I swam on the 2nd to bottom hole on the lower narrows of the Poudre. Went through it, mostly got pulled back in and was side surfin on my off side. Was working my way out and overleaned and flipped. Wasn't wearing nose plugs and sucked a bunch of water in. Got set-up but I caught my finger on my grab loop and the skirt pulled so I swam.
HERE IS MY DUMBASS MOVE of the year. Had a great day running the North Fork of the Poudre with Eric, Brent, Trent, & Scotty. Flipped going through a hole up around the corner from the waterfall. While upsidedown my shoulder partially dislocated, popped it back in missed the roll on a bad attempt with my shoulder, went back under, shoulder again partially dislocated, popped it back in again then rolled. Finished the last 3-4 miles on a bum shoulder. HERE IS THE DUMBASS PART. Volunteered to run the dirtbike (7k$ dirtbike!!) back to the truck for the shuttle. Strapped the bike on the rack and stopped twice to check the straps on the way back. 1/4 mile from the take out the bike fell off and I never knew it! DUMBASS. I hope to paddle with Eric again as that day was an awsome paddle with an awsome crew! Let me know what kind of beer to bring next time and I'll not run shuttle!
followed a crew who swam three times from north gate to 6-mile. they were rafters and got flipped in the most inconvienient times. one guy said he's been on this water for 20 years and was just happy that all got out alive. we are seeing some-what but not epic flows and people are getting worked. SCOUT the runs before you drop them and God-Speed. C'mon rains and cold weather.
Second day of the season, at the end of Paddlefest. I swam out of the bottom hole of Gillman Gorge Slurry Pipe at around 500. First in a year and a half. Was stoked that my booties were almost brand new...
HERE IS THE DUMBASS PART. Volunteered to run the dirtbike (7k$ dirtbike!!) back to the truck for the shuttle. Strapped the bike on the rack and stopped twice to check the straps on the way back. 1/4 mile from the take out the bike fell off and I never knew it! DUMBASS.
Swam at Gore rapid at 2,500. Nailed the boof on the left left line with a bit too much booof, and caught the eddy behind the rock. Got spun out backwards and went through the left slot by ginger backwards. Got flipped and plastered on the backdeck. About to hit a back deck roll when the paddle hit a rock and tore outta my hands. So I pulled seeing no reason to try and paddle the rest of the rapid, and possibly sissors with no paddle. Total yard sale. Luckily my crew nailed me within a second of popping to the surface and got pulled into the big river left eddy. Luckily my paddle joined me in the eddy, but the boat washed downstream to an eddy just below Pyritte. So I had to swim back to river right above Pyritte (not fun) and then back to river left below Pyritte (can't walk Pyritte on river left). Not a fun swim, but still a fun day. Thank god for drysuits.
Friday night I emailed Atom (starter of this thread) saying something like "Not fessin' up to nothing cuz I got no reason to." He writes back "Don't worry, it will come." Me: "Yeah, I know it will" [river karma: -5 pt. for bragging about not swimming]
The next morning, yesterday, we're hiking 3 mis. into this creek. I'm running on about 3.5 hrs sleep & still intoxicated from the night before [river karma: -1 pt. for piss poor planning & execution] ... We put in, run some stuff, portage a bunch of wood, & then we get to a drop where all we can see is the boogie-water lead-in & further downstream, an obvious ledge that's backed up by a logjam on the right. No real scout or easy portage possibility because of gorge walls. I could see a tight passage between the river-left wall & the logjam, & the ledge looked boofable on the right or the left, then you'd have to book it left real quick to get by the strainer. In order to stop the analysis paralysis that had already started to happen among the group, I told the other dudes the situation & said I'd probe it with one other person following .. before peeling out of the eddy I said "Seriously, we're only dealing with a hundred cfs here .. Not to dis the river, but let's just keep that in mind." [river karma: -5 pts for being an asshole]
Famous last words .. I boogied through the boogie & then went for the obvious high-side of the horseshoe ledge on the left (wanted to boof into the slackwater on the left & then just cruise by the strainer) .. only, the high-left side ended up being a weird dried-out chunky rock that deflected me into the main part of the horseshoe. I flailed, sideways, maybe 6 or 8 feet down a 70-degree, perfectly green sloper into the totally backed-up hole. So locked in. Cartwheels. Oh, & here comes Chris about to spear my brain with his bow. He narrowly makes it by me. Then more cartwheels & hopeless sidesurfing. "F this, I'm out!" Shitty deep recircs with my boat in the most aerated backwash & I'm thinking "this could be really bad." I felt my boat on top of me as I was doing another lap toward the greenwater, & just pushed up against the boat, sending me deep. I bounced off the bottom & popped up right on the edge of the boil, recirc'ing back to the right gorge wall (again), but I was far enough downstream this time that i was able to grab a little bit of the wall & pull myself out ... Into the logjam which was pretty scary ... after that it wasn't so bad. My paddle & boat stayed in the hole for at least another 5 minutes before I was able to get 'em out & send them downstream through the wood. Then I got to climb up & dive in & swim across the creek.
Yet being the operative word. But I did see a few on Homestake before, during, and after the race, including a couple nasty ones. Almost swam on Grizzly with a surprise hole I don't remember being there (I could just be going senile).
Cutch, Henry said to tell you he didn't swim the 8-Ball at Teva, even after trash talking to Hobie.
__________________
And the Lord said, let there be whitewater. So on Friday, the 13th day of the month....
This winter the South East was in such a drought, I only bothered taking a playboat- left my creek boat out west. Then, of course, tons of rain in March, so things started going off. The only thing I thought I could get on without a creek boat was the Little- the Sinks to the Elbow (class 4, creekish)... right about at flood stage.
So, I took my Necky Orbit Fish (too big for me really) down the thing, chasing and helping rescue the locals creek boats, when we get to the Sinks, last rapid we're going to run. Left channel is bad (trees, pins, potential drowning), but the right, as powerful as it looked, was great. Once on the right line, even upside down, it'd go fine, then stops in a pool. About 10ft before getting into the 'right line, left line' spot I cartwheel and poof, upside down, I have no idea which way I'm going. Too violent for me to get the paddle around to roll, and decided to pop the cork. If I'm on the right line then I have the recovery pool, and if I'm left I don't want to pin upside down against the trees.
I popped, found that I was, indeed, on the right line, collected my gear, and climbed out in front of all the locals. It was then they told me they wouldn't run it any higher in creek boats! Ah well.
Well, thanks to Paul for catching everyone up on our NSV run. It was relatively mellow, except that most of the carnage happened to me instead of being spread around the group. I guess I was the victim that day.
However, I figured it was important to get out a couple of beautiful Source runs that occured late last week. I was the guide for a lady friend and another first timer. The first timer hadn't scouted, but he was solid so I told him to just get right behind me so I could show him the lines....famous last words as always. I had never seen said lady swim and vice versa, so the pressure was on. Of course I dropped the hole right above dead hiker, pitoned and side surfed. Both people boofed over me and rudely didn't knock me out of the hole. I hung in until exhausted and then pulled. First timer barely escapes Dead Hiker blind, in front. Easy, super embarassing swim for me. We fix the situation and then M catches the pin rock past the two downed trees and flips. She swims after being beaten by the river bed. Boat pins on the takeout cheesegrater. First lap, 1 hour, 20 minutes including boat recoveries.
So we run into FRF, Wigston and Forrest at the takeout. They putin at least a half hour ahead of us on our second lap. Now the water's juicin - call it med-high. Lady drops into the same hole I swam out of on lap one. Brutal swim to the lip of dead hiker. As I'm running down the bank after her, I run right into Forrest. Obviously they've had problems which I'll leave FRF to discuss at length. After extensive further scouting post swim, newbie then proceeds to side-surf dead hiker. Swim. If you include looking for a paddle which we never found (Red Powerhouse) that lap was probably 2 hours.
All in all, everyone from my group swam, and out of 9 laps there were 7 swims. I love that run. It always provides pure entertainment. Can you believe that it's barely a mile?
Joe
Busted my jackson in CO, so I borrowed my buddys Riot thunder(never been on the water). The Creek was running at the season peak flow. You could hear bolders rolling in the stream bed. I got nocked into the first hole and got beat down in the first 50 yards of the run. Came out with the nose busted open and taking water Eddy Flower Kayaking Image
Made it through the entirety of the meat including the riverwide hole a mile down. Filled with water, got flipped and my knee hit the deck and I was sunk. One Broken toe and Bruised from the tailbone up. Damn expensive 4 days.
Bottoms up!!!
Craig
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