TC: Gary Cole
K-1: Gary Cole, Suzanne Cole, Jake Bourdeau, Jeff Bickford, Kevin McKenzie, Sean Green, Greg Winston, Casey Clark, Rachel Hovel, Ryan Reed, Jessa Solis, Chip Wallingford, & Devon Carter
OC-1: Kyle Duckworth, Ryan Galway, Justin Schlawin, & Will Jeffries
Inflatables: Clyde Mitchell & Paul Sarli
Slice: Bryan & Aylan Wolf
We had a cool beautiful start and the day warmed up to everyone’s satisfaction. The river level at 7.05 feet according to the gauge just downstream from the put in. This puts the river flow on the medium to low side. This river flows through a beautiful area and the only sounds to be heard were birds and the river itself.
The first part of the river is pretty mellow, but does have a number of surfing spots that were taken advantage of by the group. At one of the rapids, a kayaker flipped and almost rolled but didn’t make it. However, Ryan was in the right place and gave the paddler his bow and a swim was averted. At the lunch spot, Clyde and Jessa decided to take off the river as Jessa was cold. They walked to the road and managed to hitchhike a ride to the takeout where they met us later in the day.
To everyone’s pleasure, the rapids pick up below the lunch spot. In a rapid above Bump ’em, Kyle managed to get caught in a hole that seems to like canoes. He managed to get out of the hole with style and get to shore. The next rapid on the right hand corner is what we call Bump ’em. It is always exciting and did not disappoint. This section has plenty of rocks and some holes and most everyone got through in good shape. There was a minor swim here, but it occurred near the bottom of the rapid, so it was a short swim. Kyle pulled in the paddler and boat with a throw bag while Greg got the paddle. From here the river eases up a bit and everyone had good runs down to the surfing waves above the takeout.
Bryan and Aylan, in the Slice, were getting some good rides at both surfing spots. All the boaters who wanted to got good rides. One kayaker flipped and hit their head in the upper wave and had a short swim, but otherwise everyone had a good time at the waves. From there, it is short float to the takeout at the bridge. All in all it was a very good day to be on the river with such a good group of paddlers.
