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This would be my first complete hard boat run of the North Branch. Last year I only ran the entire river three times, all in my Tomcat. The other times I had only made it to "Blue Hole" in the Kaituna and took off due to illness. Because of this I was a little nervous, especially about "Robin's Nest." I made the decision to sneak this rapid down the far left side before I even put on.
Once we put on, I was surprisingly calm. The put-in was a zoo. It seemed like the entire paddling community had descended on this particular stretch of water. Bruce normally wants me to ferry across and back at the put-in. This simple act usually freaks me out. Don't ask why, I can't tell you. Despite this, I had planned on doing it until I saw how crowded and crazy it was and then decided not to. I just relaxed in the eddy on river right until Bruce was done warming up. We then started downstream. What a mess. I am so used to paddling with a small group and just about no one else on the river. I guess I am really pretty spoiled but the vast number of boats on this run were just too much for me. It's my own weakness but I have enough trouble catching eddies high enough when there are only one or two boats in them let alone seven or eight. I guess I need to become more aggressive in these situations. I made it through the first few rapids and tried to ready myself for the hydraulics. I had told Bruce that I was finally going to run them but chickened out at the last minute reverting to sneaking them down the left side. While doing so, I tried to catch an eddy partway down, found three boats there that had no intention of moving and tried to sneak in behind them. This turned out to be a bad idea because I got washed out and into a low hanging branch that almost flipped me and the three kayakers laughing because they thought it was funny. I had to brace up off the bottom so that I wouldn't flip. I didn't find anything humorous about the situation and think it was pretty rude of them to laugh at me. I'm done complaining now. Just had to get that off my chest.
I ran my own lines through a few rapids but followed Bruce through the majority of them. He didn't take any easy lines but I held my own keeping up and running good lines. I felt I was having a very good day on the water and Bruce concurred. I did make a mistake by not having enough speed going over the left side ledge at "Blue Hole." This caused me to drop right into the hole which stopped me but I dug in and paddled out of it. We took a break at the play hole and watched Rodney surf it. He did a great job. While there, I decided that I would run the hard line at "Robin's Nest." I felt I was having a good enough run and that I needed to go for it. I thought, I run "Calamity" I should be able to run this one. We put on and headed downstream. After easily running a few more rapids we took another break at the picnic bench where I tried to prepare myself for the big drop. While here, I received many pointers on how to run it. I followed Bruce down through the next rapid thinking ahead to "Robin's Nest" the entire time. I knew there was a very limited area that I had to be in to make it between the holes. Bruce went first and I followed. I honestly thought I was on line but must have been too far right because I went over the ledge and was upside down before I knew what hit me. After wet exiting, I came up holding onto both my paddle and boat and really tried to get to shore. Bruce got to me as quickly as he could but because the water was flowing so fast, we couldn't get to the side. I grabbed the loop on his bow and he paddled backwards while towing me and trying to tie a rope to my boat through about 1/2 mile of rapids. I honestly don't know how he managed it. He was amazing. I never bumped and banged off of so many rocks in my life. Bruce did everything he could to get me to the side but with no good eddies it was next to impossible. He wasn't able to tie my boat and eventually we let it go to be rescued downstream by Dave and Zeth and concentrated solely on getting to shore. We finally did. The water was soooo cold and I was shivering terribly. We took a few minutes for me to calm down and warm up. I then got into Bruce's canoe, kneeling behind him and holding on for dear life. It felt so tippy but Bruce successfully negotiated the rest of the rapid (was there ever any doubt?) and got me to my boat. It took me a while but I got myself together and psyched up for "Top of the World", one of my favorite rapids because of the big waves. I ran it flawlessly and rode up on the huge wave just like I wanted to do. Sweeeet! The only other trouble spot for me was where you head right around an island and have to cross back into the main flow near some low hanging branches. I didn't power across the current line enough and had to brace to stay upright. I successfully did this where last year, I probably would have swam. I must be getting somewhat better, don't you think? Next up was my favorite rapid. It is a slide into a big wave where you can get some great air time. I always look forward to this rapid. Unfortunately, today it was washed out. What a bummer. The rest of the run was uneventful all the way to the take-out.
We shuttled back to the put-in where Bruce prepared for a second run while I headed for the campground for a hot shower and dry clothes to warm my freezing bones. All in all, I had a great run. Although I did have my longest and bumpiest swim to date, it happened because I was trying to run a difficult Class III rapid. Will I try to run this rapid again next time? Probably not this year. I'll probably revert to my chicken line down the left, at least for the October release. As for the rest of the run, I'm gonna pat myself on the back - I did a great job. I haven't had too many runs this year but feel that I have improved with each one. All I can hope for is for that to continue.
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