Tlapocoyan, Vera Cruz

We explored 2k more of the Middle Alseseca. Our put-in was on the trail we used to take-out at the day before, and the run started off with a small 5' ledge drop with a massive cave that was to set the standard for the day. The standard was caves and undercuts on this section, with the first rapid being an ugly thirty footer with about 80% of the water going unto a undercut on the right that was continued over forty yards downstream from the drop. The other 20% of the surface flow went into a mellower looking undercut on the left, and some water moved downstream about twenty feet downstream of where the falls folded in. Portaged options looked bleak with verticle walls on both sides, and no way to climb up. Mind you we were only five minutes into the run and not willing to turn back. Eventually Ben Stookesberry fired it up driving right hard and having a less than inspiring line, although he did avoid both undercuts. We all looked around for a few more minutes before Phil Boyer ran the drop and narrowly avoided the undercut on the right, prompting us to spend more time contemplating our portage options.
Eventually we seemed to find an option on the left where we could throw boats in, hope they flushed and jump in after them. We threw all the boats first, and each went over to the undercut but they all managed to bounce their way downstream. Eric Seymour led the way on the jump, and made us all a bit nervous as he resurfaced about 10' of the right wall and was quickly pushed into it but managed to work his way downstream. We all followed suit jumping in and dealing with the minor undercut wall, I think everyone was more worried about the person that was currently on the wall than themselves while on the wall. Downstream we made decent progress running a few drops, suffering a swimmer in a cave, lost paddle, lengthy boat rescue from said cave and a torn skirt later in the day. This day also had another big 80-90' waterfall we ended up doing a great jump off of.
More additions to our group were made with the arrival of Eric Jackson, Heather Herbeck and Jesse Coombs the next day. Unfortunatley Jesse had been suffering from a previous shoulder injury and injured it again on the classic Alseseca run. Today we ran the Upper Upper Alseseca with some entertaining lines, and we await dry weather and dropping water to resume exploration on the Middle Alseseca mission.

Jefferson State Creeking