January thaw...

[JD]

Creekin' tomorrow.

 

[snoseek]

good backup plan.

 

[tcharron]

Creekin' tomorrow.

But what sucks about it is the 'one last big gun' it's using to leave..

R*%@&%@#&%*@#%&@#^@*#^&#!%!#&%#@^&N

:x

 

[deadheadskier]

Creekin' tomorrow.

Hope you have a good dry suit.


The only kayaking I've ever done is in March in the Ohiopyle region of Pennsylvania. I had a dry top to use, but only a wet suit bottom. The 'step children' did not like this at all :lol:

I'd love to get into white water kayaking, but my introduction to the sport put me off. I can see the simalarities between it and snow sports and how it can offer the same rush. The cold was a manageable turn off, getting swept a half mile downstream on the Casselman at flood stage and no normal flood stage, the highest the river had been in 20 years, yeah not too much fun. I was with a rep for Liquid Logic and he seemed to think because I was such a proficient skier, that I'd be able to handle it having watched me make it down some Class 2's with ease on my second day. Mind you, I had no idea how to wet exit the boat, nevermind roll. I made it about 100 yards before a big ole' wave dumped me over.

I learned pretty quick screwing down the river upside down in 32 degree water how to eject. I ended up going a half mile down river and though I'm a decent swimmer, I could've easily drowned. The only thing that saved me was the river was WAY over it's banks into the forest and I was able to swim to a tree and hang on, catch my breath, then swim over to another tree and another before making it to shore.

I got back in the boat the next day, figuring the whole falling off a horse analogy was the right thing to do with the sport. I was scared shitless by the littlest ripple. Haven't been back in a kayak since, though I have gone in white water with a Shedder a couple times since.

The thing that freaks me out about kayaking is your can't stop when you want to. At least on skis when you are facing a hairy line, you can stop and attack it slowly if need be. You don't have that option in kayaking. It's not like you can eddy out in the middle of a rapid.

Enjoy...looks like a ton of fun once you get the hang of it. Maybe someday I'll have the balls to get back in a boat again.

 

[JD]

It doesn't have to be scarry, and I'm colder on the Mtn. The river is an amazing place to be. You get to float thru deep gorges that are practically impossible to hike into w/o ropes. Reading water and being immersed in the power of it is the absolutely intoxicating. After a day like today, it's all you want to do forever.
Most fatalities are results of just a few things.

Inexperienced people getting in over their heads.
Getting on rivers in flood.
Not wearing a PFD.
Not being prepared for the water temp.

DHS, you did a few of those things and got away with it, but as you said, your buddy was not doing you any favors putting you in that situation.

 

[deadheadskier]

Yeah he certainly wasn't. When we got to the river, I questioned if I was ready for something like this. I would've gone down in a shredder without hesitation, but with how easily kayaks can flip and me not knowing what to do if it did, I really put up my guard. His thought was rivers at flood stage tend to be easier as the rapids are flatter. That certainly might be true, but the waves were huge. It was a ROUGH situation and I think if I were to give the sport a try again, that memory and fear of something similar happening again would stick with me for a long time. I'd liken it to taking someone down Hour Glass at Stowe on their third day skiing.

Having lived in WV, Western Maryland, SW PA for two years, I definitely hung out with many people like yourself who were completely intoxicated by the sport. That area is sort of the white water mecca with the Upper Yough, Cheat, Gauley and other rivers runable year round. The passion the people had for the sport rivaled anything I've ever seen in ski town. Going to the bar in Ohiopyle at the end of the day was reminiscent of going to the Matterhorn after a powder day.

On a couple of occasions I hung out with one of the guys, forget his name, he was part of 'The Last River'

ever read the book?

 

[JD]

Nope, never have. I'll have to give it a check.
Some truth to the fact that high water runs can be less tech. then runs on the same river at normal flows, btu the consequences are their, the hazards tend to be huge, and getting into the trees is extrememly dangerous even in mild current. Runs that you know well can be totally different and the line changes with more or less flow. On the Gihon one day, a river I've run more then any probably, on a high water day we didn't even scout the last drop because it is ussually so mellow. Little did we know that it was a huge hole at twice the normal flows. I came over the horizon line to see my partners creeker cartwheeling in the hole at the base of the steep slide. I knocked him out of the hydrolic and got beat down until my skirt imploded and I got pushed thru. Lesson learned. Scout everything.

We don't get alot of big water days in VT. Most of our stuff is med to low volume creeking which I enjoy much more. Nothing like slithering down a creek on a bluebird day.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Yesterday I saw some river kayakers go off a solid 15-20 foot drop in a park in Scranton..wow..lots of photographers..and so many options..way more core than skiing/riding

 

[bigbog]

...have to take the precautions of high level flows

Hey great stuff JD,
Yah, ....the easiest way to go about big water is...once you get caught in some predicament...simply relax, flip, & roll(IF your roll is solid). The problem is that there are always a few blowdowns/strainers that don't get washed away till Spring...so you have to watch out for em', particualrly on the smaller streams that I think are so beautiful...

 

[loafer89]

Quite a few years ago I went skiing at Mohawk and then went paddling on the Housatonic. This was in late February and the water level was at about it's normal summertime release level.

I really hate getting into my dry suit and I hate cold water even more, so that was the one and only time I went kayaking in the winter.