Saturday 10-Nov-2007
Lower Head River
Water Level: 7.76 on Washago Black gauge
Brent drove up to my place from Hamilton as he was desperate to get out and paddle. We left my place at noon and met up with Neil at Timmy Who’s just across from the putin. I went in a pre-ordered a half dozen fruit tarts for later. The weather was nice and zero wind. The flat water spots on the river looked like glass. Great possibility for reflection shots but my SLR camera was in the shop being repaired.
Dan and Erin showed up about 20 minutes later. Neil lent her AnnaLisa’s drysuit as she wasn’t paddling that day. Erin had a big smile on her face when she saw the suit as she thought she would be wearing cold neoprene gear. This would be Erin’s third day ever solo whitewater paddling in a open boat. We got suited up and did a quick shuttle and hit the river. Neil went holy crap its low. I told him that it was up at least four inches from two weekends ago.
Dan decided to check if Erin’s drysuit would keep her dry and decided to dunk her in the river like it was a religious experience.
We paddled up river towards Stonewall rapids. Neil went up above while the rest of us were just hanging out. He ended up taking some built up sticks and stuff out of the river in order to run the rapids. He asked us if the river went up at all after he came back down to where we were and told us about how he cleaned out some crap to make his run.
After that we headed down to Husky rapids. I got out to shoot some video as every ran the left side. Erin had the best clean runout of the group as she did not ground out or hit any rocks. Neil also ran the right side but had to do a extreme bump and grind bounce up ad down move to get over the ledge.
Our run down Second chute was fine. Some of us managed to get a little surf time in below the drop. Everyone was able to run the left run down the next set of rapids. It was definitely not runnable two weeks before.
We ended up doing some river cleanup at Triple Drop. Neil removed some logs at the first drop of triple drop. Neil and I removed a big plastic floating frame from the eddy below the first drop. Everyone but Erin ran the First drop. Everyone ran the Second drop. Someone took a chainsaw to the big tree at the second drop and most of it is now submerged. It loooks like someone went down the river with the chainsaw as there was trees in other areas that were freshly cut up. Everyone ran the Third drop and headed down river only to hit the bump and grind on the corner run.
At some point during the trip Dan’s hands were getting cold and asked me if I had my gloves with me. I pulled them out of my drytop pocket already pre-warmed and lent them to him. The rest of the river was fine. I did my most bonehead move of the day after the last set as we were paddling on the flatwater. I decided to try tag a free ride on Dans boat by hooking his grab loop with a paddle only to get pulled over sideways into the river and swim. Everyone had a good laugh on my swim.
Later on Dan bet me 50 bucks that I could not paddle his Zephyr into the middle of the river, standup in it for 10 seconds, and get back down into the boat without tipping over. I fell pretty fast into the water on try number one. Dan said he could have two more tries but would reduce the bet by 10 bucks on each try. Dan is not quite sure how but I managed to pull it off on the second try but his comment was basically “Holy $h1t ….”.
We finally made it to the takeout around 4:30. We headed up to pick up the other vehicles. Rodney passed us on the road and was pointing towards the bridge. Neil thought he was pointing to the porcupine he had seen on the road. I picked up my freshly baked tarts and a load of bread from Timmy Who’s. We found out when we came back to the takeout that a black bear had crossed the road about 100 feet on the south side of the bridge. It was getting pretty cold. Neil already had ice forming in his boat and my deflated airbags were starting to freeze.
Dan walked up with a fist full of cash in his hand to pay off his bet. I took 15 bucks out of his hand and told him to keep the rest. I told him he just paid for the tarts. I shared the tarts with everyone. We then said our goodbyes and departed ways.
Brent and I were heading back to my place when I got cut off by Dan in Barrie. He asked us what we were doing for dinner as Erin and him were heading to the family cottage a few minutes away from my house. Brent said he had to head back home. I told them I would come after drop Brent of to get his car from my place. I enjoyed a lovely dinner with Erin and Dan. Thanks!
Dan don’t forget to get your air pump fixed!
Here is a link to a video I pieced together. Nothing fancy but you get the point.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=dlMY9XbhNfc
