Clear Creek Whitewater Kayak - Clayton, OK

 Clear Creek - April 2022

 

Alarm Clock went off at 5am – snooze, snooze and then get the eyes cleared to open up the river gauge… All Blue!!!  If you know what I am talking about there is a website that shows all the rivers in Arkansas and they were Blue, which means to big to float, which means little creeks are flowing wild and free and it is time to go boat something crazy!

 

I text Albert and he texted me back at 6am, and said, “I am on the road to check levels around Clayton, OK. Yes, OK as in Oklahoma…. There is one river on the Ozark River Pages that is in Oklahoma and it is in Pushmataha County.  Pine Creek- South of Clayton and it dumps into the Kiamichi River, which is all part of the Ouachita Forest.

 

Pine has a huge water shed and it goes when the storms form in lower southeast Oklahoma.  I have ran Pine at many different levels and with much rain it turns into a raging river, not a Creek.  It has broken my paddle in half, left me with broses, scrapes, and even a boat pin in Spring 2022, (that is another story in itself).  My first-time down Pine I felt I had left Oklahoma and entered this weird state I had never visited.  The rock cliffs were breathe taking and the rapids were intense and full on demanding.

 

I got my coffee, bagel and out the door I went, chasing Albert to Clayton, OK to find something epic, and it wouldn’t be Pine Creek.  It would be just on the other side of the ridge of Pine Creek Water Shed. All the water that fell to the north of this beautiful ridge formed Clear Creek.  My buddy Jake said, “Pine is like the main vain and there are all the other little run offs that have so much potential and adventure.” Little did I know what wild creek I would see. Clear was one of the jewels that I never seemed to get the stars aligned for me to get the unlock its mystery of Power, Beauty and Wild Whitewater.

 

Albert planned for us to meet Charlie in Clayton, Charlie had some car trouble and had to back out of the trip, and the water was falling out quick so we decided to make our move.  I didn’t know the history of this creek. Understanding now that Heath Day discovering this creek and unlocking the rapids, and usually taking several guys into the gorge at a time.  Scouting rapids ahead as another sets safety with a rope.   Well not today, it was just Albert and I and as we paddle the slow current in beginning I was asking questions to Albert. “When was the last time you boated this? How many times have you boated this?”  Albert and Jake are my boating buddies, you trust them with all you got when you hit the crazy stuff.  You would go after them and they would come after you, that is a fellowship like a brotherhood that is priceless.  They lead you into crazy stuff and pull you out when you mess up.  They teach you the lines, the way of the river.  Sometimes they could boat all day and never say a word to each other.  Just finding yourself and finding beauty in something that is so powerful.  I usually have God on my mind the whole time I am boating, of his beauty and power.  And never did I feel closer than I did on Clear Creek a chilly spring morning in April 2022.

 

We had a few down trees to portage around and then we start to get into some rapids that are blind drops which is not a big deal until you take a bad line into the drop and wish you could hit the brakes and back up and pick a different line.  The moss on the rocks is so green and the deeper we get into the gorge the bigger the rocks grow from the sides of the cliffs.  The trees are coming sideways out of the hills and the water is no longer running into the gorge it is falling over the rocks making tons of water falls into Clear Creek.  Rapid after Rapid, turn after turn it gets super narrow and you have to be so quick on your turns and picking your lines.  Which is much easier chasing someone that knows the river and you are on their 6-o-clock.

O-Gorilla is the first big rapid and I had seen a few videos on YouTube but always the videos don’t give it justice.  Before we get to O-Gorilla there is a must catch eddie on river right.  Eddie is dead water formed behind a rock or tree that you can dart into and come to stop.  I ask Albert, “what is the betta if I miss the eddie?” And he says, “just go with the flo, maybe a left boof stroke and then stay kinda right to the bottom and a big eddie on the right, just don’t miss the eddie!”  So we catch the eddie and climb up on the edge of this massive drop into a scary looking hole, which then narrows into a split which if you go left it looks to have a good chance to slam you against a rock wall. Right is a faster shoot to some bigger rapids into the right turn into the eddie.  It takes almost 15 mins to climb down with a safety rope and camera to video Albert make the first drop.  He goes a little right of the boof rock he wanted to hit and works out ok but tosses him off balance and he is upside down going into the narrow, not a big deal if he rolls his kayak up. But if he doesn’t, he is going to go for a bad swim, at this point I am close to tossing the rope just to having it out there close to his boat if he were to swim and he rolls up like a pro… I scream, “YEAH, YEAH MAN!”  as he shoots down the next rapid.

 

Albert climbs up to set safety for me and I look over things again and look and look. Look enough Albert finds a good angle for a picture of me looking some more!

 

The betta on the line is cross the current into the river left eddie and then peal out and drive straight with a little right angle off the rock book in the center.  I get fired up just before I make my turn into the current. And then 1 second later your already into the drop with no time to correct or think.  I am coming off the boof rock with a left angle not a right angle, and I don’t remember having much time to think about anything but leaning back as the rock on river left seemed to be getting super close to me.  I hit my paddle on this rock and tosses me upside down.  I am turned the wrong way upside down now to do my right-handed roll.  My left side is not so good, (need to work on that!) so I switch under water and roll up.  And my first thought is, “where in the heck am i?”  Then I see Albert, and I know now that I am going down the river backwards and have time to turn just before going down the shoot into the next rapid.

 

1 of the big 3 down with many no names in the middle that should be named are big!

Next up Sideways Slide? Something like that, we take a good look and it and it is straight forward and I get turned sideways in the top and go down a shoot backwards and turn to go down the bigger drop/slide correctly! Which that thing is fast and fun!

 

Big 3 and now we are to the 3^rd… Boof Bounce and Slide

Boof Bounce and Slide had to be scouted and I watch Alberts line, and then I hike up and know I need to be a little further left than he was.  But looking at it from a big rock in the middle of a 100 yard long rapid and looking at it from your kayak from the top you’re just thinking. “Where is my line, am I on it?”

I nail the boof, I would say a 6 foot drop over the hole of water below into some current which pushes me right over the middle viewing scout rock which I somehow hit with the front of my boat.  Not a ton of water in this area it is all down below me about 10 feet and I slide slow using my core to keep my bow of my boat pointed right which is uphill.  I know if I get turned river left that the current is going to grab the front of my boat and flip me or twist me into the wall and do who knows what with me.  As I slide down, I remember there being a hole at the top of this flume and I think I slide right into it.  It grabbed the back of my boat and pushed water into my boat and hit the back of my life jacket and at this moment it felt just like Rockin Roller Coast at Disney World… It was like a shot out of a canyon, I couldn’t see anything and was just at the mercy of the river and never had I felt so powerless.  It shot me to the bottom and it was one of the craziest rapids I have ever ran in my life!

 

The rest of this run was still wild with narrow shoots and lots and lots of rocks! We had one portage because there was a huge D-Rock in the middle of the rapid and was very glad we didn’t run that one.  Can’t wait to make another run at it or Crum Creek but for sure would like another wing man next time, aka Jake!!  - Oklahoma Whitewater Bucket List