Friday 02-Nov-2007
Madawaska River – Middle, Palmer Rapids, Lower
Water Level: unknown
I headed up to the Palmer Rapids mid-afternoon and made a quick stop to talk with Scott at Rapid Media. After that is was a shopping trip to Foymount.
I stopped at MKC just before dark to scope out the river from Staircase down to Chalet rapids. It was low but very runnable.
I finally made it over to the Paddler Coop around 6:30ish and set up the tent, started the fire, and made dinner. Greg was the next to show up around 7:30ish. Neil and AnnaLisa showed up around 9:30ish which is way early than Greg and I thought as they normally have some lame excuse for pulling in at midnight. Beverages of various types were consumed around the fire.
Saturday 03-Nov-2007
The temperature probably hit around -8C on Friday night. I was toasty warm but the others complained they were cold. After breakfast, the plan was for those that were there to get some time on the river at Palmers until the others showed up at 11:30 and then run the Lower Mad in the afternoon. Well that didn’t quite happened as Greg had the fire going and it was hard to get motivated.
Dan and Erin showed up a little while later. Greg and decided to go paddling. We were still waiting for Ryan and Val. Blaine showed up with his kayaker. He was the new comer and asked if he could come out and paddle with us. Ryan was the next to show up followed by Val-park-n-play kayaker who we thought was coming alone. He ended up bringing the Fun Sherrif and the two deputies. He only wanted to park-n-play at Palmer and not run the Lower Mad (typical lazy kayaker).
So plans changed. Blaine and Ryan had never been on the Middle Mad over at MKC. The three of us went there. Neil and AnnaLisa joined Val and kept him company at Palmer.
Out group did the 32km drive over to MKC. We dropped the boats off at the putin at the bridge and did the quick 1.2km shuttle. We did a warm up paddle on the flatwater. Ryan was just about to leave the bridge when someone yelled at him and asked if they could tag along. It turned out to be Greg and we waited a few minutes in an eddy until he caught up to us.
We all got out of our boats and scouted Staircase before making our runs. Everyone basically made it through unscathed except for Blaine who had a minor swim. We headed down to Chalet for some eddy catching and ferry practice. Every seemed to have fun. I did my normal photo duties but screwed up on the camera setting as I unknowingly pressed some button while walking with the camera and over exposed some of the shots. Hey crap happens. After what seemed like a couple of hours we packed up and headed back to Palmer Rapids.
Blaine, Ryan, and I put in on the river and paddled up to the upper chutes. Blaine and I ran the river right chute. I managed to catch and eddy that I have missed all year and I was happy with the progress I have made.
We then headed down river and played at the first set. We practiced ferrying back and forth from each side of the river using all the eddys. The rest of the run down the river was spent catching as many eddies as possible on both sides of the river before taking out at the bottom.
We packed up and head back to camp to change into dry clothes. We still had a few hours to kill as we had dinner reservations at the Wilno Tavern. Dan was zonked out in his tent. He was totally screwed up in his sleep as he was away on business overseas and was just coming back from a 12 hour time zone change. He was all cuddled up in his brand new sleeping bag complete with tags still attached (see pictures). Beverages were being consumed by the fire while passing the time away. A beverage run was made as some people seemed to be running low. Soon it was time to wake up the Dan from his nap. Erin, AnnaLisa, and Neil piled on top of him in the tent (see pictures) to wake him up.
Well it was time to go off to the Wilno. Erin and I had to drive as the others couldn’t for some strange reason. I am glad I made a reservation. The place was packed and it wasn’t even buffet night as that was finished for the season. We spent a couple of hours there before heading back. We stopped in Barrys Bay to pick up a couple of pies for dessert. We re-stoked the fire and warmed the pies up near them and consumed more beverages. Some people decided to make up some hot water bottles for their sleeping bags (wusses). I went to bed around 10:30. Not sure about the others.
Pictures from saturday part 1
Pictures from saturday part 2
Sunday 04-Nov-2007
Most people started stirring around 7am or so and we were lucky to get that extra hour of sleep due to the time change. Some of us went into town for a number 5 or 6 and a flushy for breakfast. Blaine decided to join us for another day of paddling. I guess he did not think our group was that dysfunctional.
We head a new plan for the day. It seemed the river rose about 1.5 feet during the night. The dilemma now became do we run the Lower Mad or just be lazy and park-n-play at Hass Hole as the level would be at an optimum level. We decided to pull a Val and spent 5 hours at Hass. We had the place to ourselves the whole time. To bad for you Val you missed a great day.
Oh wait a minute that must have been a dream … the river was still the same level and we ran the Lower Mad. We finally got on the water around 10:30. I paddled ahead of the group to Hass to get setup for pictures. The rest were only about 10-15 minutes behind me.
I took pictures of everyones run. Neil took some of me. I was really happy when I caught the eddy on the right considering it did not fit into it. Dan said I was really learning how to work my boat with that move. Swimming throughout the day was minimal and I managed to have no swims at all.
This was the lowest that most of our group had run the Lower Mad. A lot of the bigger rapids ended up being a float through for the most part with minimal consequences. We were especially surprised at Rifle Chute which ended up losing all of its nastyness.
Dan, Greg, and I had fun there. I caught the same eddy they were in on river right. We then did a ferry over to the center eddy, followed by a move upstream ferry around the big rock pile in the middle over to another eddy at river left. I made it all the way across but ended up being a little to low on the last eddy but it was still and accomplishment for me. We ended up finding a nice undercut on the river left side of the run through Rifle just jet of the rock that would normally rip boats apart in higher water. Mental note for potential swimmers next year.
My best move of the day had to be at the second or third last rapid. Some of us took the right channel and some the left channel. We saw a boat upside after we finished the right channel. Neil went like a bat out of hell over to see what was going on. He did the left move around the big rock and made the drop. It turns out that AnnaLisa ended out of her boat and bumped her knee but she was fine.
I made my run down towards the same place that Neil went. I decided to take the drop to the right of the rock. Which would have been an easy move until after starting down the drop there was another fair size rock just below it an to the right. I ended up going vertical stern up and then dropped into the hole sideways, did two power strokes, and a brace in order to get out of it. Dan told me later he thought I was going to get munched for sure and he was glad he saw my run as he was going to boof the rock I went beside and would have ultimately landed on the second one. Blaine told me he saw almost all of the bottom of my boat when I was vertical and would have made a cool picture. Too bad I had the camera.
Raquette was low but runnable. All of us except for Dan took the left channel around the island with no consequences. Dan took the right channel. He said it was a pretty sketchy and hairy run. After that is was one run through the last and off to the takeout. We took a vote at the takeout. Blaine is now officially part of our crew now. We had to bring the kayak numbers up by one so Val would not be lonely. But we really only let him into the group as he is normally an open boater but still likes to run the river in a kayak as well.
The takeout road sucked big time. I am glad my car stayed at the putin as I would have been shopping for a new one for sure. Neil is the king of shuttling open boats. He had four of them on his vehicle. The passed some hunters at the hunt camp. They were probably going WTF are they doing.
Goodbyes were said to those leaving from the putin. The rest of us head back to the Coop to get our tents and other gear.
It was a fun day on the river but if we ever plan on doing this type of weekend again, we will be running the Lower Mad on the first day and play at Palmers the second day in order to make it convenient for others driving a long distance to leave when ever suits them.
Pictures from sunday
