09-10 June 2007
Water Level: 90 – 100ish
Saturday:
The weather was gorgeous.
This is a combined two day trip report from paddling at Palmer Rapids this weekend.
I haven’t paddled since Palmerfest. I have been in a really do nothing mode. I did not feel like going out this weekend. I decided to put my girlfriend on the car Friday night just incase we decided to do a road trip. I always have my paddle and camping stuff ready to go. I set the alarm for 6am which is sleeping in for me. I basically rolled back over and went to sleep when the alarm went off. I got out of bed at 8am and puttered around a bit. I decided what the hell … road trip to Palmer Rapids … lets go and we were off at 9am.
We rolled into Palmer around 12ish. I ran into Al, Gail and Steward. I was still not motivated to paddle as it took me about 45 minutes to actually get my girlfriend off the car and suited up.
Well I must say I had fun on Saturday. The place was packed with various boats (mostly open boats). There were lots of different courses going on in between all the recreation and slalom paddlers.
I managed to get a lot of sweet surfs at the bottom of the left chute. I also had to chase a couple of open boats down the river and push them to shore. I even had to push a big open boat off a rock that it was stuck on. I was in a Esquif Caption at the time doing a test drive. I took about a 40 foot run right at the pinned boat and knocked it off and followed it down the river until it met its owner.
All and all I had a blast and I am glad I got my sorry butt out of bed to paddle.
I took lots of random pictures (around 76) of people and they can be found at:
Palmer Rapids
I decided at the end of the day I would head over to Petawawa and visit my dad and step-mom.
Sunday:
The weather was still gorgeous. I had to stop on the side of the road and help a huge turtle across the road. I had to stop traffic until he finally made it across to the other side. I didn’t want to see him or her get flattened.
I opted dropped the shorty top and just had on shorts and a polypro top. Today was the slalom race. I played around at the top chutes for a while and then headed down river to take pictures of the slalom race. I had a primo spot all to myself. I took over 500 pictures of the race.
After lunch I headed for a run down the river and went back up to the chutes. All I can say is whoo hoo … had lots of fun.
I had to post the pictures in two batches. I have them ordered by bib number:
Palmer Rapids Slalom Race Part1
Palmer Rapids Slalom Race Part2
It was nice to see all the people that I have met over the years. It is nice to be part of a friendly extended family.
