The Bama Boys: September 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The Sleeping Beauty Awakes

I've been in a 2 month kayaking hiatus since returning from an incredible summer spent in Colorado. This is probably the longest I have not been in a boat in 10 years of kayaking. It was a much needed break and with recent rains in the southeast, our local jewel came back to life along with my reborn enthusiasm to gear up and get after it. It was great seeing familiar faces on a familiar run and I'm super excited about the coming season of kayaking in Alabama.

Here's a few shots we took this weekend from Little River Canyon:

Charlie Mix entering Terminal Eddy-pic by Ben Bernhard

Daniel Tuck running PinBall-pic by Charlie Mix

Charlie Mix on PinBall-Pic by Ben Bernhard

Tyler Phillips-pic by Charlie Mix

Tyler Phillips on the Bottom Drop of Humpty Dumpty-pic by Charlie Mix

Tyler on the classic Humpty Dumpty Boof-pic by Charlie Mix

-Charlie Mix

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Secret Stash

The Secret Stash was first run in the mid to late 1990’s, but then was off-limits for over a decade until recent changes opened it back up to paddlers. The Secret Stash isn't much of a secret anymore. The word is out on this one, but I'm still not going to mention it by name. The Secret Stash cannot be run without crossing private land to portage the 90 foot waterfall you see in the video. Access is currently being allowed, but could be hurt by overcrowding or by careless boaters who are unaware of the expectations of acceptable behavior. One of those expectations is to NOT run the first waterfall you see run in this video. This video was shot and edited prior to the new rule asking boaters to portage this waterfall. After much internal debate I decided not to re-edit the video and to leave the shots of the first falls in, so that those who see the video will know what it looks like and know to portage that drop.