Parties, power-drives and pioneering. Making the most of our time on the road and glad to be sitting still for a little while.
First time competing in Reno at the Reno River Fest downtown on the Truckee River. Dave Fusilli , Josh Bechtel and I represented Team Pyranha’s showing, up against some extremely tough competitors.
The Boater X event was a lot of fun. Josh did very well in the Boater X with a 3rd place finish. I was in the Semi’s in Josh’s heat and accidentally false started and was disqualified.
Dave Fusilli also made the podium with the SPEEDER in the downriver race, taking 2nd place by 2 seconds to a wild-water boat. An early morning race may have contributed to the fact that Dave did not win because he stopped before the finish line and didnt realize it for at least a minute. He would have definitely taken first if he had only known where to FINISH! Nice one Dave!
The night life in Reno was a lot of fun. Partying out in a town like Reno with a bunch of kayakers, needless to say, got pretty crazy at times. Thanks to all that helped out with the event, definitely looking forward to next years!
While in Reno we were deciding on what to do in the few days before we had to be back in Colorado for our next event PADDLE FEST at CKS in Buena Vista this coming weekend. With the early snow melt this year in California, we had some options.
The 3 day trip down the Royal Gorge of the North Fork of the American seemed to be the best option due to its proximiny and window of opportunity.
First, I must say that our decision to put on the Royal Gorge would not have been possible without the help of Shannon Carroll. Shannon hooked us up with a place to stay at her house in Truckee, drove our shuttle in the morning, provided us with some essential missing pieces of gear the night before, and even cooked us breakfast before we left for three full days of class five California kayaking. The only thing Shannon didn’t do was show us down the river. She had her last final exam to get to before her graduation on wednesday; A big thanks to Shannon for her help.
So…With beta we gathered from her and others Dave Fusilli and my brother Graham and I decided to go for a guide-less run down the Royal Gorge.
The Royal Gorge is a run that deserves the most respect. There are multiple marginal waterfalls and continuous pool drop class 5+ rapids littered throughout the gorge. Most all of them have been run, however, some are just insane. We put on way too late on mondy because the road was closed and we underestimated the 3 hour hike to the put-in, normally a car to car run. 12 noon put-on started us a few hours behind schedule.
We missed camp spot #1 the first day because of the amount of time it took us to scout EVERYTHING and a scarey blown skirt incident at Heath Springs #2. 
We also had to make a few unfortunate mandatory portages, including the infamous crux rapid, mainly in the interest of time, and a few others because of the dropping water level. In the end we manage to make up the lost time and made it through the gorge in three full days.
The Royal Gorge is the most beautiful place I have ever been kayaking and contains some of the biggest drops I had ever seen. Truly an awesome run. Not having a guide, in addition to the fact that it was my first overnighter, made the trip a little more intense than anticipated, but we learned a lot and had a lot of fun… and yes there were some beat downs, but for the most part good lines:)