The Final Day

It was a normal spring time morning for the guys of Ashland Mine Productions. Most were getting ready for another day of paddling on the rivers of Northern California. A few of them were already out on the Cal Salmon, camping out down near Orleans, along Hwy. 96, including Joe Ellis, Jeff's Cousin. Jeff was getting set to head out with Devin and Ryan Knight, Andrew Gerdes, Tristan Ragsdale, and Ben Stookesberry, to paddle Shackleford creek, a small, but challenging creek exiting the Marble Mountain Wilderness area. Shackleford creek is a tributary of the Scott River.

Before they left, Jeff had an early morning staff meeting at his Outback Steakhouse to go to. Fortunately, Jeff being Jeff, he bounced in front of a camera that was unintended for him, just being funny. That was his last picture.

As soon as the meeting was over, Jeff bailed out of Ashland and headed of California and the Scott Valley. Jeff meet up with the boys over at the takeout for Shackleford Creek. A few miles in from the main hwy, running from Fort Jones to Etna, the takeout parking spot is just up a small hill from a waterfall, nicknamed "Hot Beef Injection" (HBI), by the local paddlers. Typically, HBI is the last drop in the days run.

The 6 of them, Jeff, Tristan, Ben, Andrew, Ryan, and Devin, piled in another ride, and cruised up the road to the put in.

Shackleford Creek is not the most renowned of whitewater, but it has some very difficult drops, making it the perfect place to film some footage for the next in the line of films, "No Big Names III". Having just finished and released the second film, the boys were excited about collecting some more local shots, before taking off in the fall/winter for a planned South American expedition, which Jeff was seriously considering going on.

It was early May, after a very cold, wet, and late winter. Spring had been pretty rainy this season as well. The water level was running much higher than normal, and was noticeably colder than last season. Yet the boys had all been here before, and on numerous occasions. Jeff had already run this creek 6 times, and boasted that HBI was his favorite drop anywhere (although, it was probably at least partly related to the name itself).

As they took their time with the run, stopping to take some footage at the bigger drops, all of them noticed how tired they were...More than normal... In all, as they approached HBI, they had been on the river for about 6 hours. They all had been talking actively about how they felt. Devin told Jeff he was exhausted and was looking forward to being done after this last drop. Jeff agreed, saying his whole body was tired.

Hot Beef Injection is a waterfall, about 20-25 feet high normally. This particular day, it was running at such a high cfs, that the pool below was markedly larger making the waterfall shorter. The problem with that is the water shot out farther from the wall, and more than halfway across the pool below. The tricky part of this waterfall was the pool was large enough for a few, maybe 3 boats, but the waterfall split it in two. The creek takes a hard right turn out of the pool, thus creating a horizontal recirculating current to the left of the waterfall and that is where the majority of the lines over the falls forced a paddler to go to. The hole is incredibly deep, as you cannot easily see the bottom in low water, and the force of the water coming over also caused a massive vertical recirculating current underneath.

The six of them, realizing they were tired and the conditions in front of them on HBI, decided to set up safety below the falls. Considering that all of them had run this before, and it wasn't normally considered that dangerous of a decent, they actually set up a safety man for the first time ever here and the boys had no reason to suspect anything may go wrong at this point.

With the vehicles in sight a mere 50 yards and 75 feet of elevation away, Tristan, Ryan, and Andrew set out first to finish another epic day. After the three of them successfully maneuvered past the waterfall, albeit with difficulty as they were all caught in the eddy for a moment, Jeff, Devin, and Ben set back up the trail to get in their own boats. Tristan took the rope bag down next to the eddy as Ryan and Andrew set up downstream protection. As Ben set forth, he muttered some last minute things to Devin and Jeff about being tired and disappeared below the falls. Devin was next to disappear. After a few moments to let him clear out, Jeff set forth on what would be one of his last images, going over the top of another great waterfall.

When Jeff crested the falls, Devin was still in the eddy below, fighting like hell to get out. Jeff landed well, but got caught in the eddy also. Around and round the two of them went. Devin told Jeff he was tired, Jeff replied with "if I roll, I don't know if I have the strength to roll back up". Devin then made a hard paddle for the exit and Jeff gave him a push. Devin broke through the current to safety, but the push caused Jeff to float partially under the waterfall...

The water rushed over him and the force caused him to tumble. Jeff Ellis was now upside-down and fighting to roll. He fought to roll for a few seconds but the water must have been violent, for he pulled his spray skirt fairly quickly. His head shot out of the water after a few seconds and Tristan landed a perfect throw right across his outstretched arms but Jeff was already going under. Suddenly, the line went tight. Jeff had grabbed hold of it under the whitewater. Tristan held on tight, but suddenly the line went limp. Jeff had let go...

Tristan readied another bag as the others made their way toward him. Once again, Jeff's head showed itself, but this time after being under for about 10-15 seconds. He was blue in the face already and wasn't fighting real hard. Tristan landed another perfect shot. This time Jeff locked on before the water took over, but he was still pulled underneath. Unfortunately, Jeff didn't have any strength left...probably had already swallowed some water...The rope once again went limp...Jeff was underneath the water. The seconds must have felt like an eternity for those fine young men.

Tristan couldn't wait any longer, Jeff was underneath the water and he knew his time was short. Tristan stripped off his helmet and PFD, dove in the pool after him. In ice old water, with no safety line attached, Tristan did one of the bravest and most selfless things a person can do for another, risk his own life. He swam into a dark environment,or the "green room" as paddlers have grown to call it. Fighting off all currents. Tristan finally found Jeff and swam towards the surface. But Jeff was too big...

About that time, the others made it to Tristan, and seeing him struggle with a 6'4", 270 lb man, they dove in and helped. One held the other end of rope line and the rest formed a human chain as they pulled Tristan and Jeff to shore. But Jeff wasn't breathing.

All of these fine young men were experienced and expert paddlers.Along with that, they were all trained in at least basic first aid. Ben, Devin, Ryan, and Tristan initiated CPR on Jeff while Andrew hoped in one of the vehicles and raced off to the nearest house to call 911. It was only a mile or so until he found a house, but in this remote part of the county, help is not near.

In all, the boys performed brilliant CPR on Jeff for about 10-15 minutes until the medics arrived. The local fire department took over and within minutes of arrival, Jeff was on his way to Fairchild medical center in Yreka, CA. Tristan, Andrew, Ryan, Ben, and Devin were left in shock at what had just happened, and what to do next. They loaded up what they could and raced toward the emergency room hoping against hope that what was happening wasn't what they thought was happening.

They started making calls. Someone called and left a message for Joey, on another isolated area nearby, maybe 30 drive. They couldn't reach him so eventually they drove out to tell him in person. But first, they decided to make another call, to Jeff's parents. They wouldn't reach the ER for another 15 minutes, but they had to give them a heads up. In the courage it took for Ben to make that call, and in the minutes that it undoubtedly took for him to think of what to say, they all realized what they would come to find out in mere minutes...Jeff had died...