Huit Chutes - 8 Chutes

After a day to nurse a hangover from Lou's birthday we set off early to a river called Huit Chutes (8Chutes). Pumped and ready to go we made it to the Take-out at 10.30 but with the normal road closed we were forced to find an alternative. After 20km extra driving and almost walking in miles from where we thought we were we decided to check if the origonal gate was even locked. To our little suprise it was not. It was just tied with a piece of string. We proceeded to drive the 6 km and loose the boats 5 times off the roof and make it to the put in at 4.30pm. With much debate some of the team decided to stay behind while Tyler, Boomer and I chose to race the falling sun and attempt to run the 6km of solid class 5 before dark.

-Tyler Fox put in drop - Photo Dave Crerar

-Tyler Fox put in drop - Photo Pat Levesque

The run took us 2 hours and we bombed down super fast! Only stopping to get a glimpse over huge horizon lines to check if it went. Everything went and we ran some stout drops, some of which with only a bit of beta from the one who beiefly checked it out.

-Josh Neilson on the skinny slide - Photo Dave Crerar

-Tyler Fox Skinny right slide - Photo Dave Crerar

-Tyler Fox on Atomic Piton, Dont Mess this one up! - Photo Dave Crerar

Pat Leveque with the big one in the background - Photo Tyler Fox

Josh Neilson after the big one - photo Dave Crerar

-Josh Neilson on some boogie water - Photo Tyler Fox

-Josh Neilson entering the "Popcorn" drop - Photo Dave Crerar

- Bursting through the "popcorn" - Photo Tyler Fox

The next day we put back on and ran it with 5 of us to get some footage and photos ad took our time! It was at times hard to believe what we had bombed the day before!
A super sick run with a bunch of sick rapids but a few extra inches of water would be nice i recon!

-Tyler Fox on the final autoboof drop - Photo Blake Mahoney

-Josh Neilson on autoboof - Photo Tyler Fox

-Tyler Fox Autoboof - Photo Josh Neilson

-Josh Neilson on the last drop - Photo Dave Crerar

Quebec is a savage place with lots of quality rapids!! This one was not exception!
If you ever get up here Huit Chutes is a must!
Chur

Back to back new runs!

- Our mess preparing for the missions ahead - Photo Josh Neilson

- Our base at Pat and Veroniques house on the Shipshaw - Photo Josh Neilson

So with some nice warm up runs under the belt it was back to the reason we are here! Finding new rivers. Last year we found a section of the Riviere du Portage that looked like it had potential but didnt not have the time to do it. This year we were about to go in when I spotted a higher volume run a bit further away that we decided to check out first and see what it was like. We arived at the forestry road that was our entry into the put-in and found in the middle of nowhere a gated community and surveillance everywhere. We were forced to abort and the next morning took a longer harder road up.

- Camp at Put-in of Petit Saguenay - Photo Tyler Fox

- Translation - Bridge Closed! - Yeah Right - Photo Lou Urwin

- Road works 101 - Snow shovel/paddle - photo Lou Urwin

We were almost there when we got shut down due to bad road and snow so we set camp and walked our kayaks in to the lake that was our put-in. At the lake we found out that we were one lake short of out intended put in but this was all good!

- Hiking our boats into Petit Saguenay - Photo Tyler Fox

- "I think we are at the wrong Lake"..."Yes we are" - Photo Lou Urwin

- Fishing for fish - Caught mostly weeds - Photo Tyler Fox

The rest of the day we set shuttle and did a spot of fishing with no success!
Early the next day we walked in and got started. The river was a bit different to what we expected but still had some sweet drops. Half way down we came into sight of the private land and while Tyler was out scouting a drop out of nowhere a big truck pulled up telling us we were not aloud there! with some broken French from our Irish translator we were let off and got into the best drops of the section.

- Sam Melting a big hole on the Petit Saguenay - Photo Tyler Fox

- Josh on the big one, melting the middle line - Photo Tyler Fox

- Sam running the boof line on the bigger one - photo Tyler Fox

Lou on the Bottom slide midway - photo Tyler Fox

After 18km of kayaking we were out to the main road and stoked to have run a nice section of whitewater. We didnt take many photos due to the length of the run and the unknown ahead.

- Josh on tight drop - Photo Lou Urwin

- Lou on the tight drop - Photo Tyler Fox

From here we boosted up and did shuttle and headed to a small town to re-fuel and headed into another forestry area. Heading up the road we were stopped by a gate which Lou lifted up and we thought we were away free till a drunk guy on a motor bike started chasing us! Once again Dave the french speaking Irish man got us away and even scored us a sweet topo map of the river. At camp we studied the Topo map and decided the next day was going to be a lot steeper than the Petit Saguenay!

- Tyler on the top drop of the Portage - Photo Lou Urwin

- Sam at the bottom with a dislocated shoulder! - Photo Tyler Fox

On the first main drop of the day Tyler and I ran ahead with sweet lines but then Sam hit a rock at the top, flipped into a slide ran that upside down then backwards and hit some rocks on the bottom section. At the bottom he was in a lot of pain and decided he would walk out and Blake went with him. Back at the car they got his gear off and realised his shoulder was dislocated so they rushed off to Hospital!

- Josh bottom slide - photo Tyler Fox

We carried on for a sweet day of steep gorges and nice drops. The 2 main big drops unfortunatly were un runnable but still some fun in there for sure!
At the bottom we loaded the car and headed back to Chicoutimi to check in to a hotel and get stuck into Lou's Birthday celebrations!! Needless to say the next day we did nothing!
A great few days with some good new drops!
Again photos were limited as we had 28km to cover! Check back soon as the next update is from our mission to Huit Chutes, Translation - 8 Waterfalls!!!!

Quebec Update 1

- Quebec Crew 2010 - Photo Tyler Fox

In a rather unfamiliar way my year started with 2 easy flights up to montreal with Lou with no lost baggage, missed flights or anything inconvenient! At the airport we were met by Blake and headed back to Ottawa for the night to rest then the next day drove a further 10 hrs up to Chicoutimi where the rest of the crew was based. With a day of driving/rest we were ready to get into it. First stop was the Middle Valin. This was a sweet pool drop section to get back into it with a good amount of water!

- Drop 1 in quebec on the middle Valin - Photo Tyler Fox

- Josh Neilson, Middle Valin - Photo Tyler Fox

- Lou Urwin, Middle Valin - Photo Tyler Fox

All warmed up we were set for a few months of kayaking ahead! Warmed up maybe but the weather still freezing! The next morning my kayaking gear was frozen solid!!!
With big plans for day 2 we set out to try run the upper Haha river. Almost at the take-out we were hit by a snow storm that continued all the way up to the put-in. By the time we were almost there the snow was a few feet deep and the truck was forced to turn around!

- Forced to turn around at Haha River - Photo Josh Neilson

back in town we ran a sweet creek called the Moulin that runs right into town.

- Poutine Stand - Chips, Cheese curd and Gravey!!! Savage - Photo Tyler Fox

Overnight Quebec decided that spring was over and summer was here. A beautuful day out on the Cyriac started our week of hot weather paddling and much higher spirits!

- Josh Neilson, Cyriac's finest drop! - Photo Tyler Fox

- Irish Dave on Cyriac's Finest - Photo Tyler Fox

Back at Pat Levesques house we were doing some recon on a first descent we looked at last year and with a bit of searching i spotted another creek near by! Check in to the next post for the back to back first descents of Riviere du Petit Saguenay and Riviere du Portage!

- Portage Quebec style - This is one of the easier ones! There are sooo many trees here!!- Photo Tyler Fox

Peace

Up Up and Away!

Alright people its that time again! First of all thanks to everyone who helped out over the past few months to get REALM out to the world! i has been a great film tour and am still stoked with the film!
Within the busyness of the film making I have managed to come up with a plan for the first part of the year! On the 6th may Lou and I head off to Quebec to meet up with the rest of the crew for a month of creeking up there before heading down to Colorado for the Vail Mtn Festival. Here we will party and paddle for a week then Lou and Tyler head back to canada and I swap cars and head for the sunny paradise of California! 2 months of creeking in Cali will end with a Middle Kings trip hopefully then im off to meet up with Ty and Lou and few others in Thailand for a month of new and old rivers there. September is where my plans end and ill play it by ear then. More countries, more rivers and a sweet trip with great mates once again! Check back soon as we start to update you on 2010! Cheers
Josh