Mucha Agua BABY!

By Small World on February 26, 2012 in Ecuador Kayaking Trips, Mucha Agua

Martin styling the “Guidebook Cover Rapid” on the Upper Jondachi. The big boulders and jungle-covered canyon walls are amazing here.

Ok, so, yes, I’m majorly slacking in the blog department. Slowly but surely I will catch up!

Here’s the blog from February 4th’s Mucha Agua trip.

It was a small trip with just Willie of Washington (ok, that’s not true, he lives in Portland, but he paddles in Washington a lot) and Maritime Martin (ok, that’s not exactly true either. He lives in England, which you can technically call “maritime” even though his job doesn’t involve the sea); but the alliteration is nice.

Willie boofing his way down the Upper Misahualli

Luckily, they were both bad ass paddlers and we ended up with an incredible week of paddling. We had high levels most of the week so had to miss out on a few creek runs; but hit the Piatua at the highest level I’ve ever seen it at; got Oyacachi at an awesome high level (twice); got the Upper Jondachi at a perfect medium-high; the Upper Mis and the Lower Cosanga at sweet levels; and waaa-haaa-haaaa, the Quijos at epic floods (see the Torrents blog for more details)–coming next…give me a week or two.

Martin tempting fate in Gringos Revueltos (Scrambled White Dudes). But, luckily his playboating skills kicked in and he freed himself from the hole before any scrambling ensued.

The Piatua was a super great catch. We awoke to a massive rain, thunder and lightening storm. We thought we should still drive out to the Upper Jondachi (plan A) just in case it was a localized storm and was not affecting that river.

Willie also in Gringo Revueltos. This was after our 1st lap down the Oyacachi at high water. The boys decided they wanted more time in the boat so after we finished the Oyacachi we headed down through Bom Bon Canyon and the Lower Quijos. Now that’s a lot of river miles!

So, we drove out there, found the Upper Mis to be a quite high but managable level. Not necesarily a good sign for the Upper J, but we pressed on. We arrived to the Jondachi bridge to find a brown, high and yucky level. So we headed back to the Upper Mis with thoughts on doing laps up there.

Despite all the rain, we did get some clear days. This day we were lucky enough to see Reventador spewing some ash and smoke.

I put in a quick phone call to Don who said he was heading to the Piatua with his Torrents crew to check levels. I decided it was worth the risk to stall and wait to hear from Don. So we went to Archidona to kill half an hour while we waited for Don to see the river. Willie entertained himself by eating Quail eggs while Martin entertained himself by fixing up his Go Pro camera for the day.

Willie enjoying some Quail eggs in Archidona while we wait on “water talk.”

Then we got the call from Don. The Piatua was high but doable. So we set off for that run. It was SOOO worth the wait. The Upper Misahualli is fun at high water; but the Piatua is really amazingly fun at high water. Sorry…no photos, we were too busy paddling 14 kilometers of insanely continuous IV/IV+ hole-dodging, wave-riding fun!