When the snow disappears, water levels drop, and tourists plunder the town, it is a sure sign of mid summer. Even though we kayakers rejoice over high flows and spring rain, july and august often have some of the best boating. In Jackson, the lower water levels mean consistent play features and reasonable levels for creeks in the winds and surrounding mountain ranges. When the snake nears 11,000 cfs, my personal favorite and overall most popular feature on the river comes to the perfect level, Lunch Counter. This wave is about as perfect as it gets, so perfect it is common to spend multiple days camped there and not take a single break for photos, video, or even food. Surfers and kayakers alike can shred this wave like no other and look forward to lunch counter season more than Christmas.
On the other end of the spectrum, the areas creeks come to the right levels, often with a short window. Carson King, Eric Parker, Risto Beatty, and myself all decided on one sunny afternoon to go check out Pole Creek. This creek was first done ten years ago by Carson “snug” King and has been done very rarely since. After paddling across a lake and hiking a few miles we found ourselves atop a micro canyon filled with beautiful slides and drops. After bombing down this canyon with grins across our faces, we quickly hopped on shore to scout the next gorge.
Our eyes layed apon a stacked series of slides that ended in a must make eddy above a waterfall that would be great WITHOUT the log at the lip. I personally took to the walk line on this gorge, no shame involved, but was happy to watch some of my best friends fire it up. As we walked around the death waterfall we spotted a glory boof, one of the nicest boof’s I’ve seen! This drop alone was worth the effort and left us all in the best of moods. After a short section of flatwater and some cool bug bites we approached the next horizon line. At this point we had joined forces with another group of local paddlers who had pre scouted the next section. Taking their word on the lines, we dropped into an extremely steep section of Wyoming mank that ended in another really sweet boof. This section was quite exhilarating seeing as no one actually knew the line. Luckily, Eric and I were in the back of the group and were able to watch and learn where NOT to go, we ended up running a super fun good line.
After lapping the closing boof we packed up and hiked out avoiding the log choked Lower Pole Creek. However, our other Wyoming friends Dave Kemper, John Kennedy, Elliot Bucholz, and Chris Nelson ran the lower stuff and said that there were some really fun drops between the logs. This run was a truly great Wyoming gem, one of many of the hidden goodies we have in the surrounding hills.
Good lines
Teague Manley- Jackson local
Nice work!