Holy Crap -- Wow! My boating days are long gone, but with your videos, I not only get to relive them, but go beyond into waters I never would have boated. Thanks so much Andy for posting!!!
@@andylozovoy8367that is indeed a dying art in this era of video scouting. I recall exploring this run for a couple seasons when it was unusually free of wood in the mid 2000s. I found 4' to 4'1" on the MB guage to be ideal flows. The move at the dam structure went well on the right. Then there was a really steep drop called Simon Says that we ran on the right where the line threaded the needle between two manky rocks in the landing zone. All the recent videos show people running that drop around on the left, which looks cleaner than what I remember, but the rocks forming the drop might have moved and changed the line. Willard Falls was always big clean fun, but then it and some of the upstream drops became blocked by large wood hazards so I stopped running this section. Anyway, great to see you guys getting on it, and thanks for sharing the video. It's a fantastic option when the lower LW is too high for comfort.
@@bfosterkayaking Yeah, the drop at the hatchery structure looked good to go on the right, but we didn't want to risk being washed into Simon Says if anything went wrong. There is currently a large log blocking the majority of the right side of Simon Says @11:06; so, the left line, which didn't look good to us at our flow, appears to be your only option right now. After scouting a route, we were able to portage on river right without issue and get back in just downstream of the log. Although I'm personally very glad that we didn't have more water for our first lap, I imagine 4.0' would be a really great flow for this run and a little bit cleaner. That being said, even though there were one or two spots that were a little manky, 3.8' didn't feel too low to me by any means.
The log @ 4:58 would definitely be an issue at any lower flow. I thought there was 1 other one in play that was diagonal downstream to the left with the top just right of center, but most of the water going into/under it that was after then. Not sure if you edited that out, or the camera wasn't working, or if I just don't remember it right
I didn't really edit out any of the river below the last bridge and the start of the bigger water. I'm thinking that the log you might be thinking of is in the lead-in to Willard's. There was a log that I remember seeing that I think matches that description, but I don't have footage to confirm.
Holy Crap -- Wow! My boating days are long gone, but with your videos, I not only get to relive them, but go beyond into waters I never would have boated. Thanks so much Andy for posting!!!
best kayak channel on YT
Very glad Evan Garcia had run it recently & let us know it is MOSTLY free of wood
Agreed. So many blind corners and horizon lines; having a relative idea that things were mostly clean was very helpful.
Nice work, guys!
Thanks, Brooks. Don't get to do a boat scout/eddy hopping mission like this very often. Was certainly intimidating, but super satisfying.
@@andylozovoy8367that is indeed a dying art in this era of video scouting. I recall exploring this run for a couple seasons when it was unusually free of wood in the mid 2000s. I found 4' to 4'1" on the MB guage to be ideal flows. The move at the dam structure went well on the right. Then there was a really steep drop called Simon Says that we ran on the right where the line threaded the needle between two manky rocks in the landing zone. All the recent videos show people running that drop around on the left, which looks cleaner than what I remember, but the rocks forming the drop might have moved and changed the line. Willard Falls was always big clean fun, but then it and some of the upstream drops became blocked by large wood hazards so I stopped running this section.
Anyway, great to see you guys getting on it, and thanks for sharing the video. It's a fantastic option when the lower LW is too high for comfort.
@@bfosterkayaking Yeah, the drop at the hatchery structure looked good to go on the right, but we didn't want to risk being washed into Simon Says if anything went wrong. There is currently a large log blocking the majority of the right side of Simon Says @11:06; so, the left line, which didn't look good to us at our flow, appears to be your only option right now. After scouting a route, we were able to portage on river right without issue and get back in just downstream of the log.
Although I'm personally very glad that we didn't have more water for our first lap, I imagine 4.0' would be a really great flow for this run and a little bit cleaner. That being said, even though there were one or two spots that were a little manky, 3.8' didn't feel too low to me by any means.
Oh God I really love kayak ,but can't afford it ❤
The log @ 4:58 would definitely be an issue at any lower flow. I thought there was 1 other one in play that was diagonal downstream to the left with the top just right of center, but most of the water going into/under it that was after then. Not sure if you edited that out, or the camera wasn't working, or if I just don't remember it right
I didn't really edit out any of the river below the last bridge and the start of the bigger water. I'm thinking that the log you might be thinking of is in the lead-in to Willard's. There was a log that I remember seeing that I think matches that description, but I don't have footage to confirm.