C-Forum

Someone posted this on Northeast paddlers board, thought i'd repost here

Just to spice the board up a bit for those of us who visit on a daily basis.

So far this year:

What river did you have the most fun on?

Which was the most challenging rapid you made it through?

And where did your best carnage occur?

***river i had the most fun on: green truss section of the White Salmon in Washington. i cant say enough great things about this river. huge drops, with tiny calm pools in between all the rapids. some of the friendliest class V i have ever paddled. there are acouple of awsome water falls, and perhaps the most beautiful canyon i have ever been in.
***most challenging rapid i made it through: prolly Entrance on the North fork of the Tye (at high water) in Virginia. pretty awsome looking rapid. starts off with a 3 foot boof into a foam pocket with a wicked cross current. the river banks left into a nasty poor over with a rock, and you have to make a slot to the right of it. you go through the slot, land on a ledge about 4 feet wide, and hit an 8 foot boof off of it, in to an eddy. the rest is a 15 foot slide into some class IV boggie.
***nothing to bad to report this year. i got pounded pretty good in a hole on the Maury river in Virginia at flood(10 feet). just a couple of un-intendos, and it spit me out. it was a warm day, so it didnt bother me to much. i swam out of my the t-2 on the James in Virginia (again at flood)cause i was pulling my self up a rope to get back in an eddy(to play). the water caught my paddle flipped me over, and ripped the paddle out of my hand. i tried to hand role in some swirly water, and ended up pulling out. i pulled the boat, and myself into an eddy, but the paddle i barrowed from a friend went down stream. i was pretty up set, but we got the paddle back later that day.

its been a good couple months of paddling for me. hope the winter will bring as much fun. peace --- joey

!. Best River: My son and I paddled the Pigeon at least three times a week all summer. What made it special was that he was there. He is a student at the University of Kentucky and so he lives out of town. On the last run of the Summer, he and I were floating in the doldrums section before the last two major rapids. Without saying a word he reached out and grabed on to my gunnels and I did the same to his c-1. We just floated without saying a word. I think both of us knew it would be a while before we would be able to paddle together. What a special time the Summer of 03 was.

2. Rapid that gave me trouble: With the Ocoee running upward toward 2800cfs at times the hole at Second Helping grabbed my Spanish Fly and then sucked me out of the boat that made for an interesting swim. I learned my lession. Stay river left.


3. No carnage but plenty of humility at times.

1) Best River: Definitely the Kipawa! This is definitely my favorite. Nice landscape, La Grande Chute is always impressive to see, and great whitewater, too. Technical at low levels, big water at high levels.

2) Toughest Rapid: Rock n Roll on the Kipawa. Short, but ugly; very rocky, I have seen the riverbed at very low water. definitely not a place where one wants to be upside down or swimming.
Some people say that there is actually a line or two down it, trouble is I can't see any , so I usually follow someone elses line down.
What usually happens is that just about as I am commited to a line and enter the rapid I see the paddler I am following getting thashed...

3) Best Carnage: Pic-nic hole on the Kipawa (at ~220 cms): River wide hole, the move is easy and to punch the small reactinary on the right and get into the very turbulent and boily eddy.
I am waay to far left, don't make it to the right in time and drop sideways into the meat of the hole . I get flushed surprisingly quick , but befor I can roll my OC1 i drop upside down over the small ledge right below the hole . Ouch! I decide to bail and swim for the eddy on river right , but don't quite make it. Well, just below the eddy there is an Island that splits the river. Right Channel is very bad for swimming, several shallow ledges. So I swim left to go down the left channel. I make it for the left channel, but just barely. Unfortunately there are three holes close to shore along the island in the left channel . I swam them all! Oh yeah, they are fairly shallow, too. I still have bumps from that swim (it was in late June) on my shins...

martin

What river did you have the most fun on?

For me the fun this year was any river that hosted a New England Slalom Series race, because I got to paddle with my 9 year old son. The best- the Farmington (because I am biased and because it covers 2 races), and I also enjoyed the Merrimack. I also had a great spring day on Connecticut’s Sandy Brook.

Which was the most challenging rapid you made it through?

The Dryway on the Deerfield. I have been paddling that for a dozen years, but this year I started taking a Slasher down (for a guy who is used to an OC, that was a big change).

And where did your best carnage occur?

The bottom of Labyrinth on the Dryway. After getting too cocky about the Slasher I made the eddy move behind the big rock and then started fooling around. Next thing I knew I managed to be traveling backwards, really fast, on the river left above the very bottom of the rapid (much to the entertainment of my kayaking friend). I dropped over a rock onto my offside (without a brace) and tried rearranging the rocks over there with my head. I immediately became a big fan of my helmet from Millbrook Boats.

I must be getting old- my carnage just ain’t what it used to be AND I am quite relieved for that.

Jim

Okay, here are my entries:

Best river: I say, for this year, the Cheat. I hooked up with so many paddling friends on the river that it really made my weekend.

Hardest rapid: I didn't get on the hard stuff this year that I usually do, so the best entry I have for this category is "Hollywood" rapid on the James in Richmond around 17 feet (125,000 cfs?). The usual route is class 4 with a boat-eating hole smack in the middle of the entrance. My partner and I went left, where I knew there were a BUNCH of pour-over holes ! We went this way because I let the open boater lead. I simply watched his line and if he disappeared over a drop too quickly, then I simply looked for a better route (Hey, Joey. Provide me some better detail about your leetle sweem on the James: where was it and why were you pulling yourself up a rope ?).

Best carnage: the best I can offer is when I blew the ferry move right above a gnarly hole on the Lower Yough (Bottle of Wine? Double Hydraulic?) that PAC talked me into after twisting my arm REAL HARD! . Maybe he still had issues with me after our paddling c-2 down the Yough Loop the night before (something about me punching him in the back and yelling at him to "keep your paddle on your own side!" .

KNeal

Alden- what are your answers? I want to hear about carnage form someone younger and wildew than me.

Jim

River - I guess I had fun on ALL the rivers I paddled this year - so that’s a hard one. However, paddling Slippery Rock Creek with my 8 year boy in a C2 (his first II-III run) was probably the high light of this year’s trips.
Most challenging rapid - Upper Meadow (the whole 4 miles of continuous III-IV) trying to follow Bernie and the lads. I hate it when they make everything look so darn easy!
As for carnage - That is easy – Big Nasty on the Cheat. I failed to finish the ferry in my Zwo and had to run the sucker straight on. I hit the hole, things got very, very dark, I was ripped out of the boat (without me pulling at my skirt) and then I surface quite a way down stream (no where near my boat). Oh by the way I was following KNeal who was in his Atom (which easily made the ferry) and who was smiling at me when I finally surfaced.

PS: KNeal it was Double Hydraulic and if you remember I stated I would be using a much different line prior to your attempt.

Hmmmm....so hard to choose my favourite river. I spent a bunch of time on the Ottawa & Rouge and also ran the Gatineau in my OC, plus time on Fish Creek, plus the Independence, Hudson Gorge, Moose.....too many to choose from. I just love being out there paddling. Probably one of the highlights for me was coming to the Potomac Armada in the spring - it's the first time I've really paddled with other Cboaters and I had a blast. Jo came and she enjoyed it too. Met a bunch of cool people and had fun trying a funky little boat. For big water I will have to say I think the Gatineau was my favourite run....closely followed by paddling the middle branch of the Ottawa with Kalin, some other firendly canucks and my wife Jo - watching her run a clean line through Lower No Name. For creeking it would have to be the Independence. A fun fun day on the river....couldn't get the smile off my face (even finding a crack in my hull couldn't do it!)

Hardest rapid I ran successfully....thats' another tough call....Lucifers and High Tension on the Gatineau were fun and challenging, but not overly technically difficult....I haven't been running really hard stuff this year....more consolidating my skills, paddling with Jo and trying different boats that make easy runs hard - anything that can back ender me in class II I find amusing

Best carnage....definitely on thye Ottawa. Hand's down, skirt blew on the Garb, I ended up bailing (not being able to release my lapbelt), the boat pinned and I swam over the pinned boat. Hands down the worst carnage I've had in a while. A close second, far more amusing, would be flipping into Phil's Hole at McCoys on the Ottawa, rolling up, then ending up hitting leftside horseshore backwards, with no speed and a boat full of water.

Ahhh...wonderful year. Many river miles, many new friends, much fun was had but it ain't over yet!

Most fun: Gore Canyon

Most challenging: Double undercut, Lower Meadow. This rapid is not terribly difficult but the consequences are a visit under the sandstone giants if you are not on a very tight line.

Worst carnage: Jan.2, 2003. Upper Meadow, high water, 24 degrees, 6 inches of snow, paddling solo, testing a new boat design, at the rapid called Weir.
I am very familiar with this run and knew that my boat was way out of trim. When I approached the Weir I planted a perfectly timed wave boof stroke. Due to my trim issue, my boat turned almost parrallel to the river wide hole. This was not a good situation because there is not an exit on river left at this level and a log jammed hotel sized undercut on river right. The boil line was approximately 5' downstream and the hole is backed up with a rock. I tried several hole exit techniques in my boat but continued to be recirculated back into the hole. I realized that my energy was beginning to fade and decided to swim while I still had the presence of mind to use some out of boat techniques to exit the hydraulic.
Until this time I did not know the hole was backed up with a rock and therefore recirculated back into the hole three more times until the River Gods decided that it was time to let me go. After my final surge to the bottom I resurfaced at the lip of the next drop and was immediately forced to the bottom hitting jagged rocks with my jaw and cheek bone. Finally I was able to swim to safety.
I watched my boat continue to cartwheel for at least ten more minutes in the hole. My outfitting was the usual temporary setup to determine trim and comfort issues. Everything flushed out of my boat before it would finally be spit out. It was really hard to jump back in the river for my boat but it would surely beat walking out 4 miles in 6 inches of snow.
I used my waist throw bag for a saddle and held onto my paddle throughout all the carnage and finished the run without any further ado.
Morale of the story is: Don't paddle alone and if you know that your outfitting is not right take the time to fix it.

oh man bernie, that is some mean carnage!

most fun river i did this year: Fall creek in Mass, Big Branch in VT

hardest rapid: probably one on the NB Winooski, near Montpelier

worst carnage: i guess my truly worst carnage was when i pinned upside down on a log on Bristol Notch creek (in VT). this was a very steep run and we were rushing a little bit to get down.

i saw the log coming and boofed over it, but i flipped in the process and felt the log stuck against my gut. I kept telling myself to keep cool and work this out. after about 20 seconds, i freed myself. I then rolled up and immediately got stuck in a hole. not pretty
Alden

Most fun:
first day in my Delirious on the Nanaimo River. It is an easy run but the boat was so much fun it was unreal.

Most Challenge:
OC: a nameless river/creek in NWT flowing into the Baillie River. It was a class 3 run in an open tandem canoe in absolute wilderness. Most of the Creek and the following Baillie River without map or other information.
C1: Gordon River a couple of weeks ago in my Blunt. First day in that boat on a good class 3+ run kept me as a C1 newbie quite busy.

Worst carnage: Bugaboo creek falls into Gordon River in February. Its a roughly 30 foot falls. I broke L1 and bulged L4-L5 Disk. The Disk is still giving me lots of trouble. I landed almost flat after screwing up my line by getting stuck with the paddle between two rocks. That almost ripped the paddle out of my hand. I still remember trying to grab the T grip during air time. When I tried to roll, the pain was so intense that I just came out of the boat...

No "big" falls for me in the near future

On the river, Jan

(Woo hoo! Pain Boater Status!

Jan, Where did you paddle on the Nanaimo River? I've paddled down the Nanaimo from the Highway to Cedar. Is there stuff above the bungee bridge that you can paddle? I vaguely recall a nasty looking boulder garden below the lake (north of the bungee bridge) that would have been a Class V.. can you paddle from the lake to the Highway?

Mike.

Yea, there is some killer stuff on that river. But hey, I'm a whimp, we only do the stuff below the Nanaimo lakes.
If you go from Vic to Nanaimo, take your right where it says "Nanaimo Lakes". This leads you under the Highway on Nanaimo River Road which is heading west.
There is a logging bridge over the Nanaimo maybe 3/4 of the way up to Nanaimo Lakes. To get to the bridge, you leave the paved road by a left turn onto a relatively big logging road.
That bridge is the put in. Then, there is a place where an old pipeline (?) crossed the river, that is the take out. This is about 5km down the Nanaimo River road from the highway. (i.e. you pass the take out on your way to the put in)

It is a class II run with a couple of class III drops. The last drop is the hardest and is class III, but not hard at all. It has an easy line to avoid a big hole.

The river is one of the coldest around here but has a couple of playspots and isn't too far from Victoria...

There is a web page aabout the run on www.paddleguides.com

Jan

This has been a tough year for me but I think I've made it though the roughest of it.

Worst carnage?
Right knee arthroscopy. A freak injury in March put me out of the boat until August. I missed a great summer of boating. We had great water all summer and all I could do was watch from shore, rehab and ride my bike. It was a major bummer to say the least.

Most challenging river?
Slowly - beginning in August - I got back in the boat. 5 minutes at a time at the lake - 15 minutes at the lake - Taking breaks every 15 minutes on class I-II rivers. Taking breaks - every 30 minutes on class I-II rivers. Working at getting those cartwheels back. hades I even boatboated a few times - etc. etc.

Most fun river?
This Saturday - Playing my fool butt off for about 4 hours in class III with just a few short stretch breaks (well within the realm of the c-boat pain tolerance.) Rolling 20 times in 35 deg water in 40 deg weather and loving every minute of it. Ahhhhh. I'm a little sore today but otherwise unscathed.

Happiness is simply just being able to boat.

Enjoy your holidays.

Dave