Rio Zuñag.

Charlie Watt.

A few days ago, I boarded a bus to Baños, excited about 9 miles of non-stop bouldery boofin' goodness. This time last year, I started this blog with a post about the Rio Topo. One year and a handful of new runs later, the Topo is still one of my all-time favorite's.

At this point you might be wondering: "Why is he talking about the Topo? The title of this post is Rio Zuñag." To that question, I politely respond: "This is my blog, and it is really sick, so just keep reading, alright brah?"

After a delicious llapingacho breakfast, Scotty Baker, Charlie Watt, Jesse "Booty Beer" Sammons and I loaded up and headed outta town. The sun was shining, and we were stoked to be Topo-bound.

Last year, when Craig "The Hammer" Parks and I first drove over the Topo bridge, it looked like this:

A little low, yet glorious.

This year, when we arrived at the Topo, it looked like this: 

Hmmm...

At this point you're probably thinking: "Whoa bro, that water is brown!" Which may prompt you to throw up a brown claw. At which point I would just shake my head in disappointment.

Between the 4 of us, 3 of us agreed it was too high. I had heard from a stylistically-challenged DJ friend of mine that when the Topo was too high, the creek congruent to the Topo was a viable alternative. We decided to check it out.

Only a few hundred yards away from the flooded, brown waters of the Topo, the Rio Zuñag was running beautifully clear, at what appeared to be an optimal flow.  We asked our driver to take us upstream as far as he could manage, knowing that wasn't going to be very far at all. Just above where the road ended, two smaller creeks joined together to form the Zuñag.  Charlie hiked up, scouted the confluence, and told us it was a bit too manky, and not worth putting in any higher. No hiking? No problem.

Enjoy these shots:

Scotty Baker boogyin'...

One of the longest rapids.

Scouting the bottom of the rapid picture above.

Bouldery.

Charlie post-boof.

Scotty makin' his way through.

Jesse emptying and dreaming about booty-beer.

Couldn't help but smile.

Scotty.

Charlie mid-slot.

Jesse is also partial to slots.

Hoping out to scout.

Jesse.
Photo: Scotty Baker.

Makin' my way down.
Photo: Scotty Baker.

Avoiding a nasty hole.
Photo: Scotty Baker.

The Zuñag, while short (2-3 miles), features constant action from top to bottom, letting up only for a second between rapids.  Considering how high the Topo was, I was very satisfied that we were able to catch a new run of similar quality. Thanks to Scotty Baker for some awesome pictures.

Next up: The definition of a class V creek.

Chevre.

Joe