{"id":18607,"date":"2016-02-22T18:07:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T18:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/?p=18607"},"modified":"2016-02-23T17:12:07","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T17:12:07","slug":"dominican-republic-part-iv-staircase-section-of-the-rio-jimenoa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/dominican-republic-part-iv-staircase-section-of-the-rio-jimenoa\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominican Republic – Part IV: Staircase Section of the Rio Jimenoa"},"content":{"rendered":"

In December of 2015 Matthew Beauchamp, Steve Krajewski, Shannon Goshorn, and I headed to the island of Hispaniola to check out the rivers of the Dominican Republic. Although the island was experiencing a pattern of dry weather, we still found options to paddle daily and enjoyed a great time in this lesser known paddling destination.\u00a0 If you missed the previous parts of our trip report, you can find Part I: Rio Yaque del Norte HERE<\/a>, Part II: Rio Blanco HERE<\/a>, and Part III: Upper Rio Jimenoa HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Below: Matthew Beauchamp on the perfect waterfall.\u00a0 Photo by Adam Goshorn.<\/p>\n

\"MB<\/p>\n

The Upper Rio Jimenoa ends at a swinging bridge over the river that is also the put-in for the Staircase Section.\u00a0 The Staircase Section is named for its take-out, which involves climbing 900 concrete steps up and out of the canyon.\u00a0 The steps are in place as a result of a dam, completed in 1950, which was the first hydroelectric project in the Dominican Repbulic.\u00a0 Operators at the dam work in 24-hour shifts and commute via the same steep staircase that allows paddlers to exit the canyon at the end of their run.\u00a0 It can also be said that the name of the Staircase Section has a double meaning because the riverbed loses gradient in bedrock steps throughout the run.\u00a0 Not far from the swinging bridge at the put-in the river enters a bedrock canyon that doesn\u2019t let up for the rest of the run.\u00a0 With lots of blind drops and the bedrock canyon making scouting and portaging very time consuming, it took us most of the day to scout our way down this amazing run.<\/p>\n

Below: Steve Krajewski on one of the early drops.\u00a0 Photo by Adam Goshorn.<\/p>\n

\"SK<\/p>\n

At one point in the run we came to a two-part drop that consisted of a rapid, leading into a hallway with overhanging walls, that then spouted off a waterfall into the pool below.\u00a0 The problem was, a log made the entrance rapid look less than appealing.\u00a0 We spent some time scrambling around and scouting various options.\u00a0 I decided to portage, while Matt and Steve decided they would seal-launch into the hallway and run the second drop.\u00a0 After further examination of the portage options produced no feasible portage routes, I eventually resigned myself to having to throw-and-go from the much higher cliff to the right of the final spout.\u00a0 A quick swim to the bank had me back in my boat and we were back on the move heading downstream.<\/p>\n

Below: Steve Krajewski on another one of the early drops.\u00a0 Photo by Adam Goshorn.<\/p>\n

\"SK<\/p>\n

The whole section was pretty great, but I think the other guys would agree that the true highlight of the run was a beautiful, picturesque, drop that came about three-quarters of the way into the run.\u00a0 After a really tight part of the canyon, we found a tricky-looking entrance rapid leading into the perfect waterfall.\u00a0 Luckily the entrance rapid was easily skipped with a small seal-launch about ten feet upstream of the lip of the falls.\u00a0 One by one we sailed off the falls\u2026 reaping the reward for the day\u2019s efforts; this was what we came for!<\/p>\n

Below: Adam Goshorn on the highlight drop.\u00a0 Photo by Steve Krajewski.<\/p>\n

\"AG<\/p>\n

After the waterfall, we knew we needed to proceed with extra caution.\u00a0 One of the pioneers of Dominican Republic whitewater, Dag Grada, had told us that there was an unrunnable waterfall near the end of the run that would be terrible to blunder into accidently.\u00a0 With that in mind, we rounded the corner, ran a small ledge, and then portaged an ugly boulder jumble.\u00a0 The next rapid consisted of three slots, none of which looked particularly appealing at the current water level, so we portaged high on river right and lowered boats back to river level.\u00a0 At this point we could see a horizon line, that we assumed was the unrunnable drop and an eddy twenty feet above the lip on the right.\u00a0 However, it was hard to tell how swift the current was leading up to the eddy, so back up the right side we went, portaging high once again. \u00a0To get back to river level, we put a sling around a tree and lowered Steve\u2019s boat down to the bedrock shelf above the mandatory portage.\u00a0 Steve climbed down, unhooked the boat, and sent it back up to Matt and I.\u00a0 After sending my boat down, we were in the process of hooking Matt\u2019s boat into the rope when we saw my boat floating downriver towards the horizon line.\u00a0 We could see Steve scrambling to try to grab my boat, but there was no way to do so and we watched as it went over the lip and heard it a loud bang from the canyon below.<\/p>\n

Below: Steve Krajewski spotting his landing.\u00a0 Photo by Adam Goshorn<\/p>\n

\"SK<\/p>\n

We hurriedly lowered Matt\u2019s boat, scrambled down to river level, and made our way to a pothole where the other guys could seal launch into the canyon below the drop.\u00a0 Matt went first and took off around the corner to try to catch up to my boat.\u00a0 I held Steve\u2019s boat while he seal launched and then I jumped into the canyon myself.\u00a0 Holding onto the back of Steve\u2019s boat and kicking, while he paddled, we headed downstream, hoping for good news.\u00a0 Luckily, the river was almost flat at this point and after a couple of curves in the river Matt came back upstream towing my boat.\u00a0 Unbeknownst to us (and incredibly luckily), we had entered the backwaters of the narrow lake formed by the dam at the take-out.\u00a0 Matt had been able to catch up to my boat fairly easily and had even recovered by camera bag and both elbow pads! Reunited with all of my gear, we hammered out the remaining quarter-mile of flat water to the take-out where Shannon and Jose Manual were waiting.\u00a0 By the time we reached the top of the namesake staircase, it was almost dark.\u00a0 Thankfully, all that was left to do at that point was to head back into Jarabacoa in search of food and beer.<\/p>\n

Below: Video from our run down the Staircase Section of the Rio Jimenoa.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t include all the rapids, but the ones it does include are shown in order. Edited by Adam Goshorn.<\/p>\n