We were planning on taking off at noon to go paddling, but we putzed around and didn't leave until almost 1. We agreed to try the alternative take-out, which would eliminate the last 2 miles of flatwater (into the head wind). But, this takeout was down a loooooooooong, bumpy, windy, sketchy, one-lane road. It added about 80 minutes to the shuttle. So it wasn't such a timesaver as much as one would hope. We got on the river about 2 (Missy had to hike back UP the mountain to look for her helmet, which she lost on the hike down. Tee-hee). The river was already noticeably lower. The gauge wasn't working that morning, but later it would show at around 1000cfs). This made it a little more scrapey, but still fun. The class IV drop turned out to be an easier run…the newly exposed rocks channeled the current into an easy to follow line. And the cheese-grater rock at the end (the one you didn't want to meet with your head if you were upsidedown) was fully exposed and actually had a friendly cushion of water pushing you away. Sadly, the way this drop and shorelines are composed, you have to make your decision to walk and stick with it. No going back (I know this sounds wrong, but to get to shore you have to shoot through narrow channels of water. One way only). So Missy and I were walking reluctantly.
We enjoyed the 80 degree weather with decent passing cloud cover. It did get warm at times, but luckily the water was there to cool us off. As we came up to the drop where I had my equipment failure, we discussed whether to run or to look. Ultimately I voted for looking because I needed a chance to stretch my dead leg. Good thing we looked, because it was different at the lower level. 2 new f@#k up rocks were in play. We discussed options, and agreed on a line with a right to left move to punch the seam and then carve right. Good thing we sent Jeremiah to test it, because this line didn't play out. There simply wasn't enough room to get the speed needed to punch the seam. Jeremiah fought his stern out of 2 holes, and then fought being flipped on a swirly eddy on river right. Missy and I discussed options for quite some time. Finally, I decided to go for it. I knew this one would be hard to line up from the river (no good markers), so since Missy was still on shore, I asked her to direct me if I wasn't where I wanted to be. (I wanted to enter 2-3 feet to the left of Jeremiah's line). As I suspected, it was tricky. I was CERTAIN I was lined up in the correct spot, and Missy kept beckoning me closer to the right. I thought she was directing me into the hole on purpose. She said I had lined myself up to head right over the left side pourover. Oops. So with her help, I entered at the right spot, leaned forward and paddled hard* I broke the seam and carved nicely through the rest of the drop. It was exhilarating! Next up, Missy: she started out looking promising, but ended up pointed too far right in the middle of the drop and she went scraping down the exposed eddy rock. Not perfect, but not a disaster.
We took out at the new spot. Jeremiah got on the scootie, and we waited for an hour and 15 minutes for him to get back with the truck. Seems to be the payout to enjoy the benefits of mountain rivers…long shuttles. Happy to pay the price so far! When we got back, thunderstorms moved in. At first we had lightning and thunder only, but later we got a little bit of rain. Not enough to raise the river, sadly.
I'll end with a couple of Jeremiah quotes that had Missy and I laughing:
[while driving] Jeremiah: Is that a real dog? (This was said in a funny tone, as if he'd been hallucinating dogs for some time, and wanted reassurance that this was a real dog. I can't tell if this is truly funny, or if you just had to be there).
[on the river] Jeremiah: that is counter-intuitive the other way. (To which I replied "soooooo, you mean it's intuitive?)
Love the outtakes!
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