Niagara Gorge at 100,000 cfs, crazy!
A logistical nightmare, and a scary piece of water are nothing compared to the
splendor of this run.
Nick Troutman is filming his new video with Joel Kowalski,
called \"Here and Now\". He called me to see if I wanted to
come up from Tennessee to run the Niagara Gorge. I
hadn't even seen video of it yet, but knew it was huge
water, and also knew that it was not a legal run. A bad test
run in a raft in the 70's, where a bunch of the raft guides
drowned after flipping put the authorities on the hunt to stop
all running of the gorge after that. I was not familiar with the
area, or the rules, exactly, but luckily we hooked up with a
local guy who had actually ran the gorge in the 80's, once,
and knows the deal. There are many laws to deal with
first, like violation of closure, potential border jumping if you
didn't put in and take out on the same side (there are
cameras and motion detectors in the gorge!). There are
about 5 armed police units, including the US Coast Guard,
and a strict Canadian Parks Police, etc.. Nobody had any
interest in spending any time in jail, or getting a fine, which I
heard was over $1,000 US. . Our interest was in the 3
miles of whitewater from the base of Niagara Falls to below
Devil's Hole. The first mile drops nearly 100 feet and is
super narrow, creating an explosion of compression
waves, crazy boils, folds, whirlpools, and water flowing over
30 miles per hour. This rapid would be the longest, biggest
rapid I have run of its type. The water is faster, the volume
is bigger, and the rapid just keeps on going without
stopping, ending in the Whirlpools, which is a scary place.
The logistics are being left out in this newsletter, because
we claim 100% responsibility for getting ourselves in and
out of the gorge in one piece and without getting in trouble.
I don't recommend that anyone plan on running the gorge
without being a top paddler, with the best equipment
available, and zero chance of swimming. I can hold my
breath for 2 minutes underwater and wouldn't want to swim
there, because that might not be long enough. A helicopter
swept down to make sure we were OK and this shot was
taken with it in the foreground from someone on shore at
the rim of the gorge on the American side. Whirlpool Jet
runs tours up to Whirlpool Eddy and they were a welcome
site when we got through that rapid, knowing that they could
help us if we needed help (swimmer, etc.), but we didn't
need any help on the water so they just all waved at us and
gave us the thumbs up, knowing what we just did. That is
all I will say about that.
We hiked our Funs into the woods the night before, and hid
them, knowing that we wouldn't be able to successfully walk
around in public during the day with the kayaks and not get
noticed. Not to mention that the border guards were
literally 50 yards away and in full site of our drop off point.
In the morning we managed to get into the gorge below the
fall under tree cover without getting noticed and get out
boats to the river's edge. The warm up consisted of some
push ups, arm swings, and a few quick stretches. We
couldn't get our boats into the water without leaving the tree
cover to warm up. The lead in was 30 seconds of 15 mile
per hour flatwater looking onto a massive horizon line with
two monster crashing waves exploding behind it. When I
peeled out first, exactly on the prescribed time, I did some
reflecting on just where I was and what was about to
happen, all while lining up the horizon line based on where
the explosions behind it were coming from. A few
backsweeps to complete my warmup, a quick roll, and my
calling card of a big yelp and a peace sign and it was game
on! All scouting was done so far away that the waves just
kept growing bigger and bigger before hitting them, far
surpassing the expectation. The first \"curler\" that I was
going to punch, was triple overhead and I quickly adjusted
to just staying in the meat in the middle. I had original plans
for skirting the first of the Himalayas to the left side of the
peak, etc., but the water was too fast and the waves too big
and too many of them to try major maneuvering on my first
run with below par scouting. The first flurry of crashing
waves was an incredible rush of adrenaline, with water over
my head, my boat going in every direction as I attempted to
maintain control, and the mountains of waves hiding the
shoreline so I couldn't tell where I was, exactly. The Fun
was the perfect choice for this run since I had the speed,
stability, control, but also had the ability to squirt it around
and turn on a dime. The \"big\" boats would get swallowed
up and tossed and thrown vertically anyhow, but with less
chance of bringing them down in control. I came out right
in the middle of the blue tongue that lead into the Himalayas
and got a moment to look at the boardwalk, give them the
peace sign, and know where I was again. (this isn't
showing off, but a way to gain broad, external focus, and
eliminate useless self talk) The first of the Himalayas is an
exploding wave that has a crazy fold on the back side of it
that will swallow you up if it opens on you when you are
there. I came up the first wave (it is about three strokes
up) and braced myself, prepared to spend time underwater,
but got the free and clear line. The rest of the Himalayas
was a roller coaster/demolition derby in a kayak, one of the
most fun pieces of water I have ever been on! I was
supposed to eddy out before the Whirlpool Rapid and it was
hard to know where the one started and the other ended!
Luckly I drove into the eddy early enough to avoid going
down the next rapid by myself. Nick and Joel came down
in 3 minute intervals and both looked about as jazzed up as
an 18 year old can look! We spent the next couple of
minutes re-collecting, but still needed to bust a move out of
there, since we were in clear view of the Cable car that
goes over the gorge (somebody already sent me a photo
from it!) The peel out took a minute to get past the eddy
line and back in the main flow of huge waves leading into
one of the scariest rapids, whirlpool rapid. The left side of
the main flow creates some of the nastiest looking pieces of
big water ever. Also, getting on that eddyline doesn't mean
you can get off of it easily (this is where most people
drowned that have done the gorge) Also, if you get in the
river left eddy, you can't get out without going to shore,
which means crossing into Canada and breaking a big law!
We all successfully stayed on the right of center and made
it through the rapid and eddy out the bottom (a big task),
and then we were home free (in terms of whitewater). This
is where we bolted to a cave for cover. A cave gave us
cover after the run so we could let the storm blow over
before paddling out past the major hydro dams, in full view
of security cameras, etc. We got into legal waters again,
took out, and reflected on a day to remember forever.
Awesome!
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See you on the river!
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Eric Jackson
Jackson Kayak
