29-Apr-2007
Water Level: 150 cm according Shauna at Paddlers-Coop
We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning. It was kind of hard to get motivated. The three stoves that Neil and Derek were using sounded like jet engines. The rest of the gang was eating hot oatmeal and other stuff. Val and I opted to eat in town as we need the extra grease factor and that we were also too lazy to cook. We arrived at the restaurant 15 minutes before opening but the cook let us in. We both had the number 5 special bacon, sausages, eggs, toast, coffee. Well Val had coffee as I can’t drink the crap.
The open boaters were AnnaLisa, Neil, Derek, Greg, Paul and Brenda in OC2, and myself. The kayakers were now down to Jess and Val. Greg, Paul, and Brenda decided to paddle up river. The rest of us took the easy route and drove over to the access point off Dam road.
We paddled up to the top river left chute for ferrying and surfing practice. After that we headed over and scouted the middle chute. Val, Derek, Greg, and Neil ran it first. Greg I thought ended up being the first swimmer of the day but he point out that he had already been swimming. Neil and I headed up for a run. Neil went first and Derek was on camera patrol. He was too busy taking pictures of Neil and did not realize that I was coming down “Ducky Style”. I went through th big standing wave fine and style it at the end by going down it backwards in fine form. It was at that point that Derek said he did not get very many pictures of me so I had to go for a second run and did it the whole way pointing in the right direction.
Paul and Brenda were sitting on the shore watching. They were not sure about running it. Derek and Paul ended up running it tandem. Derek also did a tandem run down with Brenda. It’s pretty amazing to see how much air the open boats can get. AnnaLisa had a great run. Jess finally decided to run it as well in fine form.
After that it was time to run the river right chute. Derek, Val, Greg, Jess, and Neil went first with no problems. Paul and Brenda did a tandem run and managed to catch a superb amount of air. I ended up doing two runs as I kept missing the big wave. Normally I get sucked into waves and holes but this one kept trying to avoid me for some reason. AnnaLisa had a great run down catching some air as well. After that some people decide to purposely swim the shoot in order to cool down as it was starting to get hot.
After that we head down river. I decided to just bomb down the river as I was getting kind of hungry as it was way past 1pm. I end up punching the first big hole at the bottom of river right only to end up side surfing in the second one. I ended up swimming and doing a self rescue after almost getting out of it a couple of times. After that I head to the car to start download the pictures onto the laptop and have something to eat. I was pretty bagged by this point and decided to pack it in. Shortly after Val and Jess did the same and soon the whole gang was there snacking and decided that was the end of days paddling.
After a quick slide show it was goodbyes until next time. I still had to go over to the Coop to get my tent and sleeping bag. After that it was a 90 minute drive to Pembroke where I splurged on a fish and chip dinner at the Irving Truck stop aka the “Pig Pit”. After that I headed over to Jenny’s how to hang out with her, Jeremy, Coop, Billy, and Carly until it was time to leave to head over to the opening ceremonies for the 2007 Worlds. I managed to upload the pictures using her high speed internet connection (Thanks Jen!!!). The opening ceremonies were fun to watch. It was nice to see some one the Great Britain team that I met last summer at River Run. I will be watching most of the competition and hopefully taking lots of pictures.
I finally made it to my dads around 10 pm and downed a cooler. It went down smooth. I then started to do up the trip report for today and finished the one from yesterday while waiting for the laundry to finish.
I will leave the pictures up for a couple of weeks.
Click here for pictures
