avk45's Blog

The New Decoration Rock

2011-09-08T17:31:00.013-04:00

As a result of the floods from Hurricane Irene, a number of rapids have changed in Western New England. Here is a look at Decoration Rock Rapid on the West Branch Farmington River in New Boston, MA. You can click on the pictures for a closer view.

Here is the main drop, which used to be a 3-5 foot vertical drop, but is now just a huge tongue:

Another angle:

The most difficult part of the rapid now may be this huge wave train above the former drop (tough to get a good picture here because of leaves, but this is at least a 6' haystack trough to tip with another big one behind the tree on the left side of the photo):

Below the "drop", is this river-wide V:

And then about 100 yards downstream, a nasty-looking hole on river left:

There has been some question as to whether the gauge is accurate post-flood. I went straight to it after taking these pictures and it read 7.5'.

Palin 2012

2008-10-29T22:16:00.005-04:00

Ask not what John McCain can do for your country; ask what you can do for John McCain.

What can one do for John McCain in the next six days?

To use poker terminology, ship it all-in.

What do I mean by that? I certainly don't recommend putting all your "chips" on McCain on Intrade. In fact, I would recommend doing the exact opposite if you're the gambling type.* What I mean is that as many McCain supporters as possible need to put as much money and, possibly more importantly, time towards his campaign as possible the next six days.

The odds don't look good. Polls don't matter to me. The map is all that matters. The official, final national poll doesn't even mean anything (just ask Al Gore). I'm not an actuary or a statistician, but I did get a 4.0 in Discrete Probability and tutor it (before I took it in college, lol).

Intrade's map shows an expected 346.6 electoral votes for Obama. Assuming the probability distribution is normal, or more centered than a normal distribution, McCain has a 1/74 chance of winning. To put that in perspective, making an inside straight on the last card in 5-card stud is a 1/12 shot. Make it a straight flush, and it's still 1/48. The odds of McCain winning the election at this point are the same as the Vikings winning the Super Bowl or Golden State winning the NBA championship next June.

*As much as Intrade may like people to think that it sells securities, it is really nothing more than a betting exchange. So when I say do the opposite of betting on McCain, I don't mean to bet on Obama. I mean to bet against McCain: "lay" McCain (to win) by selling him short.

Final West Fest

2008-09-28T11:01:00.010-04:00

Yesterday, I headed up to the West River for the final fall release and West Fest. The Army Corps of Engineers has cut the fall release for 2009, rescheduled the spring 2009 release to a time before Jamaica State Park is open. This cancellation and rescheduling follow a decades-long paddling of reduced releases. There were once two full weekends of releases in both the spring and fall. To help out with the release situation, go here, join American Whitewater here or donate to AW here if you're already a member.

I have had the West Fest circled on my calendar since, well, the first time I ran the West, so 2008 was no different. Since this year's fall release was the last one and because the fall release has always been the best one thanks to the shuttle/not-carrying-over-the-dam thing, there were no mitigating circumstances short of a death in the family or a debilitating injury that would keep me away from Jamaica, VT. I also wanted to demo some creek boats as Glenn recommended two weeks ago at the Quaboag. Lastly, I wanted to boof the Boof Rock for the first time and a catch a wave in the Dumplings that I'd never caught.

Glenn and I met at 8:30 at the put in. We headed up for the first run and met up with Tony Karis, who I've been on many AMC trips with; and who Glenn took a Zoar course with when they were both starting out. I took my usual LL CR 125 for the first run. I had an unexpected 4 combat rolls, all on the first attempt. At the Boof Rock, I rolled off the pillow towards river left. Hence, there was no boof to be had. I eddied out behind the rock and just went on down.

Between the first and second runs, Glenn looked for people in hope of running Ball Mountain Brook, but he later determined that no one was running it because he saw the people who would have been going down while we were shuttling up.

I demoed a LL Jefe Chico creek boat. I did not like this boat at all. It is built to roll off waves and did that quite well. Unfortunately, this feature makes it impossible for me to imagine staying on a critical line while creaking, since it wants to bounce/roll where ever it wants. The one plus was that it punched holes very well. This positive feature turned negative when I went into a hole I never would have gone near in my CR on purpose to test the Remix's resurfacing ability. Suffice to say that I now know that a helmet that covers the ears is a necessity.

After a lunch break during which Glenn and I lost track of each other, I got back on the shuttle with the CR. Ed Vassar was on it as well and I decided to run it with him and a friend of his. I nailed the Boof Rock this time, aiming right to avoid rolling off the pillow as on the first run. Pretty soon, I ran into Glenn at the eddy with the squirrelly lines on river right and parted with Ed and friend.

We rushed down to the takeout, having reconvened at 3:30, so that we could make the final shuttle at 4 with enough time for Glenn to unload his creek boat because it "needed to get wet", and for me to get another demo creeker. This time the demo boat was a LL Remix 57.

Glenn and I were the only ones on the final shuttle, save for an open boater who was riding it to hike back up to his car at the top of the dam. The shuttle guys called us hard core, prompting Glenn to quip that we weren't hard core until we made our next run hiking boats down the dam.

The Remix was much better in terms of staying on a line and I felt that I could move it around well, allaying my concern about having a creek boat that will only go straight. Glenn said that if I liked the Remix, I might like the Bliss Stick Mini Mystic even better. Their offerings are also considerably cheaper than LL's.

What I will miss most about the West is the fact that I always run into people there who I've run rivers with before. Perhaps the Deerfield River Fest will fill this role, but it is not the same. Plus, it's better to see or have a chance to run into old companions twice a year than once a year.

Quaboag 9-14-08

2008-09-14T20:57:00.019-04:00

Today's run of the Quaboag was a good one. Plenty of people showed up at the put in, a mostly open boat contingent from New England River Runners and people from NPMB who I came to meet with, including Glenn and Randy.

The run was a fun time and I felt completely comfortable in all the rapids. It was at 4.7 on the gauge as opposed to 4.5 when I ran it in the spring. This translates to an increase from 500 to 630 cfs.

I took some videos during the run, but they weren't very good. Here they are:

Gorilla Line, Quaboag Drop from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.

Randy blasts through from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.

Glenn runs the broken dam

Glenn Runs the broken dam. Some unintended camera setting made the water look purple.

"Gorilla Line" at Quaboag Drop

Running the "Gorilla Line" at Quaboag Drop.

Double Dipping on the Deerfield

2008-09-13T23:27:00.009-04:00

Today I ran the Dryway and Fife Brook back-to-back.

It proved to be a very tiring day, mostly because after I put in on Fife, I sprinted to catch up with the AMC group, led by Kimo Lindon, that I was safety boating for.

But the details on the Dryway run first.

Without Casey holding my hand, I had to pick my own lines. I also promised the ad hoc messageboard group that I did not have to stop to scout Dragon's Tooth. The result: six combat rolls compared with one in July. One of these rolls was in the runout of the Tooth, which was quickly followed by another flip and voluntary, non-combat swim in the pool between the Tooth and Labyrinth.

There is something to be said for these swims where I know the river well enough to know that I can make it to shore without swimming any rapids. There is more to be said however, for the fact that a roll takes less time to get to air than pulling the skirt, pushing out and resurfacing does. Furthermore, rolling spares the others the difficulty of bumping my boat to shore and the lengthy boat emptying process.

Labyrinth ended midway through the rapid this day, so I did not have a chance to redeem myself on the drop where I had a similar swim in July.

Because of the staggered release schedule (10 AM Dryway; noon Fife), I was able to do the double dip and catch up to the AMC group, whom I wasn't scheduled to safety boat for until the next day. But I decided to surprise them and caught up with them just as they were leaving the railroad bridge after lunch. (I quickly ate mine during a stop farther down.)

It was a pretty uneventful trip, with no rescues. Because of the legal issues involved and the fact that I hadn't signed the AMC release form, Kimo and I agreed that I was not a part of his group; I was just "following" them. (Maybe I shouldn't post that on the internet?)

When we got to the Gap, one of the people on Kimo's trip agreed to film me going through the Gap. Here it is:

9-13-08 Gap Run from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.

Pretty lousy place to start the ferry, as the intended destination, the river right eddy, doesn't even enter the picture. I had to contend with the extra flow (1000 or 1200, I'm not sure, but a lot higher than the usual 750) and the trashy eddy line, which was further complicated by the extra flow coming off the river left ledge. (BTW, there is a sieve between the rock that forms this ledge and the one slightly farther upstream and center that marks the river left side of the main tongue at the top. If you are running the easy and popular boof line on river left, be sure to stay very close to the left shore to avoid this potential trouble spot.) Going over the two rocks was not a new experience for me; I had done it earlier in the summer too thanks to the high flows of most of the season. It does make for a more interesting video to see me going over the two rocks.

I ran into Ed Vassar at the Gap, who was there running the Gap continuously. He said he was planning to run the Quaboag the next day. Although I was signed up to safety boat for Kimo, I couldn't resist the chance to run the Quaboag. When I missed meeting up with Kimo's group for dinner, I left word that I was headed home instead of camping and headed for the Quaboag the next morning from home.

2008 Season Recap--Summer

2008-09-12T21:24:00.013-04:00

My first Fife Brook trip of the season was May 10, which I am calling summer because it was warm and we were on a "summer" run. Nicole Vassar led the trip with multiple co-leaders, not including myself. It was a good run. I did some practice combat rolls successfully to get in the swing of things and build confidence. (I guess "practice combat roll" is a bit of an oxymoron.) I choose a difficult line for the Gap, eddying out left at the top and attempting to ferry to the river right eddy. I made the ferry, but missed the eddy and quickly did a 180 to run the right line. The right line is much trickier than the straight-shot boof line on the left and eddying out left and then running left is also easier than the right side. I think the right side is more fun because of the dance you have to do around rocks and holes. You can also catch a few eddies mid-drop from the right line.

We also had a great barbecue after the run with hot dogs, chicken sandwiches and ketchup taste tests.

The next highlight was a trip on the Dead the last weekend of June. I rode up to The Forks with Charlie Sweet, an open boater. This trip is an annual openboat trip at more open-boat-friendly release levels of 1800 (sat) and 1300 (sun). (This makes no sense to me; shouldn't the low level be on day 1 as a warm up?)

Maine had a ton of snow last winter. It was the snowiest winter in 126 years in places, I heard. When this snowpack melted, rainfall came, keeping water high for a long time. I saw pictures linked to a post on NPMB of people running the Kennebec at 12,800, with water coming down the spillway. For our trip, the release was a little higher than usual because the dam operator at Flagstaff Lake did not subtract out the flow of Spencer Stream in calculating the release level. As a result, the flow was more like 2050 cfs. I felt much better in the genuine class III rapids than in 2007 and hit a roll in the middle of Upper Poplar, which was the only flip of the day.

On July 13, I ran the Dryway at 1000, with help from Paddle Head, aka Casey, who showed me the easiest lines. I did a roll in a flushy eddy after rear-ending a rock. I did not flip again until the last drop of Labyrinth. I would have liked to have been further left, where the main flow is, but flipped and rolled Piscataquog style (360), proving that you can have too much hip snap. I washed through the waves/holes at the bottom, tried another roll and then decided to swim because I knew I was in the flat water. It was a good run altogether.

The first weekend of August, Paul Satwicz and I ran Fife Brook together. We were planning to run the Dryway, but we couldn't find any companions probably because the downriver race that day kept many away and I wasn't comfortable leading him down it myself having only run it once myself. It was a good time. At the Gap, Paul did not follow me as directed. The result was that when I eddied out at the bottom, I could still see Paul sitting in an eddy above it. I knew what was coming, as he ran the middle, flipping and rolling up at the bottom. After this, he said he was glad we hadn't done the Dryway, although in my opinion, there isn't a single rapid on the Dryway where the line is less discernible than the Gap.

I didn't paddle any more until the weekend after Labor Day. I was scheduled to go on the annual overnight trip to the Magalloway, but the trip was reduced to a day on the Lower Millers because we didn't want to experience Tropical Storm Hannah in tents. The Lower Millers was great. The rapids are much bigger than they look from route 2, solid class III the whole way. It was a beautiful day too and I finally got the last of the endorsements I need for a class III rating from the AMC, which was a long time coming.

We walked the Funnel, which made Dragon's Tooth look tame at this level (4.8). I thought that there was a possible sneak route on river left, but with our group of four, there was no way anybody was running it that day.

2008 Kayaking Season Recap--Spring

2008-09-12T20:42:00.018-04:00

There is no doubt that 2008 has been a banner year in the number of days I have paddled, the progress I've made, the comfort level I've achieved and the responsibilities I have been given on AMC trips.

In late March, I received word that I had been recommended to be a co-leader for AMC trips. After a meeting with other recommendees led by Amy Wong, I was certified to co-lead trips. I have yet to serve as one, however.

The season kicked off on April 12. I was set to meet ChuckS from the message board at the Searsburg Dryway on the Deerfield in Vermont. This dryway has no scheduled releases and only runs during periods of high runoff from snowpack (and New England had tons of snow last winter) or floods. This is a continuous class III run normally, but extremely high flows make it a IV. The water is incredibly clear, and the rocks in the riverbed were easy to spot from the road through the shallow, quick water. On this day, the flow was very high. I later found out it was 2500 cfs, which is 500 cfs more than the level Bruce Lessels says is too high in the guidebook. Not knowing the exact flow and not being sure I wouldn't be upside down in the shallow, continuous, rocky rapids, I opted to pass. ChuckS and his friend(s) ran it and later reported that it was great.

I instead embarked on a photo safari working my way down the Deerfield basin, snapping photos of the West Branch, regular (Monroe Bridge) Dryway, and Fife Brook sections. Some of these photos can be found on the corresponding AW page; and the rest can be found on my photo page.

After the Deerfield tour, I went to the Wave-o-Saurus and got some more photos and videos. I also got some surfs in.

Two weeks later, Paul and Nick Satwicz (see photo above) and I went to the West. Nick is Paul's youngest child, a senior in high school at the moment, I believe. Paul and I ran the upper while Nick did homework in the car and then we all ran the lower. It was Nick's first time in a whitewater kayak on a river and he acquitted himself quite well, even pulling off a roll with limited practice.

The next weekend, I ran the Quaboag for the first time with Randy, Glenn, Dustin, Lauren and others from NPMB. It was a good day and I got a lot of confidence from running the trickier drops. I also got some good videos at Quaboag Drop, the abrupt 4' ledge in the middle of the gorge section.

Here are the videos:

Running the Gorilla Line at Quaboag Drop from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.

Randy sneaking left at Quaboag Drop from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.

Why I'm not worried about Obama losing

2008-09-12T07:36:00.003-04:00

The Palin pick has energized enthusiasm for the Republican ticket, pulling McCain ahead in national polls. The first reason this does not worry me is that, in the Boston Globe this week, Democratic political experts were quoted as saying that this uptick is a temporary bounce and it will eventually die down. I assume that this means that once Palin is done being completely controlled in public by campaign handlers, some of the voters she has attracted--mainly independents--will be turned off by her hard-core conservative positions.

But that is not the biggest reason I am still optimistic about Obama. In a nutshell, polls mean nothing. The electoral college means everything. John Kerry won states worth 252 electoral votes in 2004. If Obama carries all these states, he needs to add only 18 more electoral votes to win.

Breaking down the states Kerry won, the following are almost certainly in the Democratic (blue) column (defined as >70% probability of Obama winning as of this morning on Intrade).

California (55 electoral votes)
Oregon (7)
Washington (11)
Minnesota (10)
Wisconsin (10)
Illinois (21)
Pennsylvania (21)
Maryland (10)
Delaware (3)
D.C. (3)
New Jersey (15)
New York (31)
Maine (4)
Massachusetts (12)
Vermont (3)
Rhode Island (4)
Connecticut (7)
Hawaii (4)

Strongly leaning blue (<70%, >65%):

Michigan (17)

Leaning blue (<65%, >60%):

New Hampshire (4)

So Obama should acheive Kerry's 252 as a baseline.

Winning either Ohio (20) or Florida (27), would put Obama over the top. Florida looks like a long shot; this morning the quoted probability of Obama winning was only 36%. Ohio looks like a toss up at 57/43 in McCain's favor.

But Obama does not need Ohio to win, though you can bet the house that he will give it the maximum amount of effort there (Something Kerry neglected to do by not speaking in Cleveland in the days before the election).

The following states can put him over the 270 electoral votes needed without winning Ohio:

Iowa (7 EV's, 74%)
New Mexico (5, 60%)
Colorado (9, 55%)
Nevada (5, 44%)

Given that Ohio and Colorado are tossups, and assuming New Mexico and New Hampshire hold, I like his chances to carry either Ohio (making 284 total electoral votes) or Colorado (273), or both (293). According to Intrade's probabilities and my assumption that NM and NH will hold, the mathematical odds are almost 3:1 that Obama will carry either Colorado or Ohio, or both; and win the election.

My take on the Moosehead Lake development plan

2008-09-11T22:08:00.000-04:00

Maine is unique among its northern New England cousins, New Hampshire and Vermont in that it has comparatively little federally protected land, especially given its much larger area than those other two states and its more undeveloped character.

A great portion of the state is completely uninhabited and privately owned. Imagine a line that starts in Bethel and runs to Millinocket. At this point it changes from running SW to NE and instead runs due north to the Canadian border, meeting it a little bit west of Fort Kent. If you look at a map, you will see how huge this area is. Nearly everywhere north and west of this line is completely uninhabited. Except for Baxter State Park and scattered small pieces of Maine Public Reserve lands and other state parks, the entire area is privately owned. The vast majority of the ownership is in the hands of paper companies and is working forest. (There are also sizable tracts of privately owned, undeveloped land in Washington County and eastern Hancock County in eastern Maine.)

One company that owns a large amount of land in the northwestern region is Seattle's Plum Creek Timber. A timber company by name, Plum Creek is diversifying its portfolio of businesses, moving into mineral extraction and real estate development. Plum Creek has proposed to develop high end resorts and many housing lots on its land around Moosehead. Most of the proposed development is on the already relatively developed western shore of Moosehead. The most controversial piece of the proposal is for a resort located at remote and environmentally sensitive Lily Bay, on the undeveloped east side of Moosehead.

The body of state government responsible for regulating development of Maine's unincorporated, privately owned lands is the Land Use Regulation Commission. The Natural Resources Council of Maine has been pressuring LURC to stop or reduce Plum Creek's development plan since it was first proposed. It succeeded in reducing the scope of the development a bit and in securing conservation easements from Plum Creek. NRCM is now focused on stopping just the Lily Bay resort.

Despite an NRCM letter-writing campaign last summer that produced 1700 letters against the resort and 6 in favor, Plum Creek has told LURC that the economic viability of the entire development is dependent on the Lily Bay resort. At this point, it seems like the construction of the Lily Bay resort is a near certainty, given Maine’s enterprising developmental strategies.

So how do I feel about this? Honestly, I think it is the best result that could have happened, although I wish that Lily Bay could remain undeveloped. The reason I am alright with it is that this development is progress for the natural resources and economy of the Moosehead region. Studies have shown that tourism-based economies are better for remote communities' natural resources and wallets than extraction-based economies. Development=conservation. Seems counter-intuitive, but it is true.

Kayaking Update 2006-2007

2008-09-10T21:17:00.000-04:00

The remainder of the 2006 season did not produce any particular highlights. After the bad Dryway experience I ran the West in the Fall with Paul Satwicz, a lifelong neighbor, family friend and member of the same church. He stopped boating ~1982 when he started having kids, minus the occasional trip to Cohasset. He made his first roll in 20 years on the West and it was a good time despite the rain. I ran the New Boston gorge in mid-October at the minimal release level. I rolled five times and my helmet acquired dents each time. After the fifth--a particularly hard hit--I decided enough was enough and took out. I did run Bear Trap later in the day, which was a great time. (And no dents). My last run of 2006 was the Green River, starting in Vermont and finishing in Massachusetts near Greenfield. The water was too low to justify its class III rating, but the scenery in this remote valley is unbelievable. I'd highly recommend it just for the scenery, especially in the Fall.

2007 was not as active as 2006. There were some lowlights, particularly when I had to abort my 2400 cfs Dead run at the gravel pit due to two swims and at least one roll. There were, of course, a few Fife Brook runs and I ran the Gap clean every time but one and did not take the easy line once. The highlight was the fall West release where I felt really good and began to consider running the Dryway again.

At the West, I also traded in my Vision 44 for a larger boat (at a profit!) because I felt that the Vision was making harder water too difficult for me. The new boat is a used liquidlogic CR 125, which is 7" longer and much beefier than the Vision and still theoretically able to perform playboating maneuvers, which the Vision was built for (not that I could do any of them).

The last run of the 2007 season was my first run of the Lower Ash in the southwest corner of New Hampshire. Now, the west-flowing tributaries of the Connecticut River between the confluence of the West in Brattleboro, VT and the MA/CT border, namely the Ashuelot, Millers and Quaboag, do not exactly have the best reputations regarding water quality. I found the Ash to be quite opaque and dark and it just didn't feel right on your skin (I know this because I rolled once; no swims). The good news is it did not smell. As far as the whitewater was concerned, there were plenty of good rapids. It was running at a medium level, so there were no class IV's, but some very nice III's. It was a great way to cure my now yearly November syndrome, which characterized by a burning desire to get one more run in before there is ice in the rivers.

I'm back

2008-09-09T16:33:00.000-04:00

After a long hiatus, I am going to be blogging actively here again. This started off as a kayaking blog, but in its reincarnation, the blog will not be exclusively about kayaking. There will still be lots of kayaking posts, because that's one of my favorite things to do.

Dryway

2006-08-30T17:05:00.000-04:00

I got really behind on blogging, but here it goes. On my July trip down Fife Brook, I discovered when I got home and unloaded my car that my paddle had water in the shaft. Luckily, I had only had it for 11 months, so it was still under warranty. It took 2 months to replace it, so in the course of waiting for it I had to borrow other people's paddles. One of the people I called was Vicky, the trip leader from the first T-ville trip in April, who said she would be running the Dryway most of the remaining release weekends. Since the Dryway was one of my goals for the season and I thought it didn't look too bad from the cataraft, I decided to go on Sunday, August 27.

Immediately, I was overcome by trepidation. I didn't lose any sleep, but that Sunday morning I was very edgy. Vicky drove and tried to allay me a bit and did. The run started off very well. I ran Factory Rapid clean, rolled after I scraped a small pourover between Disappointment and Split Hair. At Split Hair, I planned to follow the others, but I did not start the right to left ferry soon enough because the move was so abrupt and I wasn't expecting it. So I ended up running the far right--the hero route. It wasn't that bad really, just a few jutting rocks to push around and some medium sized holes to punch. Actually quite fun.

At Left Turn, a big wave flipped me over, but I quickly rolled on the first attempt and was feeling quite good. I did think it was a little pushy, but I didn't think there was anything I couldn't handle until Dragon's Tooth, which I had been 90% sure I'd portage all along. The next rapid was Dunbar Brook, the longest rapid on the river. Vicky told me to follow her down the classic eddy hopping route. At the first "must make" eddy, I ended up too close to her on the ferry and had to slide downstream a bit so as not to crash but in doing so I missed the eddy. I was then going downstream, facing 45 degrees upstream towards river left going into some big waves. I got flipped over on the first one and couldn't hit any of my roll attempts in the big water. I ended up swimming the rest of the rapid. That was about enough for me. I had to run False Tooth to get to a point where I could carry out easily, but it was just a short, easy class III.

The portage involved a ferry and some class V boat dragging, but it was definitely the right thing to do. Maybe next year I can run this in its entirety.

Fife Brook

2006-08-07T07:31:00.001-04:00

I did not get to paddle for three weeks, so I decided it was imperative that I get out, even though all I could do was Fife Brook. Luckily, they were releasing 850 cfs instead of the usual 750, so some of the features were bigger and I didn't run aground in the middle of the river once.

It was a nice group, 6 kayaks and 2 open boats. Tony, from two earlier Fife Brook trips this year was there. We spent entirely too much time at Hangover Helper; sometime, I will run it straight through, catch no eddies and tell the group I'll wait for them at the first playspot. It was not the warmest morning, so I wanted to avoid any flips and therefore did very few ferries. Two of the others showed me how to double pump, which is one way of initiating a cartwheel by slicing your bow under. I could do it a little but it did make me flip. I still wasn't in the mood to do a lot of ferries at Hangover Helper though.

Finally we went down. When we got to the first playspot, we found it to be fairly washed out. It looked like there would actually be more surf in the microeddy used to catch the wave than on the wave itself because a lot of water was going over the rock that forms the microeddy. Looks were deceiving however. I got one decent ride on what was left of the wave and none on the "eddy." We decided to leave pretty quickly.

The rapid above the railroad bridge had noticeably bigger water and there was some play to be had. The big hole right before the bridge was a little more like a wave at this level and also better to surf on. It did not tend to want to spit you right out as much as normal and you could surf on top of the foam pile without going all the way into the hole.

We had lunch under the bridge, and after we left I got some very long rides on the waves just past the bridge. The next section was tolerable with the extra water, deeper and faster, but nothing more than class I-.

When we got to the rock garden, me and another demonstrated some stern squirts for someone else in the group at the first big boulder (known as Squirt Rock). On my second squirt, I flipped and rolled, but had floated past the eddy by the time I got up. I pulled into the first eddy on the side I could find, which was a ways down, and I had to wait there a while for the rest of the group to finish squirting. The rest of the rock garden was fun; I found a few chutes between boulders to go through.

The wave at Miami Beach was bigger than normal, but it was also harder to get to because of the increased flow. The current seemed to speed up in the last boat length before reaching the wave, which caused me to miss it twice. When I finally got onto it, it flipped me after about 5 seconds--a good 5 seconds. I missed two roll attempts before making it.

After Miami Beach, I ran the right channel and the two open boats followed me. It was nice for a change and had some biggish waves despite being shallow.

I decided I wasn't in the mood to run the Gap because I wasn't up for the scary ride that is too short to enjoy. I watched Tony and two others go through. They ran the right-hand side clean, which wasn't as bony as usual because of the extra water.

It was nice to get out after three weekend off and the extra water was definitely a plus despite the first playspot being washed out. I was also very happy to have hit all four of my rolls, an improvement over last time, perhaps helped by some flatwater practice at Squam Lake the previous weekend.

Fife Brook

2006-07-10T18:28:00.001-04:00

It was time for another Fife Brook run this past weekend, the main objective being to run the Gap clean in my boat.

I got there late because of a slow start and because I stopped en route because I was sleepy. I got there 20 minutes late, but Bryan, the trip leader, was 20 minutes late. As a result, we had a really late start and had to hurry so as not to run out of water.

At Hangover Helper, I ran the boof into the midriver eddy at the bottom of the drop near the big river left eddy. I practiced my new ferrying technique and didn't flip on any.

I got my best rides of the year at the first playspot, using techniques I learned at the course to catch the microeddy and then the wave.

I missed the big catch-on-the-fly wave at the start of Freight Train. We didn't spend much time under the bridge, opting for lunch at a less rocky place near the Bridge to Nowhere. I did do a couple good squirts here and got some more good surfing on the small waves below the bridge.

After lunch, we went through the rock garden fast, which made me happy, and we didn't even stop at Miami Beach. Before I knew it, we were at the Gap. Bryan, Tony and I ran the Gap. Bryan took a very complicated, difficult and technical route, and I convinced Tony to run the left side with me, boofing into the first eddy.

I got through with no trouble, but blew a ferry in the wave train below the Gap, resulting in a swim. I was unhappy about this, so I decided to continue down to the picnic area to practice some rolls in the flatwater. I hit the first two but then I swam again. I don't know what happened to my roll at the end of the day. I hope I was just tired from rushing down Fife Brook. I might do some extra flatwater practice if I get a chance.

Intermediate Course Day 2--Dead @ 1300 cfs

2006-07-03T16:39:00.001-04:00

I had a difficult time falling asleep on Friday night on account of some snoring in one of the neighboring tents, so the first thing I did Saturday morning was drive up to Webb's General Store to buy some Red Bull. After two and a nap on the commercial shuttle, I was ready for 17 miles of wilderness paddling on the Dead River at the low, technical release of 1300 cfs.

The first rapid was not technical at all. The river narrowed to about 75 feet, with a rock wall on river right. A short drop led into a wave train and there were eddies on both sides--a perfect place for more ferrying practice. We did a lot of ferries and there was a bit of a jet ferry wave too. I flipped a few times and swam twice, hopefully because the Red Bulls hadn't kicked in yet and I was still tired.

We finally headed on down through a fairly quiet, but moving section. We went through a couple of easy class II's before pulling off for lunch. At lunch, we were reminded that the rapids would get progressively harder the rest of the way down, starting soon.

Elephant Rock was the first of the major rapids. There was a choice of running the middle, where there were a bunch of waves or "the slot" a narrow chute on river right between the shore and a big pourover. I was going to run the slot, but I decided the big waves would be too fun to pass up. When I eddied out behind the pourover, and watched the others go through the slot, I regretted my decision. It looked like a really fun chute with good gradient and no major consequences.

Pretty soon we approached Mile-Long Rapid, which seemed much shorter than it was. There were lots of waves, rocks, pourovers and holes. I was able to get around most of the things that needed to be avoided by catching eddies and looking for hazards. At one point, I flipped over right before a big rock though. I rolled up quick and saw the rock right in front of my face, so I grabbed it before I hit it and pulled myself up and pushed around it. I got partially stuck on two rocks a short while later but again was able to push myself free with my hands.

We eddied out on river left before the final series of significant rapids, Upper and Lower Poplar Hill Falls. I have no idea why it's called a falls; it's just a steep rapid, but nothing close to a waterfall. Andy told us we were on our own for finding a route down, meaning we wouldn't have to follow him if we didn't want to. It looked really steep, so I decided to follow him, but I missed an eddy he caught right away, so I was on my own. I moved from river left to river right to run a fairly big ledge. What looked to me like a soft spot in the ledge was actually about a ten inch drop onto a flat rock with very little water going over it. I ran this spot and ended up stopped on this rock, which was very surprising and strange. How do you stop in the middle of a rapid without catching an eddy? I waved to the others going passed me and laughed. I wiggled off the rock and went on down. Lower Poplar was awesome, with fast water, big waves and holes, and rocks and pourovers to eddy out behind. Andy caught up to me at the bottom and said he liked the way I had run the whole thing.

This was the end of the significant whitewater. The rest of the way was class I, maybe II- in a couple spots. I wanted to relax, and give my crunched feet a chance to be free, so I pulled my skirt and put my knees above the cockpit. I knew that without a skirt, I was committed to swimming if I flipped, but I did not think I would since the water was so easy. What I failed to take into account was the amount of water that would get into the boat. Eventually, enough water got in that the bow was really diving and the whole boat was getting spun and pulled under whenever I hit one of the small waves. After a bunch of close calls, I finally flipped over and swam. I was content to swim all the way to the takeout, which was in sight about half a mile down, but I was convinced it would be safer to go to shore and get back in the boat. I tediously got it emptied on the rocks, got back in and paddled to the takeout with Sohan, who had nicely waited for me.

So, after 8 hours on the river, the course was over. (There were far too many rapids for me to remember and describe, so I have only included the major ones here). Sohan and I were the only ones not staying over, so we made a quick getaway so as not to get home too late. We left the campground at 9:10 and got home about 1:45, which was pretty good.

I became a much better ferryer and scouter as a result of this course. I feel I can run harder rapids now by finding easier routes. The last few rapids on the Dead were really great and it is my favorite river so far.

Intermediate Course Day 1--East Outlet, Kennebec

2006-07-03T16:27:00.001-04:00

After an arduous drive up to The Forks, ME, (2 hours and 15 minutes from Newton, MA to the NH state line) we arose early to drive to the put-in for the East Outlet of the Kennebec River on Moosehead Lake over a one-lane logging road. We saw a deer on the road, but no moose.

I was surprised by how wide the river was at the put-in. After the group ran shuttle in my mom's van, which I borrowed for the trip because I was riding with Sohan, another student in the course, the group was instructed by Andy Novick to start doing some ferries, which would be the theme of the day. We were instructed to commit to the ferry by looking where we wanted to end up by having our whole bodies facing the destination. This helped a lot with maintaining the angle and not flipping over.

After a bunch of ferries in the shallow class I rapid, we started paddling upstream to to a more significant rapid under a railroad bridge. We did some more ferries here and a few including me attempted to do a very difficult attainment that involved eddy hopping from river right to river left, back to the right and under the bridge into a midriver eddy on the right and out into a wave train back to the left. The wave train was about five waves long and we then tried to attain each wave from the one immediately downstream. I only got up two waves past the bottom.

We broke into two groups here and continued on down the river, ferrying back and forth and catching many eddies. A short distance down the river a thunderstorm blew over, making me nervous because we were not really in a gorge. As the storm drew closer, we finally got out and walked downstream to scout a bigger rapid that was coming up. I selected a line and noted the location of some pourovers near the bottom. When I ran it though, I could not locate any of the landmarks that marked my line. I ended up running it straight through, not catching any eddies, so I decided to carry up and run it again. I did get one eddy that time.

We played in the wave train at the base of this rapid for a long time and had lunch. There was a diagonal wave that you could jet ferry across here, which was fun. I did a couple of stern squirts on one of the eddy lines, and managed to get up and stay up on a couple. I did swim after one of them, but I got kudos for attempting seven rolls before bailing.

We eventually continued on down, through some smaller rapids, with lots of rock that you could run agrond on (unpleasant). There were a few surfing waves, but I didn't really catch any of them.

There was one more big rapid before the trip ended with a two mile flatwater paddle on Indian Pond. We scouted again, and I ran a good line, catching some eddies on the way in to get a better view. We did some more ferries at the bottom and I swam again trying to peel out in the rapid to build momentum for the flatwater. I did some rolls on the flatwater to boost my confidence.

This was not one of my favorite rivers. All the shallow rocks and the flatwater paddling was too much of a price to pay for two nice rapids. I did think I improved my ferrying though.

Fife Brook and a Dryway Preview

2006-06-28T22:00:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, I went out to the Deerfield for two days of paddling, Saturday on Fife Brook with an AMC trip and Sunday on the Dryway on a cataraft with Patrick from the Northeast Paddlers' Message Board.

It was pouring for the drive out on Saturday morning, further complicated by the fact that from Acton to Leominster Route 2 has tire-width depressions that fill with water where you want your wheels to be forcing you to drive towards the middle or outside of your lane.

It was still soggy at the meeting place, where the nine kayakers and no open boaters got together, but by the time we put in the rain had stopped. Andy Novick, the intermediate course instructor which I found out on Friday that I had been accepted into, was part of the group. There were a few other familiar faces, including Rick from the Middleboro pool sessions (who is also in the intermediate course) and Doug from the beginner class.

We spent a lot of time at Hangover Helper as Andy instructed Doug and some others on ferries and got used to the playboat he was demoing. I got a couple rolls in after some stern squirts. Despite the rain, it wasn't too cold, so I wasn't unhappy about going under here, unlike last time.

We finally moved down the river after Shahan, Kathy, a co-leader for this trip and I attempted to get everyone to follow us downstream.

At the next playspot, I got a few good rides on the wave, and had more success after I started aiming for the rock that forms the tiny midriver eddy that accesses the wave instead of the eddy itself. We also had lunch here as it was already 1 pm.

At the top of Freight Train, I caught the wave that Tony and I had missed last time on the fly (the only way to get to it) but it flipped me over pretty quickly. I rolled, but I was down the river at that point and couldn't get back to it.

At the railroad bridge, I tried to surf some more in the big hole there, finally getting flipped over by it but it spit me right out just like the other times. I did a few more stern squirts, practiced some ferries and tried to talk people into going off the ropeswing under the bridge in their boats to no avail.

I caught the surfing waves just below the railroad bridge, which I thought would be the last action until the rock garden. However, the water was so high with all the rain that it was not boring at all and there were some waves.

In the rock garden, I got way ahead of the group as usual. Kathy and I were ahead of the group for most of the trip because we both tend to paddle in the pools when others just drift. (There should be more people like us). Shortly into the rock garden, I tried to do a stern squirt from a midriver eddy and flipped, washing into the current. I rolled and went down a ways and had to wait a long time for the group in an eddy because they had all pulled into an eddy between where I had flipped and where I ended up stopping to remove some layers because the sun had come out.

In the remainder of the rock garden, it was apparent that the water was high because some of the rocks were covered and there was one place right at the end where a really nice wave had formed. There were midriver eddies on both sides, but it looked like it might be a little hard to catch because it was near the top of the eddies and the current was strong. I was able to get onto it though, but quickly flushed out after trying to carve and then flipped, which I was not happy about because I did not think I should have flipped upon resuming my ferry.

I got a few surfs shortly below at Miami Beach, but again flushed out when I tried to carve. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if the waves were too angular and/or didn't have enough of a backwash to hold me there. The one I carved on the Sacandaga was actually more of a hole.

After the rapid below the island, it was on through the shallow part above the Gap, which was still really bony and got me hung up on rocks a couple times. A few people, including me, decided to run the Gap. I was supposed to follow Rick and we were going to run the tongue at the top, pull into the river left eddy and then go down the left side. I ended up going ahead of Rick and flipped over trying to pull into the highly aerated and swirly eddy. I missed a roll, and went through all three holes upside down in my boat, denting my helmet in the third one. I missed another two roll attempts at the bottom, but did get breaths (which is why I missed) before finally hitting one way below the drop in the rock garden below it. I was not pleased with this Gap run.

It was still a good day though, even though I have emphasized some areas I thought could have gone better. I thought my ferries were very good, particularly the one where I got to the wave at the bottom of the rock garden and the ones at Miami Beach.

On Sunday, I took a look at the whole Dryway with Patrick on his old cataraft, aka, floating strainer. It didn't look too bad. The main areas of concern for me in terms of running it in my kayak are the river wide hole at the bottom of Split Hair and the numerous pourovers in Labyrinth. Dragon's Tooth, which is the biggest rapid on the Dryway, didn't look too bad. The line is straight forward, and there are only two real moves to make, the first of which looks easy. There also appears to be a wider margin for error in terms of where exactly you must be there than there is in the Gap.

Patrick and I got done pretty quickly and after lamenting to him about my Gap run on Sunday, he suggested that I demo a creek boat and run it. I thought that was a good idea, so I went down to the Gap and got a Dagger Nomad. I paddled it between the bridge and the picnic area to get used to it a bit. I could roll it easily but noticed that it didn't turn as well as my Vision. I waited for the people from my group on Sunday to come down so I could run it with them, but the AMC beginners' class got down first, so I ran it with Artemis and Adrian. This time, I took the left side all the way, boofing into the eddy that flipped me instead of turning into it. I ran the left side clean, despite crashing into Adrian after I peeled out. (He didn't flip either). It felt great to finally run the Gap clean, even though it was with an easier boat for doing so. Maybe the boof line will make it easier to run it in my boat as well.

First Fife Brook Run of 2006

2006-06-11T20:44:00.001-04:00

I signed up for a Fife Brook club trip this weekend with the AMC. With all of the rain on Wednesday, there was some doubt about whether or not the water would be too high for it.

The leader was Harland, the same leader as on the W. Branch Farmington trip last fall, so I was expecting an open-boat-heavy crowd. There were a lot of open boaters-six-but almost as many kayakers, five. We decided to go in two groups, determined by type of boat.

The kayakers consisted of myself, Conrad, Tony, a middle-age woman whose name I forget and her daughter who couldn't have been more than 11. (A future pro boater).

It was a cold morning, autumn-like, so the temperature did not make me want to do any practice rolls. Sure enough though, I blew a ferry at Hangover Helper and rolled right away (first attempt).

We got to the first playspot (Carbis Bend) and I got some good surfs on my initial rides. I did not stay on as well after the first three though. I stayed upright the whole time here.

We headed on down and Tony and I just missed what looked like a great surf wave at the top of Freight Train. I forgot about the big hole right before the railroad bridge and punched it. Then I tried to surf it a couple of times, but it spit me right out each time without flipping me. While the others were eating lunch, I did some stern squirts under the bridge, all but one of which resulted in a roll.

After lunch, we headed down and I did one more squirt and roll. We hit the few small surfable waves before the long, flat, shallow, boring stretch before the rock garden.

The rock garden had never been one of my favorite rapids on Fife Brook because I think people catch too many eddies there and go too slow as a result. This is still true of course--I opened up a big lead on the field during this portion--but I found that the rock garden has many good sidesurfing spots. I got two good sidesurfs, but I didn't keep my upstream edge up enough on the second one and got turned over, hitting the rock that was forming the hole. I couldn't locate any new scratches on my helmet though.

We came to Miami Beach, but I didn't manage to stay on the wave at all. I did stay upright though. The trip around the island and through the squirrelly spot where the channels come back together was uneventful.

After another long, flat, shallow, boring stretch (these are the reason some people hate Fife Brook), we reached the takeout above The Gap. I was unable to find anyone willing to run it, either from my group or another group of kayakers, some of whom I had met on the West. So I had to wait for the open boaters to come down, which took forever.

In the meantime, Tony decided he wanted to run it and found a stray kayaker named Alan who wanted to run it too. When the open boaters got there, we scouted it and they decided not to run it either. I was disappointed because I wanted to go down it following someone experienced, but we decided to run it anyway. One of the open boaters lowered his boat into The Gap with a rope to catch us/our boats if we swam.

After much deliberation, we decided to run a line just right of center, the idea being to just miss the holes to the right. The order was Tony, me, Alan. We got through the lead-in unscathed, unlike my attempt last fall, and proceeded down the initial tongue. I saw Tony go over in the first or second hole because he was too far left. I was too far left too and I believe I went over in the same spot. I was able to roll before the third hole, which impressed Alan a lot, but I was facing upstream when I came up and got flipped right back over by the bottom hole. I rolled again in the pool at the bottom, as did Tony. Alan stayed up the whole time, so the open boater did not get any rescue business.

I convinced Alan to go past the takeout with me down to the place where the railroad tracks cross the road, a portion I had not run since the first day of the beginner course last summer. We got a couple of extra surfs, including at least one sidesurf by me.

It was a fabulous day overall, no swims, each roll was on the first attempt and plenty of surfing.

T-ville Part 3

2006-06-10T16:57:00.001-04:00

On Wednesday, Paul Satwicz, a neighbor and old-time kayaker, and I went down to T-ville to get some boating in. He had not paddled a whitewater river in 15-20 years, but had paddled a tidal rapid many times in that time.

When we got to the put-in, there were several other people with boats around there. Two of them headed up a path along the river looking for Cathy's Wave. We decided to follow suit.

We were instructed to walk up the path, then ferry over to the other side and keep walking up on another path there. We did that and walked up the other side until we ran into a rock wall on the side of the river. We put in here and were able to paddle upstream a ways to a spot with an artificial wall and a gazebo on the bank. There were a few waves here and it is the location of the beloved and mysterious Cathy's Wave (the level was a bit high, I guess, 4.8').

I flipped a couple of times trying to get to the smallish waves, not rolling until the third or fourth attempt on one of them. We then went down to another spot with some small waves. I didn't catch a ride on a wave at either spot. Paul said I wasn't angling my boat far enough upstream on my ferries. He said I was doing better at the second part, but it was still hard to get held on the small waves.

We then ran the rest of the river down to the main play spot. The bridge abutments were completely underwater except for one, which was forming a nasty roostertail. We ran the far right side, which is the normal route at low water and was really ripping. We then moved back to river left to run the rapid containing the play holes. We had time to try to hit the main play hole twice apiece and neither of us made it because of the rapidly rising and fast water and/or because we chickened out because of the hugeness of the hole.

Paul had a great time and I was happy to get his advice and to run as much of the river as we did. We will paddle together again, perhaps as soon as tomorrow (Sunday).

Sacandaga

2006-05-29T19:07:00.001-04:00

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

2006-05-25T20:17:00.001-04:00

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

2006-05-21T13:10:00.002-04:00

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.

West

2006-04-30T19:34:00.001-04:00

To get some more class III experience, I headed up to the West River in Vermont for the weekend. Last fall, I did the Lower West, a class II run, but this time the purpose of the trip was to run the class III section immediately above that.

I drove up late after work on Friday night after a short detour to pick up a critical item I had left at home. I got into the Motel 6 in Brattleboro, VT at 1:20 AM. It was a beautiful night and on one straightaway on the highway I turned off my headlights (briefly!) to look at the stars.

I left the motel at 7:55 to get to the put in at 9, the meeting time. I paced the Mapquest time by 10 minutes, including a stop, so I could have slept longer :-(.

I found Josh, the guy from my pool sessions I'd arranged to paddle with and other assorted characters in our group, some of whom had met online at the Northeast Paddlers Messageboard. Josh explained that he stayed at Vern's house, another one in our group, the night before and that I could probably stay there that night. This meant that I had to drive back to Brattleboro to check out of my motel by noon to cancel my reservation as I had reserved for both nights. I would miss the first run, but that would be okay, because there would be 2 or 3 that day.

When I got back to the river, I had to wait about an hour for the group to get there after their run. Afterwards, we ate lunch and it was decided that we would run the lower in the afternoon, which was fine by me. We took a different channel around an island than I had taken in the fall. It was a lot narrower than the other side, pretty boney and no where near as pushy.

Below the confluence of the two channels, we caught up to the AMC group that included Artemis, Andy Novick and a few other familar faces. There was a pretty good rapid here and I did some ferries. I talked to Andy and Artemis a bit. Andy said he saw me catch some eddies in the middle of the river that other people wouldn't see. I'm not sure where he could have seen this, but it's good to get a compliment from him. I really hope I get to take his course in June.

The waves at Ducky Dump didn't seem as big as in the fall, but it could be just me. By the way, I've never heard this rapid called by that name, only referred to as "The Last Rapid."

One of the local paddlers had a big dinner at his house nearby and afterwards we went to Vern's. They woke me up at 6:30 AM and I was pretty tired. I went back to bed while they finished breakfast. We then drove back to the takeout and waited a while for the rest of the group to get there. It was a cold morning and I was still tired, so I rested in the car for a bit.

Finally, with the air warming up quickly, we did the shuttle up to the dam, the start of the class III section. Josh, Vern, one other and I portaged the very first rapid, which is quite big, fast and shallow, described by some as a class IV. After we put on, there was some pretty good action. There were plenty of waves and holes, a little bigger than the lower, and not as many ways to avoid hitting some feature.

I flipped a couple of times on some squirrly eddy lines on river right, but rolled each time. I followed Vern closely past Boof Rock, a class III rapid with some pretty big waves, maybe 6' or more.

After a few more bends, we reached the toughest rapid on the run, The Dumplings. I followed Josh closely through the truck-sized boulders of this rapid. We hugged the left side of the first one, then ferried hard toward river right to avoid being slammed into the second one. I ended up too far to the right, headed towards the third boulder. I tried to ferry back to the left but flipped over. I tried to roll quickly to avoid hitting the rock, but I was rolling against the current so I didn't make it. However, the current swept me away from the rock and into the middle. I tried two more rolls in some big waves, but I was still going against the current. I was expecting my first swim of 2006, but I made it on my fourth attempt, when I was finally turned around and wasn't fighting the current. I guess it's time to learn my offside roll.

There were a couple of surfing waves below here, but we were at the take out shortly. We ate a quick lunch and ran the lower again, which was a little anticlimactic.

It was a great trip (Friday night not withstanding)and I was pleased to have made it down the class III section unscathed. I am now 11/11 on combat rolls in 2006, which is excellent. That means I'd have to swim 12 times in a row to not have a 50% roll, which is the guideline for the intermediate course. Even with last year's roll, I would not swim 12 times in a row. So I'd have to say the season's off to an excellent start, with the help of all the pool sessions over the winter.

2006 Season Kicks off: Farmington--T'ville

2006-04-15T17:16:00.002-04:00

Today, I kicked off the 2006 paddling season. This winter, I went to many pool sessions, trying to perfect my roll and I think that that was a success. My goals for 2006 are:

1. Take the intermediate (class III) course with AMC at the end of June.

2. Take a playboating course (at Zoar most likely).

3. Run The Dryway (class III-IV).

Today's paddle was Tariffville Gorge on the Farmington River in Connecticut. It is a class II-III section with numerous playspots. I met Andy Novick, the leader of the intermediate course at my pool session on Tuesday and he said I should get some class III experience before the course in June. Since it was a class III, I had a pretty good idea going in that my roll would be tested.

I met the group of 5 at the put-in in the small village of Tariffville (an appropriate destination for Tax Day). The river here was very gentle and shallow and paddling upstream was easy. There were some class I rifles just downstream of the put-in, and the action gradually picked up. I caught a few of the little waves for some surfing, which most probably wouldn't consider worth the effort, but is still fun for me. After going over a small class II ledge, we passed the gage and entered the Bridge Abutments rapid.

At this spot, most of the current is squeezed between the right bank and one of the sets of bridge abutments about a quarter of the way out and there's a pretty good gradient. The others explained the line and the mid-rapid eddy we'd catch behind a ledge/rock on the right shore. I didn't think I'd make this eddy, but it wasn't pushy and I stayed close to the right shore, so it was easy to hit. We did a few ferries from and below this eddy where the current spreads out more and there are some rocks in the middle.

Next we approached the first class III rapid (Bridge Abutments is II+), a series of ledges with big holes, including a popular play hole. I ran the extreme left, avoiding all the holes and we pulled into a big eddy on the left. There were a few other people here surfing the play hole. I ate, then took a few rides on it myself. I'd never surfed a hole before, and this was a big one. It was a little hard to get too if you weren't going full steam out of the eddy, but I got into it a few times, flipping each time. I did get one sidesurf one time for several seconds. I rolled each time, although twice I needed multiple attempts to get up. I also carried up above the hole one time and punched it easily, which was very fun.

Below this point, all the rapids are class III, starting with another series of ledges with hydraulics and shallow rocks at their base. We scouted a line on river left (where the current is a tamer) into a pool. From this pool the others moved back to the center, but I decided to take a side chute on the left which looked a little easier and would be kind of cool because it was pretty narrow. At the base of the rapid, we did a few more ferries in the pretty strong current.

Next up was a stretch of flatwater before the most dramatic drop on the run, Broken Dam. The whole river flows through a 25'-wide break in the dam on river left. We scouted this drop as well. I decided on a route to the extreme left, to the left of a roostertail and down a little tongue. I lined up the route perfectly despite the blind drop. Shortly after going through the tongue, I hit a shallow but invisible rock and it knocked me over. I was anxious to roll up because at the end of the turbulence following the dam there is a car-sized undercut rock in the middle of the current. I had to wait a bit to set up the roll, however, as I hit a few rocks under water, including one off the helmet and one that hit my right paddle blade, causing me to let go with my right hand. I recovered, and set up the roll, hitting it and coming up in time to miss hitting the undercut. It felt good to hit an important roll in turbulent water.

After a short pool, the river split around an island. We took the left channel, which contained one more short class II rapid before the takeout.

It was a great trip to start the season with. The class III stuff did not seem terribly difficult, perhaps because of the relatively low water level and I was happy that my rolls were successful thanks to all the pool sessions over the winter.

Pictures

2005-12-02T09:41:00.001-05:00

A couple of photos, of me with the boat when I got it and rolling practice at Squam Lake. (That's a successful roll).

Piscataquog

2005-10-30T18:22:00.002-05:00

With the floodwaters of two weeks ago still running down New England rivers, especially dam-controlled ones, I was looking for one last time on the river before winter. I hooked up with the Contoocook group again, minus Ron, who was unfortunately out of commission for kayaking after hurting his shoulder on the beginner reunion trip, in addition to already being out of commission for hiking due to knee and ankle problems. Poor guy.

Anyway, the trip was the Piscataquog, just outside of Manchester, NH. It was a 2.5 mile trip, starting at 10 AM. I had to be in Waltham at 2 PM for a meeting for a group project for school, but with the short trip not too far away, I thought I could squeeze in one last whitewater fix.

Well, the plans didn't work out too well for numerous reasons. Daylight savings ended the night prior, so I decided to stay up for the extra hour. It ended up being a little more than an extra hour, so I was a little tired the next morning. Also, it took a little longer to get there than I expected, so it was 10:45 by the time we finished the shuttle and got going.

I didn't waste any time flipping, getting swamped surfing a wave in sight of the put-in. I rolled, but overdid trying to "save" it, doing a full 360 back into the water.

There were a few more tough rapids, including one ledge that extended from river left to the center where there was a nasty looking hydraulic. We pulled out on river left just before this, and I decided to ferry out to the other side, avoiding the ledge completely and getting to the other side of the hydraulic. I flipped on the ferry and ended up swimming, but I was relieved and surprised when I made it through to the right of everything. I also managed to flip turning into an eddy, which was a first,--I guess I was just tired--but rolled that time.

We got to a bridge a little past halfway and it was about 12:40. Unfortunately, I had to get out and hitch to the takeout to make it to my meeting. After about ten cars went by, I gave up holding my thumb out and was just jogging when an old boater picked me up.

I made it back by 2, but the meeting had been canceled and I had not received the email saying so. It was kind of a frustrating end to a subpar trip. Next year I'll use the extra hour for sleeping.

W. Branch Farmington

2005-10-16T23:33:00.003-04:00

The W. Branch of the Farmington River in the southern Berkshires of Massachusetts runs for two weekends in mid-October at the drawdown of a reservoir on a tributary. The drawdown release is 250 cfs and the normal run at that level is quite scratchy and technical. Well, this year, it rained for about two weeks straight prior to the drawdown. The weekend before I went, it was running 8000 cfs, flood stage. It went down early in the week, but still was well above 250 and started going up again Thursday and Friday when it started to pour once again. On Saturday, it was at 1750 cfs, seven times the normal level, and it was quite an adventure.

Because of the high level, we were able to put in high above the normal put-in and also above where the drawdown water from the tributary comes in. The rapids in this section were not terribly difficult, but the paddling was interesting. First we went through flooded out marshes, with the occasional easy drop. Then the river narrowed to no more than 30 feet across and entered the woods. It was obvious that it was way over its normal banks because it felt like we were going through the woods on a wide aquatic trail. There were no carved banks apparent, just the pine-needled forest floor on the sides. There was one interesting s-turn rapid in this stretch, with a pretty good gradient.

Pretty soon, the river opened up, and we were at the normal put-in. We went around a couple of easy bends and were told by our leader, Harland, an open boater, (the only one who had done this section) that there was a tricky spot coming up and to follow him. I was second in line behind Harland but did not do a good job of following him for myself and the three people behind me. At the aforementioned spot, he went to the river right side but I was a little too far towards the center. By the time I realized my mistake, it was way to late to avoid a huge hole. I tried to punch it, and made it about halfway up the foam pile before I started to slide back. The next thing I knew, my bow was on top of me as it flipped me bow-over-stern. I set up to roll, but I was in the middle of a wave, so my hands were still in the water, so I wet exited. (A side note: this is also how I ended up swimming on the West, panicking because I tried to set up in the middle of a wave and wet exiting instead of waiting to get out of the wave to roll. I need to work on this.)

I had a long, tumultuous swim. I banged into several rocks, escaping with only minor bruises. Also, the current ripped off one of my neoprene socks and I stupidly let go of my paddle. Artemis, a kayaker behind me who also flipped in the hole but rolled, chased after my boat and in the course of catching up to it, saw my paddle close by and grabbed it out of the water, for which I am eternally grateful. (The paddle cost 35% the price of the boat--not cheap at all). The sock was a lost cause.

After about a quarter of a mile of swimming, I finally made it to shore, where I learned that Artemis and another had rolled and another had swum as well thanks to my poor following job.

Nothing remarkable happened the rest of the way to the takeout, just more class II rapids with beautiful fall colors on both sides. Our takeout was just above a slalom course, which marks the beginning of the class III-IV section.

We headed back to our campsite at the end of this section to eat lunch before continuing from there where the river mellows back out to a II-III. On the way, we stopped at one of the roadside rapids, Decoration Rock, a 4-foot drop between a rock and the right bank. We witnessed an open boater flip right before the drop, then quickly grab a rock on the bank as his canoe went over the fall. It was a pretty impressive save and a microcosm of how the III-IV section was running.

At lunch, I said I was content to skip the afternoon run, provided we would do that section on Sunday, hoping to take a nap not having slept well the night before due to a cold. Others were pretty worn out from the morning run as well and because of that fact and the reports we were hearing about lost boats and people from the III-IV section, so we decided not to paddle that afternoon.

Instead, we recovered some boats and people. The canoe we witnessed going over Decoration Rock without its adroit paddler had lodged on a rock several miles below Decoration Rock, one of its ends having smashed on another rock. We set up a belay system so that someone could walk out to it carefully and hook it to a rope to bring it back to shore and recover the spare paddle and dry bags in it. We also retrieved a kayak that had run aground on a midriver island nearby, a more tricky operation because there was more current between it and the shore than there was with the canoe. During this time, we saw a group of kayakers go through and we decided to beat them down to the last rapid on the section, Bear Trap, aka Bear's Den and Bear Claw, a class III at normal levels.

It was a IV that day with all the extra water. It was cool to watch them maneuver through the channels, catch air off the huge waves and see one of them throw a clutch roll just before the final drop.

I did get a nap in before the buffet dinner at the nearby ski area. Topics of conversation at dinner included the carnage of the III-IV section, the (un)runnability of Decoration Rock in an open boat and how it was believed that someone got lost just below the slalom course. It certainly was an incredible day.

Sunday, we put in at the normal spot, quickly coming to the site of my big swim. The level was down to 1250 cfs (only five times the normal level!), but I stayed far enough to the right to avoid the hole. Artemis did go through it though, and made it upright after a brief struggle.

After lunch, we ran the forgone section of the day before, though most of the group stopped before Bear Trap. This section started right at our campsite with a pretty good-sized rapid, for which I had had sometime to study and come up with a line. I wanted to go right to left, avoiding some rocks and holes on river right, then move back to center to avoid a big hole on river left just before a bend to the left. It didn't work. It was pretty pushy, so I ended up staying to the right the whole way, which required punching several holes in quick succession. I made it through, but it was the toughest line possible, maybe a class III route through a class II rapid. After some more fast rapids, the run and the trip was over. It was an incredible time, well worth the 50-miles of bumper-to-bumper on the Mass Pike on the way out (when is it ever jammed solid past Sturbridge?) The Farmington runs every fall, but I feel quite lucky to have been able to run it at that level in my first year of paddling.

West

2005-09-24T20:21:00.001-04:00

The West River in southern Vermont near Stratton Mountain, runs every September during a reservoir drawdown. There is a class III section followed by a short class II section. With no formal class II trip, I arranged to meet some of the class III trip boaters at the end of the class III section and continue down. An open boating couple, the Hayeses, did this too and we carpooled.

Because we were meeting the class III group midway through their run, we did not have to arrive at the put in until noon, meaning I could get up at a reasonably late hour, which was nice. The drive was almost entirely backroads and very nice.

We arrived at the put-in/takeout and tried to find someone to shuttle us down to the class II takeout to no avail because everyone there was proceeding back up to the start of the class III section to either run it again or get their other cars. This development meant that we'd be hitching back to the parking area, easy enough to do with the horde of boaters at the West today.

The group from the class III section was about 20 minutes late and we got going pretty quick after they got there. The river was noticeably high, washing up onto grass on the sides and brown in color (but not in a polluted way). When I pealed out, I noticed it was quite pushy and that if I hesitated for a split second in deciding whether or not to ferry over to an eddy or wave, it was already too late. The first quarter mile or so was pretty much continuous rapids, solid class II, regular waves all the way across the river. Pretty quickly, I managed to hit a pourover; my boat lodged on the rock just beneath the surface and I got spun off of it at an awkward angle, flipping. I ended up swimming, but not for very long as I quickly got into one of the few eddies on the shore. (Stopping in an eddy on this run sometimes meant paddling over to a place on the side with a slower current and grabbing as big a handful of grass as possible). I got back in the boat and promptly hit another pourover, but this time I rolled. It was nice to just continue on down after rolling instead of flipping right back over as in The Gap.

After some more heavy water, we came to the biggest rapid on this section, Ducky Dump. We pulled out on river left just before this II+ rapid and scouted. There are some huge waves, and three large holes, two on river left and one on river right. There is a very easy sneak route hugging the left shore, which is how I went down the first time. After debating for a few minutes, I decided to hike back up and run it down the center, between the holes, over the big waves. Despite a near collision with an open boat, I made it unscathed. Going over the big waves was fun, as was seeing the big holes go by very quickly. There was one kayaker attempting to play in the river left holes; he rolled several times. We then paddled a short distance to the take out and we were done. The run was very quick, less than 2 hours, but it was fun to go in the slightly bigger water and get a roll kept me up for the rest of the trip instead of 3 seconds.

Deerfield, part 4 (The Gap!)

2005-09-11T23:42:00.001-04:00

I felt back in command on Fife Brook once again today. The level was much lower than the previous trip with beautiful sunny weather. I had one really good surf at the first wave below Hangover Helper, which I saved at the end with a hard right-hand brace. This wave was noticeably smaller than two weeks ago. I had no flips until the tricky spot below the island, where I went over where the currents come back together. I was not shaken by this happening and I had already decided to run the Gap.

When we got to the take out just above the Gap, it was determined by the group that only I and one other would be running it. The other person was an older guy whose young son was with us today and whose name I forget. I told him it would be my first time running it and would be following him. Meanwhile, he helped his son to put away his gear and bring it up to the road. So I sat in my boat on the shore for what seemed like ten minutes but was probably only three, my state of calm slowly eroding. Finally he came back down and I took a deep breath and sighed and we peeled out.

In the lead-in waves, he took an interesting route around a big one. Trying to follow his line exactly, I did the same; it was a semi-circle about halfway up the wave, left to right. As soon as I got on to the downstream side of the wave, I flipped over. I set up quickly and rolled--my first combat roll at a very opportune time. I was stil moving towards river right and ended up hitting a rock above the Gap. For some reason, I tried to brace instead of grabbing the rock and I went back over. I was upright for about 3 seconds, long enough to hear someone say "Great roll." I decided not to try another roll here, following advice I had heard at the beginner's class which was just to stay in the boat if you flipped in The Gap and wet exit at the bottom. After looking at many pictures, I realized I was much farther from the heart of The Gap than I thought I was, giving me time to try some more rolls.

All and all, it was a good trip and I was very pleased to get my first combat roll, however brief the benefits.

Deerfield, part 3

2005-08-28T22:03:00.001-04:00

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I drove out to Western Mass. to meet up with an AMC group to camp out that night and paddle Fife Brook the next day. It's about an hour and 45 minute ride on Route 2, which is a terrible road going from a divided highway to a 4-lane undivided road with lights, to a divided highway, to a "super-two," to a country road. Then it is part of Interstate 91 for 3 miles before turning into a rural 2-lane highway with good scenery. I am going to time the way home and then take the Mass Pike and I-91 next time to see if it is quicker, which it might be since it's 65 the whole way and no lights.

Anyway, I met up with the group at the campground and we went to dinner at a nice restaurant in the surprisingly nice town of Shelbrune Falls, tucked away on a bend in the Deerfield a mile off Route 2.

When I woke up, it had just started raining, and this continued all day. Of course, this is an all-weather sport, so we just went right about our business. This was the highest level the Deerfield at, 900 cfs release plus the rain. I swam twice in my new boat's maiden voyage, no rolls, once shortly after peeling out before Freight Train and the other time while trying to surf at Miami Beach, which is the last rapid before the island. The level was so high today that we were able to run the right channel at the island, which is usually too bony to run, so the left is the normal route. I think the left side is a little easier, especially at the end where the two currents reconverge.

I did not feel as comfortable with my boat as I had on the previous Fife Brook run in the rented boat. I think I needed one trip to get used to the smaller boat. I was thinking of running the Gap, but I'm gonna wait until next time so I'm more used to the new boat. This boat has an extra balance point on its sides, which I discovered right away at Hangover Helper, when I went about a third of the way over. I was disappointed I did not get a roll. I need some practice. I'm going up to Squam Lake with my family next weekend, so I'll bring the boat for some practice sessions.

It was a good day, as I met some new people, some of whom were canoers--although the preferred and technical term is "open boaters". I got some good surfing in as well, which was good as usual.

Deerfield, part 2 and an acquisition

2005-08-13T20:10:00.001-04:00

It's been a month and a half since I've been out on the river, but I did take the pond rolling course. I got lots of good instruction and practice and I feel pretty good about my ability to roll now. I am aware, however, that people often have difficulty rolling in whitewater (referred to as a "combat roll") because back in June a guy watching people go through The Gap told me he was having trouble rolling in the river despite being 100% in flatwater. We'll see how it goes today; I'm sure I'll have an opportunity to try. This is a reunion of my beginner trip as well as the other 3 beginner trips, which took place earlier in the summer. We will be doing the same section as the beginner trip, the Deerfield (Fife Brook Section).

I am also planning on stopping at Zoar Outdoor, a kayaking store near the river to check out boats. This would be a good weekend to buy a boat, on account of the fact that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has waived the 5% sales tax this weekend. We'll see how today goes.

Ron and I carpooled once again, seeing some familiar faces at the take-out, the usual gathering place for the run. Ken Green was there, as were a couple of other students from the beginner course, and so was Rob Stiles who ran the roll course.

Once everybody arrived, we headed up to the put-in just above Hangover Helper. Once again, we did some ferries across the swift current and waves at Hangover Helper. I utilized a narrow mid-river eddy to get out into the strong current and I did not flip once on the ferries. I tried a roll in the big eddy on river left, losing hold of my paddle going under and having to swim. I never actually got a roll attempt out of it, so I wasn't too unhappy about not rolling.

After spending what I thought was way too much time at Hangover Helper ferrying, we finally went downriver. I was catching lots of surfing waves none too small, having a great time.

At the first playspot, I got out of my boat and got my water bottle out of the back of my boat. In the course of digging around for the water, I pulled my sandwich container out from the back and noticed that it got completely soaked. I wrung it out and ate it right there, before the others ate their lunch. I got a couple of surfs on the wave at this playspot after I downed the sandwich--lots of fun.

We went down the river, with me successfully negotiating Freight Train rapid, the bottom of which is the usual lunch spot. There is a railroad bridge here, hence the name of the rapid. Since I had already had lunch, I had time to practice ferrying and peeling out of eddies here. There is also a rope swing underneath the bridge, which I went off a few times. Rob went off the rope swing in his boat, which was actually rather anticlimactic as he only dropped a couple of feet into the water and landed upright.

As the others got back in their boats after eating, I started surfing on the waves right under the bridge. I did not know it, but these waves are quite squirrelly, meaning they sometimes vanish or move laterally across the river. This happened while I was surfing on it, flipping me instantly as the others began to head downriver. I almost rolled, bringing my head up a split second too soon, resulting in a short swim. I was actually happy I swam because it gave me another chance to go surf there again. (I still didn't know these were squirrelly waves). I got a good long surf, then flipped peeling out (my fault). I missed my roll attempt again, not as close as before and swam again. Someone told me swims when you're trying to surf don't count, which made me feel better.

The rest of the way down, I continued to surf at every opportunity. I felt very comfortable with my eddy turns and ferries, for the first time feeling like I really knew what I was doing. I narrowly avoided flipping when Ken and I collided near a fierce mid-river eddy line below the Island, where the two channels come back together. This is the last rapid before The Gap and the toughest rapid (excluding The Gap) on Fife Brook, in my opinion.

After we took out, I drove down to Zoar Outdoor to try out a boat. Ron and I were a little early in the morning, so we stopped there and I sat in a playboat called the Vision 44. I had decided earlier that a playboat as opposed to a river runner because I had enjoyed surfing waves so much. The Vision 44 felt perfect--exactly the right size for me. I also liked the fact that the knees did not come up very high, meaning there is less resistance dragging below the water when attempting rolls.

After we took out, I took the demo Vision 44 down to the Deerfield, in a flat but moving section below the run. I took it out in the current and flipped on purpose and rolled right back up. It sure did roll easy, just as I expected. I fooled around a little more, then went back to Zoar, sold on the Vision 44 and ready to make the purchase. The one I had sat in this morning was the only one they had left, so the orange one became mine for two and a half weeks' wages.

So all and all, I had a great time on the river. The two swims did not count, and I was able to roll my new boat. I can't wait to take the new boat out and learn some playboating moves with it (although the latter will probably have to wait until next summer).

Contoocook

2005-07-02T21:11:00.001-04:00

One of the instructors from last weekend, Ken Green, emailed this week wondering if anyone wanted to go paddling in New Hampshire this weekend. With no plans for the holiday weekend, I decided to go. We did a short section of the Contoocook River in Henniker, NH, very near the ski area Pats Peak. Ron, another student, and I carpooled and we met Ken and his wife and another couple at the put-in.

The first stretch of water was very easy. We again caught just about every eddy, but the current was so small that getting back out was easy. Once we got into Henniker, the current picked up and there were a few rapids. I flipped trying to get onto a surf wave and had a short, uneventful swim. A little farther down, I tried to get into an eddy on the side of the river, but it was a very small eddy and I trickled out of it. The side of my boat got stuck on a rock a little farther down and the boat started to tip. Certain I was going under, I let go of my paddle and pushed off the rock, freeing myself of it, but not the paddle. I hand paddled into an eddy a short distance down and watched my paddle swinging back and forth against the rock. One of the others rescued it.

Shortly after this fiasco, I noticed that one of my feet felt very loose on its footpeg. My leg was not pressed into the thigh braces anymore. We pulled out to scout the last rapid, which was running class III-, and I discovered that a screw that holds the track for the footpeg was gone and that water was getting into the boat. I considered skipping the final rapid because I did not know if I could do a hip snap fast enough on the broken side and the water made the boat heavier and less maneuverable. When we scouted, skipping it looked like a much better idea. At this rapid, the river bends around a broken dam on river left, but if you go too far right, you end up in some nasty rocks. You want to stay to the right however to avoid some holes in the middle. Precise moves that I decided to skip, which I think was the right decision considering the state of my boat.

It was not a great day with the swim, the paddle blooper and the skipped rapid, but it was better than sitting around the house all day.

Deerfield

2005-06-26T23:11:00.001-04:00

The last two days, the AMC course hit the river. Saturday, we did a very short run on the Deerfield with lots of drills. Lots of eddy turns, which was mostly review for me. The others got their swims in right away. We did a lot of S-turns in between mid-river eddies, then ferried back across to the first eddy and went up and did the S-turn again. When the water came up (this section is dam-controlled), we went downstream, catching every eddy available. I finally flipped on a wave, much like I did on the Spokane. I'm glad I got mine in because at the very end there were two people who hadn't flipped and they were forced to by the instructors. The very last thing we did was surfing on a wave, which required crossing a fairly strong eddy line. I got on the wave, which was a blast and I was proud of myself for not flipping getting out of the eddy. With all the drills, we only did about a half a mile of river all day.

Sunday, we did the whole section, with plenty of drills along the way. The first rapid was called Hangover Helper. The water gets squeezed into the middle by rocks, so the current was very strong--perfect for ferrying drills and beginner carnage. Fortunately the rocks that squeeze the current form big eddies on either side so you have a big target to swim into if you flip--in theory. I flipped going across and managed to swim all the way past both eddies and had to work quite hard swimming against/across the current to get to shore. I need a roll!

The rest of the day was fun, with numerous surfing opportunites. It's really fun to have the water rush under you while you just sit on top of the wave not moving. There are all kinds of tricks that you can do on top of waves or in holes, but they are way above my level right now.

I was very tired at the end of the day when we took out just above a big rapid called Zoar Gap, or just "The Gap." It was lots of fun to watch people go through this rapid including our instructors and one of the students (who had a roll-a ringer). A very good weekend with much less anxiety than the Spokane.

AMC Class

2005-06-23T19:12:00.001-04:00

Alright, back in Boston now. For my birthday, my parents signed me up for the AMC beginners' kayaking course. We had two pond sessions this week, Tuesday and today.

The Tuesday session was basically a review of what I did out West. Wet exits, strokes. Tonight we did some more advanced work with bracing, more than what we did in Idaho. A brace is simply a slap at the water designed to counterbalance your boat tipping over on the same side. You brace on the low side of the boat, the one that's going under water. When practicing, you do the tipping yourself with your hip pads. There are two kinds of braces, the regular slap and the sculling brace. In Idaho, we were not taught the sculling brace. Unlike the quick slap, the sculling brace can last indefinite length of time, allowing you to maintain your lean without flipping. To do it, you reach out with your paddle and with a lot of wrist torquing, push the paddle forward and back, with the open face leading the way in both directions (which is why the wrist works so hard). I thought this was really cool, but I'm sure my wrists will be sore.

Saturday and Sunday we will be on the river. I'm sure a lot of the first-time anxiety will be gone and I'll have a good day on the river, which is the Deerfield in western Mass.

Spokane

2005-05-01T18:42:00.001-04:00

Alright, this is it. One of the things on the list to do while living out West was to learn whitewater kayaking. I've been on 7 rafting trips, loving it, but wanting the autonomy kayaking provides. Nothing worse than going by a big wave in the raft cuz the other people don't paddle well enough to steer. Also, with rafting you are restricted to rivers the rafting companies run, which is actually quite a small percentage of the possible runs.

Today was the day. As much as I've been looking forward to this, I was a bit nervous. We did some practice at the YMCA pool, covering the basic strokes, wet exits and just getting started with the roll. The strokes were easy for me, because of all the canoeing (flatwater) I did at camp way back and at my grandparents' house on a lake. Wet exits are straightforward. The roll is real tough and I only got about half an hour of practice. My second attempt miraculously was successful, but that was the only one.

Once we got to the river, we were immediately taught how to do an eddy turn. An eddy is basically an area behind any kind of obstruction where the water actually flows upstream. When rafting, eddies are the rest stops and getting in them is a piece of cake, just go straight in. In a kayak, an eddy is a trecherous spot waiting to flip you. To avoid flipping, you raise the edge of your boat away from the oncoming (new) current using your thigh braces. To pull into the main current, this is the upstream edge and to pull into the eddy it is the downstream edge. They had us do an eddy turn right off the bat. I went first reluctantly and flipped. Wet exit. The other students did too, including my friend James.

Eventually, I kind of got the hang of it. I flipped 5 times, no rolls. 4 of the flips were coming out of eddies, none going in because the eddy usually has a much weaker current. The other was when I went over the side of a wave instead of the top and it rolled me off its side. After this, I got even more nervous as we approached each rapid. I had gloves on, but I'm sure my knuckles were white. James actually threw a couple of rolls--very impressive.

This was a class II river, with one or two class III's. I had some fun in the waves, but my first-time anxiety made it a tough first day. Next time I hope I'll be more comfortable.

The section we did was the Spokane River between Barker and Sullivan Roads, ending right at the Y.