a good time was had by all

The 5th annual Chatooga Race went off without a hitch Saturday, January 12th. The Chatooga Race is the most grassroots event of the year. It is the polar opposite of the Green Race. Instead of growing, it shrinks each year. This year was the lowest turnout yet. Only nine brave souls raced, but a big crew paddled in to check out the action. We had enough rain last week to bring the river up to 1.6, a difficult level to race. The pools are long and shallow.

Racing into Soc-em-Dog. Running the Five Falls while physically exhausted is challenging and scary (photo Jed Hinckley).Someone swims across the finish line every year (photo Jed Hinckley).

Post-race glow.

Todd won the party by bringing a full Bloody Mary bar including cracked pepper, lime, and Tabasco sauce. The results I remember:

1st place: Chris Gragtmans (he won a 40 oz of Miller High Life)

2nd place: Adam Herzog

3rd place: Chris Galloway

4th place: Daniel Windham

old school

I got into some old pic's last week and scanned them into cyberspace.

Fear and loathing in Ontario. In 1999 I went on a trip up north and found this twenty five footer with a nasty entrance and a nastier exit. I christened it "Balls Falls".

The man who started it all. This is my Dad blasting Nanty Falls.

My sister was a teenage rodeo star.

I was known to surf in those days. 1995 or '96 Hell Hole Rodeo.

Glen Leplant at the Horns of God on the Nanty Cascades.

Funkin' the Monkey in a Redline, the first boat I ran it in.

Going deep on Lover's Leap. 2002 California trip.

A tight slot on a tributary of the Yuba.

Eclipse on the Lower Cullasaja before the 2004 floods. In 2002 and '03, we ran the 'Saja more than the Green.

High water Cascades.