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No fear today. No numbness either. Just excitement to be getting on the Yough this weekend. Of course there would be no fear. I was in a shredder with Bruce. He knows all the lines and would tell me exactly what to do. I was going to paddle like crazy but thoroughly enjoy the ride. And that is what I did. We hadn't been in a shredder since last July and we were rusty. We had a hard time maneuvering almost the entire run. Of course it didn't help that I don't have enough strength and didn't feel like I was helping at all. I dug in with all I had but most of the time it just wasn't enough. I felt terrible. Bruce had us lined up so perfectly and I couldn't keep us that way. Especially at Dimple. My lack of power got us pasted to the front of the rock! We did have another great line at River's End and Bruner went pretty well too. Even though it wasn't our best shredder run, I still had a great day. The gorge is so beautiful and the weather was awesome. Thanks Bruce!
7/28/2007
Level - 1.81 ft, 946 cfs
Craft: Kaituna
Fooled ya! You didn't actually believe I ran it in my hard boat, did you? I did go down there with every intention of at least running the loop. I had psyched myself up all week. Rodney was supposed to be running a club trip and Bruce had volunteered to be a safety boater for him so I figured now would be as good a time as any. I woke up early and for some reason checked the WVWA message board only to find that the trip had been cancelled due to lack of interest. I was somewhat deflated. Bruce and I tossed it around and decided to call Rodney and tell him to get his butt up here anyways. He quickly agreed, called Bob Stevens and now we were a group of four. We packed up the truck and headed for Ohiopyle. Just as we were reaching the Summit Inn, Rodney called. His car had broken down so he wouldn't make it but Bob was still coming. Now we were down to three but both Bruce and Bob were extremely experienced on the Yough so that wouldn't be an issue.
The entire ride down I was amazingly calm. I am normally a nervous wreck just thinking about the Yough. We met Bob at the put-in and set shuttle. We were going to put-in after three. Bruce wanted to work with me up near the falls on bracing and paddle stroke and I felt ready to go. We put on. Bob headed for "Entrance" to play some while we headed toward the falls. That was the end of it for me. He tried to show me a few things but I couldn't concentrate. All I could think about were "Entrance" and "Cucumber" and how I was gonna get hammered and the anxiety took over. Just like earlier in the season on the Narrows my face and arms went numb. Fear just completely took over. There was no way I was paddling the loop today. We decided that I would stay up by the falls and practice my basic strokes and braces for a couple of hours and then meet them at the take-out. Once again I let fear ruin what could have been an exciting day on the water. Will I ever be able to overcome this? Lord, I hope so.
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