Friday 11-Apr-2008:
I left work just at 2pm bound for M.A.C.K.fest (MF) in the lovely town of Marmora. I was worried I was going to get stuck in the crappy 401 traffic. I was driving along minding my own business when the Maggs family passed me. I rolled down the window and asked them where they were going paddling at. They said the Crowe Bride (CB) and then he sped was gone.
I could night drive that fast as I had my battleship and Geoff’s destroyer on the top of the car. I could only do about 110 maybe without getting sucked off the road by the transport trucks whizzing by. I did manage to catch up to them again when there was a traffic slowdown and managed to pass them only to have them catch up again. By this time I had my camera ready and managed to get a picture of Cathy while I was driving and that was the last time I seen them until I got to Marmora.
I stopped off at Reeder’s place in Norwood and talked to Stephanie for a bit and handed over my KWWP membership form. I also asked her for instructions on how to get to the Crowe Bridge and was off to take pictures. I was only there for a few minutes when Rich and Matt showed up. Matt looked at the level and suited up. He mentioned that he had not seen the third wave there in at least 9 years or so but Rich disagreed. I guess they can fight that argument later.
Matt was the only one paddling. I managed to take quite a few pictures of him paddling on the three different waves. It was starting to get dark due the cloud cover and cold (maybe +1C) as it was around 6ish. I asked Rich what the dinner plans were and suggested we go meet at the Train Station Restaurant in Havelock and headed off. I was downloading the pictures to my laptop on the way over as I was hoping to upload them to my Flickr account during dinner.
Link to pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157604531304457/
I was only at the restaurant for a few minutes before Grant and Sherry walked in. A few minutes later Matt and Rich showed up. We ordered dinner and checked emails, etc. The internet connection was kind of sketchy and I was not able to upload the pictures as I was hoping to. After dinner Grant, Sherry, and I headed to Marmora to check in at the B&B. Matt and Rich headed to Cale’s for drinks. We told them we would be over as soon as we can.
Found the B&B ok. It is a lovely old turn of the century home. I had the mini-tour of the place once I got settled in the room. I heard some people up on the third floor above and went up to see who else was here. Wouldn’t you know it, it was the Maggs family. We chatted for a bit.
We finally made the trek over to Cale and Steph’s place. It wasn’t hard to find the place in the dark. You just had to look for all the boats. There were quite a few people there, way too many to list. There was even this imaginary guy named Boydo there who we think is still imaginary. The evening was filled with drinks, snacks, stories, and of course paddling videos. I think we finally made it back to the B&B around midnight. My plan was to meet up with people at the Salmon River put in for 09:15 so I had to be gone by 8am.
Saturday 12-Apr-2008:
I was up at 06:30. Luckily my paddling gear was already packed. I installed the battery into the battleship and loaded up the car with the rest of my gear. I was hoping to install my airbags but I didn’t think anyone would have appreciated the loud high pitch squeal of an air pump going off this early in the morning. I checked my cell phone to see if the rest of the people that were in town had sent me a message only to find out I had no service. I headed over to the Country Style and Scott was coming out. Great there is one of the group. On my way out of the store Daryl was coming in and things were now good.
We parked Scott’s car in the municipal lot and shuffled his boat and gear onto my car. We headed over to Daryl’s place to wait for Kate and Kevin to get their stuff loaded in their vehicle and then we were off. We got to the town of Tamworth just after 9am and started heading up to the putin as there were no boaters in town. I catch up to Derek and Neil on the main road and pass them. We found the putin road no problem and started heading down until we hit our first snag. We came to the first left turn only to find a lake covering the road (see pictures). Neil went through with his jeep no problem but there was no way the cars were going through that. I told Neil to drop off his boats and he could shuttle the rest of the gear with his vehicle. The rest of us goat suited up while waiting for Neil to come back. It took him a while as he apparently got stuck in when his front end sank into the snow.
It wasn’t too long before the others started showing up. Gaetan and the Ottawa Region crew (who were late) and another group showed up. Greg, Ryan, Dan, and Erin showed up a short time later. We set up the shuttle a shuttle while the other got geared up. I think we finally managed to put on the river just after 1015ish.
I paddled ahead with the kayakers in our group on the flat water section as the others were getting warmed up. I told the gang that the open boats will catch up pretty quick as one of the benefits for us is you take one stroke and go 20 feet. We finally made it to the first set of rapids. It was a pretty straight forward run down the left in order to avoid the ledge on the right. The rest of the OC1 gang finally caught up. We had a couple of swimmers but nothing to be worried about after all it was around +1C, snowing/freezing rain, overcast, and the ice had just came out. Typical spring weather for a paddling for a festival. I also had the duties of being the photo guy for the trip.
The rest of this report will be kind of blurry as to the order of events but I will try my best. We finally made it to the next set of rapids that was worth scouting. We all got out on the right to take a look. Dan started his first run and caught the eddy behind a tree. Derek started his run and tried to catch the first eddy on the left only to get pinned on the tree that was just above Dan. Derek’s boat basically sunk and disappeared (see pictures). Greg started his run and ended up beside Derek but at least he didn’t get pinned and pushed off and head down river. Derek managed to get his boat out ok, emptied it out, and then headed down river.
Ryan’s run was fine and same with Scott and Kevin. Neil started his run and ended up at the same tree but as soon and his boat hit it he was able to get out of it and pull his boat out before he got any water in it. My run was fine. Dan found this old Sports Pal boat stuck in the middle of the river and managed to get it out. He dragged it back up to the top of the river and made a run in it. Greg wanted the boat due to salvage rights of it being found in the middle of the river. I told Dan it would be great to see him run the canyon set in it. He said 50 bucks and I said 20 and he said deal.
Daryl and Kate decided to head back to the putin as Kate was getting cold. She did not have her booties on as she could not find them earlier that morning. We still had a couple of hours left on the river. Neil handed over his keys and we parted ways.
We finally made it to the next set with the lovely hole at the bottom. Dan, Greg, Derek, and Neil made it fine. Ryan had made it all the way down thru the hole and let out a big whoo hoo as he thought he was done only to not take the extra paddle stroke and end up swimming (lesson learnt). Dan ran Erin’s boat down and my run was fine. To my sad surprise the Sports Pal did not make it as it apparently was stuck again back up river.
Next was the Canyon run. We all got out to scout. Erin, Kevin, and Ryan elected to walk. This gave Dan and Derek an extra run each. No sense in carrying a boat on the portage when others can run it. Mid way thru our groups run we watched a bunch of kayakers go down with no issues. Greg made his run and ended in a really strong re-circulating eddy on river right. Scott made his run with no problems.
I was the last to go. I ended up in the same re-circulating eddy as Greg. Kevin said I had a worried look on my face for about 10 seconds. I had to get my boat spun around facing up river in order to be able to get up far enough in order to get out. I finally made the boat spin and edged further up along the rock wall and made the move. I had to get out far enough into the river to avoid the rock with the hole behind hit. I finally went and made the rest of the set with no problems. Luckily I had the pumps going.
The rest of the sets were fine. I was paddling ahead of the group and finally got to the one with the large drop / hole. There had to be about 8 to 10 people scouting on the left. I remembered from last year that it was a left hand line run. I boat scouted from the top left eddy for about a minute and headed off. Well let’s just say I was not left enough and ended up taking the meaty middle line. My boat penciled in and disappeared and popped back out full of water and the pumps were going full tilt. I paddled over to the trees in the middle of the river and waited until the water was out of my boat. I headed over to shore and got out the camera gear. Some of the people scouting decided to walk after seeing me go into the hole.
Erin elected to walk. Everyone else ran the line on the left except for Ryan. He took my line, ended going over, but managed to role back up further down river. The Magg’s crew showed up and I took some pictures of them as well. After that it was off to the takeout.
It was a great day on the river even though the weather sucked but any day you paddle and don’t have to go to the hospital is a good day. We headed back to Marmora to get cleaned up and ready for the big party. I finally made it to the hall and ran in the rest of the paddling crew having dinner. The vegetarian chilli was great accompanied by the homemade coolers in my nalgene.
Link to pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157604531304459/
The rest of the night was a bit of a blur as it was busy. I setup my laptop and had a running slideshow of the pictures I had taken on the river that day. I had some nice compliments about that. It was great the faces of all the people I had met over the years (it was a lot) and I met some new ones as well. Alex was back from BC and I bought him the beer I promised to buy him. I also ran into my son and his crew. They were apparently on the Salmon as well but the didn’t get on the river until noon.
I did quite well in the Cale huck prizes into the crowd skirmish. I managed to get a couple of Level 6 kayak blow up things (by doing a big belly flop on the floor) to keep skirts from imploding (gave one to my son and one to Daryl), paddle wax ( gave it to my son), hat, and other stuff.
I also managed to score the book Let It Rain (http://neguidebook.com/) in a silent auction for 45 bucks. I almost ordered it last week online but didn’t bother as I am not a fan of PayPal. I had to start figuring out the game plan for Sundays trip. Derek and Neil wanted to do the Beaver which was way above my skill level so I pointed them towards Milton from the OVKC group for info as they ran it earlier in the day.
I had already decided I wanted to do the Lower Black. I just had to find a crew that was going and that is when I ran into Janice from the OVKC (http://www.ovkc.org/) crew (which I am a paid member of) and they said they were doing it. We decided on meeting 10am at the putin. The rest of the evening was spent partaking in further beverages and enjoying the bands. I had no luck in any of the raffle draws. Sherry managed to win three different times. I think Grant felt sorry for me and gave me one out of the two red paddles that came as a set. Thanks Grant I will keep it as a spare.
I was really hoping to win the grand prize which was a kayak after all what would the chances of an open boater winning a kayak … pretty good considering my luck. I decided to see if I could get into it. It fit me like a glove. Some of the kayakers in the crowd started yelling at me to get out of THEIR boat as they were winning it. That’s when Kevin and Art started heading towards me and I started to ratchet myself in nice and tight because I figured they were up to no good and I was right. They each grabbed and end and lift the boat up and turned it upside down to shake me out. I was in really good and there was no way I was coming out of that boat.
Well … I did not manage to win the boat in the final draw and it was getting late so I walked back to the B&B. Luckily it was all down hill to there.
