New Pix from Costa Rica

Costa Rica Adventures

Greetings and thanx for checking out my long-neglected blog!



I just had the opportunity to visit Costa Rica, where I paddled a river with a story very similar to the Rupert. A marvelous ribbon of jade named Rio Pacuare drains the steep flanks of volcanoes, then falls over boulder choaked canyons with walls of dense tropical rainforest which gives way to banana plantations and crocodile-filled mangroves before finally exhaling a full load of mountain water into the emerald waves of the Carribbean Sea. The Pacuare hosts several remote Indegenous Communities, relentless rapids, astounding amounts of wildlife, and the most stunning scenery imaginable. Unfortunately, the Pacuare has been threatened by a hydro-electric project which could flood one of the most pristine sections, drown primary rainforests, kill an insanely perfect stretch of world-class rapids, and end the possibility for native Cabecan Indian families to continue living their traditional ways. Sound familiar? A nearly parallel story to our own beloved Rupert River, with one major plot difference-- the Pacuare may still have a chance. A reputation as the best river in the world to go rafting on has lured hordes of tourists in, bringing income to the region and providing a viable reason to leave the river alone.
Spent New Year's in Dominical hanging loose with the Watermans. Thanks very mucho you guys! Then said goodbye to Al and struck out on my own in order to explore the river and search for those who had helped to save it. From San Jose, I bought a bus ticket for 1,000 Colones (2 US Dollars) to Turrialba, a coffee town in the shadow of smoking volcanoes, also famous for amazing whitewater delights. Settling into my seat as the big diesel engine choked to life, I took note that the senorita next to me was frantically crossing herself and muttering Hail Mary. "?Es Neccesario?" I asked.
"Si," she responded, with what I hoped was a disproportionate amount of brevity. All too soon, the symptom of her faith became contagious. We zoomed around the tenth blind hairpin turn in a row on two wheels, a mack truck blasting past on the left and a fiersome cliffside on the right, which half the road had already caved into. I crossed myslef and said my Hail Marys for the first time since I could remember. My neighbor approved, her face turning green with carsickness.
Arriving safe and sound in Turrialba four hours later, I ponied up another 3,000 Colones (6 US Dollars) to check into the Hotel Turrialba for the night. A word of advice: never check into a hotel based on it's positive review in a five year old copy of Lonely Planet. In five years, since that rag gave this place a glowing review, the walls have turned to mold, several colonies of ants have taken up residence, and no less than thirty people have pissed on the mattress I was assigned. I would need to get drunk in order to sleep here, so I strolled down to look for some boaters to befriend, knowing that boaters and beer are symbiotic. As I left Hotel Turrialba, I noticed a 24 hour funeral parlor, complete with a casket lined with pink feather boas. Why would Costa Rica's whitewater Mecca need an all night mortuary? Disconcerting.
In search of some friends to get a beer and ultimately paddle the river with, I fortuitously stumbled into Rainforest World Outfitters. Several hours and Imperials later, I had me some friends, a boat and gear to borrow, and a job safety boating for the most famous stretch of whitewater in Central America, leaving at 7:30 the next day. After bravely drowning enough Tequila, I passed out in the piss-stench craphole of a room.
The next morning our trip turned into an overnight as clients decided to have their honeymoon and sleep on the river, so I scored a free ride down, with gourmet meals and all. The Lower section of the Pacuare is probably the most beatiful peice of river I will ever run. Amazing. After every big drop, an 80 foot waterfall plunges down on your head, and then another class four sucks you in. We scrambled up side creeks to jump off waterfalls and explore Cebecan communities, saw monkeys, sloths, boas, parrots, iguanas, scorpions, and canyon walls covered with hanging virgin stands of rainforest, clogged with butterflies, brightly colored birds, and zillions of insects. From my new best friends, the spanish speaking guides, I learned that one Denielle Perry was doing her Masters thesis on the Pacuare, and was on a quest to run the entire Pacuare in the space of seven days, documenting the remote native villages along her way. What she is doing is similar to our mission on the Rupert in uncanny ways.
When we returned to Turrialba, Denielle was getting prepped to start her quest with the Headwaters section the next day. I was invited! We packed nine people into a tiny Land Cruiser, dragging rafts and boats along behind, and headed into the mountains for a few hours, then we transfered the gear onto horses, and crossed a mountain pass into the rarely run Headwaters section of the Pacuare. Finally it was time to paddle. I boofed, bounced and bobbed through amazing class IV drop pools all afternoon, pausing only to mark way points on Denielle's GPS whenever we found huts that the natives were living in or using. The next day we charged the creatively named Upper Upper and Upper sections, which consisted of huge boulders crammed into tight canyons, creating challenging class V+ drops. After that we hit the Top section, where yet more burly rapids tested our mettle. Then we switched into Canoing mode in order to finish off the last section of the Pacuare, where it meanders peacefully through Del Monte banana plaintations on it's way to the mangrove forests at it's mouth in the Carribbean Sea. So I saw the Carribbean for the first time from the stern of a Canoe, after 8 straight days on the river! The most memorable moments of this last section came after dark when we were in the canal from the Pacuare to the Reventezon River, and had to navigate through croc infested waters for a few hours. I think we saw at least 40 crocs all around us, even hit a couple with my paddle. Could see hundreds of eyes in the flashlight beam. Kinda creepy. We ended up in Parismina, one of the most remote towns in Costa Rica. Viva el Pacuare!!!
I relaxed with good reggae vibes and awesome waves for a few days in Puerto Viejo before returning to the States to paste solar panels akimbo on the urban landscape of the Front Range of Colorado.
Denielle and Nate, you guys rock! Please send me some pix to post here. As far as the Rupert film goes, I'm feeling fired up to finish it and plan to work on it a lot now that I'm refreshed. Here's another youtube post of random clips to curb your appetite until the full feature is finished. Super Tuanis, Mae! Desfrute, and please scroll down to learn more about our project from older blogs if you're one of the many awesome folks I met abroad, perhaps checking this blog for the first time.
In the spirit of wild rivers, Steve.

NPR Coverage of Rupert

The story of the Rupert found it's way into the spotlight via a radio show by Brian Mann of NPR. Check it out at www.northcountrypublicradio.org. About to present at the Gunnison River Symposium tonight, treating this as a test run for future presentation opportunities. Stay Positive. "Great Problems call for many small solutions."-- Wendell Berry

First Annual Gunnison Rivers Symposium

Rupert River Film Expedition member Mike Wight and I will be presenting at the Gunny Rivers Symposium on Saturday the 10th of November. If you're in the area and can attend please do. Here's the Press Release Kevin Heiner (an organizer of the event) put together:

River friends and friends of the river: on Saturday, November 10, Western State College will host the First Annual Gunnison Rivers Symposium in the Kebler Ballroom from 4-9PM. Admission will be FREE! Highlights of the event include: a kayaking film premier fresh from LVM productions, an outdoor gear and apparel raffle to benefit the Gunnison Whitewater Park and local and international speakers presenting about Colorado kayaking first descents, international water access issues, and the ecological and social affects of hydroelectric projects. (That's us!)
The schedule is as follows: At 4:00PM Doors Open, 4:20 Welcome and Introduction of Sponsors, Purpose, Philosophy, and Approach. 4:30 First Keynote Speaker: Daniel Gonzalez of Futa Friends (www.futafriends.org) -Daniel will discuss the state of the rivers in southern Chile and the conservation efforts this organization are undertaking to secure permanent protection status for the Futaluefu river and other wild rivers of Chile and Argentina from hydroelectric and mining interests. 5:00 Second Keynote Speaker: Dan Piano of Steamboat Springs-Dan and crew (Routt County River Enforcement-for all you Mountainbuzzers (www.mountainbuzz.com)) have done four first descents on Colorado creeks in Routt County in the last two years. Dan will have some video footage, slides, and will explain how these descents were accomplished. 5:30 Third Keynote Speaker: Mike Wight and Steve King from Nederland and Boulder, CO-Last July, Mike, Steve, and 3 others embarked on an ambitious expedition to Northern Quebec to run the obscure and gigantic Rupert River. The Rupert peaks at 180,000 c.f.s.! Their plan was to run it in canoes, portage the unrunnable, high-flow class VI rapids while documenting the state of the river in its free-flowing state with video and still photography before it will be dammed! The politics of the proposed damming are not entirely transparent and these adventurers plan to expose the political, social, and ecological dynamics involved by producing a film documentary. They will have a trailer for the movie and an involved slideshow and discussion for this event. 6:00 Dinner Break, 7:00 Film Premier-Lunch Video Magazine’s #24 Begins, 8:30 Raffle Drawing, 9:00 Doors Close. Afterwards: After party at the Gunnison Brewery. Ten percent of food sales proceeds will benefit the Gunnison Whitewater Park.
Event sponsors include: Western State College, The Alpineer, Black Tie Ski Rentals of Crested Butte, Gene Taylor’s Sporting Goods, Colorado Kayak Supply, Lunch Video Magazine, Vewda Productions, and Futa Friends. Please call Kevin @ 970.846.2300 for more details or to donate to or sponsor this event.

First Bits of Footage

Many folks have been hoping for a glimpse so I had to post this little teaser. We converted it to an mpeg to make it smaller, so don't expect the quality to be as good as the final product will be. Thanx Alexandra Waterman for help with the editing. Also in Rupert news-- there was a big protest in Montreal last friday in front of the Hydro-Quebec Headquarters. Alex Lee and his Project Laundry Listers raised a laundry line with some awesome T-shirts and poignant messages for Hydro. The Three chiefs of the communities most effected by the project launched a new website for you to check out, www.savetherupert.org.

Put Out

We survived the Rupert, but the Rupert will not survive us. When we got to the put-in, Hydro-Quebec had rolled out the cement carpet. You can now drive to what was only last year still a pristine campsite on a spit of granite in the middle of a sick class IV drop. Now it is the site of absolute carnage. the mountain on the riverbank has a huge canal already carved through it to divert the river. day and night, trucks move earth while excavators and dynamite push the canal deeper into the mountain.the forest around is being clearcut. 10,000 workers are moving onto the land, and 1,000 helicopters are being used to shuttle in men and dynamite and bags of concrete to build the dams. We documented the intact rapids and also the destruction as it is happening. Also found several amazing folks to talk to us about what's occuring. On the river, we flirted with by far the gnarliest rapids in North America and maybe the world. I won't say anything more until I've figured out Final Cut Pro and have some footage for you. This story has to be seen to be believed. Thanx so much to everyone who made this happen-- my crew, my family, my friends, my sponsors, my luck, and especially my hairstylists. We're working on a website for the film and are beginning to edit the amazing collection of footage as well as create animations to complete the story so stay tuned.

Departure

We've been super busy in the past few weeks: making paddles and wannigans, begging gear companies for boats and gear, shipping boats, patching boats, wiring solar panels, buying cameras and gear, working as much as possible in order to afford and rationalize taking a month off, and finally mobilizing the Colorado Crew in order to rendezvous in Vermont for food planning, shakedown trips, and packing out. Unfortunately, Julian Campbell broke his collar bone in a motorcycle crash, so the crew is down to five swarthy gentlemen. Scott Ellis, Mike Wight, Casey Bradley, Nate Ballinger, and myself are meeting in Middlebury tomorrow to complete final trip prep and then drive to Cree land. Apparently the plans for moving workers up onto the land have been pushed back to 2009, which gives us plenty of time to shoot, cut, and distribute the film before the diversion project has a big impact on the river. Who knows, maybe we can still leave the power in the river! Check out the latest issue of Canoe and Kayak, where my feature article has been published discussing the situation on the Rupert and describing my trip with Keewaydin last summer. I'd like to thank the players who have gotten the project to the put-in; Keewaydin and Songadeewin and the many amazing folks there, the family and loved ones of myself and my tripmates, the reps from Smith Optics, Mountain Hardwear, Old Town Canoe, and Pyrannha Kayaks, my coworkers and boss Tony Boniface at Independent Power Systems in Boulder, Bryan Powell of Eyeline Media, Pete Mortimer and Nick Rosen of Sender Films for advice and hand-holding, Chris Bell of Bellfoto for giving us a sick deal on the DVX100, Brunton for making an awesome amorphous thin film solar panel, and especially Alex Waterman for bringing me dinner and beer all last week when it was midnight and I was still foolishly trying to get work done. I might post again before we head north but if not, expect some footage and exciting news soon. Wish us luck!