Just got back from a weekend away kayaking. I got picked up at 5.40am on Saturday morning by Daniel and Michelle. We had to get to the get-in by 10am and it's about 3.5hrs drive from Ann Arbor. We picked Katie up at 5.50am and headed on the road. I was expecting to sleep and whole way there but instead we all stayed awake and talked. The conversations were not intellectually based but that's okay. After an hour or so we stopped off at Harvey's; an American fast food place that serves breakfasts not too dissimilar to McDonald's. My US friends claim that there is a world of difference. I ordered a sausage biscuit (??) combo, which means you get a drink and... you've guess it, hash browns. The food was okay. We ate while on the road.
Just before arriving at our destination we got a bit lost and it took about 30 extra minutes to to where we were heading. We arrived at about 10.45am. The get in was next to a closed road bridge that went over the river. The woods area around made for a convenient toilet. We unloaded the boats and got changed into our gear as quickly as we could. The weather was overcast, but not cold. Many of the other group members had stayed overnight either at a hotel or camped and they were more or less ready to go. After the usual faff, and a shuttle run we were almost ready to hit the water. Paul gave his safety talk - which was mainly aimed at me since I was the only one not to have paddled this river in the group. It all helps build up the nerves. I was sporting my new dry cag which came through the post on Friday. We did a short warm up and it was down we go. The group was surprisingly large and consisted of about 18 paddlers. I decided to stick around with my car buddies and Paul and Karen, who would hopefully give me some guidance.
After a couple of small waves we reached a pool. At this point everyone decided to practice their roll. This is something of a ritual in this club and they take it seriously. They believe it gives you confidence with your roll and gets you wet to reduce the shock later on... I did two rolls for the hell of it. The guys said it was cold but to be honest this was positively warm compared to the usual paddling we do in the UK.
A little further down, there was a place perfect for tail squirts. I decided to give it a go and to stop being so wet. The first couple lacked commitment. Then I went for it and got the boat vertical (I was in a Jackson Fun). The boat fell slightly sideways and I was able to brace out of it. I heard some cheers from the guys, then bang; I was upside down. While I was recovering from the squirt I drifted into an eddy line which took me off balance. I rolled up without much difficulty. I went on and did some more. Each time the boat looped over (to much commitment now). looping leaves me disorientated and I have problems working out where I am and which way is upstream, so this is probably good practice for me.
A little further down was another rapid called the tea-room. It was difficult to see what was below on this rapid. Paul gave me some instruction. I went down eddy by eddy following the leader. Next was a fast ferry glide with rock behind me. I hit the stream with full confidence but the water took down the front of my boat as if I wanted to do a bow stall. I panicked and turned my boat out of it - but this left me with no chance of ferrying across so I had to hit the drop below without inspection.... I rapidly approached some confused water a funny looking hole to the left and a pinning rock infront of me. My panicked strokes put me straight infront of the rock. Shit. I reacted though and glanced the rock but then piled over a small shoot which avoided the bottom rapid. I got to the bottom. The way I panicked made me nervous. I never normally panic on the river so this was a strange thing for me. From this point on the rapids seemed much harder than they actually were. Tension in my arms perhaps. I looked at how others approached this situation and saw that a reasonably large eddy was upstream and to the right of the eddy which actually makes it very easy. The hole was not a holder either. Dam it, this should have been easy.
I can't remember all of the drops below this or at least not the order but I will mention some of the ones I can. Airport was a good rapid. A lead into it a couple of waves and eddies then the river narrows between two large boulders. The line was left side of the drop. The hole at the bottom can flip people and there is a potential undercut a little further down. The trick is if you do flip say in your boat for a couple of seconds and you will flow past the danger. I passed through without any trouble although I was very nervous. Marissa swam on this one. She made a mess-up above the drop and went down upside down. Her roll failed her.
A few more rapids that weren't to much trouble and we reached the mill. I was still unhappy with my paddling and this really affected me. We portaged the weir at the mill and had lunch. Getting back on wasn't fun. The water moves fast through here and its straight into it. Basically a mile of rapids before the get-out at the bridge. Karen swam not long after getting in. She had been playing and her roll failed her. Triple drop is series of drops separated by 50 yards or so. It was not what imagined - actually quite spaced out with lots of big eddies to wait in. One drop had a hole at the bottom. this one looked about the worst. Martin told me right was good and left was deep. I watched Michelle go right, then get kicked further right onto a rock. I decided that looked bad (she was fine mind). I decided to go more left. Shit wrong angle. I was hitting the hole in the middle while facing at too much of an angle. I sort of lean toward the wave and did an almighty brace on my left. I so thought I was in, but I cleared it without a dunking.
Now I just wanted to end it. A few more drops stood in my way. A bouncy rapid with some curling waves looked nasty to me. I bashed through it with a poor line.
After one or two more small drops the trip was over. Myself and Daniel did some rolling practice until I got ice cream head. Once dried and loaded up we took a walk back to the mill (one mile). The river looked so different. It still had some bits that didn't have a clean line, however, I did see some routes that would make it easier the following day.
We drove straight to the restaurant from the river. It was a Mexican place. The food was awful and the service was worse. I only eat about half of mine. We arranged for an 8am meeting at EAT. We headed to our hotel. Daniel and Michelle picked up a 6 pack of beer and myself and Daniel stayed up for a while watching the basketball on TV. I crashed out at about 11pm.
EAT was a good breakfast and I was less nervous of the rapids today. The weather started terrible though. It was raining cats and dogs. This had no consequence on the river height. The group had shrunk in size and was now 14. A group of 5 split and went down the river ahead of our group. The routine was the same, but this time I didn't make any mistake on the Tea rooms rapid. All of a sudden the river became considerably easier. My demons had passed me by. I surfed more now and grow in confidence. I saw Daniel take a nasty swim. He got too brave and ended up in a hole. He couldn't get free and popped his deck. When he surfaced he was still in the stopper. It took a 10s for him to work out how to escape. It shook him for a while, but not for long.
We finished the river without to many problems. I certainly found reading the water much easier. Far less panic and much more control.
We headed home, but not without doing a tour of fast food joints!
Just before arriving at our destination we got a bit lost and it took about 30 extra minutes to to where we were heading. We arrived at about 10.45am. The get in was next to a closed road bridge that went over the river. The woods area around made for a convenient toilet. We unloaded the boats and got changed into our gear as quickly as we could. The weather was overcast, but not cold. Many of the other group members had stayed overnight either at a hotel or camped and they were more or less ready to go. After the usual faff, and a shuttle run we were almost ready to hit the water. Paul gave his safety talk - which was mainly aimed at me since I was the only one not to have paddled this river in the group. It all helps build up the nerves. I was sporting my new dry cag which came through the post on Friday. We did a short warm up and it was down we go. The group was surprisingly large and consisted of about 18 paddlers. I decided to stick around with my car buddies and Paul and Karen, who would hopefully give me some guidance.
After a couple of small waves we reached a pool. At this point everyone decided to practice their roll. This is something of a ritual in this club and they take it seriously. They believe it gives you confidence with your roll and gets you wet to reduce the shock later on... I did two rolls for the hell of it. The guys said it was cold but to be honest this was positively warm compared to the usual paddling we do in the UK.
A little further down, there was a place perfect for tail squirts. I decided to give it a go and to stop being so wet. The first couple lacked commitment. Then I went for it and got the boat vertical (I was in a Jackson Fun). The boat fell slightly sideways and I was able to brace out of it. I heard some cheers from the guys, then bang; I was upside down. While I was recovering from the squirt I drifted into an eddy line which took me off balance. I rolled up without much difficulty. I went on and did some more. Each time the boat looped over (to much commitment now). looping leaves me disorientated and I have problems working out where I am and which way is upstream, so this is probably good practice for me.
A little further down was another rapid called the tea-room. It was difficult to see what was below on this rapid. Paul gave me some instruction. I went down eddy by eddy following the leader. Next was a fast ferry glide with rock behind me. I hit the stream with full confidence but the water took down the front of my boat as if I wanted to do a bow stall. I panicked and turned my boat out of it - but this left me with no chance of ferrying across so I had to hit the drop below without inspection.... I rapidly approached some confused water a funny looking hole to the left and a pinning rock infront of me. My panicked strokes put me straight infront of the rock. Shit. I reacted though and glanced the rock but then piled over a small shoot which avoided the bottom rapid. I got to the bottom. The way I panicked made me nervous. I never normally panic on the river so this was a strange thing for me. From this point on the rapids seemed much harder than they actually were. Tension in my arms perhaps. I looked at how others approached this situation and saw that a reasonably large eddy was upstream and to the right of the eddy which actually makes it very easy. The hole was not a holder either. Dam it, this should have been easy.
I can't remember all of the drops below this or at least not the order but I will mention some of the ones I can. Airport was a good rapid. A lead into it a couple of waves and eddies then the river narrows between two large boulders. The line was left side of the drop. The hole at the bottom can flip people and there is a potential undercut a little further down. The trick is if you do flip say in your boat for a couple of seconds and you will flow past the danger. I passed through without any trouble although I was very nervous. Marissa swam on this one. She made a mess-up above the drop and went down upside down. Her roll failed her.
A few more rapids that weren't to much trouble and we reached the mill. I was still unhappy with my paddling and this really affected me. We portaged the weir at the mill and had lunch. Getting back on wasn't fun. The water moves fast through here and its straight into it. Basically a mile of rapids before the get-out at the bridge. Karen swam not long after getting in. She had been playing and her roll failed her. Triple drop is series of drops separated by 50 yards or so. It was not what imagined - actually quite spaced out with lots of big eddies to wait in. One drop had a hole at the bottom. this one looked about the worst. Martin told me right was good and left was deep. I watched Michelle go right, then get kicked further right onto a rock. I decided that looked bad (she was fine mind). I decided to go more left. Shit wrong angle. I was hitting the hole in the middle while facing at too much of an angle. I sort of lean toward the wave and did an almighty brace on my left. I so thought I was in, but I cleared it without a dunking.
Now I just wanted to end it. A few more drops stood in my way. A bouncy rapid with some curling waves looked nasty to me. I bashed through it with a poor line.
After one or two more small drops the trip was over. Myself and Daniel did some rolling practice until I got ice cream head. Once dried and loaded up we took a walk back to the mill (one mile). The river looked so different. It still had some bits that didn't have a clean line, however, I did see some routes that would make it easier the following day.
We drove straight to the restaurant from the river. It was a Mexican place. The food was awful and the service was worse. I only eat about half of mine. We arranged for an 8am meeting at EAT. We headed to our hotel. Daniel and Michelle picked up a 6 pack of beer and myself and Daniel stayed up for a while watching the basketball on TV. I crashed out at about 11pm.
EAT was a good breakfast and I was less nervous of the rapids today. The weather started terrible though. It was raining cats and dogs. This had no consequence on the river height. The group had shrunk in size and was now 14. A group of 5 split and went down the river ahead of our group. The routine was the same, but this time I didn't make any mistake on the Tea rooms rapid. All of a sudden the river became considerably easier. My demons had passed me by. I surfed more now and grow in confidence. I saw Daniel take a nasty swim. He got too brave and ended up in a hole. He couldn't get free and popped his deck. When he surfaced he was still in the stopper. It took a 10s for him to work out how to escape. It shook him for a while, but not for long.
We finished the river without to many problems. I certainly found reading the water much easier. Far less panic and much more control.
We headed home, but not without doing a tour of fast food joints!
1 comment:
Sounds like a great trip...I went to Hastings to see the sea. It was good too. But I didn't get wet. Or swim ;-)
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