Liquidlogic Ladies Lounge

Park Bench Kayaking and Dillon Falls
By: Christina Russell
Date: March 2, 2oo7




Welcome to Bend, Oregon where regardless of the weather, you go kayaking. If you waited for nice, warm weather, you wouldn't get out for months! So now you know, if you are ever in Oregon, expect there to be kayakers willing to go in hail, snow, thunderstorms, and of course sunny weather. According to once of those, "you know you're an Oregonian when..." articles- We Oregonians DO "Know the difference between a drizzle, sprinkle, and a heavy mist!"

It happened to be dumping snow when I called Josh McKeown to go kayaking at Dillon Falls.





Josh! Welcome to the Ladies Lounge ....








As I made my phone calls from the comfort and warmth of my room, I couldnt help but notice the giant snow flakes falling outside the glass...." Hmmmm....is that a snowman on the golf course?

When we arrived at the put-in, it started to snow.... hard. Josh opened his car door and remarked "well there's some snow out there." Indeed there was, about six inches in spots. Unfortunately for Josh, his pre-boating shoes were flip flops. As the snow came down, I was grateful of my recent investment in a drysuit! The single coolest thing of my day was by far the fact that I was wearing my surfing doggie pajamas on the water( On pajamas dogs can do anything- including surf)! YEAH! For all those questioning the comfort of the 'jamis' I say....there's nothing quite like feeling ready for bed, and ready to kayak all at once. :)

So....after gearing up we hiked down to the put in and out onto the lip of the falls to check out the flows and exposed rocks. The flow was at about 917 cfs....moderately low. (Our last run was at 1200 cfs). The top of the drop narrowed a bit and there were some f* you rocks poppin' up. NEvertheless it looked all good to go. Dill Hole as usual was sticky but if you stayed left, you were golden.


Me running safety at the top























Round #1
Josh Firin' it up....








And having landed...approaching Dill Hole









Josh came back up and we swapped jobs. He would film/run safety, while I gave it a go. Drop one didnt go as well as I had hoped, I pulled the trigger on my boof just a hair too early and missed out on a perfectly flat landing.


Me droppin' Dillon Falls



















Pullin' the trigger too early...










Approaching Dill Hole...
















Trust me...he's in this photo...











Josh's second drop was friggin SAWEET! :)









At this point I should point out that the take out was a small, boily eddy surrounded by ice and snow covered rocks. As we climbed out of our boats and hauled them out, we noticed the rocks we were standing on, weren't as solid as we thought. Snow covered the cracks between the rocks and I slipped through the cracks a couple times.

Around 4 PM we decided to call it a day. Josh had work and we were both happy with our drops. It was way too much fun. As we hiked back to the truck, Josh decided he wanted to pull me, my kayak , and his kayak...AWESOME!







Josh is STRONG!







Then...I found a park bench...he he he. Since it was there, I had to do something....




That ground was hard!











Hope you enjoyed the blog. We had an awesome time and will return to Dillon Falls again this weekend. Stay tuned for a video from this trip.....

Happy Paddling!

-C