Had ourselves a slow morning. Walked the dogs and then spent some time cleaning up the rig and doing final organizing touches. So far, the only thing we know of that was left behind was Missy’s fancy grinding pepper. Jeremiah got out the new replacement side mirror for the scootie that had arrived Mon aft. But alas, it was a right mirror and we need a left. Fricknfrack. We decided to paddle the Tellico after lunch, so Missy and I set up hammocks and Jeremiah got out his chair and we read outside to the chorus of hundreds of birds.
Swapped LP tank.
After lunch, we got ready to go yakking. On the last 2 trips we had to the SE (same time of year), we had weather in the 40s-60s with freezing water temps. But not this time! Sunny and 70-80 degrees. And the water is already warmed up! Woo-hoo! We went to town to do grocery shopping first. (Strange store, bad selection and eclectic at that). We got to the river at 3:30. Everyone just had drytops and shorts. The river was a good level, and we set off for our first paddling in 7 months. (paddling drought due to fall drought in MN). I had some great difficulties at first. I could not control the VillianS. It spun all over and I couldn’t steer for shit. Going down a straightforward class 3 drop, I was spun backwards. This caused me to back into a pseudo-eddy upstream of a huge boulder. The problem was, the water was still streaming around and under the boulder at a brisk rate, so the current caught my edge and flipped me over. I was then pinned up against the boulder upside down. I pulled, and was able to struggle onto shore. After getting back in the water, I finally realized what my problem was. I have a tendency to forget how much more effort it takes to put the VillainS on edge (for steering) than the Allstar. So although in my mind it felt like I was edging, in truth I had a mostly flat kayak. So once I got that corrected,
things went great.
Missy had a good run in her 4fun. She pulled out 2 or 3 awesome “oh shit” braces. Jeremiah, as
usual, was perfect. :-) We got off the river after 1:45 minutes. Missy and Jeremiah scootied up
to the truck while I waited with the yaks. And waited, and waited, and waited. I couldn’t believe how long it was taking them. Turns out they went up the road a bit to scout Baby Falls and watched lots of people running it. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal, but I was chilly (wet from my swim and the sun was gone from the canyon), so I think they should have returned for me toute suite.
Jeremiah scootied back to the campground. Missy came to pick me and the yaks up. I couldn’t believe how awful the truck smelled! Turns out, she had driven with the parking brake on. Apparently there is no indicator on the dash that it’s on. Drat. I hope the brakes aren’t ruined for our eventual drive down the mountain with a 50 ton RV…
We had dinner and showers and a fire. The dogs roamed far and wide in their explorations. I think that about covers it. So far, this lifestyle is as awesome as imagined!
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