The Dirt Bag Guide To America!

(Where showering is optional and the white water makes it worth it)

This last season Greg, Maritjn, Jake, Phil and I flew into Cali with not a whole lot of knowledge about the place. Just that we wanted to super-size our Macca’s meal and do some big slides.

Little did we know that you spend most of the time driving, it can be hard to figure out what run to do next and you better get use to a self-deflating thema rest! But….. it’s so worth it. The gas, beer, spirits and food is cheap! Oh did I mention the KAYAKING and the weather!

Feeling inspired I thought I would share my learnings and best tips.

On the road. Photo// Jacob Schrama

How much Moolah do you need?

Simple… the more the better. A money tree works wonders.

The more in your team the cheaper it is.

Learning:

$1500 USA a month and you would be feeling pretty good. Having a backup of $500 for the car each will take the stress out of things too.

What I did:

I had $5000 for four months, we never had to eat rice but we also traded our health for cheap fast food and sleeping on the side of the road.

On the road. Photo// Jacob Schrama

Car:

A car is a must!

Craigslist is the best place to find a second hand car. In California you don’t need a warrant of fitness, but if you have a car crash, you may be prosecuted if your car wasn’t safe.

The seller needs to smog the car for you (The amount of emissions your car releases). This can be very expensive if it fails!

Air con! If you can get a wagon with AC the quality of your life will improve dramatically.

Road side dirt bags  Photo// Jacob Schrama

Internet:

An iphone or a smart phone will make logistics so much easier!!

By having internet on the go you can be driving and finding out information on your next run!

iphones also have the ability to ‘hotspot’ allowing others to use your ph as an internet connection.

Free internet!  Photo// Jacob Schrama

 Insurance:

No one wants to be sued. So get car insurance!

http://www.progressive.com/california-car-insurance/

The hard part is finding an address…

Travel Insurance:

There’s lots of them, shop around. We went with World Nomads and they cover White Water Kayaking.

Hot pools! Photo// Jacob Schrama

Beta:

To get the best information ask around and use a combination of these web sites and the California guide book.

Dreaming of White Water often have write ups in their free online mag.

www.Dreamingofwhitewater.com  

Darin Mcquoids blog is hands down the best way to find out information on rivers in California.

http://www.kayakphoto.com/darinmcquoid/riverdirectory.html

A Wet State is worth checking out too

http://www.awetstate.com/

By using Dream Flows real time report you can find out where to go and what’s flowing…..

http://www.dreamflows.com/flows.php?page=real&zone=canv&form=norm

American Whitewater has flow information and river descriptions.

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/state-summary/state/CA/

Tip:

Get yourself a gazetteer and a GPS trust me.

Where to next???  Photo// Jacob Schrama

Showering:

Take it when you can, it may be a while till your next one.

You can take a shower at Loves or Flying Jays (Gas stations) or camp grounds.

Sleeping:

Save money, get out of the town.

Forestry roads are good.

Rest areas are good but definitely dirt bag.

Home for the night Photo// Rata Lovell-Smith

Alcohol:

Limes make all cheap beer better.

Always have beer, trust us.

Buy a chilly bin with a bung and buy ice whenever you can.

Weed: Its California baby, make your own mind up.

Photo// Jacob Schrama

If in doubt head to Coloma you’re bound to find someone with good info.

Make the most of it, go hard, then fly home while you’re still stoked on it all.

See you there,

Cheers, Rata

Upper Cherry Creek

For the past two years we had been captivated by the poster on our toilet wall. It was Andi Uhl flying through the air off Cherry Bomb Falls and into the Cherry Bomb Gorge. We wondered if we would ever get the chance to do that? Would we have the skills? Or the balls? Finally the flow dropped and we got the chance to find out!

The walks not all bad. Photo//Jacob Schrama

6am came around way too quickly, it was cold and the thought of the 9 mile hike with loaded boats was daunting, but the excitement of the river outweighed it all. We found ourselves slogging up the hill early in the morning to try and avoid the heat that us kiwis were still struggling to deal with. Six and a half hours later we were at the put in. Tired, sore and ready to sleep we decided to camp at the top of the first rapid… the ‘put in slide’. A quick evening scout left us feeling excited, but nervous for the days to come!

Greg Lee getting his slice of Cherry pie! Photo//Liam Anderson

Day two dawned clear and crisp. After a good feed of De-hi bacon and eggs we found ourselves scouting the put in slide. It looked like a sweet auto-boof at the bottom, if you hit it right. Phil pushed off first, making it look easy and flying off the bottom drop flat. We all followed and then carried on down through the Disneyland slides. These are a series of relatively low angle slides, it was nice and relaxing. I think we all spent more time taking in the scenery than watching the river. It was an unreal landscape, very different to anything in New Zealand. before we knew it we were at the entrance gorge to Cherry Bomb Gorge…

Martijn Van Den Broke making the commitment. Photo//Jacob Schrama

After a long scouting session, full of nerves, Phil, Martijn, Rata and myself made our way back up to the top. Tension was high but we were feeling good, paddling strong and had our heads in a good space. It was a very strange feeling as we dropped into the entrance gorge, it tightened up quickly and the moves became harder. It felt good to be committed. It was big, steep and by far the most committing place we had ever been. The walls were near vertical and we could see series of horizon lines that guarded the way out. We followed tradition and decided the order with paper, scissors, rock. Myself first, followed closely by Martijn, Rata and Phil. Pulling out of the eddy I was nervous, then after the first stroke became fully focused, then before I knew it I was going over the weir on the right, Just scraping through and narrowly avoiding a severe beat down.

Phil Palzer is sent flying. Photo//Liam Anderson

 It felt good, but no time to celebrate, Martijn followed, flying through the air with a huge edge! Then rata flew off with a fair bit of upstream angle! Followed by Phil and lots of yahooing from us all. Whats the line?... um… Left, Left, Middle, Right, Middle, Left? We made our way down, everyone had sweet lines and there was lots of celebrating and high fives at the bottom.

Tea cups!! Photo//Jacob Schrama

Next we caught up with the rest of the crew who had walked in with food for us (thanks Jake and Liam!) We did about 10 laps of the jedi slide and tea cups, soaked up the sun and boofed all afternoon until we were too tired to paddle. Life doesn’t get much better than that.

Round two?  Photo//Jacob Schrama

Day 3 was another clear classic California scorcher. We hiked our boats back up to the top of the cherry bomb for round two. The afternoon was spent sliding and boofing the Jedi slide and tea cups again. That afternoon about 20 other paddlers from all over the world turned up. What a place! the evening was spent around a fire, we drank whiskey and talked about kayaking for hours. It was a special place, shared with good friends!

Photo//Jacob Schrama

Day 4 Spirits were high as we pushed off. For breakfast we hucked off ‘perfect 20’ then slid and boofed our way down ‘double pothole’, through ‘waterfall ally’ and then 3 of us walked around “Kiwi in a pocket’’ Martijn was fired up and ran it, his Dutch heritage helped keep him out of the hungry looking pocket and he joined us for the ‘dead bear’ portage. The rest of the day involved paddling some mank, some classics, some walking and a huge flat water paddle to the base of the lake. 

Rata Lovell-Smith getting amongst Perfect '20'.  Photo//Liam Anderson

Cheers, Greg