Mediocre Kayaking

I know...I know it's been a really long time since I actually posted to this site. So here you go. I hope to try and keep this thing somewhat updated, but we'll see. No promises.

Since my last post I have moved from Seattle to Southern Oregon. I'm now living in Jacksonville, Oregon. And you know what the best part of living in Southern Oregon is? It's that you're close to California kayaking. So now on to the good stuff.

Autobahn


South Silver might be described as Disney Land for kayaking. It's ridiculously steep and super fun. I did a solo mission down there with hopes of meeting up with the Jefferson State Creeking Crew , but they didn't get there until later on Sunday. I ended up meeting some pretty cool local people that were camping at the put-in on Saturday night and we did the run the next morning.

Tea Cups


Like I said Disney Land! Once you get to the Tea Cups the river seems to drop off the face of earth. They Tea Cups run right into Skyscraper, which leads immediately into Offramp.

Final Tea Cup


And yes that's a Necky Blunt...rocking it old school...not super old school...maybe more like middle school. It was a little nostalgic to see that boat. My first creeker was a Blunt.

Skyscraper looking down...way down


After we got done doing the run Darin, Devin, and Ryan were waiting at the take-out. We sat in the sun and drank and ate and BSed, while crew after crew of boaters were coming and going. It was quite a scene. Never seen so many people in one spot for a creek. After a few hours we decided to put-on for my second lap, but only their first lap of the day.

We put on and didn't catch one eddy or stop until the bottom of Offramp. What took me 2-3 hours to do earlier that day took us 20 minutes....not joking. It was AWESOME!!! I highly recommend at least on your second lap doing the Tea Cups straight through to the bottom of Offramp without stopping. It's a whole nother experience. I think we did the whole run in about 45 minutes, which included a boat recovery (for another group) and a portage.

Sierra kayaking rocks. Big, clean drops and sunshine. I'm absolutely loving it. If you're ever in the Sac area take the time to drive an hour and half to check this run out. Even if it's not going it would be a cool hike and good swimming in the late summer. If it is going make it a priority and do mulitiple laps. It's worth it!

Darin McQuoid has an excellent write up on this run, and Dreamflows has a great description on how to get there.