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| Losing my Cherry |
| Written by ned | |||
| Wednesday, 26 August 2009 20:58 | |||
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A guest entry by Dave Burne, cheers Dave...(NB; please hover for photo captions) "For many kayakers
After 4 weeks of awesome boating there was one thing left to do. The river that epitomises Californian paddling. Upper Cherry Creek. Unfortunately, before you can sample the delights it has to offer, there is 12km of walk-in to do. …I can’t say I’m a massive fan of walk-ins. After the standard bit of faff we decided to start the hike after midday, keeping the last slog for the evening. After munching as much energy food as possible, and with a fully laden boat and pocket full of chocolate bars, we were off. 7 brutal hours later, the river came into sight. Shoulders and back aching, blistered and bitten (the mosquitoes were relentless) we finally made it to the campsite.
Its fair to say the Rainchasers carrying system had passed a rigorous enough test! The next morning the throbbing shoulder muscles had to be ignored. If you want to lose your cherry, with this as the first rapid of the day there’s no chance to be broken in gently! (at this moment I should probably thank Martyn Sollars for his rescue efforts pulling me off when in a sticky hole…)
After a few more awesome granite slab slides you come across of 2 G4+ steep sided canyons. Its worth making sure you can make all eddies before dropping in the canyons, otherwise you may be left to paddle some pretty nasty drops blind.
DROPPING Da BOMB It is then that you round the corner, and see the beginning of the 3rd Canyon. It was this 3rd Canyon which effectively brought me to We left our boats above the canyon and camped below it, scouting the whole thing from above. At this level there was no way any of us were going to portage (…ish). We were psyched! The next morning we were off back to our boats. There were some pretty tricky rapids leading into the gorge, but all too soon we are standing looking over the edge of Cherry Bomb Falls. Not wanting to hang around Phil Higgins mans up first and drives hard left on entry and hits the kicker hard but is carried too far and is smashed against the wall. After a quick roll drops him into the weir on his side giving him a hard few minutes surfing with a no swim option. Finally the stopper releases him after a long hang upside down using his body to drag out of the grippy hole (unfortunately Martyn Sollars was not in a good position to pull Phil off). This was not the confidence boost the rest of us crew needed, but as we all had committed to doing the run by passing the only exit point from the canyon there was only one option. Martyn was next up and styled the line with a super clean run. So much hype for one gorge! But what a gorge it is! We had dropped da bomb. Tom Mclay was the only person to get the iconic ‘Cherry Bomb Falls’ plunge photo…git. In the run out of Cherry Bomb Gorge there are more quintessential Callifornian falls – the Teacups. Booftastic! (See what I mean about being a picturesque place??)
On the second day was where some of the bigger drops, like ‘Perfect 20’ ‘Double Pot Hole’ ‘Kiwi in a Pocket’ ‘ …Like our friend Cori did. He’s not Kiwi, but he did end up in a pocket! Perhaps not surprisingly we walked that one…
After scaring yourself silly, or practicing your portaging skills, the confluence of West Cherry Creek and Upper Cherry Creek is finally reached. Don’t let up though because there’s another whole load of rapids before you reach the lake!
NB: This account of the Upper Cherry was actually my second attempt. Its written as my first run down because when I actually lost it the first time it was such a horrible experience I’ve tried to block it out. A couple of friends were heading home earlier than I, and wanted to tick off the run before they left. There was only 2 of them, and they felt comfier If we lost our cherry in a threesome. A horrible horrible experience. The first time was high water. Very high water. We were the first people down that season. …There was a reason for that! Yes, the first day was made more exciting…but the rest was a massive portage fest! And after 12 miles of walk-in done the day before, effectively walking back down the same way at river level wasn’t particularly enjoyable... In the slightest. Tim Ripper if you’re reading this, I blame you, you C**T! (Middle Kings though next year though, yes?…) Pictures: Phil Higgins and Dave Burne Pictures of Cherry Bomb: Rob Brackley Words: Dave Burne" Comments (4)
  written by DaveM, September 03, 2009
Those really are cracking photo's!! Particularly like the ones of Cherry bomb gorge and the teacups
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 written by Tim Ripper, September 05, 2009
Hahahahahahahahaha..... hope you enjoyed the walk first time
 Will be there for Middle Kings though, I love the hiking! No wimping out...
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 written by Dave Burne, September 08, 2009
Timbro - Truesay - the Allt Mheuran, thats so brutal its a once and never again experience!
Dave - Glad you enjoyed the pics. The Ripper - That first walking was absolutely horrible - the mosquitoes weren't half as bad the second time round! report abuse
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| Last Updated on Friday, 28 August 2009 17:17 |
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Can't believe you whinge so much about the walk though... have you never done the Allt Mheuran?