Quite an Adventure

The success of our trip on Saturday (no - you didn't miss something; I didn't write about it) convinced Tracy and me that we needed to take David with us on Sunday and do it again; since he was working Saturday, he couldn't come along. So after church and grocery shopping, we made up a nice picnic (potato salad, cole slaw, and stuff for sandwiches), got everything together, and hit the river.

Well, that's what I'd like to say. The reality is somewhat less glamorous (and less direct). First, we had to spend nearly an hour and a half working out the cars and such: drop off the boats, drive (in two cars) to the take-out point, drop off my car, drive back to the boats. In midday traffic on a weekend - and a particularly lovely weekend - that takes a loooong time. Then we had to carry everything from Tracy's car to the boats (which I'd locked to the guardrail alongside the gravel road), carry the boats to the water, and grease up (so we wouldn't turn into cooked lobsters).

And then we hit the water. We put in just after the dam (that creates the reservoir on which we usually paddle). There was a rapid right alongside where we put in, which makes for an exciting start to the trip. You can see the rapid and the dam in the first photo, above; those rocks at the right of the rapid actually mark where we put in. In the second photo, David waits amongst the rocks for us to get into our boat (and me to stop taking photos!). That was by no means the last rapid for us, that day: the photo at right shows another of the roughly 10 we had to navigate.

The real adventure came right about the middle of the trip. Tracy and I were in a rapid and thought we could maneuver around a large rock in front of us. We paddled hard to the left, and the boat obligingly turned to the left.... And side-slipped directly onto the rock we were attempting to avoid. At which point water poured over the upstream side of the boat (port) and the boat listed hard to port. And filled with water. And became quite firmly wedged. So we had to climb out of the boat, into the icy, fast-moving water, and try to figure out how to dislodge the boat. It took both of us lifting/sliding the back end off the rocks before the water finally did the rest of the work and floated the boat downstream. In the meantime, my camera (in its box) had floated out and sailed down the rapid, as had my water bottle, Tracy's water bottle, her shoes, and some of the food for our picnic (the bread and the chips).

And now that the boat was free, we had another problem: it was at the bottom of the rapid, and we were in the middle of it. We walked down the rapid as hurriedly as we could, but it's hard in icy, deep, fast-moving water to move quickly! Fortunately, David was able to not only rescue all of our gear (save Tracy's water bottle, which was small and easily missed) but also corral our boat (after it had rolled over) on a beach. Tracy and I were so far from where the boat ended up that we had to walk (in my case) and swim (in hers) to shore and then run along the top of the riverbank, down to where the boat ended up. Save for that one loss (we never found the bottle), the incident was without lasting harm. We drained the boat, verified that the chips and bread weren't waterlogged, and continued along our way, looking for a place to eat: an incident like that is not only tiring, it makes you hungry!

Not far from our near-disaster, we found a likely spot and pulled the boats up on a sandy beach. The picture at left and below were taken on that beach. Our food was still cold, and since the bread and chips were still dry, we had a regular feast. As cold as we all were (David had had to get out of his boat to help me drain the tandem), it was pleasant to sit in the sun.

We brought blankets, too, so we spread those on the soft sand and stretched out and dozed for a while - probably an hour, at least. That was really nice, and well earned (I think), after the work we'd done recovering the boat. A group of canoers passed, in that time, but otherwise it was completely peaceful: the sun, the breeze, the water, and the birds - not even many insects, since it's still so early in the year.

From there, the trip was basically uneventful - which was nice - save for a little water taken in on nearly every rapid we went over. The tandem is nice and handles well, and even claims it can go in Class 2 whitewater, but it's definitely not designed to keep its occupants dry in whitewater! The sides are so low that it's quite easy for water to spill into the boat. It's also quite difficult to maneuver in whitewater - but that could be a reflection on the skill of its occupants.

We did see a couple of interesting trees on the way to the takeout point. The first, above, is one of many trees growing along the riverbank that have had their roots exposed by the erosion of the bank. That one was the most fantastic, I thought; I'd seen it on Saturday and was glad to have my camera with me to get several pictures of it. In the larger version (linked from the picture), you can see that the base of the trunk is elevated above the ground: I could probably crawl under that tree. The second, at right, is a tree root (but for what tree, I never saw) that has defined a stream-bed feeding into the river. The water falls along the root and follows its curve into the river - very interesting.

Oh - I suppose there was one more adventure: right before we reached the takeout point, in the last rapid, one of my shoes (which I'd foolishly set on top of the back of the boat - not tied down) fell off. It was only after we'd pulled up onto shore that Tracy noticed it was gone. I had to jump in David's boat and paddle as fast as I could to catch it - at the bottom of the next rapid. And then, I had to climb said rapid to return to the takeout point. Which I had just enough energy left to manage.

Quite an adventure.