I got to spend my Memorial Day on the river even though I was working. I was leading a trip down the C to G section on the South Fork American. I was leading a couple of new boaters who had never done that stretch before and it is always an interesting experience. You have to look at the water totally differently and try to put yourself in their booties (so to speak) and decide what’s the easiest line?, how much can they handle?, is that eddy really catchable?, how tiring is a short swim? It really helps your boating when you have to think things through instead of just running something you know won’t pose a problem for yourself.
It ended up being a great day - we stopped in an eddy and got one of the students rolling (though not quite a combat roll yet) and the other made huge leaps in river reading and run the longest, hardest rapid of the stretch with grace and confidence.
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