The Bachelor Party

Not many photos of this one, since the crew we were with was pretty well known for their straight up mobbing downstream. This photo is of John and I hanging out at the camp where we spent the night on the Rubicon. That is the look of a big brother.

The Bachelor party crew consisted of Jon Grace (the groom), Tommy Hilleke, Jay Moffat, Jeff Paine (the freight train), Little Dave, Toby McDermott (budget) and yes... myself... I know I'm a girl. But Grace thought it fitting that I come along on his bachelor party.

We were all hoping to get onto Royal Gorge for the Bachelor Huckfest but the water didnt drop out until the week after the wedding so we were left with only a few options. Since the takeout was so close to the house we were all staying at we chose to head to the Rubicon. We had heard a lot of different things about this run, one saying that it was a nice class four run, another saying that there were a few mandatory portages and it was big water class five. The latter was a bit more correct.

Rules for the Rubicon: 1. If you can see the bottom, run it. 2. If you can't see the bottom, have someone get out and scout, then run it. 3. Bring your Toby. 4. If Toby doesn't give a double thumbs up, walk the rapid. 5. Bring a pressure cooker. 6. And a huge bottle of Correlejo tequila. 7. When you swim, make sure its in a pool. 8. Always look ahead of you. 9. Dont make blind right turns...blind... 10. Don't fall in the river.

We were all super stoked on this run. Big water and some massive holes. We had four swims out of a pretty solid crew of paddlers. Jay swam twice, once because he made a blind right turn. Toby swam out of the most rowdy pocket hole after a solid thrashing. Freight Train just plain swam.

On the last portage of the day John forgot his camera sitting on the side of the river and didn't realize it until 5 miles downstream when we got out for lunch. So him and Tommy did the ultimate and went straight back to the put in and ran the whole run in 5 hours the next day. But it won't go unsaid that Tommy broke his paddle and John Grace swam out of the last hole of the day.

If you ever get a chance to get on this run at 1000 cfs, do it. The run is awesome. There are four portages that are pretty mandatory and one that we did was terrifying. But all in all the run was awesome and a great way to celebrate the amazing union of two super cool people.

Next up, photos of the big day!!

Cali Goods, Part 1

So I got to head to California after an awesome trip to Colorado this year to not only do some awesome creeking but see one of my good friends, John Grace get married to the most awesomest woman ever. Toby McDermott and I loaded up my trusty Subaru and headed west into the sunset.

I think at this point I was almost sleeping and Toby woke me up from my slumber to see this amazing view... over the Oklahoma flatlands...

We took I-40 West the whole way, somewhere around 2300 miles later we found ourselves at the put in to the main Keweah. Everything was still pumping so Hospital Rock and the East Keweah were out of question, but there is nothing wrong with running some big water class 4 after an epic 40 hour drive.

We added to that drive by going further north and heading to the Whiskey Flat Bridge, the takeout to the Secret Stash on Big Kimshew. We had heard the flows were right and that it was going to drop out pretty soon so we rallied to get on it.

This was the end result of our load onto Jason Hales truck. Which also included 8 people. We ended up having a crew of 11 on the river with us.

People in California are so smart!! They all use Werner Paddles!!

Since the day was pretty much just full of mad bombing and making sure that we made it off the river before sundown there aren't many pictures of kayaking. Sadly. This is the Island Drop its the first (of very few) portage.

Since we were looking from above these were the only rapids that you could see on the drive up to the put in. To scale, that slot on the left was somewhere between 8 feet and 10 feet high. You roll around the corner and head right where you are sent off your first very nice 20 footer of the day. There was much more where that came from.

The only time that we really stopped was to hang out at Frenchies Forty. We ate some food and rehydrated. We were planning on going straight into the Secret Stash after we finished the run and we knew there were some big rapids in there.

Jason Hale, our fearless leader.

Myself, stoked at the end of the trip. Happy to be with such an awesome crew of people and stoked to have just run some of the biggest rapids of my life, blind. "You can only run a rapid blind once."

Big Kimshew into the Secret Stash is like starting on a micro creek way up in there and then you end on a full on river with some massive holes and some really rowdy lines to be made. There is no other river that I have ever been on that has given me this much bang for my buck. Super sick run.

Oh Spring, How I Love You.

So this year has been a pretty slow start for my paddling. Im not paddling as much as I normally do since I am now back in Paramedic school here in Asheville full time. I still do paddle more than the average weekend warrior. Above is Mark Zwick. Of Zwick's Backender, on the Green River right here in North Carolina. Which, to clear it up, he really told me it was a forward ender because he was backwards once he hit the hole at the bottom. Hes living over by the NOC where we were for the first annual Cascades Race!

This race was awesome. Its all road side and we had bout 22 people come out for it. Check out that coverage on www.shaneslogic.blogspot.com . Just gonna say for the record, Liquid Logic swept the field by taking 5 out of the first 6 places.... including myself.

have also been "training" on the side for a 26 mile road bike race that goes up the notorious 17 switchbacks of Green River Cove Rd. Jerrys Baddle is a race down the whole Green River Narrows and then jump on a bike and head around a 26 mile loop that goes through historic Saluda NC , up and down some huge hills, and finishes next to the river. Its also a fundraiser for ALS so the entrance fee goes to a good cause! P.S. the river was a bit higher that usual so there was definately a pucker effect going on prior to the race., as you can see from the photo above.

Since the Green River is my home river I am out there a lot. Especially lately with school really cramping my style. So one day last weekend Shane surprized me with this awesome BRIGHT PINK Jefe. I was so excited! It even matches my fingernail polish. Immediately, my style came back.

Riding high on the Flying Squirrel above Gorilla, spotting my landing for a hopefully clean run through the Notch.

All of us here in the Southeast are enjoying the sun and the warm weather. We are already wearing shorties on the river and almost too hot! Woody is wearing his spring cotton by now.

Sunshine! Airing it out.

Releived I made it through one more day on the Green River in my awesome Pink boat.

So now the question is, how do ya'll like it? Would you paddle one? Give us your feedback and also at the same time check out the awesome black ops colors that we are doing coming in June!!!

www.liquidlogickayaks.com

Now that its warm here and I am on a short break from school I went to the Ocoee over the weekend and I also started this new thing, called "mountain biking" its really fun. :-)

Hope its warm where you all are!! Happy paddles.

I leave you all with this awesome photo of the breakfast that I ate the day of the Green Race last year. Breakfast of champions clearly.

All photos by Shane Benedict himself.