High Side 6/30/07

Not our pics, again

I thought I signed up for another kayaking trip with MITOC but because it turned out to be a rafting trip, I’m still alive. 9 of us left MIT at 6am and headed out to the Dryway, a class 4 section of the Deerfield river (class 4 means big whitewater and is why I say that I would have died in a kayak). At the put in the MIT cars met the RPI cars, we ran shuttle to the take out, inflated our rafts and we were good to go/have a safety meeting because I hadn’t been in a raft since I was 13 and it was on a lazy river.

Oddly enough, when the group split into the rafts, all the BC skiers ended up in 1, odd. Ernesto was our guide and Doogie was training to guide which left Ali and I up front along with one non BC skier, Slobodan. The first run, led by our experienced guide was a lot of fun. The Dryway starts right below the release of a dam and about 100 yards into the run, we hit the rapids. Unlike the Winni, where I went kayaking, the Deerfield is cold water and as we ran the first rapid, I felt how cold, with multiple waves crashing into me.

During our safety meeting we were told to keep paddling until we were told to stop and we must have done a good job because Ernesto decided it would be cool to take us surfing! I didn’t know you could surf in a raft but we did it! Our first shot didn’t workout but we caught the eddy and gave it another try. Ernest told us, “when I say forward, I mean forward. Seriously, jump forward.” And as we paddled hard into the wave and finally got into the surf we heard “FORWARD” and Ali and I basically jumped into the water with the wave pearling (I’m guessing on that term) over the bow and the 2 of us pushing all of our weight on it, we were pressed between the water and rubber! Sitting there on the wave, not paddling but just balancing is an awesome feeling and because I was so focused on the task at hand I didn’t even notice the freezing water.

As we made our way down, we ran through a handful of rapids and even took one of them switch! The second to last rapid on the Dryway is called, Dragon Tooth and it is massive (we saw multiple kayakers swim). We head into the rapid paddling hard and follow the tongue half way through, when all of a sudden we come up on a wall of water. As we hit the water my contact shifted in my eye and I had to close my eyes to make sure I wouldn’t lose them. This meant I paddled the mankiest section of the river blind which also meant I probably wasn’t being so useful because I was hitting the side of the raft with my paddle rather than the water! Either way, Dragon Tooth is a sweet rollercoaster that guarantees you are soaked at the take out!

The last rapid, while not as intense as Dragon Tooth, was plenty exciting. It starts with an entry about as wide as a raft that drops about 2 feet (it looks big) into a re-circulating hole called Terminator! Ernesto lead us through rest of the maze (oh yeah this rapid is called Labyrinth) without a problem and we were out of the boat and loading Ali’s Civic with rafts (funny picture).

For the second run, Doogie was our guide! We didn’t get to surf but we really had a good time! Evidently, it takes 3 seconds to get a raft to start moving in the direction a guide wants it to and Doogie, while an experienced kayaker, had a little trouble adjusting to this.

We made it through a few rapids sans incident but soon enough, Doogie railed us into a rock and Ali went for a swim. Luckily Ernesto was able to pull him out right away. After that rapid, came another shallow rapid section, where Doogie did something, (I have no idea what that something is) Ali and I kept paddling and then we heard some commotion, looked back and Doogie is sitting on a rock in the middle of the rapid, Ernesto is guiding again and we are being told to paddle hard up river to try to rescue Doogie. We didn’t make it to Doogie so we had to eddy out about 40 feet from where he was. Ernesto tossed him a rescue line and pulled him through the still freezing water.

After laughing at Doogie I asked him if he was ok and with chattering teeth he said “cold”. But Doogie manned up and got back in the drivers seat! One more rapid and the excitement began. Doogie was taking on a maze of a rapid trying to get us river left of a large boulder when all of a sudden, he didn’t. The right side of the boat slammed up into the boulder and we were pinned. Let me restate that, pinned sounds so nice and comfortable. The right side of the boat SLAMMED into the boulder and the water started pushing the left side down so the right side was moving up the boulder. Yes this means the boat was going VERTICLE! Ernesto yelled “HIGH SIDE” as Ali and I were jumping up on the right side of the boat to level us out. We managed to counterbalance the water and ended the rapid going switch, hooting and hollering, stocked to, one not be swimming and two have had such a rush! Thanks Doogie that was sweeter than candy.

Doogie pulled through and led us through Dragon Tooth without a problem. We picked up 2 kayakers who had lost their boats and ran Labrynth (Doogie nailed this one as well) with their dead weight. The BC ski boat had an awesome day!