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One of Those Days on the North Fork American |
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| Ever have one of those trips when it seems like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong (with the exception of no injuries though, thank goodness!)? Our last trip of the year for 2000 on the North Fork American was one of those trips where 95% of what was dealt to us happened within the first half-mile. This story may be continued in a future episode, read on and you'll soon understand why. . . |
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It all started that morning before we even left the house. Whenever I'm involved in a trip where more than three boats are involved and only one vehicle that is capable of carrying all the gear, I get a bit 'goofy' trying to figure out the best shuttle logistics. In this case, we had four catarafts and five people. So right from the get-go, I was 'goofy'. Just trying to figure out the most efficient way for which vehicles should carry who and what, can be confusing enough - you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. Either way ya do it, ya end up at the river to go boating, in the end, it really doesn't matter. The boat rigging went well. Jai and Matt each on their own 13' Hyside cats, David Thom on his 13' NRS Micro-cat, Cindy and I on my 14' Hyside cat. |
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If you've been on the North Fork American, you know about the entry to Slaughter Sluice, the first class IV rapid, a technical boulder field with a huge boulder entry that you need to go the right of and then quickly dodge left to avoid another huge boulder on the right near the wall. All seemed to be going well until Jai's entry was to far to the right. He was to far to the right to get over the big pillow wave of the first boulder. End result, the boat got pinned between the rock wall on river right and the boulder. Jai was able to get off the boat and onto the boulder, but even with his brute strength (the guy can probably bench press 500 lbs!), he couldn't pull the boat out of the pin and over the pillow wave to clear the boulder. While trying, he slipped off the boulder and into the rapid, not a good place for a swim! Fortunately we had a rescue line ready. Dragging an eighth of a ton of Jai out of a class IV rapid was no easy task. The good thing was we got him, the poor guy was nearly exhausted but for the most part okay. The bad thing was - now there was a pinned ghost boat on the opposite side of the river and upstream of our position in a class IV rapid. Time for plan B(whatever that was). |
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That's one pinned ghost boat! |
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| Dave Thom was able to ferry me across the river without any problem. The real task was to get to the boat. The only real option was to climb across on the rock wall on river right and then climb down to the cataraft that was bucking around between the wall and the boulder. While studying the scenario, I heard a hysterical laughter from across the river - what the heck?! There was Jai, Matt and Cindy buckled over, laughing their asses off and pointing at Dave. In all his splendor, while Dave was bent over tying off his cataraft behind me, his farmer john wetsuit decided to open up wide. . . right down the crack of his butt! |
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Home |
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River Story Page |
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Prease Crick here to go to Page 2 of this story |
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