(no subject)
Met up with two of the boaters I met at last night's pool session today. We decided to demo some boats (I tried a Bliss Stick Huka)on the Sultan River (guidebook calls it a Class 3+). I got blown into the first rapid before I was ready. I pulled into an eddy right at the start of the rapid and took a quick look. The main obstacles were two huge boulders with about three to five inches of water going over the top making some big pourover holes. The upper one had to be passed on the right, followed by a strong move left to get around the lower one. I didn't quite get to the left of the lower boulder, forcing me to do an airplane turn style move up against the rock. As I dropped down I leaned in a little too far, and got no purchase trying to brace in the aerated water of the hole. I flipped, missed my first roll but got the second one and pulled into the eddy.
Second rapid was a pushy wave train with a couple of small holes. Missed a stroke, flipped, couldn't get the blade angle with my paddle, and something about my body position in the setup didn't feel right (although that could be because the different boat just feels different in the setup). Swam to the side, definately feeling over my head. I made the call that today wasn't the day for me to paddle that river, at least not at that flow.
As I got my boat set up to pull up the hill I heard Tobin and Jonathan coming up the other side of the ridge. Turns out Tobin was having some bad lines and decided to make the call to hike out too. For the next hour and 15 minutes we worked to get the boats up to the Canyon Rim. Tobin made a really sketchy climb to the top, then got set up with a throwbag, we used the rope to pull the boats up, then Jonathan and I climbed to the top and started the 45 minute trek through the underbrush to the road.
According to Jonathan the rapids on the run felt and looked harder than 3+, so chances are our choice to climb out was the right one.
Second rapid was a pushy wave train with a couple of small holes. Missed a stroke, flipped, couldn't get the blade angle with my paddle, and something about my body position in the setup didn't feel right (although that could be because the different boat just feels different in the setup). Swam to the side, definately feeling over my head. I made the call that today wasn't the day for me to paddle that river, at least not at that flow.
As I got my boat set up to pull up the hill I heard Tobin and Jonathan coming up the other side of the ridge. Turns out Tobin was having some bad lines and decided to make the call to hike out too. For the next hour and 15 minutes we worked to get the boats up to the Canyon Rim. Tobin made a really sketchy climb to the top, then got set up with a throwbag, we used the rope to pull the boats up, then Jonathan and I climbed to the top and started the 45 minute trek through the underbrush to the road.
According to Jonathan the rapids on the run felt and looked harder than 3+, so chances are our choice to climb out was the right one.