Kern headwaters
descent is first for a woman. Or . . . it came damn close. “I organize expeditions all the time,” said Sam Drevo, director of eNRG Kayaking, offering kayak instruction, tours, and international trips. “And that was the best I’ve ever been on. I mean, it was ideal. We had professionals in every realm.” Joining the Giddenses were 1999 world champion freestyle boater Eric Southwick, 2001 world extreme champ Drevo, and artist and all-around paddler Corby Leith. On foot were Dr. Lindsey Bennett (Rebecca Giddens’s sister), documentary filmmaker Andy Stone, writer Ann Beman, and the trip’s beloved 13-pound mascot, affectionately known as . . . the f*ing tripod. Accompanied by the three support backpackers, the paddlers began their 115-mile journey on July 19 near Independence, Calif., at the trailhead for 12,008-foot-high Shepherd Pass, the most difficult in the Sierra. In the first two days, the group hiked 6,500 vertical feet, only to meet a 1,500-foot scree and snow wall that they ascended with loaded packs. They met the mules carrying their creek boats, gear, and food cache on Day 3 at the put-in, Junction Meadow. Once jammed with their campgear and food, the kayaks weighed 100 pounds or more, a pain in the back during their handful of logjam-induced portages. The backpackers, too, were taxed to their limits. “My knees still hurt,” said Stone a week after chucking his doublewide pack on his Kernville porch and uploading 30 hours of film footage onto his computer. Stone’s documentary, tentatively titled “Veritas,” will expose these five kayakers, shedding light on what truly propels them, and touching on Rebecca Giddens’s life strategies following her silver medal. It was soon after bringing home the medal, in fact, that Rebecca and Eric hatched the idea for this Kern headwaters descent. “We were looking for our next big adventure, and had been training on the Kern,” Eric explained. “So we thought, ‘Hey, we should pay our respects and see where this thing starts.’” Their itinerary: Five old friends with slalom roots who became Olympians, world champions, and artists over the last 15 years paddled together for the first time in a decade. They consumed class II-V whitewater for breakfast, fresh Kern River golden trout for lunch, and hot springs for dinner (and, oops, they ran out of tequila). Along the way, they took in breathtaking waterfalls, wildflower-filled meadows, aggressively pooping bald eagles, thunder and lightning, two rattle snakes gettin’ it on, blisters, misplaced trails, mosquitoes, fire sculptures, fish-filled pools, leeches, swollen knees, bloody toes, curious marmots, bear scat, bear tracks, bare flesh, one drowned boot, and a deep reverence for the Kern watershed and the Southern Sierra. Ann Beman |
