Saturday 20-Oct-2007
Ottawa River – Main Channel
Water level: -3.5 according to others
I was the first of our group to get to the putin. I drove right down to the river dropped off my boat off. I left all the paddling gear I needed in my boat and drove back up to the parking lot. Jason from Colorado had just pulled in as I came up the hill into the lot. He had never run the river before and was only in town for a few days. He got hold of me through BoatWerks and asked if he could tag along.
I then ran into Dave and Sean. They decided to join our group. Wayne saw my post and decided to come out for a paddle. We did a quick shuttle. And then there was the late comers Laura, Brent, and Ellen.
We all head off to McKoy’s. I had already decided I was not running Phil’s today as this was my first day paddling since the Gull river race back at the beginning of September, Dave and Sean ran the right hand line close to shore. Jason and Wayne did the thread the needle.
I decided to run the same line as Jason and Sean. I ended up getting spun on the eddy line just above the last rock with the pour over. I decided there was no way I was going to spin the front of the boat in time back down river as it had already bumped the wall. I spun the boat around and ran the chute backwards and then spun it the right way around and eddied out at Corner Wave in order to head back up to take pictures. Brent, Laura, and Ellen all took the right hand line.
After some swims (names to remain anonymous) we all headed down to The Lorne. I ended up swimming when I started to change my angle too soon to head over behind Moby Dick. I ended up having too much downstream lean when I hit the top of the Garb wave sooner than expected. I self rescued and paddled back up the eddy in order to get out on Moby Dick to take pictures. The others made their runs. Jason was having a blast trying to get onto Garb and other various places around it. I don’t think anyone else tried to get on Garb as the level was not prime. I managed to get a front surf on the diagonal wave you have to get out on in order to slide onto Garb. It was frickin amazing and I was happy.
We then headed down to Push Button where I finally met Paul for the first time ever. I also met Kyle for the first time as well. I tried to surf Push Button but today was not my day. Dave hopped into my boat and had a couple of great rides. Wayne got in a few surfs as well. There were 26 people at Push Button when we were there and more were showing up as we headed down river.
Next was Butchers Knife. Most of us took the left line. It was kind of hard to tell by looking up river as I went first. Some of the group played in the whirlpools at Brain Douche before heading to the Normans.
I tried catching the most upper right eddy above the ledge but missed it and end up going over the ledge into the hole backwards and I swam for my second time of the day. I self rescued and swam with my boat to the big river right eddy before Coliseum and got back into my boat. I did have to throw my rescue bag out in order to tow someone into shore but the good thing was nobody was hurt. Laura was quite surprised at how the boils grabbed her boat. I warned her and the others about the boils so they would not be caught off guard.
Some people got out to scout Coliseum. I just ran the left line and waited in the eddy below. Dave and Jason were having fun trying to surf the river left hole. Everyone else finally made it down. Ellen elected to walk this one. Everyone went through Dogs Leg fine and then came Blacks.
We spent quite a bit of time playing here. We ran into Alan and one of his friends (sorry forgot his name). I almost had a front surf before I got out to take pictures. Jason was just ripping it up. Sean and Brent looked like they were having fun. Laura tried a couple of surfs. Dave took my boat out for another ride and was styling it quite fine. He then hopped back into his kayak and styled it some more. I hopped back into my boat and blew a crappy attempt at a front surf. I went back for a shot at a side surf and was there for a bit before getting window shaded and swam. I almost rolled back up. Jason and Laura said it looked pretty cool. Jason figured that I would have not gone over if I had thrown my body weight over to the other side (oooppss).
After that we headed to the takeout. Dave, Sean, Wayne, and Ellen were already there. I loaded Jason’s boat and mine on the car. Wayne was asking what I was doing on Sunday and said I did not have any plans. I then asked Jason what he was doing and the outcome of the conversation ended up we were meeting at 09:30 Sunday to go paddling again! I then gave a couple of drivers a ride back up top to get their cars.
I dropped Jason off at Little Picky and met his girlfriend Anna. I changed into my dry stuff before heading off back to my dads. I made a couple of stops on the way to visit friends.
Pictures:
Pictures Part 01
Pictures Part 02
Pictures Part 03
Pictures Part 04
Pictures Part 05
Pictures Part 06
