by: The Famous Leif Anderson
Let me just launch right into it here. Josh is a jerk. That's right everyone. Josh White, a.k.a. "Ghetto Man" of Bend, Oregon, is a jerk.
Dan and I contacted Josh about the possibility of a B.C. trip about a month or two before the scheduled departure date, and he agreed. Come monday morning, I called Josh as I left Arcata CA to go pick him up in Bend before meeting up with Dan in Portland. To my dismay, I found not only that Mr. White was working that day, but that he was working every day of that week, every day of the next week, and most days of the week after that. On top of that, he was planning to go hunting during the first weekend.
Needless to say, I was outraged. I refered to the conversations and emails of a month prior. Josh responded with a clarification. He was in favor of the idea of a month long trip to B.C., but had doubts as to the feasibility of such an endeavor. Furthermore, he disclosed that he had not checked his email or voicemail in the intervening month. I expressed my regrets, ridiculed his mother, and was on my way.
At first, I was highly concerned, because Sweet Bunion Productions operates as a democracy, so without Ghetto Man (a.k.a. "Jerk") as the tiebreaking third vote, conflicts would be impossible to settle. But then I remembered that Whitey (a.k.a. "I have to work") was a damn communist and never participated in the voting process anyway. Problem solved. I met up with Dan, and we voted to run the Upper Upper Cispus on the way to Canada. The motion passed unanimously.
That was just the beginning of a whirlwind of boating. We paddled skook for five days straight, meeting many interesting people, and ridiculing their mothers. On the last day there, we paddled out and camped on one of the islands near the wave, in order to catch the pre-dawn flood tide. The cargo hatch in the Expedition Solo really came in handy there. I was even able to bring my four inch thich Paco Pad to the island. The morning session was amazing. It was a small flood tide, so the wave wasn't great, but Dan and I were the only ones there, so we were taking five minute rides as the sun rose. We voted that Ghetto Man (a.k.a. "But I hunt for food") was totally missing out. The motion passed unanimously.
After Skook, we headed to the Whistler/Squamish area, and ran some low water creeks such as the Upper Cheakamus, the Soo, the Callaghan (interesting side note: the putin is NOT near Alexander falls, it is about 5 miles downstream of there), and finally the Ashlu. We were lucky enough to have Brian and Joey of The Range Life guide us down the Box canyon of the Ashlu. Without them, we would have died of starvation while trying to hike out of the inescapable gorge. With their help, it was a breeze.
Realizing that we only had a week or so left, we headed over the pass to Lytton, a town on the Thompson river. The Frog Wave was not quite perfect, so we amused ourselves by running the Lower Cayoosh, hiking out of the Upper Cayoosh, and mounting an expedition to the Lower Stein. Not wanting to pay for the seaplane shuttle for the Stein, and not having a shuttle driver willing to drive us the five hours necessary to get to the trailhead for the pass leading into the North Stein, we voted to hike for one full day up from the mouth of the Stein, and paddle what rapids we found there. The motion passed, with one abstention. Unfortunately, we did not hike far enough up to hit any of the sweet bedrock slides that the Stein is so famous for. However, there were a lot of really great technical drops, so it was well worth it.
In order that Josh might appreciate what he was missing, I've thrown together some of the video from the trip. A lot has been left out, like playboating at the Frog Wave when it was a big sticky hole, and trying to hitchhike for three hours. Oh, and the knife fighting. Wouldn't want to frighten the kiddies.
rock on
-The Famous Leif Anderson
