So here goes the trip report without pictures as I have not had time to go through them.
The weather was great and the bugs were buggy. The blackflies sure grew alot in a month.
I managed to get up to the Paddlers Coop around noon and dropped off the Timbits in the office. I was surprised to see Wayne, Dave, and son from Pembroke way pull in the parking lot the same time I did. They saw the post and decided to come out and play.
I headed over to the access point on Dam road and offloaded the boat.
I got the airbags out and installed them into the battle ship and thats where I think the signs of bad things to come started. I am not sure how but the little blue twisty cap on the end of the tube for blowing up one of my air bags was missing. I managed to borrow one off of Waynes old one (still need to give you that back). I blew up both the airbags and got changed to only find my front air bag was leaking bad. I thought I fixed the small leak to only find out that the tube on it had separated from the inside of the bag and I did not have any goop with me. I duct taped it the best I could and crossed my fingers. (glad I was not on the Ottawa).
I finally got on the river basically spent the day playing up at the chutes at Jessups working on eddies, surfing, cross-forward strokes (Perrett was surprised). I also managed to hop out from time to time to take pics of the folks I met that day.
I decided to finally take a run down the river at the end of the day. I was catching eddies no problem at all. Then came the hole at the bottom. I decided to go to the right of it as I really did not feel like getting wet. I went to the right of the hole and it looked like there was ample water flow. Well I guess I was wrong as I came to an immediate full stop with a loud CRUNCH noise after I found the small ledge. The front of my boat is crushed and the royalex is split in a couple of pieces. I paddled to the shoreline and hauled my boat up to the car.
I am now thinking I am heading back home but I had an offer from Steve Tripp to borrow one of his boats on sunday.
I spent the rest of the night sulking and taking pictures of Dave and Alex and one of the students at Hass Hole. The wave was supreme and all I could think about was I should be out there paddling with them but could not.
I spent sunday staying at Jessups as I did not want to break someone elses boat. I did it old school in a 16 foot prospector with no thigh straps, sdalle, knee pads, or floatation. It was a blast. I was still able to make the same moves. I also managed to try a few other boats that day in old school mode as well. I was pretty much beat by noon and had lunch with Steve and his family before heading off home.
I will be fixing my boat and airbags this week before heading back to Palmer this weekend with the McMaster crew.
