Sacandaga

I couldn't hook up with a local trip on my only day off of the holiday weekend, so I went to the Northeast Paddlers' Message Board to look for someone to go boating with on Memorial Day. I guy named Mike responded, saying he was doing the Sacandaga River in New York starting at noon. Since he was starting so late, I agreed to go despite the fact that it was a long way. Mapquest said 3 hours and 35 minutes, but I thought I could do it in 3:15.

I left the house at 8:45. It took a bit longer than expected, 3:40! I also had a little trouble finding the put-in, so I was further delayed and didn't actually make it to the put-in until 12:50. When I got there--a big eddy,--I saw two kayakers just heading out of the eddy. I hollered at them and they paddled back towards me. I asked them if one of them was Mike. They said no, but I could paddle with them anyway. I changed quickly and hopped in with them. They then said that there had been a group there that left a few minutes ago that had said they were waiting for someone. They had also said they'd be stopping to play a lot on the way down, so the two thought I'd be able to catch up with them.

Sure enough, at the first playspot, the group of three was there. I asked for Mike again and this time he was there. I said goodbye to the other two--they were doing a straight run because one of them was a first timer--and checked out the playwaves. There were two of them. I didn't really look at the first one, but the second one was a little big for me, but not as big as some of the ones on the Dryway.

I never made it all the way onto it. On my last attempt, I flipped over just as I was getting into it. I tried a few rolls, going over some waves and one small, not sticky hole that almost rolled me by itself. I made a couple more unsuccessful attempts, trying to breathe on each one to buy another attempt (which is probably why they were unsuccessful). On the second to last one, I could hear Mike's voice before I went back down, so I knew he was right there. This was a very good thing to know because, unlike T-ville, I really was out of attempts. I made the signal for a bow rescue, felt Mike's bow and pulled myself up. No swim. They were impressed by how long I stuck it out, which allowed them to catch up and me to avoid a swim.

After one small drop, we were into a long section of mostly moving flatwater. Mike remarked that this was his favorite section of the run as he took his feet out of the pegs and stretched them out on the bow. A disadvantage of having a short boat like mine is that the feet can't be taken out of the bow on a section like this. They asked me if I knew any flatwater moves in my short boat, so I tried a few stern squirts, rolling once on the second attempt and doing one really nice one. I also practiced some pivot turns in this section and attempted one bow stall, which needs a lot of work.

We finally got to the next whitewater portion, which slowly picked up. It was very similar to the lower West, except wider and with more playspots to catch on the fly. Mike caught one really nice-looking wave, but I couldn't get to it because he was on it.

This rapid culminates in a class III- drop and we eddied out right above it. There is a wide pourover in the center, so you have to go left or right. They recommended left since that's the side the takeout is on and it's right after the drop, so that's the way I went.

In the large takeout eddy, I located a wave right off shore, easily accessible from another microeddy just a few feet into the current. I surfed on this a bunch of times while I waited for the others to come down from surfing above. I was able to do some carving on this wave as I learned last weekend and stay on it a long time. Carving is the best. Next time I will try to do some full spins.

It was a great day, despite the long drive and the late start.

T-ville Late Afternoon Park and Play

I had the day off Wednesday, so I decided to head down to Connecticut to visit my grandmother and great aunt and stop at T-ville on the way back.

I got to the park and play put in and saw many cars with boats. There were only about 5 kayakers in the water and there were even two people with boogie boards.

The level was just under 4 feet, over double the height (and much more volume) than my trip there on Tax Day. The rapid was barely recognizable. I had a somewhat difficult time figuring out which hole was which. The eddies for accessing the waves and holes were pretty much washed out, which was quite problematic for me. Basically, I couldn't paddle up to where I needed to be to get on the play features; I had to walk up the bank or in shallow water, which was quite painful with my 2mm neoprene socks and the sharp brownstone rocks of T-ville.

My first few rides, I just paddled up what was left of the eddy as far as I could and paddled into the current, missing the waves. The next couple of times, I got out of the boat, waded upstream, and got in from a farther up point. I didn't get to the features this way either, not having ferried out far enough. One of these times I did have a pretty good ride through the waves, just missing getting swallowed by the main play hole. After the hole, I even did an unintentional midriver stern squirt. I got in a few rolls on these rides too.

With my feet hurting, I decided I would go for one more ride. (I also had to get home pretty quickly to meat my friend to go up to New Hampshire and hike on Thursday). This ride failed to reach the hole as well, so I went for one more absolutely final one.

I made the hole, but it endered me instantly and actually held me for a few seconds. I tried to roll twice in the hole, but I was obviously on the wrong side. Then I flushed out and tried to roll a couple more times, but I was still against the current so I didn't make it. I decided to try one more time and then wet exit. I didn't make it: first swim of 2006. I was already into the next rapid when I wet exited. I started to swim over towards the river right side when I saw a kayak on my left catch up to my boat. He said to grab his loop, so I did and got my boat with the other hand. He took me over to the left side (a much shorter walk back than the right side). I got out and secured my boat above water level then climbed out of the gorge. (I didn't want to bring the boat up until I had my shoes on). There was still the matter of my paddle however. My rescuer had considerable distance to go to it on account of having brought me and the boat to shore and I was afraid the paddle would be history. I had visions of it getting stuck in the undercut rock below the broken dam.

I ran back to my car and drove down to the dam. My rescuer had been joined there by two friends. I didn't see any of them with my paddle. But then they told me it was on the beach above the dam. :-) They caught up to it in the large pool above the dam, which I had forgotten existed. I got the paddle and the boat and got home in time to leave again for the hike in New Hampshire at a reasonable time.

Thinking about the swim, I realized it was more of a mental breakdown than a physical one. The "last" roll attempt did not have to be the final one; I got a breath on that attempt, and could have made at least one more. Luckily, the water was so high I didn't make contact with any rocks during the swim and thanks to the other paddlers, I still have all my equipment. (You only own half the paddle now, Artemis).

Playboating Course

Yesterday, I accomplished one of my goals for the season, taking a playboating course. This course was at Zoar, with Jim, the instructor, and one other student, Jaime.

In the morning, we went to a flatwater portion of the Deerfield and learned some moves, most of which involved turning sharply while doing a turning stroke and submerging either end of the kayak. Some of these moves were difficult and some were easy.

After this, we went back to Zoar to eat lunch at watch a playboating video with Jim braking down the paddlers' moves. I found it hard to see which way the boaters were leaning and paddling (front or back sweep) because of the extremely frothy water they were in.

After this, we went to try out our new knowledge on whitewater. With the recent floods, there was water spilling into the Dryway despite there not being a release and that is where Jim decided to take us. I was worried that I was not up to doing the Dryway yet, but he said that we would only be doing the first part before the really hard rapids and that having seen us paddle in the morning, he knew we could handle it.

I was pretty nervous in the car and until we got to the put-in, where I saw the first rapid and it didn't look too bad.

It wasn't too bad. The current was a bit too much for me to contend with at some of the waves he wanted us to practice on, causing me to flip before getting on them and roll after washing past the access eddy. We spent a lot of time at one medium-small wave and I got a lot of rides on it including one really long one. The lessons of the morning helped me to stay on and move around on it without flipping. At the very end, I found a hole and did a long sidesurf, which we covered in the morning, which was very good. I did not flip.

We took out just above the start of the serious stuff (Split Hair Rapid). It was a good day and I'm looking forward to practicing these moves some more on subsequent trips.