The
Rapid Rafts Report
Thursday 5/8/08
Greetings!
Just a couple of
quick updates..
Yesterday I promised
a video clip for the web and here
is a link to the
new video clip for the web. This was a taste of some of the Sunday
afternoon video's harder hitting moments. I had to make it small,
but it is longer and has sound. (1:38@8Mb) There is some pretty
slammin stuff on it, check it out.
Item #2.. I like
what I am seeing on the river gauge for this weekend's Peshtigo
River trips. Most of yesterday it stayed steady at +12, and only
went down very slightly overnight. I put 11 on the levels update,
but it is close to 12. We are pretty much guaranteed good water
for the weekend. The normal flow right now is 425cfs, and today
we are at almost 800. That is nice water. Don't forget that Moms
raft free this weekend with a paid trip. The water is at a perfect
level to take a raft or a funyak.
Read on for yesterday's
update..
RJB
5/7/08
Greetings Friends!
We have a few interesting
things to cover today. First up, this weekend is Mother's Day.
Yes you should get on the phone to the FTD guy before it is an
emergency. Beyond that, we like Moms around here too. In fact,
this weekend's special is that Moms get to go rafting free with
a paid trip. That's right, it is buy one get one free rafting
this weekend if you bring Mom along. So, after the FTD guy, give
Kosir's a call and take advantage of their Mother's Day special
offer.
It looks like the
river is on the way down again, but for how long? This morning
the Internet gauge indicated that the water levels were crossing
through the 12" mark. It is still great water, and I am
not concerned. We had a decent enough rain last night, and while
I am not expecting a meteoric rise in levels, I do expect that
it will slow the fall and keep us in the sweet spot for a few
extra days.
The last time that
the river went down (last week), it hit +10 and stopped dropping.
The late week rain pumped it up 3-4 inches, and the river was
wild for the weekend. I am expecting a milder version of that
for this weekend, based on this week's rain being less bountiful
than last week's. Right now my best guess for the weekend is
for +9-10 for Saturday morning, and a chance of it being a little
higher.
Last Sunday's video
had so much going on in it that I convinced everyone that I should
edit it at home when I could spend a little more time on it.
Your patience was rewarded. Instead of flying through it in an
hour at the bar, it probably took me 4-5 hours here at home.
It turned out pretty cool. There were not that many people on
the trip, but there were still something like 35 swims as people
challenged the rapids and the guides did a little surfing in
the very trashy bottom wave at First Drop. The river was slamming
people right and left, and it was too good to do fast production
on. I am planning on filleting out a few sections for a web video,
and will have to post that later. The plan was to have it ready
with this report, but the clock is a little ahead of me this
morning.
Rumor has it that
some of you have purchased those cool new GPS navigation gadgets.
They probably work well on bigger roads, but some apparently
are not ready for prime time up here. I guess some people were
sent down logging roads and such by them recently and they missed
the rafting trip. If they start talking about Camp 10 Road, Landing
11 Road, or ATV TR 143(the ATV trails), ignore it. From Crivitz
it is A to C to Kosir's, From Lakewood it is 32 to F to Kosir's.
Anything beyond that is probably not a good idea.
Likewise, the various
incarnations of "Get-me-lost.com"; Mapquest, Google,
and so on have cause many unexpected explorations of some remote
roads and subsequently many missed rafting trips. We want you
to have fun, and getting lost can make that harder. Please use
our directions page. It is not hard to get here at all if you drive
past the logging roads and ATV trails. Don't feel bad
if your gadget didn't work in remote areas. I recall an article
not too long ago where a person drove a ~$180,000 brand new Mercedes
into a river in the dark because the on-board navigation system
said that there was a bridge there. Doh!
Right now we are
in a pretty magical time of year with spring's progression. The
trees are starting to bud and show first leaves. More interesting,
you might see some additional wildlife viewing opportunities
as you raft. In my time I have seen deer, turkeys, porcupines,
otters, hooded merganser, wood, and mallard ducks, eagles, osprey,
minks, fishers, herons, and a wide assortment of butterflies.
I am sure that there are more to add to that list. The point
is, it is a cool time of year for the critters to be out enjoying
spring, and keeping your eyes open on the shoreline as you raft
my be very rewarding.
Well, I am going
to get back to work.. I will be back later today or tonight with
a clip from this weekend's movie. Update- Here
is a link to the
new video.
RJB
5/5/08
Greetings and welcome!
I know it is getting
a little redundant, but wow what a weekend!
The weather turned
out better than expected last weekend, with only a few showers
a little after lunch on Saturday. Saturday afternoon improved
as it went, and Sunday was very nice.
The river was on
the rise this weekend from the late week storms last week. As
I have mentioned before, one of my little truths of life is that
a rising river is a fun river. On the way up it is more splashy
and aggressive, and on the way down it is more forgiving. We
did have a rising river last weekend, and it brought not only
some really fun runs, there were some spectacular flips and wipeouts.
One that was particularly memorable was a raft with 3 people
in it that flipped in First Drop right as their friend entered
the rapid in a funyak. Three of the four people ended up in the
funyak briefly before three fell out and left the funyak guy
in the boat. That one will no doubt be in slo-mo in the video,
and will probably make it into a highlight reel.
Last weekend also
brought the first weekend that the water was low enough to run
funyaks. A lot of people took to the river in the one man boats,
and had a lot of fun. There were a lot of great runs, some big
pop-ups, and yes, some carnage too as some of the people wiped
out in spectacular fashion. It was all quite the little whitewater
party. I recall taking over 700 pictures on a trip with about
30 people on it because they were doing so much cool stuff.
This morning when
I checked the river it was between 14 &15 on the bridge gauge,
but it was wet almost up to the 17" mark. In the short term
it will probably stay steady for a day or so before starting
to retreat. Not to worry, there is again rain in the forecast
this week. This time the rain is expected in the middle of the
week, perfect timing to have the water rise again for the weekend.
With or without
rain we should have good water levels. We established last week
that the current base flow is at about a +10". With a little
rain we could again see the 12-14" range if it all works
out. We have had a great spring, and there is no indication that
it will stop anytime soon. Like I keep saying, we have a lot
to look forward to. It could well be that these ARE the good
old days that we will remember in dry years in the future..
One last item,
thank you to all of the people that made last weekend so much
fun. Please come back soon!
I will be back
in a few days, and if I can pull it off, I might even have some
more web video. In the meantime, have a good week!
RJB
5/2/08
Greetings and welcome!
We have a rainy
day outside this morning. It will stay that way today and tonight,
but that is ok. It will also clear out overnight and leave us
some good weather and a rising river for the weekend.
The forecast has
rain and storms tonight, and a minor chance of a shower Saturday.
Once the storm passes, we are expecting nice weather, including
mid-50s Saturday a 60 & sunny day on Sunday.
The river is running
at a steady +10 this morning, and has been for a day. Plus ten
is a great level because you can use funyaks, as well as 2 or
4 man rafts. The river can be as wild or mild as you want it.
I do expect to
see the river rise as the weekend progresses. It rained pretty
good last night and this morning, and more is on the way. It
will be rising Saturday, and especially Sunday, and I expect
to see it rise above the foot mark again, probably Saturday afternoon.
How much it goes
up after that is a good question. We are seeing some decent rainfall
totals, so this might be good. The watershed is fairly wet still,
and with an inch or two of rain, we could see a nice bounce in
levels.
Whatever the case,
it should be a good weekend. A rising river is a fun river, and
that we have for this weekend. This will be good.
Hope to see you
there!
RJB
4/30/08
Greetings Friends!
The river did continue
to drop this week and is now running at a little over 12. I do
expect the fall to stop any time now. My visit to the lower watershed
yesterday and a report from the central areas all had a decent
amount of water in low spots and swamps.
Since my prediction
of 12+ for Saturday morning is now in doubt, I am not going to
guess exactly where it will be this weekend, but it should be
pretty good. It will probably be the first weekend of the year
with the option of running a funyak based on water levels. Before
this it was not advised due to the water being so big. It will
still be a good ride this weekend..
I have seen a few
e-mails recently telling people to spend their 'free' money from
the government economic stimulus check on American made stuff
to keep those dollars in the good old USA, and really give the
economy the boost that was intended. I am all for that, and I
have a stellar suggestion.. A weekend up north rafting and vacationing..
Money goes a little
farther in these parts, and the economic boost does too. An average
stimulus check can buy.. Gas back and forth from Chicago in an
SUV, a cabin for the weekend on the river, rafting trips for
two (with pictures!), two nice dinners at a nice restaurant,
a night at the bar for live music, and a couple of rounds of
golf. You could do all of that, in style, and in theory still
have a little money left over. It would also give a dandy boost
to the local and regional economies.
That sounds like
a lot more fun and productive than letting it get whittled away
at by daily expenses or being spent on cheap foreign stuff, right?
Just a suggestion..
One last thing,
Chris is working on a high water photo gallery of some pictures
from recent weeks. Hopefully we will see that soon.
That is about it
for today. I will be back Friday with the latest.
RJB
4/28/08
Greetings and welcome!
It was another really fun weekend
around Kosir's rafting company and Rapids Resort. The river was
running between 20 and 26, and it issued a lot of fun rides.
People were burying boats in waves all over, and it was all pretty
cool. We had a bachelor party, the chanting rafter's group, (rafting..rafting
ooo-ah!), and a lot of other fun people around.
One of my little observations is
that a rising river is much more aggressive than a falling river.
The falling river is much more forgiving. People were taking
advantage of that forgiving nature this weekend and just drilling
the hole at First Drop and standing boats up in some of the waves.
Some were completely burying boats, most of the time without
consequence. It was all pretty cool.
Speaking of burying boats.. These
guys hit the wave at Second Drop pretty solidly, and got spun
around a little. The question is, swim, or no swim? Take your
guess and we will come back to that later.
The weekend was a cold one, and
the wind on Saturday was plenty cold too. My hat is off to the
people that got wet anyway. If it makes you feel better, the
wind was actually blowing downstream much of the way, the better
of the two scenarios by far.
The wind did knock out the power
for a few hours Saturday afternoon. The line crews had it back
on pretty fast, and in the meantime we/they did what we could
with generators to keep the pig roast and pictures and videos
rolling. It was another twist to an interesting and fun weekend.
The river is falling, but I have
a hunch that it will still be at good levels this weekend. My
recent travels in the lower watershed found that a lot of the
snow is gone, but there is a lot of soggy ground and standing
water. The marshy and swampy areas are ripe with water, and the
little creeks are still flowing at a good pace. Based on that,
I would be very surprised if we saw water below the 12"
mark next weekend. I suspect that the upper watershed is in good
shape still as well, and that we have a lot to look forward to.
Two weekends ago we had a good
flip on Sunday when the water was at 30+. They blasted the hole
at First Drop, and were rewarded with a spectacular pop up and
partial raft emptying. I made a point of getting those pictures
onto this computer over the weekend, and we will now do something
that I do on my other web blog, free desktop background pictures.
Click the picture and it will open in a large size in a new window.
If you like it, right click it and set as desktop background.
Cool stuff!
Ok, so a little earlier in our
visit, I asked swim or no swim looking at this picture..
Let's see if you were right..
Nice save! They also got an extra
10 bonus points for still having the paddle, and being back up
ready to go 15 feet later. That was an A-1 save!
Well, as we head into May we still
have above normal water and great times waiting for you. The
water should be great again this weekend. My early week guess
is that is should be at or above 12" Saturday morning, and
my hunch is that it will be a little higher depending on this
week's rain. We shall see.
I will be back Wednesday with an
update on how everything is progressing. In the meantime, have
a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Rafting Videos on the Net!
I have a page set up now
with a growing list of whitewater rafting movie clips that I
made on the Peshtigo & Menominee Rivers by Kosir's.
Right now it is a random
assortment of clips. Once I get them organized and add a more
comprehensive list of videos I will talk to the guys about adding
them to the Kosir's site. For now here is a sneak peek. There is some great footage of
both rivers, helmet cam footage, and some fun stuff in the flip
clips.
New and not archived yet..
Just the slow motion replay
clips from one of the rafting trips last weekend (4-19-08). The
link is here.
High water flips and swims
clip.. http://www.northerndestinations.com/419202008swims.wmv |
