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