rapids Archives - Freeman Explore

The mouth of the Rio Roosevelt

June 16, 2014 By Dave Freeman

It turns out there is a little lodge at the mouth of the Rio roosevelt. After showers and cold beer I think we feel about as refreshed as Roosevelt did we he saw the rest of his original party camped here 100 years ago. It has been a pleasure following in Roosevelt’s footsteps. Paul and I still have 2 weeks in Brazil.

We plan to work our way back to the headwaters of the river. We are going to try to contact the Cinta Large again to gain access to the beginning of the river. We really want to meet the Cinta Larga and paddle the first part of the river. We look forward to sharing the rest of the adventure with you.

Descending the Rio Roosevelt’s last rapids

June 15, 2014 By Dave Freeman

The dull roar of powerful rapids have been a constant reminder of the power of the Rio Roosevelt over the past 3 days. We have been camping in the forest and spending more time walking forest trails rather than our normal rythm of paddling all day. We spent two days walking back and forth on forest trails scouting the river and walking to a farm 10 km from the beginning of the rapids to gain more information about the rapids.
We decided that the safest options was to portage our 5 canoes and mountain of equipment 3 km along good trails to the base of the first rapids. Paul and I spent 5 hours hauling 4 of the canoes and several packs to the beach below the rapids last night during the relative cool night air. We crashed in our hammocks for a few hours and then the whole group began portaging the rest of the supples at dawn. By 9:30 Eurico dropped the last pack on the beach and Hercilio prepared a big feast. Our next portage lay only a kilometer away and we needed to regain our strength.

The swift current quickly swept us to the next rapids. We snaked along the shore wading next to the canoes and using ropes to carefully maneuver the canoes past the surging rapids. Twice we have to unload the canoes and carry all of our equipment and canoes over the rocks. After several hours of hard, wet work we launched the canoes at the base of the rapids. Smaller rapids were scattered over the next 5 km. We wove through islands and plunged over ledges and through crashing waves. – After a long day we stopped on a small beach just above Sumauma, the largest of the rapids. Sumauma is our last major obstacle before we reach the mouth of the Rio Roosevelt. One hundred years ago Roosevelt’s crew spent a day and a half navigating this final stretch of rapids. With any luck we will also be past the last rapids by lunch time tomorrow and we will reach the mouth of the Rio Roosevelt tomorrow afternoon.

Locals gave us a hand around dangerous rapids

June 6, 2014 By Dave Freeman

Last night we fell asleep to the rumble of the Panelas Rapids. In the morning our first job was to figure out a way around the half mile long, dangerous rapids. Roosevelt found a local man to guide his party safely past the rapids and we did the same thing. Several locals led us down a narrow side channel and helped us portage our canoes and equipment around the worst of the rapids. It took us about an hour to carry everything around.

Hercilio holds a small snake that likes to live in the trees.

We paddled on for the rest of the day and only encountered a couple sections of fast water. Our next major rapids is 40 miles downstream.

Jack and Hercilio caught 3 large piranha just before dark in the exact place we were all bathing a few hours before. It makes you think twice about swimming. However, it is really hot, and piranha bites are very rare. I think our chances of getting a fungal infection or a painful rash from poor hygiene are far greater than being bitten by a piranha.

Meet our new fine-feathered team member

June 5, 2014 By Dave Freeman

We camped at a vacant riverside farm. Lovely place. The Rio Roosevelt wraps arounds an island here with rapids and big rock outcroppings on both sides. Hot day so were in and out of the water, frolicking in the swift current. The same pools produced our dinner — grilled pirahna laced with sliced lemon, compliments of s tree where we pitched our tents.

Over dinner we celebrated Ercilio’s 48th birthday. A fun-loving guy full of good cheer and playful antics, he’s also a fine chef and with his friend Jacinto looks after the camp kitchen. After his birthday dinner he entertained us with his “berimbau,” a long single-stringed instrument that resonates through a gourd. It is played with a stick and a stone, and produces a grand total of two notes. But we managed to share hours of American and Brazilian folk songs to the beat of that odd instrument.
Our paddle today took us through a large braided rapids. Running it proved a challenge for a few of our crew and we got separated amongst the braids. We awaited their arrival at a native farmstead below the rapids. The family offered us a basket of lemons and a rooster so we bought them with plans for a lemon chicken dinner. But when we continued our paddle the rooster perched himself on the stern of a canoe like a cackling stevadore and quickly became a source of team entertainment. He even gained a name: Salvador. You will be pleased to know that he’s now our official expedition mascot and is not destined for the cookpot.

Tonight we’re camped at a tiny native settlement above a mile-long stretch of roaring rapids. Our tents are set in a yard alongside the general store. Villagers come & go through the evening buying supplies or playing snooker on the veranda pool table. The kids are intrigued with our ipads and sat phone equipment. And Salvador is being challenged by the resident rooster. So we’ve found him a perch high above the chickens and guinea pigs scurrying about the grounds. Our team is enjoying a round of cold beers after a day in the scorching equatorial sun. Concerns about how we’ll negotiate this long stretch of rapids will have to wait till morning.

Paddling our first rapids on the Rio Roosevelt

June 4, 2014 By Dave Freeman

Today we paddled around a bend in the Rio Branco and the Rio Roosevelt came into view. Everyone howled with joy. After over a week of stops and starts and even flying over the Rio Roosevelt we were finally descending the river that President Theodore Roosevelt’s party explored 100 years ago. One of our goals is to see how the river has changed over the last 100 years. Is it still the wild and remote place that Roosevelt encountered?

Yesterday we encountered rubber tappers, just as Roosevelt did in 1914. We have encountered a few farms in the region, but large tracks of land remain wild and undeveloped. In fact, we recently learned that anthropologists discovered an uncontacted tribe living near the Rio Branco several months ago. The Brazilian government is setting up a reserve similar to the Cinta Larga reserve so that the uncontacted tribe will remain undisturbed and can continue to live as they have for centuries. Those people were probably living in this region when Roosevelt traveled through.

Goal Zero solar panels supply all the power we need to charge our electronic devices.

The Rio Roosevelt is a grand river, with rocky islands and numerous rapids. This afternoon we navigated 3 rapids. All of the rapids were small enough that we were able to descend them safely in our canoes and did not have to portage. We are camped at the base of the last rapids. I am listening to the dull rumble of the rapids and watching the sun dip below the horizon as I write this. I can see President Roosevelt sitting in this place writing in his journal.

Tapir sighting and a warm day

June 2, 2014 By Dave Freeman

The current began to accelerate and the dull roar of a large rapids was audible 1/4 mile from the falls. We surprised a tapir swimming across the river and got some great photos of it before it scrambled out of the water and disappeared into the thick jungle. We landed on the right side of the river to scout the rapids and found a 10 foot falls that would require a short portage. Paul and I crossed to the left side of the river and found an easy portage. We radioed the rest of the team to tell them about the easy path that we had found, but they decided to stay on the right side of the river and hack a trail through the forest. We quickly unloaded our 4 Sea to Summit 120 liter Hydraulic Dry Bag backpacks and carried them 30 feet across a rock shelf.

After 5 minutes we had our canoe loaded at the base of the thundering rapids. We sat in the shade and watched the rest of the group complete the portage for about 40 minutes and then they were finished we hopped in our canoe and met up with them so that we could continue down river together. Paul found a nice pool to lie in and let the cool water wash over him for several minutes.

The heat is really intense here and from 10 AM to 3 PM the sun really beats down on us. We stopped early on a large sandbar because we don’t expect to find large sand beaches on the Rio Roosevelt. We are very close to the Roosevelt and with any luck we will reach the Roosevelt early tomorrow morning. Paul and I startled a small caiman shortly before reaching our camp, it darted into the water as soon as we noticed it. The animals are amazing. The biodiversity here is hard imagine. Every day we see new things and I look forward to seeing what awaits us tomorrow.