his boat but the boat wasn’t moving like he was trying to roll it our get out. He got sucked back into the hole and his boat was getting worked but we never saw him. Ben and I sprung into action, as I attained to just below the hole, expecting him to pop out any second and Ben was preparing to get on shore. Finally you could see that the boat had no one in it, (you can tell the difference when it is surfing), but still no Dane. We then saw a flash of yellow in the hole but no head, and we assumed the worse (that he was not conscious) and was about jump out on the shore and jump in the hole with him. Finally after 35 seconds (timed on the video camera from above), his feet pop up downstream about 10 feet and he rolls up and takes a huge breath and grabs the back of my boat, as I get him to shore. Ben went for his paddle, and his boat was still getting worked in the hole. Dane was crying and scared, as you could imagine, and was not impressed that he was unable to breathe for so long. He was unhurt, but tired and, mentally shaken. I took the next 5 minutes waiting for his boat to come out and it finally did. I got it to shore before the next rapid, emptied it, and ferried it to the island Dane was on, with the paddle Ben got. Everyone on the top of the rapid took a longer harder look at it since you clearly needed that boof, and the hole was clearly strong, and the lead in was tough. Not everyone ran this one, but Jesse Coombs did and had a great line, as well as Chris, and Joel. Nick was next, and this may be the scariest single run I have seen. Nick took the rocket ride lead in down the tongue and you could see this from the bottom by him shooting across the lip of the drop from river left to river right. Something was wrong, however since he was too far downstream to make it too the boof point and was starting to fall off the drop, even though he was flying with the current and sprinting towards it. The lip of the drop before it meets the hole is very shallow and the shallowest point Nick hit sideways and he just got kicked like an airscrew downstream and was immediately aerial, sideways, and falling down the drop upside down. He boat kept rotating until he was backwards, with his body under the boat, and the boat coming down at a 75 degree angle. He crashed at the bottom, his stern petoning, and his bow hitting the vertical part of the drop and he was immediately ejected from his boat. He came up face down and in about 1 second took a couple of half-assed swimming strokes with his head in the water and then rolled over dazed. I grabbed his arm and told him to hold on. He did. I asked if he was OK and he answered in a very dazed voice like his tongue was numb. We got him to shore on the same island that Dane was on, but his boat got past us and Jesse chased it downstream. Once to shore, Nick was very dazed, and clearly took a huge hit to the head with his helmet showing just where; on the back right side. His neck was fine, but his lower back hurt from blowing the backband out with it on landing. The cleat that holds the rope of the backband was broken and gave way, but it still works and the boat is still functional, and that was a great test of it (thanks Nick). After spending some time with Nick we wanted to get him out of the river and watch him for signs of a concussion. He started walking to his boat but wasn’t doing well. I gave him my boat and then hiked downstream until we got to his boat. His stern showed the hit well bending it in nicely. He paddled the runout water (class 3) to the bridge and we got out, got him in dry clothes and in the car. He was not feeling well. The good news is that he didn’t have a concussion and he would be able to go on the next trip, one we had been planning for a while, with a float plane put in, two days of heavy paddling, and a 1st descent. That already happened too, but I haven’t had a computer in a few days.

Oh yea, the creek I just described is "Castor’s Feeder" near Eddies Cove on the West coast of the Northern Peninsula (topo map needed to find it).

Epic trip coming up, (less carnage too, thanks!)

🙂

EJ

 

Darin sends in some pictures from Newfoundland