We met our friend Marshall at that the McDonalds on Windy Hill so the three of us could carpool. There was a rainbow of Dagger Nomads on top of our car — Tim and Marshall both have the big Nomads (yellow and red, respectively) and my short Nomad is green. Marshall brought his big boat because he wanted a calm run (minimal playing) after a late night at a friend’s birthday party. Tim wants time in his creek boat because he has his eyes on possibly running the Green later this fall. And of course I’m in my big boat because it’s my main boat.

So this time when we got to the river, I didn’t feel nervous. I was happy to be there. We ran into some more friends at the put in…Mark and Martina, McGee, and Natalie. Mark N. from Ellijay also arrived up as we were suiting up.

I picked up my boat and started the walk down to the 2nd put-in below Grumpies. This time I looked at that first rapid and thought the out-of-the-gate ferry looked doable. I’m going to run Grumpies pretty soon — probably in a late afternoon when there’s not so much raft traffic.

Each time I go to the Ocoee I try something new. This time I decided to run a new line at Broken Nose. I have been going far left to take the creeky slide. This time I asked Martina to show me the middle line — what most people call the sneak line. She showed me the big rock, that’s located kind of center right, where you cut left above the rock and then turn downstream to navigate through some bouncy water where you bypass the ledges in the main line (the main line is to the right).
The middle line was good to go

Now that I knew a fun new line at Broken Nose, I said I also wanted to take the main line at Slice and Dice! (usually I run straight down the left). So, Martina described the line to me and we headed on down.

In Slice and Dice there are several holes to navigate and on the main line you basically thread through the holes — starting on the left and first driving left to right between an upper and lower hole. Then reaching a relatively calm patch of water in the middle of the river before angling back toward river left to punch a final set of holes.

Granted there are plenty of routes that experienced boaters can take through the rapids, I’m just describing what many folks call the main line at Slice and Dice.

So the cool news is I had a great combat roll after the top pair of holes (I clipped the edge of the lower hole and flipped).

The other excitement was I scraped my jaw on a rock underwater. Aack! I didn’t commit to paddling through the lower holes and I flipped again at the hole where long boats sometimes play doing enders. Crap. I rushed my first roll, went back over in a not great position leaning toward my back deck, did not get tucked soon enough and scraped my right jaw on a rock. Ugh.

I admit, after bumping my jaw on the river bottom, my brain didn’t want to try another roll. Yep, I punched out and swam. I wish I’d held out to just set up to try another roll…since basically I’d reached the pool at that point…and I later learned Tim was right there to hand-of-god my boat and me. But I didn’t hang out. I bailed. The learning curve continues. Next time…

P.S. I came up smiling from the swim. No major carnage from the jaw scrape. Thankfully just a little rasberry mark that looks like road rash like you get if you fall off your bike.

P.P.S. While I was swimming to the eddy, somebody asked me if I hit something while I was underwater. I said, “Yeah, I hit a rock.” He said, “I thought so, I saw your boat bounce.” Glad to provide some entertainment for the folks in the eddies.

Oh! and one more thing about Flipper…

At Flipper Tim and I ran into Heidi who we originally met when we all lived in Ohio. Now Heidi also lives in the south. She was paddling with Ryan and Sarah. Tim was ahead of me in this rapid. He went down into the river left eddy below the drop at Flipper. I was in the eddy above the drop waiting my turn and making sure the way was clear of rafts.

Usually Tim will go first at Flipper and then use his paddle to point to where I want to line up for the boof. This time Tim didn’t point out the line. He figured I knew what I was doing here. That was cool!

I peeled out of the eddy, looked for my line at the ledge, and took a good stroke over the lip to drop down flat into the eddy. Sarah and Heidi
said my boof looked good. That was the nicest thing to hear right there because I used to be kind of freaked about Flipper.

For me, on the Ocoee, this means giving myself permission to paddle from my put in (river right eddy below Grumpies) down to Staging Eddy. And if I want to take out there, that’s perfectly okay. At least I’d get past my anxiety about even putting on the river.

All along I know this is a simple mental trick. I know I can paddle easily to Staging Eddy. And I know that by the time we get to Staging Eddy, I’ll be having fun. At that point I’ve already paddled through some good waves, caught some eddies, navigated a few small holes…and I’m starting to “feel” it.

Our habit at Staging Eddy is to hang out for a while practicing ferries, rolling in current, and I bounce into the bottom wave sideways a few times to try to catch myself off guard. From there, I tell myself I can take out at different points ahead if I feel like it…but with each trip I know it’s less likely that I’ll take off early. I haven’t yet this season!

Yesterday at Staging Eddy I had a little extra fun. I got too close to a shredder, paused in my paddling to open some distance between us, and found myself being side surfed in that little bottom wave until it flipped me. I rolled up and thought, “Hey, good to get some of that action out of the way early…remember to leave more space open around shredders and rafts!”

Highlights of yesterday’s fun on the Ocoee were:

1. Eddy hopping between Broken Nose and Slice and Dice — playing follow the leader with Tim.

2. Running the boof line at Double Suck for the first time (Clean! Thanks for suggesting that line, Jody! And thanks, Tim, for understanding about me not being ready to go that way until yesterday.)

3. Watching Tim help rescue a raft that was stuck in bottom hole at Double Suck. Small self-guided raft started with three people and three paddles….when we arrived, there was one person in the raft with no paddle…she was just bouncing and spinning there in place with no way out of the hole. The two other rafters were in the water also without their paddles in their own stages of rescue. To help the raft stuck in the hole, Tim paddled from the river right eddy to up near the hole, got out of his boat near a rock and threw his rope to the girl in the raft. She grabbed the rope. About that same time a guided raft came down and bumped her out of the hole. She held onto Tim’s rope and he swung her and her raft to the right bank. She had a bloody lip from where one of the other rafters hit her with his paddle’s t-grip. That whole raft crew took off the river there.

4. Leading through Hell’s Half Mile and catching eddies through that stretch. Eddying out above Double Trouble and peeling out to take my own line through the big waves (fun! - and OcoeePhotos.com FINALLY took pictures of me…good thing I waved like a maniac to the photographers before I headed through the rapid!…you’ll find me among private boaters 7.27.08, if you set the screen to one photo per page I’m pages 537-544 online through 8.10.08, I’m in a green Dagger creek boat wearing blue sweet helmet and light blue shorty).

5. catching LOTS of eddies between Double Trouble and Flipper.

6. Boofing at Flipper.

7. Clean run at Table Saw, eddying out on the left, and then ferrying out high to cross the big run out with a smooth, solid move over to river right - yay! I was really proud of that ferry ’cause I kept good speed and angle.

8. Trying a boof move below Gerbil Stuffer. Gerbil Stuffer is a surf place on the left between Diamond Splitter and the lead in to Western Flyer. There’s a big flat rock at Gerbil Stuffer, and just below it is the place where you can either boof over this little ledge (maybe 4 feet) or ferry above the ledge toward river right to head into Western Flyer. Tim and Jody kept good speed going for the boof. I didn’t…turned sideways at the lip and went over backwards…flipped… rolled…and laughed all the way through Western Flyer

9. Working on a ferry-attainment move at the bottom of Cats Pajamas. On the right, there is a final decent wave that you can drop down and carve into an eddy. From the eddy, you ferry out high to surf that same wave toward river left, across the main run out, to head for the river left eddy below the rock where squirt boaters do mystery moves. The left eddy is super boily and pulls you up to beside that mystery move rock. From there, you ferry out strong to attain back to the right, heading for an eddy ABOVE that final wave on river right. Tim and Jody both made the attainment eddy several times. I almost made it once, but didn’t commit and wound up back in the lower right eddy below that final wave. On my next tries, I just focused on good ferry form through the pushy water.

It was an awesome day!

P.S. My comfort zone through Broken Nose has been running the far left creek line (pics below). Next week I’m going for another line!

Then we stop at the Whitewater Center to use the indoor bathrooms and I still feel anxious.

Then when we pull into the parking lot - at the top of the middle section to unload our gear - and I feel like I don’t want to paddle at all. I tell Tim I don’t feel well or maybe I’ll just hang out for the day.

This has developed into a pattern since I started whitewater boating. From the first riffles I saw on the Big Darby in Ohio, I thought…ummm…maybe I’ll walk around this…

When I went to the Lower Yough for the first time I felt the same way. I walked off to the side of the parking lot by myself and had a little cry. Crying seemed appropriate at the Yough compared to just having butterflies at the Big Darby!

The first few times I ran the Ocoee this season, I was beyond crying…I felt like I was going to throw up.

The good thing about all of this is that Tim and I are getting a handle on this drill. When I say I don’t feel like putting on (this is when we’re pulling into the put-in parking lot), Tim says, “Do you really not feel well, or are you nervous? It’s okay to be nervous.”

I say, “I’m not scared, I just don’t want to paddle.” At this point Tim and I both know I’ll be fine as soon as I’m in my boat on the water. He tells me, “Why don’t you take Charley (our dog) for a little walk and I’ll get our gear together?”

So I take Charley for a walk. When I get back to the car, Tim has all of my gear unloaded and tucked in my boat waiting for me. He’s ready to run shuttle while I wait with our gear at the put in. Usually this is when we run into some friends and we all decide to paddle together. This is also where I start to relax because I’m committed now to actually getting in my boat. I know the car is gone – with Tim driving it to the take out - so I don’t have anywhere to put my boat and gear even if I wanted to back out of running the river.

I start telling myself all I have to do is paddle down to Staging Eddy - and if I want to take out there I can.

Yesterday at the put in we saw our friend Jody and her friend Bill. I am always happy to see Jody. She’s a really good boater and she and Tim have paddled harder stuff together a bunch this past winter and spring.

When I took a lesson on the Ocoee in May with Jeff West, Jody and Tim were hiding at the bottom of Table Saw to watch my run (they didn’t want me to see them in case it made me nervous to have an audience). That was my first time to run Table Saw and I was already nervous without knowing Tim was watching. I cleaned it, though, and when I got to the river left eddy at the bottom I asked Jeff if it would offend him if I cursed. He said, No, it wouldn’t…so I screamed, “Fuckin’ A!” and then, “My husband is going to be so proud of me!” That’s when Tim and Jody jumped up from behind their rock and cheered for me. That was awesome!

So, yesterday, it was really nice to get to paddle the whole river with Jody. And have such a good day on the river with Tim.

I love kayaking – even though I still feel a little freaked out at the put in.

Giving my Nomad some love after a clean run at Table Saw.

Watching for rafts.

All clear - time to peel out to head down through Diamond Splitter.

The first time I saw a wavehopper was two years ago at the Lower Yough in Pennsylvania watching the upstream race that was part of the Falls Race weekend. I stood on a big flat rock in the middle of Entrance rapid and watched these crazy paddlers in crazy looking long boats race down the rapid and then turn around and keep racing back to the put in. I was awestruck. Now every time I see someone out practicing in a wavehopper I think it’s just about the neatest thing I’ve seen on the river.

The clinic is less than a month away. I’ll be sure to post a follow-up.

I walked over and asked, “Hey, are you the Jackson Action Wagon that I saw on WorldKayak.com?” A very nice guy paused in strapping his boat to the car and answered, Yes, it was the action wagon. I said something, like: Cool, I’m Kayak4Ever. Then we both smiled, said “Nice to meet you - yeah, you too” and each went on our way. At the time, it seemed fine to exchange greetings through our kayaking blog identities. Later, I felt a teeny bit silly because I didn’t ask the fella his name and I didn’t even introduce myself with my real name.

No worries, though. When I checked my e-mail today, I saw a comment on my blog from someone named Wes. The note greeted me as Jennifer. Wes said it was nice to meet me at NOC yesterday. Right back at ya, Wes I hope this was the first of many more times I’ll get to meet WorldKayak people in real life on or around the river!

Jonathan has always loved water sports…surfing, canoeing, and last year he tried ocean paddling on a sit-on-top kayak. He’s never paddled a whitewater kayak, though. For an intro experience, we headed to a nearby lake so he could learn some strokes and get the feel of handling the boat. He did great! He used Tim’s creek boat without a spray skirt and did a fine job of paddling forward and backward. Jonathan said he thought the boat felt tippy for about the first half hour, but that went away as he relaxed his lower body and got the hang of taking strokes.

Jonathan was always the athletic one in our family. I was the bookworm who stayed inside to read and watch Elvis movies on TV. Now, as a 40-year-old grown up, I was extra happy to get to show off my sport for my big brother. The rolling really surprised him He shook his head like he was amazed and said it was crazy (good crazy) that I know how to do this.

I don’t know if Jonathan will ever want to take a kayak on moving water, but he said he had a good time playing at the lake. It meant a lot to me to get to share kayaking with him.

I had the camera set on “sunset” mode to catch the really cool clouds and moon (upper right corner) behind Jonathan and me. Yes, Jonathan is holding “rabbit ears” over my head!

When I got up this morning, though, I found that Dad was disoriented due to complications with some of the medication he takes. I also noticed he’d cut the top of his head at some point in the night. He had a little gash that needed to be cleaned and covered with a big band-aid. Turns out he was washing dishes during the night (part of being disoriented) and had collided with the corner of an open cabinet door. Dad didn’t realize the cut had been bleeding. At that point I realized I wasn’t going on a kayaking trip this weekend.

Since my husband and I had plans to meet up with other boaters…including two friends who are newer to kayaking…and we were going to be their safety boaters…we decided Tim should go on with the weekend plan. I would stay home to be with Dad. I was bummed. Tim was bummed.

So instead of enjoying a fun day on the river, I appreciated sitting outside with Dad and puttering around the house together. We talked about what we might eat today and had a series of nonsensical conversations about people and events that I knew weren’t actually related. I figure it’s fine for Dad to meander this way through topics - blending past with present - when the facts aren’t what really matters. Basically, he is telling stories and I am listening. In a few days, when we get his meds adjusted, Dad will be back to normal - thinking clearly and feeling fine to stay on his own for a weekend.

Since this blog is about adventures in kayaking when you are over 40, it occurred to me that an important part of the adventure is setting the right priorities in life. For me, this weekend, taking care of family trumped kayaking. I’m sure on other days, under other circumstances, I’ll decide to put kayaking first. I think living is a lot like running rapids. I just gotta look ahead, stay loose, and keep a blade in the water.

Chattooga Sec. 4 ELF Run
photo by Allen Hedden 6/24/2007 on Atlanta Whitewater Club trip

More pics of Sec. 4 are on the River Wiki if you want to check them out.

How crazy is it that as I’ve been writing this post about finding rivers in a drought a big thunderstorm came in pouring heavy rain in Atlanta? Maybe the river gods are at play

Something I really liked about tonight’s session was getting to meet Nancy. I saw her practicing her forward stroke near the beach and we struck up a conversation. She was paddling a borrowed red Dagger whitewater kayak — it was an older, longer model but definitely a whitewater boat. She said she is taking a whitewater class this Saturday, so she wanted to get comfortable in a boat that’s shorter than the 12 ft. rec boat she is used to. When I first saw her, she was paddling without a spray skirt. She said she was just getting used to the feel of the boat and wanted to do that before adding a skirt.

By the end of the night (when technically it was dark but we weren’t off the water quite yet), Nancy was practicing wet exits with some coaching from a few other boaters. Next time I looked near the beach, Nancy was standing at the waterline trying on a spray skirt for the first time — another boater had offered her one to try and Nancy was game to learn how to put it on. She was having a great time with all of it and we had a great time seeing her try these new things.

Oh, and did I mention Nancy said she is 64?
Right on, Nancy!