April 3-5, 2012
Missy and I took the dogs on a long hike. We drove to the Leatherford Landing to take the trail to Angel Falls. (About 2 miles downriver from where we took out on the first run). There actually is a sign for the trail about 100 yards from our campsite, but that would have been 8 miles roundtrip. Way too long for our aging, arthritic dog. (And, if I'm being honest, probably too long for his owners too). We thought we were getting an early enough start on the day to beat the heat (leaving around 10), but the sun shone brightly on the path for most of the hike. It got into the 80s and was humid. We took it slow, for Buddy's sake. He is now on an all-the-time-on-the-leash program. Cassie enjoyed her offleash time running ahead and then racing back to check-in. After about an hour, we still didn't make the falls. Even though it was probably only another 5-10 minutes downriver, we didn't want to risk overdoing it for the Budster, so we turned back. It was a great hike, except that the sandals we were wearing let in little rocks and sand and then trapped them there as blister-making torture devices. We desperately need new hiking sandals.
We spent the rest of the day and the next alternating between reading in the hammocks and taking respite in the A/C. No river runs because the river got too low. Missy and I went to the bathhouse to make use of the nice showers with decent pressure and room to turn around. Talked to Mom, who is doing well with her PT and has an estimated move-back-to-Prairie Lodge date of 1 week.
We got some rain overnight of the 4th, so the river was back to the level of our 2nd run. Missy offered to be shuttlebunny for Jeremiah and me, so long as we were up to paddling the whole 6 mile run. I readily agreed…I'll take the 2 miles of flatwater paddling to avoid the 1.5 hours of setting shuttle. There was a chance for passing thunderstorms, but we didn't let that scare us away. Got on the river at 1. It was muddy brown today, and possibly a little bit higher for our 3rd run. Although the skies darkened and we heard thunder 2-3 times, we never got any rain or thunderstorms. Yay! The run went smoothly. I had planned in my mind to walk the IV if it was cold and rainy, but I guess the gods wanted me to run it since the weather was nice. Jeremiah and I took out higher up on river right and climbed a boulder to look. We could only see the entrance, and part of the exit of the rapid. I told Jeremiah I felt fine following him closely and so we took off. Things went fine for Jeremiah, of course. I was doing fine until I got to the bottom and stared into the gates of Hell. 3-4 massive converging, jumbles of nasty cross-currents. I only got ¼ of a second to take it all in and try to see a tongue. I failed, so I just threw out a hail mary stroke and prepared for my beatdown. My top half went one way, and the boat was slammed by a cross-current. It really strained my abs. I got flipped, but I hit my roll right away and paddle away victoriously.
The rest of the run went smoothly. Jeremiah had redemption at the other tricky rapid. I was nervous AGAIN looking at it, but I lined it up and got er done. The paddle out wasn't even that bad because the river was gorgeous. The little bit of rain along with hot sunny days really made the trees leaf out. Quite a difference from the last run. I told Jeremiah he should make sure he enjoyed what might be our last wilderness run. (Only damn release, roadside runs in our immediate future). We got off the river at 4, and drove back to camp. Missy had a campfire going, which was nice because the weather turned suddenly chilly. Tomorrow we're packing up and heading 3 hours south to a campground nearby the Ocooee. If no rain comes, then we'll expect about 1000 paddlers to go to the Ocooee release this weekend. It will be busy, but hopefully it will be fun. And cross your fingers that we get a spot at the first-come-first-served campground that is our first choice.
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