7/23/06: Getting worked in Watertown
We woke up to a “bright, bright, sun-shiney day”. During our clean up from breakfast, one of the camp managers came and told us that we needed to move from our temporary home on the lake. Arrgggg! The night before, we were told that we could have site 126 for three nights, and we had no desire to move right then, given both the amount of moving done the week prior and the fact that we wanted to get out of the house and play. Upon going to check-in, however, everything worked to our favor and we drove to the Black River happily.
When we arrived at Hole Brothers, Barry asked around and found a group of people from a group called FLOW in Rochester that were running the section. We played at the park and play spot until they were ready, then followed Jum Dobbins and his crew downstream. The first and hardest rapid on the river, known as Knife Edge, was a tricky but fun set of ledges that we had to very carefully navigate around in order to avoid some nasty holes and a scary undercut rock.
The next rapid was after a dam we had to portage. Following rapid number two was a series of wavetrains, and sadly, we soon came upon the last rapid of the day. There were two main moves that we had to make, and as almost always, Barry had a great run. I followed his line - BIG mistake! I flipped in the first drop. Despite the fact that I zippily rolled up, I was unable to get far enough to the right to avoid the big hole, named Cruncher, at the bottom of the rapid. Quickly I tried to change directions and head to river left where there is a small path that would allow me to escape the same hole.
Much to my dismay, I ended up exactly where I did not want to be - right smack-dab in the middle of the hole. I can assure you that the hole is appropriately named, as I “got worked” really hard. All of the guys on the trip (including Barry) were very impressed with the fact that I didn’t pull my skirt and swim. I held on, got out of Cruncher, and slid into another hole. This hole, unlike Cruncher, allowed me to catch my breath, and two rolls later I was greeted with surround-sound applause and cheers from three rafts full of passengers and our entire trip of approximately ten kayakers. The entire way to the take-out, people were saying, “Man, I can’t believe you did that! I would have pulled my skirt right away,” or, “Way to go hanging in there!” Needless to say, Barry and I were feeling pretty good about our first run down the Black.
Later that evening, we met my mom and dad for dinner at Benny’s Steakhouse. While they usually have excellent pizza, which is the whole reason we went there rather than somewhere else, tonight left us disappointed. :( Perhaps next time the restaurant will be back to its usual standard of yumminess.