Colorado Dave and I met up after work and rallied to FITW for some laps. It had been not been too warm the past few days and the gauge was showing a decline to a good medium flow. We decided with it warm today and forecasted to be 85 on Wednesday this was the day to run it before more snow melting and brought the level up too high. Erik S was up there running solo laps and joined up with us.
The run started off fairly excited for myself. When getting on the river I felt a little off but figured I was in my mind. I lined up for the first ledge (Larry's Ledge) and drove far left with left angle only to get turned around at the lip from a small piece of rock or wood on the far left side of the drop. I went over the ledge a little backwards and sideways and started to get chundered. Instantly I thought about the pin rocks on the right side of the drop and freaked for a second.
I let go of my paddle and went for my grab loop to bail. In the middle of this action I regretted letting go of my paddle and nailed a hand roll which brought me upright. I back hand-paddled, got out of the ledge, and then hand-paddled into an eddy. Whew! First combat hand roll ever and what a recovery. I was pretty proud of myself, slightly embarrassed but Erik threw me my paddle and we headed down to the Fearsome Foursome.
In the middle of the second slide of the FF I got turned around backwards and then was side surfed in a hole at the bottom of this slide, luckily with my paddle this time. After about a minute I got myself out and ran the third drop of the FF. I eddied out and was pretty irritated with myself and realized I was in a funk and needed to change my attitude. I also felt that my back band wasn't as tight as usual and tightened it up. AHHHHHHH that was it! After snugging myself in I felt solid in my boat and cleaned the rest of the run.
For lap 2 we all had good lines and Erik showed us an eddy that is easier to take out from where we usually got out. It is at the entrance of Rootball which is a Class V rapid not typically run. This is a little nerve racking but a much larger and easier to catch eddy, and an easier hike out back to the road.
After hiking back uphill to the put-in Dave asked if I was ready for #3. I was pretty tired due to this being day 4 in a row of paddling and a bit frazzled from my earlier hand roll. I told him I could be talked into it. About this time he realized his Jefe's seat was cracked! Man, Liquid Logic Jefe's have a great reputation of being excellent creek boats but are also very known for cracking and breaking down. This was Dave's second Jefe after cracking his first one.
When leaving we noticed that the river had risen about an inch or two according to the gauge rock. Hehehe, it's great to sneak in a couple laps before it shoots too high!
The only picture I took was at the typical seal launch put-in. You can see the bow of my boat and Erik down below. What a great way to start a run. 
Posted
May 29 2007, 09:04 PM
by
crakins