I had a great time paddling both channels of the Ottawa river for the last saturday. This would be my first time for the 2010 paddling season. It would also be the lowest I had paddled the river in the last three years with the gauge being at -1.25.
I met up at the putin with some of the Petawawa River Rats. After shuttling and gearing up we hit the river and headed over to McCoy's.
I hopped out to shoot photos of the gang and spent some time scouting the extreme right hand sneak line at Phil's Hole. There isn't much wiggle room for error when paddling a barge like mine. A slight mis-calculation would take me into rightside phil's which is not a very nice place to be. I ran the line fine and fairly dry for the most part. I ended up having an out of boat experience when I was not exactly setup on for centre Horshoe. I ended up in rightside which is a so so place to be but life was good.
I tried three times to side surf Babyface. Almost had it a couple times but at least i came off without swimming. Soon it was time to head down river. I wanted to paddle both channels but most people were only paddling only one channel and would be finished by noon. My dilema was soon solved when I ran into Jim and his merry bunch from Esprit. He offered his services to shuttling me back up top with them after they finished lunch. Sweet life was definitely getting better.
I met up at Iron Ring with the Rats before we spent some playtime at S-Bend. I was happy to catch the top right eddy at Butterlfly. I even managed to get a half decent front, side, and back surf in leftside Butterly before spending some time in the water. I almost recovered but I need to cool off anyway.
Soon we were at the big roar of Garvins. I carried my boat around at Elevator Shaft and setup to shoot the Esprit gang running the Dragons Tongue. I spent some time looking for a line. One of these days i want to run the tongue. Jim's only comment was don't follow our line ... just make sure you drop off the left side!
Upper No-Name was a breeze. I eddy hopped down the right side of Lower No-Name and was really happy when i caught the eddy just below Vampire. It is a half-circle indentation in the rocks that my boat just barely fits into. I first caught it a few years back when Neil and i were there. After that I jet ferried over to the Esprit lunch spot where my baby ended up as snug as a bug with the rafts on top of the bus.
After lunch we head off to the main channel. I ran the entire main without getting my shirt wet and I ran everything. I ran into Paul Mason just above Garb plus saw some other friends at Push Button and the takeout. I headed over to River Run and the Tours to say hi to some of my friends that i have not seen since the fall.
It was another great day on the river.
