Most of us are familiar with the Truss section of the White Salmon, but this was not any ordinary day on the Truss . . . so, I thought I'd share with you how the events unfolded:
It was a group of six - Tao, Mike, Alex, Barney, Nate and myself for a journey down the Truss at 3.5 ft. Now, at this level, the rapids are big, pushy and you need to be ahead of your game. After the first couple of rapids, Tao eddied out. "Heather, come here!" he yelled with excitement, "You gonna run BZ today?" "No way, it's nasty at this level," I responded. With a big smile on his face, Tao responded back, "Come on, it's about time you run BZ." After pondering this for a moment, I pulled out of the eddie and yelled out in front of the entire group, "Okay, okay, I'll run BZ if I don't have a swim before we get there!" Knowing that I had yet to encounter Bob's hole, Double Drop, Zig Zags and Sticky Hole, all of which have been known to tease kayakers just long enough for them to say,"Screw it, I'm pulling my skirt!" I figured the odds of me having to run BZ were pretty low.
We approached Bob's hole and with perfectly timed boofs, we all made in through no problem. Taking little time to contemplate Double Drop, I charged over the top drop with a boof stroke and went end over end through the second drop - "woohoo, came out great!" We all rallied Zig Zags, we were all through upper and lower quicker than a blink of an eye. Sticky hole wasn't an issue after charging our way through Zig Zags! As I continued down river I realized I was through the "tough" stuff, I thought to myself, "Dammit, I made it!" The thought of pulling my skirt as I floated through some flat water and making myself swim, entered my mind . . . but, no! I was feeling strong mentally and physically, so "Bring it on!"
We eddied out right above BZ. I walked to the lip of the drop as Tao ran first. Watching his line with precision, I felt pretty confident I could match his line. After losing a game of paper, rock, scissors with Mike Long, I was the next to go. My line was perfect, I hit every splashing wave I planned on hitting, rode the tongue down, leaned forward and oops, this is where the excitement begins . . . as I said before, as I leaned forward and plugged the drop (as I had hoped to), my paddle was in the wrong place at just the wrong time. As I hit the hole, my paddle slammed forcefully against my face (just below the nose, but above the teeth). Feeling the force of my paddle against my face, I thought to myself as I was upside down, "Teeth check, okay still attached, now roll up and get the hell out of here!"
After rolling up, I paddled quickly over to Tao as he waited for me in the eddy below. "Tao, I shouted with fright, I hit my mouth!" I pulled into the eddy, Tao looked at me, "Where did you hit again?" I can't really tell.!" His soothing voice and his normal, everyday facial expressions assured me that everything must be fine, "Hmmm, I thought, maybe my lip isn't as big as it feels!" So, I paddled across the river into the other eddy to watch Mike Long run BZ. Only seconds later, I started feeling around at my lip again and looked down towards my nose. "Holy shit!" My top lip sticks out farther then my nose!" Now, how many of you can look straight down and see your lip? So, with a bit of panic, I quickly paddled back over to Tao. "Tao, I said, something has seriously got to be wrong!" "I can see my lip protruding and when I reach my tongue out to try and touch my top lip, I can't even reach it!" I feel like a freak!" Once again Tao looks at me, "Okay, I guess it's a little swollen!"
Finally, we rallied downstream to get to the car. As I started to take my gear off, Nate came walking up the stairs at the take-out (yet to have seen his beautiful wife). I quickly turned to him and shouted, "I look like a freak don't I?" Nate immediately and without hesitating yelled, "Holy Shit Girl, what did you do?" Now,this is definately NOT what you want to hear, especially a women when it involves her face! Obviously, Nate and Tao have had different experiences with injuries on the river. Tao remained calm, hoping not to alarm me, and Nate gave the normal reaction! (Nate apologized for his reaction on our way home, he felt really bad)
I had yet to look at my injury! Once we got home, I figured I might as well have a look. "Holy Crap is right!" To say the least, I actually gave MYSELF the nickname "Monkey Girl", and I stayed out of the public eye for a couple of days.
The next morning, I woke up to my face looking like some sort of cheap botox injection gone bad.
All I wanted were the pictures of my injury to be deleted (not flattering at all), but then I got to thinking, " How could you enjoy the humor with me if you didn't get the visuals as well. . . that was half of the humor!
I thought this whole event was quite commical. It could have been worse. . .is how I look at it.
All of our experiences on the river can teach us something - what to do and/or not to do! Whether it be a huge hole or a
vertical drop, always keep in mind the placement of your paddle.
I do what I love and I love what I do!
Hope this entertained you as much as it did me!! I know I gave Nate and Tao something to laugh about whenever I called
myself "monkey girl!"
Happy Paddling ~Heather Herbeck~