Chapter 1 - Welcome to the Sport     Chapter 2 - The Addiction Begins     Chapter 3 - Can You Say Kaituna
Chapter 4 - So You Want to Roll     Chapter 6 - The Legend Begins     Chapter 7 - Fear and Other Thoughts
Chapter 8 - Spring 2007 - What a Disappointment     Chapter 9 - Just Like Starting Over

CHAPTER FIVE:
THE ACCELERATED COURSE

As February rolled around, the thought of spring and the upcoming paddling festivals was in the air.  As Bruce describe his experiences at previous  festivals and the good times we would have this year, he came up with an idea - "You should buy an inflatable kayak so you can run some of the harder stuff with us" he said.  I was so excited that he wanted me to run stuff with him, and that he had confidence that I would actually be able to, that I quickly agreed.  Fortunately for my wallet he knew someone who could get me a decent discount on a Tomcat and some additional gear.  We placed the order and within a couple of weeks I had another boat.  Never paddled and already owned two boats - definitely addicted!

NEW BOAT

Tributary Tomcat Solo

I have been told that the normal progression of a new paddler should be to start out on Class I-II water, get to know your boat, learn water features and get comfortable.  Once this is accomplished you can then move onto steady Class II water and learn to read water.  A new paddler should probably spend most of their first season on this type of water slowly moving up to Class II-III the next season.  Well, that is not how I progressed this season.  Paddling with Bruce and his friends didn't provide me the opportunity to paddle much Class I-II.  So, unless I wanted to spend my weekends home alone while he was out having all the fun, I was going to have to step it up a notch.  We jokingly call this "The Accelerated Course."

My first season started out with a ridiculously low water run on Class I-II Loyalhannah Creek the last Sunday in March.  The next weekend I was off to Webster Springs, WV and the Elk for the Webster Wildwater Weekend.  Although I really didn't plan on paddling here Bruce urged me to bring my boats so I did.  As it turned out, I did end up paddling two Class II-III sections of the Elk - the "Race Course" & the "Down Elk" -  in my Tomcat.  The next week brought another Class II-III - the Dry Fork of the Cheat.  My only other Class I-II run came the following week during the WVWA Petersburg Weekend at Seneca Rocks, WV where I paddled a section of the South Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac.  I followed this up with a Class II run on the lower section of Stonycreek near Tire Hill, PA.  I then finished off the month with a Class II-II+ run on the Casselman - Markleton to Fort Hill, PA.

That is how I spent my first month of paddling and I haven't looked back.  The rest of my season was spent on Class II-III (IV) water in one of three boats - my inflatable Tomcat, my hard boat Kaituna or a Shredder with one commercial raft trip on the New River thrown in for good measure!  Buying the Tomcat turned out to be a really good idea because it gave me the opportunity to jump right in to some of the harder stuff.  By the middle of July I felt I needed to spend more time in my hard boat so I made the decision not to use the Tomcat anymore.  I'll still probably pull it out once in a while to run something a little harder but plan on being in my Kaituna or a Shredder the majority of next season.  You can see a complete list of all the rivers I ran this year in my 2006 River Log or view more detailed descriptions on my various river pages.

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