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).