UK Steep Creeking

A few months back two friends and I headed south west in search of a new river, countless runs of the Dart and the Erme, left us in search of something new…

Lots of rain was due to fall throughout the evening so a plan was made to head to the East Okement in the early hours of the morning. By the time we were halfway down the M5, the river had dropped too much, it had gone from huge to scrape in the space of 6 hours. However the East Lyn was at a superb level, 1.84 on the rainchasers gauge which was classed as high.

With 1 member of the group having done the Lyn before, we jumped on the river very anxious and excited about what lie ahead. What we found was the best day of UK creek boating I had experienced yet. Numerous boofs, back loops and flairs saw us very quickly descend the river to Watersmeet. The high level meant the Horoak Water drops were running beautifully, we quickly took the opportunity before carrying onto the Sea. We bumped into a photographer who was around taking pictures of the Horoak Water, so we managed to get some great photos of us on the run.

We then entered the Lyn gorge section. This was somewhat different to the rest of the river, as the channel began to narrow and it steepened once more. The gorge was probably one of the best 500m of water I had ever run; big holes and numerous moves to make made it an extremely exciting section.

Following the gorge we blasted down the last bit to Lynton which had turned into a great bouncy and super clean run.