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Rollin' on the River
This white water stuff is fun!!!! He says as suddenly the current grabs the tail of his boat and over he goes... Ok hold up here a second. Let's turn the clock back a few months to the beginning of 2005 or damn near close to it. There I was putzing around in my sea kayak enjoying the bay when I suddenly thought about my one trip down the South Fork of the American River from 15 years prior. I had a really good time in that raft. A really good time! But here I am in a sea kayak on the water thinking about the river in a different way. How about kayaking a river? Hmmm, can't be all that difficult right? Might even be fun right? Let me see what I can do about that! A few days later I found myself clicking around on the Internet checking out websites and such on kayaking. I finally got smart and pointed my cursor towards the California Canoe and Kayak web page. Bingo! Just what the doctor order. White water classes galore! I then took a ride down to the shop to talk shop with the President and or owner of the place. The conversation went something like this... "Hey Keith, I'm interested in doing a white water class. Since I've been sea kayaking a bit do you think I need to take the 101 class or can I skip right up to 201?" Keith stood there thinking for a moment and then asked about my ability to roll. "No problem!" I replied. "Rock solid!" "Then go ahead and sign up for the 210 course..." he replied. So I did! Unfortunately with all of the late season rain we received there was no one else crazy enough to sign up for the April class that I had chosen. When May rolled around the water flow on the river was somewhere around the 7500 cubic feet per second mark. A bit too much for a beginner like me. Finally we got some good weather and more interest so I was able to take the class up in Coloma. Oh what fun! My only complaint? I wish they would have told me there would be a lot of swimming down the rapids vice kayaking. I suspect it was a problem with the boat. It seemed to always want to spit me out at the most inopportune time. Damn! Next on the menu was a trip to the Trinity River for some fun with the Gold Country Paddlers. Keith invited Kari, Paula and I to join him up on the river and we gladly accepted. Once up there I chose to try my surf boat on the river to see what it would do. What I found out was what it would do to me! Ouch! I swam the very first rapid on the river because I had no clue how to control this big, flat-bottomed boat. I was starting to get the hang of it going into the second set of rapids when I found myself trying to cut back to the middle of the rapid a wee bit too late. A rock caught the edge of the boat and flipped me. As I slid down the rock my helmet visor caught the face and the helmet pulled back on my head. Once into the hole I then transitioned out the backside and managed to nail a rock with my forehead. Luckily it was a tough rock. No damage. Unluckily it was not such a tough forehead. Nice cut. Ouch! The second day I used one of Keith's boats without incident. Still, it was a good lesson on learning your limits, your boat's limits and the limits of your gear. I've since worked on my skills, bought a new boat and recent ordered a new helmet. Safety first! After all that fun on the river I decided it was time to work out a way to get out and play a bit more. Fortunately my amiga June was in tune with that need and together we spawned the idea for the Class Two Kayakers group. This yahoo group is setup for folks to post trip initiations and reports to a group of like-minded individuals. So far it seems to be working just fine! We organized a trip up to the South Fork of the American and thanks to Jerry we were able to work on some basic skills, discuss some safety issues and generally have a good time. At least no one died or was seriously injured! Not long after that trip I was able to join a few other folks on the Rogue River. By far one of the best adventures I've had in a boat. CCK had coordinated this trip with the folks at Sundance River Center up in Merlin, Oregon. You can read all about my adventures here. Upon returning from the Rogue trip I realized not only did I have a great time but I had met some great people as well. I wanted to continue to enjoy their company so I spurred some river action and got a few of them to meet up on the South Fork. We had a blast doing the Coloma to Greenwood run. A week or so later we went back for another run only this time we put in at Chili Bar and ran down to Lotus. Whoo hoo! I now have the distinction of running Troublemaker while inverted. I didn't do this intentionally of course but as they say, "Shit happens!" A week later I got a few of the Class II folks together for yet another run down to Greenwood. We pretty much had the river to ourselves and had a wonderful time playing in the surf waves and having a ball! So here are a few photos of the trip along with some videos I shot of folks playing. Hope you like them! Craig
Oh yeah, on our last trip down the river I got a chance to meet up with Ed Anderson. Ed had had a really rough time on his first trip down a river. He was back to face his fear and slay the demons of the deep. Here's Ed's accounting of his second trip down the river.
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