Sockin' it to the Sauk

Friday, November 27, 2009

North Fork Sauk 2100 cfs.

Class IV+, 2.0 mi.

Thanksgiving was over and it was time to work off the stuffing, turkey, pie, wine, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and seconds of pie. So jP, Jon Shelby and I geared up for a uncommonly run section of river, a continuos class IV+ the N. Frk, of the Sauk. The rapids consisted of wide boulder gardens that we could pick our way down one eddy at a time, with plenty of opportunities for pinning or bumping your way down the river bed. The weather was ideal, cool with a sky that is pock-marked with blue sky and sun.

We put-in just after 12 pm, about 1 mile above the first rapid on the run, a class II section with a bounty of enormous sequoias, and other large trees that I cannot Identify. We ducked underneath and paddled around these prehistoric pieces of lumber as we warmed-up and got our heads in the right headspace for the rapids that lay down stream.

The first 1/4 miles of river had several large drops that needed to be scouted from shore by the group. The first big drop Jon and I walked around because of wood that was in the main line, the drop was runnable still but we didn't have a good feeling about it so we took the dry line. JP ran it and had a very stylish line down the middle, threading the needle through the boulders and wood.

Beyond this rapid there were about 100 yards of class III-IV boogie water before we came to the next horizon line. JP scouted the first part of the drop from shore, and the three of us dropped down to the large green eddy above the bigger of the two drops. JP and I caught the eddy with ease, but Jon caught his nose on the rock, got flipped, and nearly went over the next drop backwards. Jon turned on the juice, and managed to paddle enthusiastically to the eddy. We got out and scouted, it was a slot on the left side of the river with a S-turn followed by a boof off of the the lip at the bottom. The picture below is of JP running the rapid. My favorite rapid of the day without a doubt, relatively easy with enough pucker effect, and a big reward. I wish the picture gave the drop justice, it looks really flat from the overhead angle.

Beyond this rapid the river got busy for about 1/4-1/2 a mile or so, as we hopped from one eddy to the next we worked our way down stream. We looked for the most ideal lines and typically were able to identify them, but sometimes ended up running some marginal sections of the river.

After several scouts, and more boogie water we approached a large rapid that we scouted from the road on the drive to the top (Pictured at the top of the page). A large drop with several opportunities for carnage, two big holes at the top, with a boulder slalom at the bottom. The left: a piton rock with a log to its left that was in play, to the right: the currents flowing underneath a log pile the formed the river right side of the river. JP ran, again with a stylish line down the left, just underneath the log. Jon ran and pitoned (the act of hitting a rock with the nose of your boat) hard on the rock, flipped, flushed around the left side, attempted one roll and swam. JP took off after the boat and Jon, Jon managed to swim to the left shore with his paddle. Meanwhile I was still looking at the rapid, once JP and Jon were out of sight I realized that there was no way that I was going to run this thing with no eyes on me, so I began the arduous task of shlepping my boat up and over the log jam on river right. By the time I had got back to river level JP was on river left waiting for me to come around the corner. I got back in my boat and navigated towards him.

"The boats gone"

"What?"

"It took off around the corner, Jon went after it on shore, we need to chase it down"

JP and I skirted up and took off down stream, keeping an eye out for a large orange piece of plastic, that we were hoping would get stuck or pinned on a rock. We were approaching the take-out and were concerned that the boat may have run the class VI drop called "north fork falls", a burly rapid that leads into a unrunnable 40 foot waterfall. After paddling for about a quarter mile we began to give up hope for Jon's boat. As we rounded a left hand bend we saw Jon, standing his water laden boat on it's tail as he drained the remaining gallons of water from it's hull.

"I didn't think I was going to see it ever again, and I am not in a stable enough financial situation to buy a new boat".

We were all relieved that the boat was found, but a bit shook up by the swim, further proving that "all's well that ends well". Once we were all back in our boats, we made our way down to the next island rapid. The right side of the river had a thin line with a lot wood that looked ugly, the left side was a straight forward class IV. Unfortunately we had scouted from river right, so we had a slightly difficult time getting back to where we wanted to be.

Just before 4 pm we reached the last eddy that was above the Unrunnable class VI. After climbing out of our boats we sat on the river side and talked about the day. The North Fork of the Sauk was the most fun section of river that I have gotten on this year. The rapids challenged my paddling skill, but were manageable and gave you enough pucker effect to remind you that you are alive. The water level was ideal for a first time run, enough water that the river bed wasn't trying to break its way through the hull of my boat, but also not so pushy that it would be difficult to maintain control. On this day some of us socked it to the Sauk, and some of us got Sauked.