Piedra
02. 1st Fork Bridge to Lower Piedra CG(First Box Canyon)
May 29, 2004
Trip Report
| Reporter | Robert Bone |
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.