DAY 1 (No photos with this Trip report - didn't have camera, but it is still fairly entertaining)
So, with a busy season at Wet Planet Whitewater - teaching kayaking all summer and taking some
"Numptees" (we like to call them) down in rafts - coming to an end, I was tossing around a
couple of ideas:
Idea #1 Do I head to Newfoundland with friends to explore the whitewater there and
possibly get some first D's?
Idea #2 or, do I head home to Mankato, MN to visit family for a couple of weeks?
Well, as logistics for the Newfy trip got more complicated and having found a pretty cheap airline ticket
to Minneapolis, I chose option #2.
After spending a couple of weeks in Minnesota, I planned on flying right out of Minneapolis to Pittsburgh,
to present at the 2007 Whitewater symposium in McHenry, Maryland. So, knowing that, I packed up all my
boating essentials (minus the boat).
Emails and phone calls started to be exchanged, "Rivers are flooding near Duluth , let's go paddling."
So, to find myself in Minnesota with more water than we had here this spring, my paddling gear with me, and friends
to share this experience, I felt like I was the luckiest gal in the world!
It's kind of funny when I look back on my Minnesota trips. The first Minnesota trip was planned as a
"Creeking" trip, but ended up being more of a family visit (due to low water). The second Minnesota
trip was planned on being a "family" trip, but ended up being more of a "Creeking" bonanza! SWEET!
The trip started with the actual plans being confirmed and re-confirmed about 9:30 p.m. It was finally
decided that we would leave Minneapolis around 8:00 a.m. the next morning. Pete was bringing some extra
boats, so all was good! I met Pete at a Park 'n Ride just outside of St. Paul, while Kiffy got a
head start to meet John Alt at the Devil Track to await our arrival. After a 6-hour drive, we put on the
river at about 3:00 p.m. I was a little anxious, as I had a new boat and knew this would be a little bit
different style of creeking than I am normally used to. However, Pete kept telling me that I would just
be giggling the entire way down the run. . . and that I did!
I adjusted the boat slightly (borrowing a wavesport habitat), but knew that it was still really loose. I
am not one to really spend a lot of time on outfitting, which will be a lessoned learned a couple days from
now . . .Anyhow, with feeling loose - bulkhead, hip pads, knee braces - I headed down the river. The group-
John Alt, John Kiffmeyer, Peter Noren and I - went one by one down the continuous class II. As I was
concentrating on paddling downstream, John Alt floats past me with a smirk on his face and a little
laugh under his breath, "So, Peter's Drysuit (hee hee) is going to turn into a wetsuit. . . look!" As
he pointed at Peter who was floating past us, I noticed his drysuit zipper was open in the back.
We alerted Peter and both him and Kiffy pulled over into a micro eddy and fixed the problem.
The first mile or so had some shorter (at least shorter than what awaited us downstream) slides, banking
off of the corners here and there. What a ride! I knew the first "big" drop was "Triple Drop", which
consisted of the runnable top two and the "not-often-ran" waterfall ending it. So, knowing that I
didn't want to run the third drop made me a little anxious about the top two. But, after scouting and
watching Alt and Kiffy styling the drops, Peter and I made our way to our boats. The first drop was about
15 feet, riding the drop off of the right side into a pool. Next was a 20-foot falls that you rode
on the right side as well, catching an "auto-boof" which would land you in the eddy pool below. Here,
you get out and portage the third tier. I remember Peter saying that the first portage was the easy one,
but I found myself on the slippery, sharp, loose rock just standing there wondering which foot to step
next to avoid sliding down to my demise. As I stood there, like a mountain goat on the edge of a cliff,
I looked down at everyone looking up at me and felt kind of silly taking so long.
Once down, we got back into our boats and continued downstream with more slides, a couple of ledges and
then the drop called "Portage down the middle". Now, I am pretty sure that most people scout this drop
for their first time, but not wanting to hold the rest of the group up ('cuz the scout was kind of
difficult), I asked that they just tell me where to go. John Alt began, "Start left, head right,
boof left, but keep your bow pointed to the right wall. The first ledge you boof is diagonal, so if you
lined up straight on to the first boof, you're going to go over the second one sideways." (Or, it went
something like that) Kiffy jumped in, "Yeah, just keep your bow pointed to the right wall, but the right
wall downstream." Then Peter jumped in (using hand gestures)," Okay, here is the first ledge coming off
like this, into the second ledge that looks like this." But, these two ledges aren't separate drops, they
are the same drop." I interrupted, "Hold up guys, what!" With my head spinning, I said, "I'm so
confused right now. I love you guys, but these are the worst descriptions anyone has ever given me for a
drop. Let's just go!" So, I followed right on Alt's tail, came over the first lip, and realized to myself
that this was a very weird drop and I give them credit for explaining the drop as well as they did.
Anyhow, my line was great! "Thanks guys, after looking at the drop, your explanations made total sense!"
The next big ordeal was the portage around a shallow 40-footer. I didn't know exactly where the eddies
were to catch the portage (and all of the eddies were small), so every eddy that Alt caught,
my boat was in there as well. Finally, we eddied out on river right and watched Alt ferry across to
a smaller eddy on river left, which was our portage eddy. So, we one at a time ferried across. I
consider myself fairly strong and try to keep myself in shape to keep up with the "boys", but today was
not a high-energy day. The portage was up a very steep hillside. As I fought my way up the hill, I
was kicking myself for taking an "abs and butt" class the day prior. My thighs didn't have that burning
sensation that you usually get when you are putting a lot of demand on them, but they just didn't want
to even be picked up and moved. As we were getting closer to the top, Alt came back down to see if
Kiffy needed any help with his boat, "Nope, I got it", Kiffy said. Then Alt turned around and continued
walking with Kiffy. Right there I was thinking two things as I whimpered under my breath, "Alt, what about me!
And/or "Since Alt came to help Kiffy, Peter must be right behind him, heading down to help me." But, no one
came . . .I sat there on the hillside for a minute or so, wanting to give up, but then told myself, "Come on, you're
closer than when you started." And continued up the hill.
So, we scouted what we could of the big slide (which I forgot the name) at the end of the run. As we were
walking back to our boats, we saw Ryan Zimney standing around our boats looking at us, like a "super
hero", as we walked up the trail. What a surprise, he had paddled the upper section by himself and met us there.
So. We were all off . . . I was actually excited to run the slide. We got there and headed downstream.
The slide kept going and going. You basically just reacted to what chaos was going on. On one of the
sections of the slides, I remember hitting a curler off of the left wall and spun a 360 around, then
continuing downstream towards another curler coming off of the left wall. It was awesome and FAST! I
knew the excitement was all over when I saw Alt in a small eddy at the bottom. wow! That was
amazing . . . a smile stayed on my face the rest of the way down.
What a great day, but I was super exhausted. Got up at 5:00 a.m., drove 6 hours, paddled a fun creek, and
experienced an exhausting portage. All worth it . . .Thanks to John Alt, John Kiffmeyer and Peter Noren
for taking a gal down! Friends and paddling, mix like Red Bull and Vodka :)
Day Two coming soon!
~Heather~