It has been a year since my first foray into Gore Canyon which also marked my 100th day of kayaking last season, and on Saturday, 9/15/2012, I had my second opportunity to paddle the majestic canyon. An abysmal snowpack and extreme drought resulted in the worst kayaking season in a decade, so when we began paddling Gore on Saturday, it marked only my 42nd day of kayaking in 2012. I felt a bit rusty but was with a great crew that consisted of Peter, Cindy & Stacey, Josh, Berkeley, and Kim the Man. The flow was only 760cfs and no one in the group was quite sure what to expect at that low level. It turned out that there was still plenty of water to run the usual lines, although in the cases of the Pencil Drop Sneak on Gore Rapid and the left sneak line on Toilet Bowl, this meant some serious knuckle dragging over rocks. It was a gorgeous, 70 degree day and everyone made it through the run in one piece even with Berkeley’s swim right above Tunnel Falls and my unintentional run of Tunnel.
I got to use my new WiFi Backpack with my GoPro for the first time and was able to capture footage of almost the entire run except for Tunnel and Kirshbaum’s Rapid. Here is the 4 minute version of Gore Canyon from my perspective—enjoy!