Carnage Fest

Trip Report:

April 27th we arrived at the Lochsa river in central Idaho around 7:30 pm. We immeadiately headed for "Pipeline", a retentive wave that holds true to its name. After an hour of surfing the sun began to melt beneath the horizon and it seemed our surf session was coming to a close. It was at this time that Jay had an exquisite idea to shine his car's fog lights down onto the wave.
With this beautiful idea we were able to surf the wave well into the night until our stomachs won us over and sent us back to the "Ghetto Gateway" campground.
The scene at the campground was ludicrous. There were close to a hundred people making their home at the usually empty campsite adjacent to the river. It resembled a festival more than a campsite. After a solid night of partying saturday morning was spent prepping 4 rafts and near 20 kayakers. It was quite an impressive sight to see our posse streched from one bend in the river to the next with no significant break. As the temperatures began to approach 80 the river began to swell, and the raft carnage became imminent. The highlight of the day was Lochsa Falls, where 3 out of the 4 of our rafts were flipped (spectacularly I might add). As for the kayakers there seemed to be an unlimited amount of surf waves to be caught and laughs to be had.
After a second run down the 9 mile non-stop wave train/big water lower section of the Lochsa we victoriously returned to our campsite to celebrate Blake's 21st Birthday. Everyone in our group (30+ people) enjoyed stories of raft carnage and big moves and sweet lines in kayaks.
Sunday was a similar scene as we got back on the river for another rowdy fun day. The water continued to rise and it was apparent as the waves became huge and rowdy surf sessions on Lochsa Falls were had by a few piss and vinegar paddlers.
In the end the weekend was a huge success, with our entire group leaving the river with thoughts of summer drifting through their heads. It was a great feeling to spark the summer flame at such a unique and fun place as the Lochsa for so many people who would otherwise have spent their weekends drinking in the bars in Bozeman. The weekend was spent soaking up the rays, cheering as rafts flipped, hooting as a kayaker surfed a gnarly wave, and laughing as someone did a booty beer. It truly was a weekend for the history books.

The Easter Keg Hunt!

What does kayaking and keg's of PBR have in common? A three day weekend at the Lochsa with 20 boaters, Chainsaws, Shotguns, surfin', and boofin' in the beatiful backyard of Idaho's epic boating scene, that's what. We set on a mission to the Lochsa area a little weiry, the weather was cold and drizzly in Bozeman, and the Lochsa was low. We were clinging on to the hope of the weather channel actually being correct. The forcast called for weather in the 70's, and a warming trend throughout the weekend. We decided to give it a whirl, and eventually conjured up a crew of 16 boaters from Bozeman to rally up there Friday morning. The afternoon was spent surfing the dozens of catch on the fly waves that the Lochsa has to offer at low flows. I truely love that feeling of good old fashion surfing with a huge grin on my face. I felt like the Lochsa isn't about trying to prove who can do the best freestyle manuevers, it's all about good times with friends, sunshine beaming down on us, and one of the most beaufiful roadside runs anywhere.


Saturday was a day full of adventure! a group of 6 paddlers went over to the S. Fork of the Clearwater for a day of great IV-V river running. We started the morning with a flat tire on one of the Subies, and eventually got it fixed in the town of Kooskia ID. While we were waiting we decided to entertain our selves at was by far the most interesting attraction of this small podunk town in the middle of nowhere, We went Garage Saleing! We ended up with a few goofy hat's, some old Johnny Cash Records, and a semi flat volleyball. We quickly got extreme with our volleyball, and made ourselves a court in the middle of a gas station parking lot, it was a good time, Oh yeah! The Clearwater was great, we finally put-in at around 3pm, and ran ten miles of classic bump and grind river running. Ben sacked up and made Coyote Falls look like class III, which in fact is a chunky piece of v+ that started up the run just right. The rest of the run was perfect read and run action that didn't really let up for the whole 10 miles. Their were two scouts on the run, which were solid V's, but were very forgiving at these flows. The level was great, it opened up new lines, and a boched line wouldn't really get you in trouble. When the day was done we had one swimmer, and a crew full of satistied paddlers, Whoa, I love that run. Super stoked to know that it's still a riot even at lower flows.


Saturday night was spent back at the Lochsa with a keg of beer, and 20 stoked paddlers ready to get down! The whole group quickly became very silly, and before we knew it 4am rolled around, and the keg was finally emptied. The next morning we woke up slowly, sipped coffee, surfed pipeline, and soaked in Jerry Johnson Hot Springs before we made our journey back to the real world. What a way to spend Easter!

How we play in MANtana

March 31st. After the most epic party this side of the mississippi, still drunk and for the most part lost, we (Jay, Pat, Jordan, and I) set out to find some rarely run creeks in the Northern Crazy Mountains. We were quickly scrubbed on acount of snowy roads. We then turned out attention towards the Absorka Mountains and the Boulder river. The Boulder was only running at 250 cfs, but when Pat, Joe Booth and I ran it last summer at 3000 cfs we portaged a class VI that was huge and manky.
Our mission on this warm sunny day in March was to find a boatable section of the manky class VI that we could have fun with. Along the way we got into some Montana style shennanigans. Rock trundling, Heavy machinery, and hang-over curing beers were all in order.
After our fun was had off the river we decided to scout out the gnarly section of the Hells Canyon of the Boulder. It was amazing how different the run looked at low flows. It was a different river. We quickly found the class VI portage and were stoked to find that there was a beautiful 10 footer nestled in the chunky boulder fields with a notch landing that had to be boofed just right.
For a few hours we sessioned the drop, trying out new boofing techniques and continuing with the shennanigans theme of the day. Jordan and Jay (Jay's first big boof) both did awesome, lacing their lines and making it look like easy mac with some hot sauce on top. All in all it was a fun day in Montana, with plenty of boofin', rocks being pushed down hills, and logging equipment being driven.