October has come back around, and with it the cooler temps and changing leaves that mark the beginning of Autumn here in North America. It is a time of endings and beginnings- the end of most commercial rafting in the States; the beginning of cold water boating; the last few weeks of Gauley Season in […]
Category: Archive
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK: No compilation of best rivers in the world, which is what we have humbly attempted in this “Our Rivers, Our World” issue of DBP MAGAZINE ONLINE, would be complete without including the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Since starting this publication in November 2014, no single whitewater stretch has been […]
With its headwaters deep in the Opal Creek Wilderness, the Little North Santiam River is better known by almost everyone simply as “Opal Creek.” Its eponymous headwaters tributary joins Battleaxe Creek to form this pristine Oregon classic. The water here is typically referred to as “gin-clear,” a description that captures both the water’s high quality, […]
Oh, the Wolf River! Flowing 225 miles from deep in the heart of Wisconsin’s Northwoods, draining untouched National Forest and tribal reservation lands most of her length, it joins with the Fox River where together they empty into Green Bay of Lake Michigan. The Wolf is the best known of the whitewater stretches of the […]
“Write a piece on your favourite river.” It should be such an easy brief, to write about a place that you love. But where? Some rivers have been my workplace, others my playground. I’ve paddled rivers that I’ve been happy to survive and those that I could run endless laps on, day after day. Out […]
Every paddler has that go to river they run every chance they can. Like most paddlers my go to river is my home run, Cattaraugus Creek. However, being in the midst of a severe drought I have been forced to find water someplace new. Traveling from the Black River in Watertown, NY to the Cheat […]
The New River has always held a revered position in my mind. When I was a beginning boater in the mid 90’s, the New was considered a class III+/IV test piece, at least amongst the crowd I ran with, one of those rivers used to gauge your progress like the Ocoee and the Gauley. I […]
“As long as there are young men with the light of adventure in their eyes or a touch of wildness in their souls, rapids will be run.” –Sigurd Olson This is where America went for the gold. Literally! When gold was discovered on the South Fork of the American River in 1848, it sparked the […]
Upper Nanty. Photo cred Rick Thompson I wrote this on April 28th of 2015, after my personal first descent (PFD) on the Upper Nantahala. With Nantahala Outdoor Center’s GAF (Guest Appreciation Festival) coming up, we’re seeing a lot of people considering running this section for the first time. This is what it was like for […]
The mighty Gauley River, known for its world class whitewater, is ranked in the top ten in the world and number two here in the United States. It boasts over 100 rapids in a 24 mile stretch. The Upper Gauley sports 5 Class V drops, like the famous Pillow Rock and Sweets Falls in the […]