Bogus Thunder dumped Matt out of his cataraft, a well executed self rescue on his part allowed us to continue without any further problems.
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| It took a while for me to regain my composure before doing some wall climbing. Butt (pun intended) with Dave's help, we were able to line the boat out of the pinned position and get back across the river to the rest of our party. While trying to get re-organized, we had to rescue a pfd (life vest for our non-boating friends) and a pair of gloves before they drifted downstream to the next rapid. Oh, did I forget to mention a blue cataraft too? There was also one of those going downstream without a driver. Matt thought he had tied his boat off. Just as the ghost cat started to accelerate into some swift water, Matt made a mad dash and jumped in to rescue the wayward boat. A good save indeed! | ||||||||||||||
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| After rescuing his 'Ghost Boat', Matt gave a little prayer to the River Gods. | ||||||||||||||
| Only an eighth of a mile down river was Chamberlain Falls, a respectable eight foot drop. The River Gods allowed us safe passage. Matt's sideways run was pretty exciting though! Now, I knew better than to eddie out to close to the base of the falls, however, while eddied out below Chamberlain, the eddie currents drew us upstream and sucked the boat right into the monster eddie on river left. If you've been there, you know the only way out of this one is to abandon boat and use ropes to line the boat out. What'd I do? I tried and I tried to row out of there - but noooooo!! Mr. Edward Current had us in his grips all to well. Got the lines out, abandoned the boat and start pulling. Been there, done that. | ||||||||||||||
| Once free of the monster eddie, Dave came over to tell me about a girl who just took a bad swim out of her kayak at 'Slaughter Sluice' and lost her paddle. Her kayak friends had a spare paddle but were a ways down river. 'Lynn' was an extremely pleasant lady but pretty shook up. There was no way she was going to be able to paddle the rest of the four miles of class IV rapids with any comfort. Having the biggest cataraft, Cindy and I strapped Lynn's kayak onto the back of our boat. Cindy being close to the weight of a feather, took a seating position on top of the kayak. Lynn took the passenger seat behind me. I've had the pleasure to row a solo cataraft on the North Fork a good number of times. To me, the maneuverability of these crafts is the best part, the combination of fine balance, coordination and light weight reminds me of the feel of flying a helicopter(finesse and coordination). I often relate rowing a cataraft through a technical class IV rapid to almost like flying a helicopter(like I did only a few years back) - it just feels sooo goood! However, a cataraft loaded with two passengers and a kayak was a different story and a real challenge! This took some work! Bogus Thunder dumped Matt out of his cataraft, a well executed self rescue on his part allowed us to continue without any further problems. |
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| Fortunately all went well, the rest of the trip was absolutely enjoyable, we were able to enjoy the beauty of the North Fork. We let Lynn off just before the Shirttail Creek take-out and enjoyed the rest of the class II+ float down to Ponderosa. Lynn's pleasant company was a real treat to what could've been one tough day on the river. During the take out shuttle, Jai was determined not to be humbled by Slaughter Sluice rapid. In his booming voice, he proclaimed "I will have that rock! Next time, that rock will be mine! I will conquer that . . . " . . .to be continued. . . . . . . . . | ||||||||||||||
| Jai is still relatively new at river boating. He's a pretty good boater for a rookie. I'm hoping the River Gods will go lightly and in small doses on him until they get their message across. Remember Jai, the River Gods never forget. | ||||||||||||||
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