H2O PLAY IN CHARLOTTE

So this is the second time that Samantha and me have made it to the Ottawa, this time with the crew!! and no instruction just paddling.  The trip started out driving and more driving. We finally made it to Pulaski, NY between Syracuse and Watertown and crashed.  This was part of the plan and we were gonna hit up the Salmon River since it was releasing.  We stayed right on the river at Yankee Fly & Tackle Shop (http://www.fishthesalmonriver.com/).  They have apartments that you can rent by the night and the owner, Dawn who had us all cracking up is very boater friendly, “if you stay the night you can fish her hole!” don’t ask.  Anyway Dawn told us about the Firemen’s Days Carnival going on in town a couple blocks away.  This turned out to be a great source of entertainment and cheap beer a bad 80’s cover band only gets better the more you drink and nothing beats a really bad cover of Walk Like an Egyptian after going through 20+ beer coupons, great way to start off the trip.  The Salmon released at 750 cfs, a fun level, on the low side, but being SE boaters we’re used to bumping and grinding while playing.  There were 2 really good spots, one a nice fast wave just past the Yankee Fly & Tackle Shop and then Black’s Hole (I think) towards the end of the run.

We hit the road and got to Ottawa Sunday night.  We camped out at Wilderness Tours for the week, highly recommend the Paddlers Overnight deal they offer, makes life really easy so you can focus on boating and throwing down and fun.  I got in touch with James McBeath the WorldKayak mastermind and Ottawa local as he was gonna meet us for our first run on Monday.  Monday was a Main day.  James got us all through McCoys with only one minor swim/self rescue/no crying event (great job Samantha!!).  Babyface was in and kicking, offering up some great rides and big water surfing, exactly what we came to the Ottawa for.  After some surfing it was time to head to the Lorne and Garberator.  James (yes you are the man) scouted the rapid with Samantha and helped her rock the line, catching the eddy at Moby Dick.  Then it was Garb time.  The level was -2.5ish making getting onto Garb a bit of a challenge.  We got a couple of quickie rides but it was tough.  Being new to big swirly water Tink had some trouble rolling up behind Garb and decided it was time for a little fish counting time.  Thanks to Stephen Wright for grabbing his boat.  Unfortunately Tink ended up finding some rocks on the Ottawa (what’s up with that the Ottawa is suppose to be rock free??) that resulted in a visit to the hospital in Renfrew and 3 stitches on his knee.  Samantha decided to stay with Tink at the lunchspot and the rest of us lead by James boogied through Butchers Knife, the Normand’s and Coliseum without issue.  On a side note the Normand’s is a sick exploding wavetrain at this level, not hard but freaking fun as anything, crazy fast and unpredictable, right Ryan? Who got lunched into the wall by one such exploding wave on Monday, relax I got to fly also on Tuesday, but that will be in part II.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS