On Friday afternoon I went out to the Lower Willow with Allison and Ben... both students who were more than happy to take a study break to paddle! As we were planning to do the Lower and I'd only run it twice before, the last attempt resulting in a swim, I elected to take the older Dagger Rx as it was a known quantity.
We all failed to meet at the allotted point - I was running ten minutes late and assumed the others had gone to the river and they were running later than me and assumed I'd done the same - so we all bumped into each other at the put in point. After sorting out some shuttling we put the kayaks in at the takeout of the Upper Willow run. I'd not seen the Upper since I was a very green beginner, and I'd never run the adjoining section of river between the Upper and the canyon (the Lower Willow run). Thinking back to how many capsizes I'd been through on the Upper brought a wry smile to my face as we paddled out into the current.
Ben set off at a good pace and I followed him as he seemed to know the river pretty well. There was an extremely shallow section on a sharp right bend in the river as the Willow approached the canyon. We ground over that, and then things started to get exciting as the boats picked up speed and took on the energy of the river.
There were a few drops and then we were in the canyon, and the current slowed a little behind the drop called Nick's Nob. From here onwards I'd been before and I let out a whoop, partly from joy but mostly from staying upright over the unknown part ;)
We continued down the canyon apace and I started to think we'd be done the whole run in about 15 minutes! But then Ben pulled in after Surf City, a nice wave right next to a big eddy. Alli and I sat in the eddy while Ben played, throwing ends and surfing, then we both tried a little surfing with varying degrees of success. I managed a couple of short but decent surfs, and then did a couple of practice rolls which resulted in a huge headache... the water was freezing cold! Ben was doing his best to keep his head out of the water as he did tricks, and Allison had no intention of getting wet as she wasn't even wearing gloves.
We were rapidly losing the light so decided to finish the run down the canyon. Scouting from the highway bridge, which is a hundred or so feet directly above the river as it crosses the canyon, had shown a large log blocking the left channel into Freak My Beak (the route I ran before). We were therefore forced to take the river right route which was tougher due to the drops approaching the Beak. Getting the drops wrong would mean running the Beak falls upside down, which is what had happened to make me swim previously.
Ben elected to go first so he could wait for Allison and me in the eddy below the falls, and he headed down. I made a note of his route over the drops, and tried to follow with some success. The last drop before the beak had a fairly large rock in the centre, and I managed to draw right and avoid it before plummeting over the Beak. As I landed in the foampile I realised I wasn't even going to flip over, and let out a victorious yell :) Probably anyone crossing the highway bridge at that point would have got a shock.
Allison flipped on the falls but rolled up easily, and we sat in the eddy playing in the foaming water beneath the falls for a while. It was getting pretty cold and dim so we headed for the takeout and I tried not to grin too much... Frase 2 Freak My Beak 1. I wanted to test the new kayak over the weekend so I asked if anyone wanted to do a mellow run the following day. Somehow this turned into "let's do the same run again" which I fretted about a little on the way back into town, I wasn't sure how the little Jackson would react in whitewater.
Saturday morning I started the car at about 8am and the temperature gauge read -2 degrees C. It didn't get any warmer during the drive out to the river... it was going to be a very, very chilly run. Fortunately I'd recently got myself dry pants and gloves and was no longer reliant on a wetsuit/drytop! The sun was shining in our faces as we put the boats on the river, and after some early nerves I found the new kayak was fantastic to paddle on moving water as well as the flat stuff.
I didn't have much time to think as we dropped into the canyon section, but then surfing the wave at Surf City was much easier in the new boat. If I got swept off the wave coming out of the eddy, I could paddle forward onto it again. That was exceedingly difficult in my Rx. At one point Allison got her boat jammed into the pourover in front of the wave and was stuck fast. She even had time to yell over to Ben and me, asking what she should do! I didn't see how she got out, and I should have made a note as I managed to bury my bow in the pourover shortly after. The stern popped up and I was vertical for a second before losing control and flipping over. I rolled up ok, but boy was it cold! Ben mentioned I could have got out of it by edging... next time.
As we left the wave and headed down, a couple of Bald Eagles flew up the valley overhead. I had to take a deep breath to calm down as we followed the same route down the right toward the Beak, this time I caught an edge and flipped over prior to the drops. I rolled up in plenty of time and followed Ben down, then drew left to go over Freak My Beak on the left side again (which worked well the day before). Paddling hard to get away from being pinned to the canyon wall on river left, I whooped again as I eddied out and waited with Ben for Allison.
When all three of us were safely down the fall we paddled toward the takeout and I tried to do a couple of stern squirts. The banks of the river were still covered in frost as we climbed up... something I will have to get used to as the season draws to a close.
Aside from needing to adjust the seat forward a fraction, I couldn't be happier with the All-star. Hopefully something I can grow into :)
Fraser.
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