Where in the World is Nick Murphy: January 2011

So 2011 started with a hangover and 3 inches of rain in the gauge on my front porch. I had to work but found myself on the Bear at 20 inches late that afternoon. Charles King drove in from out of town and was fired up on his inaugrial Bear run. We made haste down the creek but a mishap at Fishbowl left Charles' boat swallowed by an undercut (gnarley hole feeding sieved undercut on river right above knocking on heavens door). With no car at the put in and light fading fast and the thought of hiking my boat for hours in the cold dark, we set up a meeting spot, Charles hiked up and out, and I soloed down to the car. The run was amazing, it is my favorite, but by myself with high flow it was straight quality stroke after stroke.

So after that epic I let Charles borrow my beater boat and we were on South Suck at 3.4 ft for dawn patrol. The level was healthy and we had a great trip all the way down. While I had to go to work at 10:15, Charles was able to join the crowd of boaters in my living room and head out to the classic Cain to North Chick.

The next day Charles and I made our way to the Raven Fork where we found freezing weather and a level of 9-10 inches. We ended up having an awsome day highlighted by clean lines shared by all, sketchy walking on ice and snow, a 5 bro huckfest on Big Boy, and as allways a hillarious time shootn the shit with Manuel.

If catching all this quality flow is a sign of things to come in 2011 - Bring It On!

Pics from Raven Fork

Lookn Down through Anaconda