Oil and Water Project

Mark over at Alaska Mill and Feed topped us off with an extra 100 gallons of Waste Oil that was collected from around Anchorage, and 40 gallons of waste salmon oil from the fishing industry. Thanks buddy,

This is a view of Denali from the take-out.

Hotel rock…..you can’t quite see the rock, hey! This was burl-dog.

Devils Canyon is the biggest whitewater on this continent, and some of the biggest ever run in the world. Described as the “Mount Everest of kayaking” the rapids have a roar which sound like a couple of 747s taking off. Flying in a couple of thousand feet above the canyon, the huge waves are visible far below as their crests explode into spray and foam. —Andy Embick/Fast & Cold.

This rang true, it seems, the Devil’s Canyon is actually extremely under-rated. Usually, when you fly up a river, it looks really chill, but not his one.

We were both pretty scared for this one when the plane dropped us off here in the middle of no where.

This is the bottom look at Devil’s Creek rapid and the Nozzle. After the hike in, the scout and the mental anguish of finding the line, we were exhausted. The weather was the best we had seen so far, and with the hardest rapid, Hotel Rock directly below us, we decieded to set camp a little early.

The next morning we woke up feeling 100%. Hotel Rock was a massive river wide hole, so we had to make this super hairy fairy to the far side of the river and start portaging. We used the video footage from the flight in to find the best portage line.

There were a bunch of small rapids and wave trains, which led to Screaming Left, our favorite rapid of the trip:)

From here, there were 3 miles of read and run wave trains with 20-30 foot swells…WOW! This led us to the Devils Gorge. This photo is looking down in…..yeesh.

This one was looking up!

From the bottom of the canyon, it was a 60 mile float out on flat water that only took about 7 hours. We arrived at 11am on day 3.

Hey, we just filled up both the rigs completely with the 275 gallon cube that Todd and Martin over at Seattle Biodiesel sent up here.  We are stoked….next week we are going to pick up some Waste Fish Oil, and top off all the tanks to get us back home.

The boys are packing up and getting ready for a 3-day descent of the Devil’s Canyon on the Big Susitna River!

This is one of the three rivers on the Triple Crown (Alsek, Susitna, Stikine).  It will be Seth’s second of the three.  Unfortunately the Alsek will be too high as we roll through Haines, and the Stikine will be way too high further South.  Stay-tuned next week to see how we did!  Seth and Ty.

This is one the biggest events that Girdwood has every year. We couldn’t get a place to stage our demonstration insided the event, so we set up at the Laundrymat across the street. Thanks for letting us park in front of your place Salina!

There were tons of great musicians for the weekend festivities:)

Kayaking the rivers in Girdwood’s adjacent area surpassed all rumors.

6-mile Creek is a total classic…a definite gem run to the area.

We also hooked up with some of the local boys and got to paddle Ingram Creek.  A small, steep tributary that flows into 6-mile.

It was cool to get to paddle with Seth’s brother for the weekend!

You can’t beat the AK scenery everywhere you go!

We had a demonstration at the Moose’s Tooth in Anchorage right outside the first tap party. This is one of the biggest days of the year, with tons of great music.

Seth’s brother, Damien met up with us In Denali National Park for July 4th.  He runs the Alaska Transportation Group in Anchorage, www.alaskatransportation.net, offering cruise transfers and scenic tours in the area.  He has a big fleet of vans, and is slowly starting to change them all over to run on biodiesel and SVO.

He helped us organize a great demonstration at the Salmon Bake, one of Denali’s most happening spots.

We used their holiay weekend’s waste vegetable oil to help get us down to Anchorage.

Heat, De-Water, and Filter.

Then straight into the veg tank!

Then, Damien’s band set up on the top of the rig and totally rocked the house.

We had Demonstrations at both Test The Waters Kayak shop in North Pole, and Beaver Sports in Faribanks. Thanks to all who helped out.