With water levels dropping out and a couple of good weeks of hucking behind us we were looking for something new to do. Sunday morning Heather and I woke up ready to paddle, we instantly started calling people to see what was going to happen. After several phone calls we found out that most of our group was out late drinking and not very motivated for an early morning session.

After talking to Ryan we decided to meet him and a crew out at Bridal Veil Falls. Now Heather and I had run it several times before, but it was good practice and I just wanted to get in my boat. Once we arrived at Bridal Veil there was a big group there, most everyone motivated to run the lower drop. So we all took our turns and had a blast. Probably the most eventful part of Bridal Veil was when Ryan and Tony seal launched me into the pool above the drop and I hit the water. I suddenly felt a cold stream of water rush down me. I had to stop and think for a second, Oh no! I forgot to zip my drysuit all the way. Earlier I was getting hot while walking around and opened it about 5 inches. I sat in the pool above the drop trying to tell Keel what I had done. It was so loud in the pool he couldn't quite understand what I was saying, and then he heard it and just started to laugh. I ran the drop and took a nice cold hit at the bottom.

After Bridal Veil we were looking for something else to do, should we hop on a quick run on the Wind River or look at some more waterfalls. So as a group we decided to go take a look at Money Drop on Rock Creek. For a brief description of this drop, it changes on a weekly if not daily basis. Massive landslides happen here constantly. The first time this drop was run was by Trip and LJ for the EP crew, and it was about 70 ft. We had gone back there many times since then looking at the changes. Ryan had seen the fall as low at 10 ft tall, then I went back with him a month later and the drop changed into a 30 footer that Todd Anderson and I ran. So this time coming back we weren't sure what to expect.

As we were walking down the trail we were all hoping for the best, but with this drop , it's a big if. As I got the the edge of the drop I took a look and couldn't believe my eyes. This was the cleanest I had ever seen the drop, pool and runout, it was a picture perfect waterfall. Well, almost. The lead in wasn't exactly the nicest. It dropped about 15-20 feet in about a 50 foot sliding lead in, this put you going mach 2 at the lip of a 50-55 footer. Yikes! So we all stood there for a while looking at the line and finally Tony said he wanted to do it. We all went back up to the cars to get our camera equipment and boats. No one else really knew if they were going to run it, but they wanted there equipment there just in case.

It turns out Jake Sanders decided to go first, with everybody amped and ready to go we hear a whistle and shortly after Jake comes sliding down the lead in and over the lip of the drop. From the lip it looked like he launched off perfectly, only he broke his paddle at the bottom and rolled up in time before he ran the runout. Tony went next, coming down the lead in right on line, and over the lip. Only it looked like he tucked a little to soon and barrel rolled while he did it. But he rolled up at the bottom and gave a big cheer. So I decided to go next, I really couldn't believe how much speed I had coming into the lip, but I was on line, launched out and had a nice tuck about 15 ft from the bottom. As soon as I hit, it threw me to the back deck and tore the paddle out of my hand. I tried one lousy hand roll and swam. All well.

No one else decided to go for it so we headed home. What a great day.

~Nate~