Well after a month of trying to re-adjust of being home and back to work after my 28 day road trip ... it was time to think about paddling some where.
And this somewhere would be the Petawawa River. It is pretty amazing that I swam in the Lovers and Catwalk section for many summers as a military brat but never ever paddled it in my canoe.
The time had come and what could be more safer and fun but to do it during a festival.
I headed off to my dads place after work on the thursday. I stopped off at the river to check the level and get some info from Phil. After that I stopped at Brad's to borrow a cart for my boat before finally getting to the folks place.
Friday:
I worked from his place friday and headed off to the river around 3pm to help set up. Phil and Cody were gracious to lead me down the river. I had no issues at Railroad but ended up having an out of boat experience at Lovers. I almost made it but not quite enough. After a quick self recovery we took out at the Catwalk. I was so happy with my run as it was now my first personal decent of the section of the river.
I met up in the park with a bunch of old friends to catch up on life.
Saturday:
Today would be race day and I headed over early to help set up. This would be my day of sever stupidity. I would eventually have to make TWO trips back to my dads ... first to get my drysuit and booties ... the second to get my pfd and helmet. I must say I was a total idiot.
It was great to see more of my friends. Especially Jen as i had not seen where in over a year due to her travelling with her job. It was nice to have her back in country safe and sound.
I did a practice run on the river and it went very well. I did not care about my time. It was more of making it down the river blue sky up. I made it through lovers no problem at all and was very very happy. I spent about an hour shooting photos of the practice runs. The weather and lighting were not that great for doing so but hey it would not be a festival without crappy weather.
I headed back up to the top for timed race run. As l uck would have it I ended up side surfing the last hole at the bottom of railroad for a very long time. I was told by many people later who were standing on the bridge that they were worried that I was stuck under my boat when I was actually still in my boat. I was forced to bail when i came out of my outfitting.
I had a laugh when a rescue kayaker said let go of your boat as we were swimming together ... I went ... uh ... NO. I Swam the boat to shore ... emptied her out and go back in. Soon I was at Lovers ... I took the same line as before and totally aced it by going completely left of the rooster tail. It was an awesome but tiring run by the time I got to the Catwalk finish line. I think I did it in under 11 minutes including my out of boat experience.
Later that night we all went to the Yacht Club on the Base for dinner and awards ceremony.
Photos are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157623893866513/
Sunday:
Today would be an interesting day. It would be my personal first decent of the Upper Petawawa River in Algonquin Park. I was a bit nervous to say the least.
I manage to hook up with three other open boaters I have paddle with in the past. It would have been five of us in total but Jamie got hurt the day before and could not make it.
After doing all the shuttle logistics we put on the river and enjoyed a leisurely warm up paddle to the first set of rapids. Soon there was us and about thirty kayakers on the river. I managed to run my first ever drop in my life. I think it was about a six footer. I ran it clean with the proper angle and lean back. It was a bit nerver racking as I was not sure about how far back to lean but I nailed it. I have hapy to see that alot of people I new watched me run it.
There was another sketchy drop on river right at the next set. I did not even attempt to think about running that one. I took the left channel and end up having a swim. I ended up with having to much lean going through the hole sideways. I tried my best to slowly move my weight over to the other side and almost made it. Johno said i looked like one of those fainting goats trying to get my boat to lean the other way in slo-motion.
After that the river was pretty much full on. I ran the rest of the solid class 4's fine with some interesting lines to say the least. It did not take the four of us long to scout each set. It got to the point that we head to depart from the group of kayakers as they were taking way to long to over analyze the runs only to end up psyching themselves out not to run them.
I ended up running the drop at the last class 5 fine but did not realize there was more crap further down below about 100 metres away and ended up going over the equivalent of Leftside Horsehoe on the Ottawa and then having a short swim.
After what would be a long bumpy swim on a stupid "F_ck You" rock we were at the takeout.
All I can say is that is was a fricking awesome experience and I want to run that section of river again. Thanks to Dave, Matt, and Johno for an excellent day.
I must apologize to Jen for bailing and not paddling with her tah day. Sorry ... next time!
Photos are here. Not that many due to all the rain.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157624018869150/
