Eric Seymour,Ben Stookesberry, Leif Embertson, and Lizzy English get out on a 5 day expedition on the Wind River Drainage, Eric reviews the Mega-Rocker

Hey EJ,

I wanted to send you some photos of our five day trip in the Wind River drainage and a review of the Mega Rocker. The crew consisted of Ben Stookesberry, Leif Embertson, Lizzy English and myself. The run starts with a 20 mile hike into the most pristine and untouched wilderness area I have ventured into. Looking up at the numerous granite domes I couldn’t help feeling like I was on one of the big overnighters in CA. The quality of the whitewater surpassed my expectations, easily matching and quite possibly surpassing the Middle Kings.

After 20 miles and two days of hiking we arrived at the put in of the South Fork. The South Fork is not the main tributary and we were running the river with around 100 cfs in fully loaded creek boats. This was my first time paddling the Mega with a lot of gear and I could not tell the boat was fully loaded. The boat felt agile, fast, easy to turn, and simple to boof,

The Mega Rocker is the fastest boat to load with gear that I have ever paddled. The seat has a low rear profile that makes sliding gear into the stern easy and tons of volume to fit everything you could possibly need. The bulkhead has a flip up system to quickly stow gear in the bow. I kept all my food in the bow of the boat and my boat never felt stern heavy.

After boating several miles on the South Fork we entered the Middle Fork where we received most of our water. We were now on a healthy flow of 550 cfs. The run started out with a burly gorge where Ben ran the last two falls. The next section was the lakes section where slides and waterfalls were interspersed between small high alpine lakes. Leif paddled Haagen Dazen from the top, in his Mega Rocker, punching the top meaty ledge hole and successfully negotiating the huge laterals and then droping 35-40 feet. Ben and I had a fun seal launch into the falls.

The pool drop nature of the river soon changed as we did a quick portage around forked tongue gorge on the right and put back into a continues class V-V+ river. The rapids were long and complex with big water waves and holes leading directly into the next rapid. With close to 2 miles of continuous Class V ,the Mega Rocker excelled past my expectations of any creek boat.

The crux of forked tongue gorge is the final two rapids. The first pushes up into a wall where you must avoid an undercut on the left and a sieve below. The next one was my favorite rapid of the entire run. The river enters a mini gorge and big water waves stack and crank as they charge downstream for 100 yards into a massive sliding hole that is sucking back from fifteen feet away. The two Mega Rockers and Ben’s Rocker all punched the final hole with massive tail stands that sent us rocketing out of the nasty recirc. We set up camp and had two more amazing days of whitewater to go.

In summary, the Mega Rocker inspires confidence. The boat is incredibly stable. In three days of paddling I had one high brace and no rolls. The Mega Rocker drives, ferries, and punches holes like a long boat. I love the speed of a fast creek boat. It gives you confidence to charge big holes and venture down to that next eddie. Here is the cool thing about the Mega Rocker. Without sacrificing speed, EJ has designed a boat that turns and boofs easily. This means the boat is incredibly easy and forgiving to paddle, while at the same time has the speed and hole punching ability to run the big stuff.

I will be enjoying the Rockers for years to come. Thanks, EJ for making a creek boat that is incredibly easy to paddle and still has the speed to run the sh…..

Eric Seymour