Boondoggle, a slang term that wastes time, resources, and money....
On our forth consecutive day of fall creeking, John "Where's the take-out?" Kiffmeyer decided that we not only needed to run the Devil Track again at high water, but also figured that our group of paddlers required a brushing up of our high rope extraction, route/take out finding, mental toughness, and basic overally rescue/survival skills.
The level barely unchanged from the previous day, we now were putting on what was believed to be a more honest and "less" intense 1' 3/4" Devil Track run. The paddlers included Cliff Langley, Techno Tommy, Kiffy, and myself. Sparing much of the details perviously mentioned in the last posting, round two of the DT was actually running exceptionally smooth with all of us "styling" the majority of the major features, however still portaging the Three Falls Section.
In true nature of the committing and deceitful Devil Track, disater happened. The following is excerpted from Kiffy's email to all of us about his version of the Devil Track Boondoggle.
"I was in the lead with Cliff behind...I had remembered the take out from the day before (I thought) and so was keeping a watchful eye but heading that way quickly...I'm not exactly sure what the hell happenedto make me miss the eddy, I think I had my head turned right as we went around that take out corner to see where the rest of the crew was...just bad timing and the flow was just cruising me downstream...."
"Thankfully, Maximus recognized the take out and stopped, tried to yell at me, but I never did hear...I do remember at one point looking upstream and thinking that looked like the take out tree, but then was really confused and going down stream quickly..."
"I think I know the water didn't look familiar and all of a sudden it hit when I realized that Cliff and I had gone a long ways down and rounded left hand corner to see the gapping mouth of Pitchfork falls as it lay ahead by about 50 feet. I eddied out right and started yelling at Cliff to eddy out, which he did in the very last small eddy about 30 feet from the lip..."
"We both got onto the rock and saw Maximus and Tommy looking at us from the upstream river right shore. They had come down a few eddies, but not far enough to not be about to get up the bank."
"They hiked to the top of the Canyon rim while Cliff climbed up about 50 feet through some cedars..they tied 4 throw bags together to reach the bottom of the gorge (maybe 150 feet down) and pulled our boats up. I then climbed up to Cliff and we traversed across upstream to a place we could safely exit. All of this was super sketchy...sharp rocks falling everywhere, I know that Cliff and I took some good hits to the head..."
On our forth consecutive day of fall creeking, John "Where's the take-out?" Kiffmeyer decided that we not only needed to run the Devil Track again at high water, but also figured that our group of paddlers required a brushing up of our high rope extraction, route/take out finding, mental toughness, and basic overally rescue/survival skills.
The level barely unchanged from the previous day, we now were putting on what was believed to be a more honest and "less" intense 1' 3/4" Devil Track run. The paddlers included Cliff Langley, Techno Tommy, Kiffy, and myself. Sparing much of the details perviously mentioned in the last posting, round two of the DT was actually running exceptionally smooth with all of us "styling" the majority of the major features, however still portaging the Three Falls Section.
In true nature of the committing and deceitful Devil Track, disater happened. The following is excerpted from Kiffy's email to all of us about his version of the Devil Track Boondoggle.
"I was in the lead with Cliff behind...I had remembered the take out from the day before (I thought) and so was keeping a watchful eye but heading that way quickly...I'm not exactly sure what the hell happenedto make me miss the eddy, I think I had my head turned right as we went around that take out corner to see where the rest of the crew was...just bad timing and the flow was just cruising me downstream...."
"Thankfully, Maximus recognized the take out and stopped, tried to yell at me, but I never did hear...I do remember at one point looking upstream and thinking that looked like the take out tree, but then was really confused and going down stream quickly..."
"I think I know the water didn't look familiar and all of a sudden it hit when I realized that Cliff and I had gone a long ways down and rounded left hand corner to see the gapping mouth of Pitchfork falls as it lay ahead by about 50 feet. I eddied out right and started yelling at Cliff to eddy out, which he did in the very last small eddy about 30 feet from the lip..."
"We both got onto the rock and saw Maximus and Tommy looking at us from the upstream river right shore. They had come down a few eddies, but not far enough to not be about to get up the bank."
"They hiked to the top of the Canyon rim while Cliff climbed up about 50 feet through some cedars..they tied 4 throw bags together to reach the bottom of the gorge (maybe 150 feet down) and pulled our boats up. I then climbed up to Cliff and we traversed across upstream to a place we could safely exit. All of this was super sketchy...sharp rocks falling everywhere, I know that Cliff and I took some good hits to the head..."
Pitchfork Falls - Note the Canyon Steeps. Photo by John Alt.
"After we all got out, we went back to where Tommy and Maximus had taken out and had to bring their boats up as they were too downstream of the take out..."
"We started to hike out our boats up the river on the canyon rim and came to a couple of creeks, not knowing if we were above the take out, all we throught was that we must be, but were not sure enough to risk it after the ordeal we had just been through. Maximus and Tommy hiked up the river at one point and they saw Portage Down the Middle and were on the third bend after that, so we in fact were probably close to the take out."
"At that point we were awfully close to losing daylight and freezing temps. Cliff thankfully had hiked up the ridge and found us a sweet trail not too far above where we were...part of the Superior Hiking Trail....we decided to walk down river from there and try to make it to the trail head...."
"We hiked about three miles or so and eventually made it to the Pincushion overlook above Grand Marais....we then managed to get a ride, from this life saving Kansas couple, up to Maximus and my cars..finally coming back to Tommy and Cliff. "
"Sorry to the crew for leading us on such an epic boondoggle...you were all such good sports about it even though it sucked....Maximus and Tommy were the shit at hauling our boats up the cliff, thank you guys for not killing me once I got up...and for bailing us out! Cliff was a mountain goat and sorry to keep taking you to the brink of bad waterfalls..."
"Last thing....never ever fucking miss that eddy, I knew it was bad to miss, but shit, that's not a good place to be...I know we all know not to miss it and take it very seriously, but I just fucked it all up.......damn just don't do it."
"Ohhh no!!!! Don't listen to the new kid, he doesn't know where the hell he's going.." I screamed hauling hand over hand each creekboat up the vertical red cliffs. Later only to be pleasanted by Tommy's consisted cursings as we hiked out of the mess in the canyon. As we came to my car, Kiffy and I were both greeted by a Cook County Sheriff who was spotlighting our vehicles, the red cherry lights atop his car flashing.
We checked ourselves off of his "dead" list and laughed scarcastically at his comment of, "There's big waterfalls and rapids down there? I've walked the Superior Hiking Trail and it pretty much follows the river the whole way down and I've NEVER seen anything that big..." Kiffy, in a true demonstration of his ever so laid back demeanor simply smiled, and cuunningly remarked, "Well, there is and and thankfully we didn't hit 'em all...."
Consumption, campfire, and tall tales emerged a plenty in true North Shore creeking fashion soon after and all of us eventually dreampt under the starts of Paradise Beach, the waves of lake Superior rocking us to sleep.
Boondoggle Recap: Day #4
*Don't miss the take-out before Pitchfork Falls.
*If you do miss, hope that you are paddling with Cliff Langley, Techno Tommy, or Kiff "I miss Take-out's" Meyer. If only because 1) They've been through such painful and arduous rescues at least once prior and 2) You couldn't ask for better individuals that keep such cool heads, positive attitudes, and maintain constant levels of teamwork required in getting out of such an intimidating place, safe and sound.
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