22-Jun-2007
Water Level: Just below 8 and dropping according to visual on gauge.
Well today was a great day for paddling. The weather was slightly overcast but warm. I only needed my polypro and short semi dry top.
Hopefully I have the names right … let me know if I goofed up or not.
I met up with Joe Stubbs at the Mckoys putin just before 10:30. This would have been the first time we actually met and paddled together. My daughter thinks it is weird for me to meet people online and paddle with them as she thinks I may get abducted or something along that line. It seems that we never practice what we preach as we tell our kids to be careful with their online encounters. All I can say is thank you BoatWerks for allowing me to meet so many new friendly people to paddle with!
I dropped my girlfriend off at the river and we did the shuttle.
Shortly after doing the shuttle Skippy (aka Janice) showed up. She apparently was the one that passed me in Eganville on the way up while I was getting some stuff at the Freshmart. It turns out the Gary, Milton, and herself were also running the middle channel today and they would most likely catch up to us at Angels Kiss.
Joe had never paddled with an open boater before. I guess he was a little bit concerned when he asked the question of how/what to do if I ended up swimming. I basically told him not to worry too much and as long as I am floating down the river I am ok and my girlfriend knows how to go down by herself just nicely.
We paddled down to McKoys and just ran it without scouting. I was off my line to the right by quite a bit. I managed to hit the meat of Phil’s dead on and ended up swimming down to the island where Leftside would normally be at lower water. I jumped on top of my boat during my refreshing swim. Hey it would not be a day on the river if I didn’t swim at least once. (note: make Ryan go down this for confidence booster … hee hee hee).
After that we paddled down at looked at the gauge. It was just under 8.
We headed down to Little Trickle. This was the first time I had ever been their. I took some pics. Janice and gang showed up. We all watched Joe run Little Trickle. After that they decided to head back over to Iron Ring. Janice told me she walked Iron Ring while the other ran it but she ran the rest of the set. I opted to walk around Little Trickle as there was not enough water for me and my girlfriend to make it down safetly.
I met up a little while later with Joe at Angels Kiss. There were already some others there playing. I hopped out and started taking pictures of everyone. I managed to get some surfs in. It was harder for me to get on the wave due to the angle I had to set my boat up with in order to ferry over to the middle. I managed to get quite a few jet ferries in and was catching eddys pretty good by that point in time.
Janice and her crew showed up a little while later. They paddled up from Butterfly. She said it was a bit trashy. I took some great shots of her and the gang. I even managed to get one of her smiling as she always has this deep in though look on her face.
I was getting some nice side surfing action in when Farmer Dave and his friend Jeremy showed up. Dave said my side surf looked good. After a high five they jumped onto the wave. I ended up doing another side surf and got window shaded. Apparently Dave asked Joe do we go and get him or is he ok? Dave figured that by the time he got to me I would have already made it to shore as he know I can swim towing my boat to shore pretty quickly. I am a very strong white water swimmer and have lots of practice with self rescue.
I paddled back up as was talking to Dave in the eddy. I was quite surprised to find out he actually has had the same girlfriend for two years and apparently she is a real person as opposed to my girlfriend. He said lets have a race to see who can jump on the wave first. I said sure. He said ok … starting … now as he grabs my boat and pushed it back while he took off. I wasn’t worried as my boat has lots of hull speed when I pour on the power. He got on the wave just before I did. I jumped on and headed over to where he was. We played bumper boats for a bit when the little bugger decided to gunwale grab me to make me window shade me and I have witnesses on shore who will vouch for me. I got back into my boat after my lovely refreshing swim and poured on the power. I jumped back onto the wave, ferried over, and did a big side surf bumper boats. All I heard from Dave was oh $h1t and I pushed him off the wave …. Wooo hoo … score 1 to 1!
Dave and Jeremy headed down river. It was nice to see a C1 dude show up as I thought I was the token single blader on the river.
After that we all headed down to Garvins. Janice and I walked around the left. I took pics of Joe, Gary, and Milton running the river left chute. All I can say was technical bump and grind but they did very well. After that we never saw Janice and gang the rest of the day.
Joe and I headed down to Upper No-Name. All I can say is woo hoo big a$$ wave train on the left. Lower No-Name was fun. We got out to take a quick look and all I can say is holy crap. We headed down river. I made it through all the big stuff at the top. I was too far to the right when I hit the last big hole at the wrong angle. I ended up getting stern squirted. I managed to throw all my body weight forward which brought the front of the boat down. I started paddling as hard as I could to try and get out of the hole (god I hope Ryan isn’t reading this yet) and got sucked back in and then boom … window shade. I grabbed onto my boat and went for my real second swim of the day. I turned my boat right side up. Joe came by and He held onto my boat and I jumped back into while floating down the river. I paddled it back to shore backward to empty out the water.
After that it was a float through Black Velvet and onto the takeout.
All I can say is I had a great day on the river. My confidence level is getting better when attempting to run the big stuff. Joe was glad he was able to make it and will be coming out with the gang on Saturday.
I only posted a few of the pictures I took today. I can provide a DVD with all of them on it. Just send me your snail mail address.
I will leave the pictures up for a couple of weeks.
Click here for pictures
