-We are now 4 kayakers which is a better number than 2 for safety purposes. The 2 new arrivals are two guys from Oregon, Ben Stookesberry and Jesse Coombs(TO HOT INSIDE). Two great guys and fanominal kayakers. I have much to learn from these
boys.

We arrived to a red carpet because of some good prep work by Ryan MacPherson at ITATIAIA NATIONAL PARK to do a first descent of the Campo Belo River. What was so special about this was that the park is not open to kayakers, but the big guys
upstairs let us in because they were curious of other possibilities the river had to offer in the park. They pretty much gave us the key to the park. They gave us a house inside the park, which we stayed at for 3 days and when all the tourists left we still had free range to explore the possibilities of the Campo Belo River.

When we arrived the river was low so the first day we took the opportunity to have a good look at what we were getting ourselves into (Campo Belo River Bed no water). The flow was about 60-80 CFS. The Campo Belo river is very steep and wide river bed. The stretch we were most interested in dropped 1100 feet in 2
miles, full of water falls and class V boulder gardens, with some portaging.

That evening the river came up so Ryan Mac hiked up his boat and ran one of the park treasures (Ryan Mac Campo Belo River). The put in is down stream 1/2 mile at a bridge. This river starts out with a big class V double drop. That Jesse and Ben S ran that night.

The second day we put on the Campo Belo river at the bridge with about 120 CFS and all ran the big double drop (Ben Zupo-Campo Belo River). The park had us put in before the tourists got there becuase they didn´t want people trying to hurl
themselves off of the waterfalls aswell. Lots of big drops all the way down.

One humongous drop that Jesse and Ben gave a go at(Ben Stookesberry-Campo BelloRiver, Jesse Coombs-Campo Bello River) The park also closed the final waterfal to tourists for the day that we ran and took out at. It is crazy for me to imagine
that a national park closed a tourist attraction for us(Ben Stookesberry-Campo
Belo River 2).

The other 3 photos are some landscapes I shot of the river(Tranquil moment on Campo Belo)(Rio Campo Belo)(Rio Campo Belo 2)

What an amazing experience this was for us. The future for kayaking on the Campo Belo is unknown, the park officials before hand said that we may end up being the first and final descent of the Campo Belo River.

L&K´s,

Ben
www.bzphotos.com