Don\'t drink the water --
paddle the hell out of it!
By Darin McQuoid

At the tail end of 2006, kayaker Heather Herbeck was asked to join a world-class—and all male--crew of paddlers as they tackled the world-class whitewater of Mexico’s Alceseca River. “The boys” included Ben Stookesbury, Eric Jackson, and Phil Boyer, (not to mention a writer and photographer from Men’s Journal), and Herbeck immediately found herself questioning whether she could hack it.

In Part 2, we get a look at the rest of the trip -- including tequila, impromptu swims, and plenty of choice whitewater.

DAY FIVE: Chill Out

Today the whole crew took a very much needed and well deserved rest day. Rafa and Ben went back to the 90-foot waterfall to scout it out, while the rest of the crew stayed in town to lounge about and catch up with family and friends through email and phone.

DAY SIX: 210-Foot Rappel

We came back to the same spot we stopped on day four, right above the huge waterfall that the banana farmer took us to. Rafa and Ben were pretty serious on scouting the waterfall, seeing how tall it was and possibly running it. The rest of us were trying to come up with a way to get down to the river from over 200 feet above.

We decided to rappel. Ben had a climbing rope 230 feet long, and the rappel was about 210 feet, which would leave 20 feet of rope dragging in the water—not much of a cushion. Rafa had taken the harness for his and Ben’s adventure of rappelling to the lip of the waterfall, so that left us with some webbing, a water knot and hopefully someone who knew how to tie a harness together.

I look back at the rappel as one of my favorite parts of the trip. To be 210 feet above the water, feet dangling below you, the wind and water whipping you around as you got closer to the base of the water . . . it all was so magical. It was decided against running the waterfall so both Ben and Rafa joined the group at the base of the waterfall and we continued downstream.

This section of river had the most boulder gardens; all steep and technical, yet short. We boat-scouted through about five boulder drops, and then Ben and Rafa continued downstream and gave us the sign to “stop.” The river made another bend and disappeared. Ben and Rafa tried to pick their way down to make sure we could all continue safely, but decided that a scouting mission needed to be done.

So, due to the lateness in the day, we all decided to paddle/walk our boats back upstream through the five boulder gardens we paddled down. Huffing and puffing, I said aloud: “It’s definitely harder to paddle/go upstream than downstream!” By the end of the day, I was more physically drained than on any of the days prior. That evening I skipped dinner and went straight to bed.

DAY SEVEN: Drops May Appear Smaller . . .

We got up at the crack of dawn to continue our journey down the Alceseca. We knew that the river canyoned-up once again and became steep within a matter of kilometers, so we took the time to scout by cutting our way through the jungle on river-left. We noticed three significant drops. Since we were hiking upstream, we came to the last drop first.

“Looks like a slide,” EJ said. “Looks like a little notch on the left side of the slide, so you’ll want to make sure you are angled right and just slide right down.” We continued upstream and came to another drop, a waterfall. We all estimated the falls to be about 20 feet and clean. EJ continued upstream and quickly came back shouting, “Looks to be a class III rapid, good to go!” So, we all went back to the truck, loaded up and went to the put-in. Word of caution #1: When you are 150-200 feet above the river, drops may appear smaller than they really are!!! Hmmmm . . .

We hiked back to where we left our boats , planning to continue down the stretch of river that stopped our journey the day before. We put on and noticed the color of the water was a shade darker and realized the water level had increased slightly during the night. We boat-scouted our way down the five boulder gardens from the day before and eddied out above the next significant drop.

Ben gave us the “stop” signal and he continued downstream, got out of his boat, scouted and pulled out his camera. Darin proceeded next. We all thought he was going to eddy out where Ben was, but we noticed Darin paddling hard, driving past the eddy and down the drop! (I must add right here that Darin had not been on the scouting mission with us and had no idea what the rapids looked like) “Holy Crap, what just happened, is he okay?” We all sat in the eddy with our jaws dropped! Ben gave the okay signal and one-by-one we continued down through the drop.

Class II/III water continued for a bit and we approached another horizon line, where we all got out of our boats to scout. This drop consisted of a hole with most of the water pushing right, into an undercut wall. We decided the line was drive hard left with a right boof stroke.

It was my turn. I picked up speed as I headed into the drop, but realized that my stroke timing was off. Well, my intentions were good. I was going to miss my right boof, so I pretty much stopped paddling. . . hmmm, probably not the best thing to do, but I came out just fine. Word of caution #2: When hesitation sets in take either a right or left stroke . . .don’t NOT paddle!

Next, we came to the rapid that EJ had scouted earlier and he told us that it was “good to go!”

“I remember it being a class III boulder garden-type rapid,” he said, “but I’ll walk down quickly and check it out to make sure.” As he stood downstream, his eyes widened and he came back to us saying, “Okay, so it looks a lot bigger here. But, all you have to do is go center, punch two big holes and get right. Make sure you get right at the bottom!”

So he proceeded down the rapid. Next, Nick headed down. “Shit, the hole flipped him!” I said to myself as I watched his line.

“Well, here goes!” I thought as I headed down with speed. I hit the first hole, braced out of it. The hole slowed me down so I headed into the second hole with no speed, but kept my low brace. I got through it, paddled as hard as I could and got right. “That was much bigger than class III!” We laughed.

We knew that the 20 foot waterfall was next! We rounded each corner of the river with caution, until we saw it! A small S-turn made the entrance to this narrow horizon line. Ben eddied out and scouted. He signed to us - “Follow the tongue and boof!” - basically, that’s what we got out of it - he pointed to his tongue and then gave the boof signal.

So, EJ stepped it up. . . first descent over this 20 footer, what an honor! We got a whistle blow for the next person. Finally, it was Nick and myself left above the drop. “You’re going last, Nick,” I said. “I have to go!” So, I had it in my head to boof. As I made my way through the S-turn, I lined myself up on the tongue and before I could react to the height of the drop, I boofed!

My stern got pulled under and I flipped up against the river left cliff wall. I rolled once, twice. I took my hand off of my paddle to push myself off the wall. I rolled three times and, finally, with my fourth attempt, I rolled up smiling. It ended up that Ben and I were the only ones that boofed, flipped and ended up on the left wall. We all agreed that this “20 footer” was actually closer to 25-30 feet. It was an awesome drop.

One more drop . . . we knew the slide was the last drop for the day. This slide was more of a sloping rapid with a hole at the bottom and a partial undercut on the left. Well, just like the “20 footer” turned out to be 25-30 feet, this sloped rapid turned out to be a lot more vertical than we calculated. This vertical, sloping rapid had a mean fold in the middle. I remember Eric Seymour totally disappearing in the fold and popping out at the bottom. We all made it through just fine. After this drop, the walls grew taller and the river narrowed to about seven feet wide. I had never seen such beauty as what I saw as I floated down this section . . . it was breathtaking.

We took out for the day, stashed our boats and hiked out. What would tomorrow bring? Possibly more first descents. We celebrated our first-D with tequila shots!

DAY EIGHT: Launching the Falls

We had an added member to our group today. Thayer, the Men’s Journal writer, was going to join us on a section of river that, according to the map, didn’t look super steep. So, Thayer thought that this was a perfect opportunity to come along and get a first-hand glimpse as to what goes on during the river exploration.

Once on the river, we encountered boulder gardens that we could easily boat-scout. So, just as usual, Ben was in the lead and Rafa following. The rest of the group hit an eddy above a chunky boulder garden that lead into another boulder garden, which then took a turn and the river disappeared.

Ben and Rafa went down to the last rapid they felt safe doing -- not once did Ben ever continue down river without knowing what was around the corner. EJ and I picked our way through the rapid above the boulder garden Ben and Rafa eddied out at. Ben gave us the sign that we needed to head back upstream and scout from up top. So, we ferried and pulled ourselves back upstream.

Half of the crew headed out to scout while the other half decided to “hang-out.” Topics of discussion while we waited were: 1) How the heck do you crash into elephants with your car! - Thayer had so many great car crash stories. 2) What we were going to gorge ourselves with when we got home and could eat anything we wanted? Nick’s choice was McDonald’s in Mexico City and potatoes and chicken when he got home. My choice was lots of chocolate and Quizno’s.

At least two hours past and the scouting crew came back. “It’s good to go,” they shouted. “Even though the walls canyon and the river bends sharply, it’s pretty much all class III.” We were bummed and happy at the same time. Bummed that we didn’t just “give ‘er” and head downstream without wasting hours scouting, but happy that we could actually continue downstream and not have to rappel or portage our boats around.

We continued down another kilometer or so and hit the 40 foot waterfall that John Grace took a horrible swim in, in Burning Time. We knew this waterfall was closely approaching and we were happy to finally get there. It was getting late now; the sun was going down. We were scouting for what seemed like an eternity.

Nobody looked like they wanted to commit, especially because it was the end of the day, motivation was going down and the undercuts we were eyeing we didn’t want anything to do with. Ben, thinking no one else would run it, took one last look at the falls.

“You gonna run it?” I asked.

“I don’t really want to, but I will,” he replied. It was decided that a seal launch in above the falls would put you at a better angle than running the rapid above, so Ben launched in and headed over the falls. He got his right angle and plugged it. We waited and waited, and he finally came up downstream. “Sweet,” we cheered. “Way to go!”

DAY NINE: Time For a Swim

This was our final day on the river and would conclude our adventure from Alta Tonga to the Tomata Gorge. We woke up particularly early to make sure we accomplished what we wanted that day. Just like always, we headed to our favorite breakfast spot, knowing that this was the last time we would be there.

Since I had arrived in Mexico, my diet consisted mostly of packaged cookies and crackers. Fearing the sickness that struck everyone else, I stuck to this regimen day in and day out. I was to the point that I couldn’t look at another Vanilla Cookie, so this morning I opted for scrambled eggs, rice and beans like everyone else. “Why not,” I thought. “It’s our last morning here.” It was awesome eating “real” food.

When we got back to the river everyone started scouting the 40-footer and getting fired up. EJ is definitely a man of his word. I remembered him saying, the day before, that he would come out and run the 40 footer the next day. He not only ran it, but he ran it first and styled it. To date, this is EJ’s highest waterfall. (I’m sure he’s done seal launches higher though!)

Darin and Nick followed. Everyone had great lines. I had a tough time deciding whether or not I wanted to run it. Everyone who ran it had great lines, which made me want to run it. But, I knew the consequences -- the river-left wall was severely undercut, perhaps deadly and the hole at the bottom of the falls was sticky.

After contemplating the drop, I felt that the likelihood of me messing up the drop and having a very serious swim and putting my team in a situation that could possibly be bad was almost greater than having the feeling that I could style the drop. So, I walked this drop. (I found out the next day when I talked to my husband, Nate, that he didn’t want me to run it. He was so happy when he heard I had walked the drop.)

Those of us who didn’t run the 40 footer, got to do a pretty cool seal launch - about 20 feet up. Now, I’d much rather run a waterfall then push myself over a vertical cliff any day. So, I convinced Eric and Rafa to push me in.

“Make sure you don’t send me over the handle bars!” Make sure you push me off perfectly!” I told them as I gave them a smile. The only thing I had to do was tuck my paddle and land. On the count of three . . “One, two, three!” They shoved me in, landing me at the perfect angle . . . “Thanks guys!”

We continued down river and eddied out above a horizon line. As we got out to scout, we noticed that this drop had three distinct ledges with small pools between all of them. The first was a crazy, folding-hole pocket that was backed up a bit by a rock. It looked pretty sketchy. The second ledge was a boof down the middle. The third ledge was a must-make boof off of the flake to avoid a pretty gnarly hole.

EJ ran the three ledges first. As he went through the first ledge, the fold completely grabbed him and he disappeared, popping up and fighting his way out of the hole. He continued through the second and third. Rafa was the only other paddler to do the first drop.

After watching Rafa and Nick continue downstream I got in my boat. I noticed Rafa and Nick eddied out below the second ledge, awaiting my arrival. I picked up speed as I approached the drop, planted my paddle, pulled off a sweet boof and flipped at the bottom. Once again, I got pushed up into the river-left wall.

I attempted my roll over and over again and then, realizing the third drop wasn’t far downstream, I pulled my skirt. Rafa came to my rescue!

“Grab on, grab on!” Rafa yelled. I grabbed on to the back of his boat and he was trying with all his might to paddle upstream so neither of us would go over the last ledge. The power of the water was too strong, though. I felt myself and Rafa being pulled over the last ledge.

“Let go, let go!” Rafa yelled. “But I don’t want to let go!” I shouted back at him. Finally, knowing that there was no way Rafa was going to get me out of this one, I let go. . . just in time for him to take a couple more strokes to avoid going over himself. I turned over onto my back, balled up and went deep . . . way deep. Without any trouble at all, I popped up pretty far downstream.

EJ was there with a rope. He threw me the rope right before the river did an S-turn. (At this point we had no idea what was downstream) I grabbed onto the rope and tried to swim up into a calm eddy, but a boily, turbulant eddyline was blocking the way. I felt myself being pulled down by this eddyline. For a second all you could see was my helmet on the surface of the water.

I tried scrambling up the rocks, but there was nothing to grip my feet too. Finally, once the boily water popped me up again and after I took in a big gulp of water, I noticed Nick’s boat right by me.

“Grab on!” Nick yelled. I grabbed on to his boat and he took me downstream. It took me a while to catch my breath and put my boat back together (foam fell out) and we continued downstream.

We were headed for the last of the big drops. We all eddied out, noticing a huge horizon line with mist rising below. Daren ran ahead to scout. Realizing that this had to be of significance, we all got out of our boats and scouted. This was probably my favorite drop on the river, besides the blind 25 footer from a couple days before.

From upstream, we noticed a log sticking out of this drop and we were figuring we couldn’t run it because of it. But, as we continued downstream and looked at the river-left side of the drop, we all smiled and cheered. “This drop looks sweet,” I thought. This drop ended up being a double drop - 20 footer into another 20 footer.

You wanted to boof both drops if you could, making sure to avoid the river right wall at the bottom of the first drop. Rafa fired it up first - he disappeared in the fold of the first drop and plugged the second - came out fine. EJ went next - he styled it all, boofing both the top and bottom drop. I decided to fire it up next - I gave ‘er a left boof stroke as I went over the first drop and disappeared into the fold (just like Rafa), plugging the bottom and popping up.

After running this drop, it was mandatory to hit a small (one boat) eddy on river right, climb out of your boat onto a small rock outcropping and rope our boats and ourselves up, because just downstream was a horrible hole with undercuts on both sides. We were pretty sure that if you didn’t boof that hole, you would die.

We all portaged the hole and got to do a sweet seal launch downstream. Once again, I asked to be pushed in. Darin got in his boat first, so before Eric and Nick launched me, they helped Darin out. Thinking that they were doing the best they could, they pushed Darin in, landing him on his head (I think he actually got a black eye from that).

“Please seal launch me better than that, guys!” I pleaded. They pushed me in and I landed softly.