I spent last weekend at Palmer Rapids having a blast introducing my friend Sarah to white water canoeing.
Which way to the river?
I met her coincidentally at Palmer rapids last spring when she was paddling a kayak with the McMaster White Water club.
Our idea of a trip came up a few weeks ago when we were randoming chatting online and she mentioned whe would like to try open boating next summer. I said why wait until next summer and I think her response was "Dude, are you serious" and I said sure why not.
The only problem was trying to find a weekend when we were both free and getting a tandem boat. The date was set and Ryan's boat magically made its way from North Bay to Orillia with the help of a mutual friend Mike who just happened to be going up there for a visit.
So the plan was to to camp at the Paddler Coop but that is when things got better. Blaine and Kim were going up to the cabins and offered us the use of one of the extras. This was pretty sweet as this would be the first time I went paddling for an entire weekend and was not sleeping in a tent and considering it was supposed to rain all weekend.
I left work on friday afternoon and stopped in Norwood to visit Cale and Steph for a couple hours as I had some time to kill before going up to the cabins. I finally made it up there around 11pm and met Kim and Blaine around the fire. Sarah managed to show up some time after midnight as she was coming all the way from Woodstock. I was pretty tired and went to bed.
Saturday:
I made sausages and eggs for breakfast and got the boat ready for paddling. We headed off to Palmer Rapids for a day of fun on the river. It was overcast but fairly warm and that was better than rain. We spent a few hours going over the basics below Jessups chute and then we took a couple of runs thru the chute.
We took on lots of water and were basically full but we were able to handle the boat easily enough. We even took a couple of ferries back and forth just to see how it would be and we managed to do it with no swims.
Which way to the river?
I met her coincidentally at Palmer rapids last spring when she was paddling a kayak with the McMaster White Water club.
Our idea of a trip came up a few weeks ago when we were randoming chatting online and she mentioned whe would like to try open boating next summer. I said why wait until next summer and I think her response was "Dude, are you serious" and I said sure why not.
The only problem was trying to find a weekend when we were both free and getting a tandem boat. The date was set and Ryan's boat magically made its way from North Bay to Orillia with the help of a mutual friend Mike who just happened to be going up there for a visit.
So the plan was to to camp at the Paddler Coop but that is when things got better. Blaine and Kim were going up to the cabins and offered us the use of one of the extras. This was pretty sweet as this would be the first time I went paddling for an entire weekend and was not sleeping in a tent and considering it was supposed to rain all weekend.
I left work on friday afternoon and stopped in Norwood to visit Cale and Steph for a couple hours as I had some time to kill before going up to the cabins. I finally made it up there around 11pm and met Kim and Blaine around the fire. Sarah managed to show up some time after midnight as she was coming all the way from Woodstock. I was pretty tired and went to bed.
Saturday:
I made sausages and eggs for breakfast and got the boat ready for paddling. We headed off to Palmer Rapids for a day of fun on the river. It was overcast but fairly warm and that was better than rain. We spent a few hours going over the basics below Jessups chute and then we took a couple of runs thru the chute.
We took on lots of water and were basically full but we were able to handle the boat easily enough. We even took a couple of ferries back and forth just to see how it would be and we managed to do it with no swims.
And then it was time for the lower set where we spent lots of time catching eddies, ferrying, attaining backup river, and basically having lots of fun all around. We had a total blast surfing the boat on the wave at the bottom of the lower set quite a few times before packing it in and heading back to the cabins for dinner.
Dinner was pasta and garlic bread which we ate out on the deck down by the water. Later on dessert was Costco pumpkin pie while there were drinks all around the campfire. Time flew by and it was count sheep time.
Sunday:
After breakfast it was time to clean up the cabin and pack up our extra gear before heading off to the river for another day of fun.
Sarah and I did the same warm up at Jessups before we decided to run the chute. We ended up swimming on the 1st run when we hit a submerged rock. We were laughing our faces off. We emptied out the boat and got back in and paddled back up to the bottom of the chute for more fun. Our second run was fine.
After that it was the lower set (which included a short swim) followed by a couple of hours of surfing at the wave of the bottom set. We also managed to jump into another longer tandem boat for a bit to check out how it handled. Sarah even took Ryan's boat for quite a few solo runs. I think she is hooked.
After that we packed up before it poured rain to head back to the cabins to pick up our stuff and begin the journey back home.
Here is a link to the pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157607313572067/
