Beaver River Trip 2007

Beaver River weekend, Labor Day weekend 2007. Justin, Andy, and I made the long trek from DC, with a brief stop in Scranton, PA (where apparently the locals don't know what "The Office" is).

The Suby was loaded to the gills - 3 creekers, 3 playboats, and gear maxed it out.


Our campsite....good spot although we later found that it was a favorite nighttime hangout spot for the local skunk population. No joke, Andy woke up in the middle of the night to scuffling noises and saw skunks rooting around the ground around our site. Next morning we woke up and found little holes EVERYWHERE. They must have been hunting for grubs or something.


Ran the Taylorville section Saturday morning and had some great runs. The weather was incredible as well - making the whole experience a lot more enjoyable than last year.


After the Taylorville section got too crowded and we'd had enough of the uber pool drop rapids, we drove on up to Watertown to check out the famous playspots.

Justin enjoying a low Hole Brothers. We had this place to ourselves in the 80 degree weather. Pretty sweet.




We wrapped up the day with a surf session at the Rt 3 wave, which was low as well, but a blast.


Next day was the big one, with the Moshier section of the Beaver, followed by the Eagle. Here's a shot of me dropping an early ledge in the background with Jason Sullivan styling in the foreground.


Props to Andy and Justin for firing up Moshier and making it look easy. I passed, but gained redemption by running the Eagler section a little while later (no pics unfortunately). A BLAST, and probably the biggest stuff I've run.

Beaver River Trip: Labor Day weekend 2006

Andy and I headed up to upstate NY to meet Maggie, Mark, and Scott Anderson (among others), for our first shot at the Beaver River. After a loooooonnng drive through rush-hour Beltway traffic and all the way up through PA and NY, we arrived at the campground around 2 in the morning. We woke up to grey skies, a greasy-spoon breakfast, and our first run of the weekend: the Taylorville section of the Beaver.

It was a cool scene: buncha boaters out in the NY pines, with a big drop right at the put-in.


Within seconds of getting there, we saw a couple people swim, so the pressure was on! Luckily the drop went on the left no problem.


We decided to bomb on through the crowds in hopes of getting some solitude and a second run in before the release ended.


The big slide, ending in a big muchy hole. We all ran this one a couple times.


This drop was on a back channel which we got to by paddling across the pool right after a fun creeky steep section.


The second to last major rapid. We ran this one a couple times too.



We ran Taylorville again - but unfortunately I broke my AT2!!! Not sure exactly when it happened, but I'll bet money that it was bracing on the slide.


The next day, we headed to the Moshier section. I had some butterflies for this one, since we'd heard it had a big class V drop. After the putin on a big pool under the INSANE class VI outflow from the dam, we arrived at a wide 10 ledge with two main lines that we ended up running a couple times each.


One was a multi-tiered drop on the right that that pretty technical.


The right side of the ledge, a 10ft vertical drop that was harder than it looked to boof (as you can tell by my crummy line).


Mark with a better line.




Immediately after the ledge was this drop, a two part rapid with an off-vert ledge straight into a strainer. You had to come off the ledge in the right spot, then ferry across the outflow and down the second part of the drop which had a couple tricky holes.


Maggie running the second part of the drop.



I portaged Moshier Falls almost immediately when I saw it, and was glad when I did when our friend James got scraped all over the nasty part of the drop. Definitely a class V drop.

We then headed to the Eagle section, which Andy styled, but I decided not to run after having a good line on the first drop (the man-made slide).



Incredible scenery on the Eagle section.



All in all, a SWEET trip. Can't wait to go back - I mean, great rivers, great drops, and a town with a cream cheese festival and a giant statue of a cow with sunglasses!!! Good times.