Kim Russell hucking Dillon Falls in her Project 45
October 13, 2007:
This past weekend, while Todd attended Cali Burnfest in Arcata California, I went home to Bend, Oregon, to pick up my car, which last weekend, broke down. Apparently, my heater hose to the rear had swollen due to old age, which resulted in my car successfully dumping 2 quarts of coolant in about half an hour. Sweet! Not really...Anywhoo, it was a nice excuse to head home, get in some good paddling and try out my new Kokatat/Snapdragon Designs Drydeck and AT2 Superlight paddle, not to mention, see if my Project 45 will fit in the new Thule box on my roof!
Christina came to pick me up on Friday night around 9pm, and we ended up getting home around 12:30 am after a night of some awesome singing, an hour long conversation about ...Britney Spears (don't ask--it was random. haha. and we know...it's Britney. Ouch.), and some hiding from cops (A cop turned on his lights, we thought we were speeding. Turns out we really weren't, but we pulled off the road anyway...the cop never turned around. Interesting.) We were tired chickies in the morning.
DILLON FALLS THROUGH LAVA ISLAND FALLS...
We met up around 11:30 with Adam Craig, mountain biking extraordinaire, and put on to run Dillon Falls through Lava Island Falls.
The run itself is about 5 or 6 miles long, with a fair amount of flatwater and boogie water in between drops. The beginning of the run starts off with Dillon Falls, a Class V waterfall about 12-15 feet depending on flow. At low flows, such as Saturday, about 730 cfs, the falls is higher. Below the falls, there is a riverwide meaty beat-you-down for minutes upon minutes hole that is STICKY. You can get through it, a majority of the time, on center-left.
Below Dillon, you get a little bit of boogie water in Dillon Canyon, then hit flatwater for about 2 miles. This is where it sucks to be in a playboat. haha. Let's just say Christina left Adam and I in the dust (She was in a creekboat). Ugh. It was rad though! Beautiful views though... If you love Aspen trees, go to Bend right now. They are bright yellow-gold right now!!! The flatwater also provides plenty of time to determine if gills or teleporting would be a better superpower. Needless to say it was two to one, Christina and I going for teleporting, with Adam sticking to his guns and going for gills. We figure teleporting would be badass for kayaking. You would never have to walk a portage, you could go "poof" and be in an eddy farther downsteam. If you were going over a 100 foot waterfall you didn't want to teleport over, it would come in handy. You could even teleport to China. Yea! Gills sound pretty rad too though, and Adam makes a pretty convincing argument for them.
Anyway.... After all the flatwater, you have one class 3 rapid, some more flatwater, and another class V drop known as Lava Island Falls. It is broken down into two class V rapids (Lava 1 and Lava 2) with a pool and some boogie water in between.
Lava 1 has this cork-screwy entrance with a gnarly entrance eddy that slopes backwards into massive boils that . It's almost a 100% chance you are going to do at least a 360 in them or get sucked down a few feet or end up in a stern squirt. Making it through this eddy you are pretty much paddling "uphill," it's the shit!!! After the eddy you have more cork-screwy stuff and the river splits. River right is a slide with a massive hole on the far right, and river left theres a few holes to go through.
Lava 2 is hard to describe. Let's jsut say there are tons of laterals, lots of wood, lots of water, the river narrows down and ends in a massive hole that is known to trash people for minutes in a creekboat. We run far right... sweet.
Our run went well. Everyone hucked Dillon once, made it through Dill Hole and had a nice relaxing float down to Lava. Lava went well with all of us making it through the death boils successfully. Although on the drop below I think Christina and I both got kicked into the river left wall and spun around. haha. sweet. Playboats are fun!
And so are drydecks! With the Snapdragon Armortex Skirt and Kokatat Rogue Drytop combination, I should have worn my pajamas in my boat! It was completely dry by the end of the 6 mile run! wow! For all of you who have never tried one out, I highly suggest it! I was hesitant at first because I already had a drytop and figured I would save some money, but eventually gave in and tried it out. Let me say,there is no comparison. The range of motion is amazing! There is nothing binding around your waist, you are super comfortable, and stay really warm and dry! It's definetely worth checking a drydeck out!!
LUNCH BREAK
...at Longboard Louie's! The most badass burrito joint ever!
You have to go there if you are in Bend. Not only do they have the best burritos ever, they have kickass Horchata too (a bad ass rice, cinammon, milk drink)!!! It's also not a bad place to people watch...hmmmmm...
PARK AND HUCK!!!
After lunch, my sista and I decided to go back up to Dillon Falls for some park and huck.
Run 1
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Christina, my sister, and I took turns taking pictures. We normally shoot from the river-left side, but the falls is angled towards river right and you can't really see the drop in the picture. Saturday evening, we decided to shoot from river right, which was a pretty good idea. The pictures came out great and shows Dillon at its best! I hucked twice while she shot and she hucked once while I shot. Cool. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had an awesome time...even while we scrambled over loose lava rock and through scary super thorny bushes to get a good shot. It was worth it!! YEE-HAW!
My new AT2 Superlight paddle performed awesome. The flex, to me, seemed a little bit softer than the AT2 flexi, but the fulll carbon shaft seemed to transfer more power smoothly to each stroke. For paddlers who have trouble getting 100% power out of their first stroke, this paddle eliminates those concerns! You get 100% power 100% of the time! It's aweosme! It's superlightweight, allowing you to get those strokes in and is very fluid. This paddle it the shit! And its strong. Let's just say I hit a shelf pretty hard off Dillon Falls...
Run 2
See ya on the water!
Kim Russell
Team Wavesport
P.S.- A Project 45 can definetly fit in a Thule box!!!
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