Participants- Ryan Galway OC-1 (TC), Kenny Decoster OC-1, Chip Wallingford k-1, AJ Held k-1, Rob Radowicz and Paul Peters shredder.
The forecast for the day left something to be desired. With rain overnight ending in the morning and rain the night after the trip it almost scared a well known bearded open boater away. But when the vote went out on weather the trip would happen or not the consensus was things were a go. The decision ended up being a good one as the rain ended 10 minutes before we got there and started up again on the way out, but for those 6 hours we were dry and things were quite pleasant. The trip began with a shuttle to drop trucks at the takeout. As in years past the last 3/4 of a mile to the takeout path was real rough, but with a couple of 4wd trucks there were no issues. After completing the shuttle the 1 mile paddle across pond in the river went better than as expected with a light tail wind. A little surfing took place in the first couple of miles of warm up before we were fast upon First Pitch. For those unfamiliar the next 3 rapids are steep somewhat shallow class IV rapids with large waves and turbulent water with a few strong holes mixed in. I lead the group as some of the participants were first timers and unfamiliar with the lines. Chip and AJ both first timers had great runs and seemed to really enjoy the new river. After we had lunch at Smooth Ledge and made some somewhat successful attempts at surfing. I think none of us really had the best boats for that type of wave. Up next was S-Turn rapid. It is the last of the class IVs but also the longest and probably the hardest. This one is twice as long as any of the pitches and it is much more shallow. It would not be a great place to swim and would likely end up in an injury of you were in the water. Every one had successful runs with some added excitement when the shredder collided with a rock but were able to keep things moving downstream without incident. All in all it was a great day with an amazing group of folks.