Corsica Trip Reports

After paddling in Slovenia and Croatia, Matt and I took a ferry to Italy and drove across to Pisa stopping for a day in Rome. From Pisa we took another ferry to Corsica and spent 10 days paddling there. These are the trip reports that we wrote at the time:

April 14th, 2004 - Almost getting hit by the train:

We paddled our first Corsican river yesterday, and had another epic adventure. On Monday we caught the ferry from Pisa, Italy to the island of Corsica. Corsica is a French island off the coast of Italy, the birthplace of Napoleon and for one month out of the year home to some of the world’s premier whitewater paddling. This was the birthplace of steep creeking. A testament to its quality is that the first three kayaks I paddled had Corsica in their names (Corsica S, Corsica Matrix, and Corsica Overflow).

We drove off the ferry around 5:30 or 6 and drove to a town near the center of the island named Corte. We intended on paddling a river flowing through this town rated at 5-7 (Corsican rivers are rated on an 8 scale where the first 4 grades are comparable to the standard 5 scale). After inspection the water level was too low so we moved on to the next river the Veccio. The Veccio had two sections that we were interested in the upper and middle. The guide that we printed off of the internet ( http://tinyurl.com/hp53j) said that the middle was rated at 5-6 and the upper at 7-8 the top end of the scale. It also said that the middle was not worth it at levels below 140cm on the gauge and the upper should not be run unguided above 150. It turned out that the level was 135 our decision was made. The guide also said that the middle section was the test run to see if your group was ready for Corsican whitewater while the upper was the test of the "true Corsican hard man”.

Our decision being made we drove to the top of the upper and put on the river. The Croatian rivers saved all of their altitude for large dramatic drops with long stretches of flat water in between. In Corsica the exact opposite was true. From the moment we put on, the river started going downhill and did not let up until we took off. The Veccio was a classic low volume creek, with lots of eddy hopping and boat scouting. While few of the rapids were extremely challenging by themselves the continuity of the river upped the ante considerably. The only place to catch a breath was in eddies formed by some of the larger boulders along the route. In all the section of river was 8 Km or 5 miles long. The only exit from the gorge was about 5 km (3 miles) into the run.

Things were going well at the start Matt and I were taking turns leading the run and signaling the lines back up to the other. As is common with steep low volume creeks there were lots of narrow chutes and places that were less than a paddle width across. At one point my paddle became stuck in between two rocks and I had to let go of it in order to avoid either breaking it or injuring my shoulder. This led to me flipping and having a quick swim in the eddy below (I really have to learn how to hand roll). Other than that stupid swim, my first of the year, things were going well.

That is until about 3 or 4 km into the run when the trouble began.

It started on an innocent looking rapid, where the water flowed over a low angle slab of rock with a few big boulders on it causing some funky currents. At the end of this sluiceway there was a three foot drop into a pool that marked the end of the rapid. Matt ran the rapid fine after stopping halfway down for me to scout the final drop. On my attempt, I ran the rapid non stop in the main channel and was knocked over about halfway down. The water in this section was pretty shallow and consequently I was dragged along the bottom for 50 yards or so before I could right my self. Somewhere during my attempts to roll while being dragged along the bottom I injured my left shoulder. At the point that I rolled up I was going over the final drop and was knocked over again and pushed up against a rock in the center of the stream. Attempts to roll were hampered by my strained shoulder and I ended up swimming, again.

After collecting myself and my gear on the side of the river I took a moment to consider the situation. We were deep in a river gorge with 2000 ft shear walls on either side. The only possibility for climbing out was still 1 or 2 Km down stream. My left shoulder was operating at less that 50 percent (I could paddle easy foreword strokes but no bracing or rolling on my left side) and it had taken us almost 4 hours to reach this point less than halfway down the river. The only option was to get back in the boat and continue to paddle at least to the spot where we could climb out and get back to a road. I accomplished this by paddling primarily with my right arm and portaging any rapids that would require strenuous left handed paddling. Proceeding like this I only had one more swim before the egress. I decided to try to run a rapid that, in hindsight, I probably should have walked and ended up upside down at the bottom, my confidence weakened by the injured shoulder I swam out and in the process of collecting my gear lost my paddle (luckily we were carrying a spare).

Anyway we made it to the halfway exit with out any further incident. The route out of the river consisted of a 2000 ft scramble up a scree field to a rail line that would take you to the nearest road. For those of you that don't know what a scree field is, imagine a 40 degree slope covered with loose rocks ranging in size from golf balls to suitcases. These rocks are all precariously balanced on each other and looking for any excuse to slide down to the river below. So it made for a treacherous climb up out of the river. After 90 min or more of pushing pulling and carrying our boats up and over these rocks we made the rail line and started heading for the road. As we were walking along the tracks I couldn't help but think about the scene from Stand By Me where the boys out on their adventure had to cross the railway bridge. Our route had to cross not only a rail bridge but also cross through a short tunnel and a cut in the side of the mountain that, while open at the top, had walls spaced just wide enough for a train to pass. I knew that it was an active line as I saw a train pass by as we neared the top of the scree slope.

We made it over the bridge and through the tunnel and were almost through the cut when I looked up and saw a train bearing down on us. With nowhere to go, I threw my kayak in the ditch and dove in after it, making myself as small as possible. Matt did the same behind me and the train passed safely beside/ over us. Luckily the ditch on the side was deep enough that it allowed us while lying down to be below the level of the train track. Quick thinking and resisting the temptation to panic had saved the day one again. After avoiding the train we made our way back to the road and I caught a ride back to our car.

We decided to take today off to rest and recuperate after yesterdays adventures and plan to be back on the river tomorrow.

Jake


April 19th, 2004 Matt’s account of saving my life:

We are at the end of an epic adventure in Corsica. I sure all of you have read about our first adventure in Corsica so here is the rest of the story.

The next river we paddled was just as exciting. The river was the Rizzenese and the guide book we had been using said that this was a great river with some big drops and a few portages. We paddle for most of the run without incident. We were scouting all the major rapids and making sound decisions to run or walk. We ended up walking four rapids two of which we could have run but the risk was just a little too high. The guide book also mentioned that the last drop should be run on the right side because the left side dropped 15 feet into a box canyon with little chance of escaping the backwash.

I was in the lead at the bottom and continued down the right side of the river because I new that we were close to the bottom of the section. Jake decided not to follow me because he says he saw what he thought was a “cool little creeky line through the woods”. What he didn’t know is that the river split into two channels one good channel on the right and one bad channel on the left. He was headed down the bad channel toward the 15 foot drop into the box canyon.

Just as I was entering the right side channel I looked back and saw that Jake had chosen the left channel. I thought it was not such a good idea but he was already committed. So I continued down the right side but the whole time I had a bad feeling that this was the drop that the guide book talked about and Jake was in trouble. I decided I needed to get out of my boat and have a look. I got out and couldn’t see any thing so I climbed up the bank to a trail and bridge that crossed the river. As I climbed the bank I noticed a sign on the island in the middle of the river that looked like a warning sing with the warnings written in multiple languages I scanned the sign until I found a language I recognized and it said "ATTENTION SWIMMING VERBOTEN”. Now I was sure Jake was in trouble.

I had my throw bag out and was heading for the bridge when I saw his paddle come floating down stream. Now I really knew something was wrong and I started running toward the water fall Jake had just gone over. As I was running I was scanning the water waiting for him to pop up so I could throw him a rope and pull him out but I did not see him. As I got close I saw him beside the flow of water clinging to the rock wall waiting for me to save him. I yelled to him that I was coming and he looked up but didn’t see me. I got myself as close as I could and threw my rope, practically hitting him in the head with it.

It was one hell of a toss because it took the whole length of rope to reach him meaning he was 50 feet away. He grabbed the rope and I ran down the bank and pulled him clear of the backwash of the water fall. I took a full hour for the waterfall to free his boat (see the video below). After that we paddle the rest of the river without any problems and I hitched back and got the car.

After packing our gear we headed to the next river on our list the Liamone. We showed up to the put in or take out depending on what section you were planning to run and ran into a group of German paddlers. They informed us that there wasn’t enough water but since it was raining there would probably be enough water to run it the next day. To our disappointment most of them were leaving the island that day. As we were standing around chit chatting about paddling and world issues and thing of that nature, Jake asked them if they new where he might find a paddle shop on the island to buy a replacement paddle for the one he lost on the Vecchio. They did not know of a paddle shop but one of them offered to lend Jake his. Jake didn’t feel comfortable borrowing the paddle and offered to buy it from him. The German said that that would be fine because he had recently ordered a new paddle. So Jake got a fairly new paddle for a mere 130 euros’.

One of the Germans said he was staying and asked if we would like to paddle with him. We eagerly accepted his invitation. As fun as it had been finding our own way down the rivers we thought it would be even nicer to follow someone who has been coming to Corsica since the mid 80`s and knew the rivers. So the next day we put on the upper Liamone with our new found German friend Peter. We had a blast following him down this amazing river. It was the most fun we had had since we arrived on the island. After paddling we made plans to meet Peter the next day to paddle the Vecchio. We would decide the section depending on the water level. We decided to paddle the middle Vecchio and it was a good decision.

The middle Vecchio was very challenging and fun. Again we followed Peter down safely with only one minor scare. I was going for a line around an undercut rock and over a three foot drop that had the potential of pinning me. As I went to make the move around the undercut I got hung up on another rock. This slowed my momentum and pushed me into the undercut. I caught my self on the rock and tried in vain to push my self free. I was flipped and at this point I knew I did not want to be out of my boat. So I waited and while underwater stretched my body and paddle out into the water flushing past the rock. This worked and I was flushed past the rock and rolled up just in time to run drop backwards. After that we paddled the remainder of the river with out any trouble and had another fantastic day kayaking.

Today we leave Corsica and head back to the mainland of Europe where we might go skiing one last time and definitely do some more boating.

Matt

Here is a link to the Video Footage from the Corsican leg of our trip:

Click Me