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You never quite know what to expect when heading out on a new river in the wilderness. The Upper Cherry Creek that runs through one of America’s National Parks just out of Touloumne is renowned to be one of the best kayak runs in the world! So when Josh suggested we hit it up I was keener then ever! Little did I know what was ahead. We met up with our friend Casper from the Netherlands along with 2 other Dutch Dudes and Sven from Belgium. Thursday night we began the painful 4hour hike with our kayaks and all of our multi-day gear. After camping on a hill Thursday evening we were early to rise Friday and ready to finish off the hike (maybe 1hour 30min from put in). Josh left slightly early to get a headstart as his knees were sore. Next minute, Casper, Sven, Emule, Tim and I have veered off track and are lost! Yup, we lost the track and Josh! After 4hours of heavy bush bashing we made it down to the river (approx. 500m downstream of the put in, although we were unaware of this at the time). Anyway we were unsure if we were too far upstream so decided to jump on and paddle down in case we were above the put in. We were not. 1hour later we reached a campsite so set up camp and waited with hope that Josh would come floating down any second. He did not. The next day we headed off early and enjoyed the tight gorges and fun slides. Just above the portage at Cherry bomb I hit the nose of my kayak and it broke, F**K! We decided we needed to go find Josh. So we got off the river, left our kayaks and headed to the road end to thankfully find Josh. His boat however was at the put-in. That night we went back to Senora and stayed in a sweet hotel with a hot tub! We ate out at the local steak restaurant and it was amazing! The next day it was mission on once again. Casper, Josh and I hiked to the put-in to get Josh’s kayak and carry it back to the Flintstones campsite, it was 9miles from the car to the put in and we had a 8hour day of hiking!Intense! After a nice night by the fire with our full crew we headed back to paddle out finally from Cherry Bomb! The gorges were soooo sweet! Super nice granite gorges, big slides and drops and surrounded by granite rock that looked like the moon! The lower sections of the river were definitely too low, esp. Red granite gorge, but the rest was all good. What a mission. We saw rattle snakes along the way, hiked up massive hills and through pain and heat! But we persevered the whole way and it was totally worth it! Full respect to Josh and Casper and the boys for some incredible efforts. A 2day kayak mission turned into 5 due to several small mistakes...A 5day trip I will never forget!
Notes: Lesson learnt, never loose the Kiwi! Dutch carry Whiskey and pj’s but don’t bring carry-systems..
Photo Credit: Casper Van Kalmthout and Josh Neilson
1 comment:
you guys are funny! you must love hiking wiht boats, hahaha
AU
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