Jack Hollingsworth running Wake Up.
Jeremy Mackey in the slot for Shotgun. Water on the lense sort of messed up the photo.
Jack Hollingsworth on the setup for Door Number 4. I'm shooting from on top of the boulder that makes door 3 at the very bottom of the photo. In years past this spot in the photo bottom has been a wood collector but it is clear now.
Jeremy taking a breaking after a broach on a truck sized boulder. He was glued to it upside down the wrong way. It didn't look good but he got hisself out.
Jeremy in the runnout below Beech Ball. The ball is to the left and quite visible. On May 2nd the ball was covered up. This one still packs a punch even at lower level. If you look into the shadow you can see Randy Jackson in the plus eddy.
Randy Jackson below Table Top Slot. The drop appears as a blind horizon. Creek left looks like a pour over boulder but if you stretch your neck you can see the boulder is a gigantic table top boulder tilted slighty downhill. The slot is on creek right, hence the name Table Top Slot.
Me on the center slot at Five Easy Pieces. This one looks like a falls from above, but by scouting you can see its just a series of stacked boulders with five different slots. In high water the right side slot is the most straightforward. We ran one of the center slots which is easier at lower water. The boulder in view to my immediate right in the photo makes for an impressive boof at higher water. At this level it was more like a slide boof.
Jeremy in the runout of Beech Falls.
Note on the left how you can see the rooster tail. It was even more drammatic at lower level. It was shooting water straight up about 4 feet.
We had fun. I got even more poision ivy blisters on my ankles now. The level before putin was bouncing betweem 3.8 or 3.10 by the time we'd done our deed it was down by 2 flat. So it had held somewhat longer at lower level. I would reckon that would mark the ultimate lowest level runnable. Door 4 and all of the top end drops were getting very boney and technical. The lower end still gorged up and all the bigs still boated very fun with plenty of moves to make. Beech certainly does not have the push factor at this lower level but anyone with less than stellar boat maneuvering abilities would want to reconsider. The Jungle Gym demands you know where you need to be and how to get your boat there.
I'm convinced that we boated over most of the wood on May 2nd that we saw more of yesterday. There's enough room to see wood ahead but each time we go there in any given year we are apt to find a log down. We did manage to remove the wood in the left side of Beech Ball so the top left line at Beech Ball is clear at least for now.
I can hardly believe but this is the first time I think I've run the creek in the same year and what's really amazing is it happened in a 5 day span!
