Piedra

I called the forestry service (5/08/09) and they told me that the bridge has been removed, but be sure and scout ahead just incase they were misinformed. Also, no word on the giant tree blocking most of the river (at low flows) a mile or two downstream of the bridge. If it is still there, there was a small opening on river right last time I ran it. Be safe and have fun - John B.

05/23/05 we ran this stretch at >3,500. Expect several big water-style class V drops that would be very, very difficult to portage, in addition to the mentioned mudslide drops. Both mudslides can be easily portaged; however, if you elect to also portage the runout (V-V+ @ >3,500) to Mudslide #2 it's possible to carry down river-right then lower boats to a good launch point at bottom of runout. This whole lower section is markably more difficult and constricted than the top section at high water.

Hi everybody, I was just looking at the site and found a couple of the rapids named incorrectly.

The rapid in the pictures above that is named Eye of the Needle is one of the first drops of the lower (first) box and could be First Mudslide Rapid or Little Eye.

The drop that is labeled Mudslide is actually the Second Mudslide Rapid or Eye of the Needle. When you look at the picture you can see that the left line looks pretty bad and has caused alot of swims over the years. It has lead to alot of bad situations because the runout below, if you go left, is a pretty technical boulder garden (V) that I sometimes consider harder than the right move around 'pillow rock.'

Just wanted to help out, John

Entering the 1st Box
1st major rapid of the run. Hero route is the boof on river rt over a large hole. Left line is straight forward punching the river-wide hole at the run-out.
This is the large rock in the middle of the drop that all the current flows into. There is a breaking curler that pushes from rt to left at the bottom of the drop which wants to push you dirctly into this large rock. I punched the curler with too much lft to rt angle and ended up being flushed directly into the pillow rock but was luckily pushed rt after 2 good backstrokes, flipping, and being held breifly. Left of the large rock is a nasty hole that would be difficult to get a rope to or any immediate rescue from.
IMO this rapid is a mandatory scout on your first run.
Cold Water!
This is what I look like when I screw-up a Class V line. Luckily I was completely un-injured. (See Pillow rock for explanation)
Decent line at Mudslide. Entering the top rapid from lft to rt with about 1:00 angle, punching the curler and finishing with a 5 foot boof against the rt wall or rt side of the pillow rock at the bottom.

Eye entrance.
CORT

Yeah, you want to avoid that hole!

CORT trip.