Second Ocooee Weekend

April 14-15
On Saturday, we left for the rover at 10. Missy and I planned on doing some internets until noonish, and then we'd have lunch and get to paddling. It was another warm & sunny day. The run itself was without incident. Unless you count my swim as an incident. Sigh. There was a convergence of unlucky things that happened all at once and caused me to swim yet again. There's a fun wave train section about 2/3 of the way into the run. These are a series of 4-5 big rollers, starting with a HUGE one that is a real face-smacker. It's not a big deal, as long as you stay on line. It's really fun if you do it right. However, what happened to me was that just at the entrance to the rapid, I got a random splash in just one eye. I blinked, but couldn't clear the vision in that eye. I had a millisecond to decide if I should ignore it, or remove my hand from my padded and wipe my face. So of course I chose to wipe. Just as my hand was moving back down my face, I hit a small bump, which jostled my hand onto my noseplugs and caused them to be yanked free. Now I was panicking. I know that if I tip over without noseplugs, I probably won't be able to get my roll. This knowledge makes me anxious, of course, so I waste a few precious seconds wondering if I can take the time to put them back on. Of course, there was no time. And by the time I accepted my nosepluglessness state of being, I had lost track of the rapid. Instead of skirting the huge face-smacker, I had allowed the current to bring me right down the middle. So I'm climbing this monster, praying I don't tip over…and I tip over. NOSE ENEMA. That dreaded enemy of every kayaker. I hung out a bit upside down in the tuck position, trying to wait out the rapid to the calm spot to try my roll. But then I got slammed into a rock, and my hand got pinned between the rock and my paddle. I lost my paddle, and had to pull. My hand really took a beating. Deep scrapes, and instant puffed-up swelling on the pointer and middle fingers. Luckily, after 15 minutes and 4 advil, I felt well enough to continue. Sigh. Such a stupid set of circumstances leading to the swim. I've really got to practice rolling without my plugs.
If anything else noteworthy happened on Sat, I can no longer recall it as of the writing of this entry. There was nothing about a baby snake and me screaming again.
On Sunday, we left for the river after lunch. It was much busier this day. More rafts and more kayakers. Jeremiah had himself a little run in with one raft that stopped to try and surf in the only current (lots of rocks). Other than that, it was a fun run. I took the VillianS this time so I could relax through most of the drops. After the run, we stopped at a motel parking lot to do some research on where to go next. I tried looking at most of the nearby states on AW, but couldn't find any with rivers at the runnable level. Missy and I decided to give up on finding whitewater, so then I looked for campgrounds near the Smoky Mountains. This proved difficult. We couldn't go to the boondocking sites in the National Park, because no dogs are allowed. And the only options just outside the park where all commercial. The kind where you end up parked 6 inches from your neighbor. Not our idea of fun atoll. I was getting frustrated. Then, Jeremiah tried to talk us into going to New Mexico. His theory was that since we were already planning on heading to CO for the spring runs at the end of May, we could head that way now and pass the time in NM. I hadn't realized that Santa Fe was only 5 hours from the rivers we run in CO. I was still hesitant though, because I assumed NM was all desert and scrub bushes. But he pulled up pictures from the Santa Fe National Forest (in the mountains), and it was gorgeous. So, we made an impulsive decision to head to NM. (Blech at the idea of another looooooooong road trip).