Jenny Right-Side
Paddling in the Ottawa Valley and all over the world!
Breaking a Paddle on Buseater
So what do you do?
Hang on, roll up, paddle like a c1′er on crack to get back into the eddy.
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back
Kipawa Fest Cancelled. So I paddled it anyway.
River: Kipawa
The dam at Laniel, Quebec with one gate open
The run was fun anyway, the lines had turned into shallow creeky lines, and I wished I had brought my creekboat instead of the river runner. The company was great and the weather beautiful! I don’t remember each of the rapids, but we ran a few rapids before a LONG stretch of flatwater that ran alongside the highway. I paddled through the reeds, which was a fun way to pass the time! I think the others thought I was a little strange though! We did some flatwater playing along the way, and then came up to the rest of the rapids. We ran some narrow chutes and some technical creeky stuff. We were coming up on Grand Chute, which I was told to take out on the right. ‘Oh we’re going to scout it’ I thought. WRONG! I had no idea that this river was going to take a huge turn in gradient. Grand Chute was a 90 foot drop that [apparently] had only been run once in secrecy. It was enormous! There was a portage trail and observation deck to check out the monster of a channel.
Discussing possible lines through Grand Chute
The last drop - look at the paddlers middle-right to get an idea of the size
Photo: Me!
The last rapid was called ‘Hollywood’ and consisted of a 5 foot ledge, followed by a 3 foot ledge, with (at this level) a 50-80 foot long manky rock garden at the bottom. This was where the Kipawa River flowed into Lac Temiskaming after a 16 km run from Lac Kipawa.
We got out to scout the top ledge of this rapid. Apparently at higher water it’s one that doesn’t get run often as the first ledge turns into a deathly pourover. At this level, those in creekboats were feeling brave and decided to run it. I got out at the top and discovered the hard way that the rocks were not only smooth, but slick and slippery as well (as the river had just dropped 5 feet since that morning) from being underwater earlier that day. This is where my problems began. I slipped on a rock while carrying my boat, and my foot slid in between two rocks that wrenched my big toe backwards. I honestly thought I had broken my toe. I fell down on the rocks with my kayak still on my shoulder. The pain was excrutiating! After I pulled myself up, I realized that I not only yanked my toe back (which screamed with pain at every step), but I beat up my legs, and gave myself a goose-egg on my arm from the cockpit rim of my kayak which made me almost puke when I saw it! After taking photos of people running the ledges (which I would have run if I had my creekboat), I decided I was not walking on those slippery rocks anymore, put my boat in below the 5 foot drop with a dead rat in the eddy and ran the sneak line down and through the rest of Hollywood. I was told it was just dodging a rock garden, so off I went. Sure enough, there was a hole halfway down called Davey Jones Locker, and who should drop right into the hole and get beat down? Yep Jenny Right-Side. I was still in a lot of pain from the on-shore beatdown, and wasn’t 100%. I surfed it a bit, flipped and finally flushed, running the rest of the SHALLOW rapid upside down, scraping my knuckles and banging my head on the rocks. What a way to end the day!
Other than that, the day was great, the river was awesome (I want to go back and run it when the level’s higher), and the company couldn’t be beat! A lightning storm ended the run, and I headed back home, having to stop for an hour near Deep River to take a nap I was so beat!
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back
The Story of Iron Ring
River: Ottawa (middle channel)
Level: 7 1/4
Paddlers: Me, Rick, Laura
We had a great day on the middle channel today, playing at 7/8 Hole and Left-Side before heading down.
For those of you who don’t know the story of Iron Ring, the rapid is fine at lower water levels. Above about 6 on the gauge, people avoid it and take a channel to the right called “Little Trickle”. This is mainly because of the ‘Room of Doom’. On the river right side, at the bottom of the drop is a triangular notch in the rock, big enough for 1 or two kayaks. The water simply pushes in and recirculates there. Once you’re in, you can’t get out. The bottom of the drop is pretty much a river-wide hole and if you hit it and flip, the water pushes you either into the Room of Doom, or slams you against the rock wall on the river left side. We got out to check it out along with about 10 others from another group.
The only line I could see was to get up on the curler along the right and ride it through the foam pile. Getting onto the curler seemed like a feat in itself, but if you rode alongside the curler without flipping you would likely make it through as well. We watched two guys run it, both flipping, but avoiding the Room of Doom. Rick and Laura convinced me that I could run it, and would set safety for me just incase. I was the third and last of the approximately 15 people on the shore. The rest either walked around or took ‘Little Trickle’ down.
Thank goodness my line worked! As I was coming up to the drop, I couldn’t see the lines, but I saw Rick pointing right, so I changed my angle, and ended up right where I wanted to be. I made it through upright, got caught up in the boils below a bit, but stayed up the whole way. My line was bomber! This was my first time ever running Iron Ring at high-water. In fact, it was my first time even looking at and contemplating running Iron Ring at higher water.
Here is the video. You can’t see the dangers in the video, so it seems a little anti-climactic, however, if you have ever seen this rapid at high water and the dangers, then you will appreciate why I feel pretty proud about making it through alive!
Video graciously provided by Grahame H.
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back
Summer of Discontent
Only because I didn’t get out in my kayak as much as I would have liked to.
I will update with a couple of trips (including one to the Seven Sisters on the Rouge), as soon as I get photos from friends, since my computer hard drive crashed so bad I lost every photo of my kayaking. 
Yesterday, I took my friend Jaron down to the river in a borrowed boat, determined to teach him to roll. He was doing awesome and his first roll attempt he was all the way up, but lifted his head first and ended up falling back over.
I took him down the Middle Channel at -2 on the gauge and he had a blast! We managed to get him down the whole river, only swimming once, having never been in a kayak before! He was even able to punch the hole at the bottom of Butterfly and the hole at the bottom of the Garvin’s Waves with ease!! I was so proud!
On Wednesday I am heading down to West ‘By God’ Virginia for 2+ weeks of kayaking, chillaxin’, camping, hiking and maybe some disc gold. Look for my next posts live from Cathedral Cafe in Fayetteville, WV!
SYOTR!
Jen
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back
Lower Gauley
River: Lower Gauley
Level: 2800 cfs
Paddlers: Me, Rich, Paul, Amy, John
Date: 24 Sep 07
Jeremy and others were running the Upper Gauley Animal Race, so we decided to run the Lower Gauly. Paul had run it once and the rest had never run it at all, so I was kind of appointed as the trip leader. I had never lead anyone down a river before.
After it taking me a while to remember the put-in, we finally got shuttle set up. Rich Paul and John were off to the take-out while we gathered gear. The hike down to the put in of the Lower Gauley is a bit of a steep go, with some rickety stairs. Luckily, one of the rafting companies busses was there and the driver offered Amy and I a ride down with all the boats. This was going to be fun! The guys would come back and think that Amy and I carried all the boats down for them! We through all the boats into the school bus and headed down to the river. When the guys came down they were psyched to see they didn’t have to carry their boats. Rich was thanking me for carrying his boat and I made a point of complaining how heavy it was!
We headed on down the river. There were only 2 rapids that I thought Amy should look at, the first one was Kuntz’s Flume at the beginning of the run, and the other was the last rapid of the day, Pure Screaming Hell. Yes, the one I knocked myself out on 2 years ago and had to be helivaced out. We looked at Kuntz’s and I showed the danger on the right. We headed down, played for a while on the assortment of waves, and then kept going.
I told Amy about Mash, how there’s a huge standing wave that you don’t see until the last minute and it will crash you. I couldn’t remember when Mash was coming up though, and when I saw it, it was too late to tell her. She went down, right into the face of the wave and got powerflipped! Awesome roll though, she was back up in a second like a pro!
Paul led us down a few little boofs and cracks. One that we did, Rich followed, and then me. I went over on a bad angle and got tooled for a few seconds in the pourover. My buddy Rich loves to see me get beat down and couldn’t stop pointing and laughing at me. Thanks a lot Rich!
The river is fun for all levels. When we got to Pure Screaming Hell, I wanted to get out and look at it. I was nervous. I had never actually seen the whole rapid, all other times we simply ran it blind. I expressed the importance of knowing where the dangers were on this rapid, and John and I took a close look, picking out our markers. The tricky part about this rapid, is it’s really not a big deal! It’s a class III rapid, but has class IV-V consequences. A ledge hydraulic on the left called Purgatory, and a huge munchy hole on the right called Hell Hole. There is also a huge rock sieve on the right side. I went second and followed my markers through. It was a piece of cake!
When we got to the take-out, I was relieved. It’s about a 2 mile flatwater paddle after PSH to the take-out. Lucky for us, our cars weren’t at the take-out but at another parking lot a mile downstream!
On the way back to the put-in, I found out that Amy couldn’t tell a lie to Paul and had told him the truth about bringing the boats down the hill in a raft bus. Rich didn’t think I was so cool anymore when he found out!
It was a great day on the river for all of us.
Back up at the Animal Race, Jeremy finished 2nd place in the Speeder class (11 seconds behind teammate Jared Seiler) and 5th place overall.
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back
Park n’ Huck @ Valley Falls
Level: low
Paddlers: Me, Rich
Date: 26 Sep 07
On our way from the Gauley to the Yough, Rich and I stopped at Valley Falls to park n’ huck a couple of small waterfalls.
Nothing exciting, but apparently I have discovered something quite disturbing. I noticed it first when I ran the Seven Sisters section of the Rouge River in Quebec. When I boof or go over a waterfall, I get an utterly horrible terrified-type look on my face. I don’t know why it happens, I’ve even tried smiling over the drop, but as soon as I focus on trying to boof, the smile turns into a grimace/about to get killed kind of look.
Luckily a few of the photos that Rich took, you can’t see my face, but can still tell it’s me.
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back
Disneyworld of Kayaking
Pikey hanging on for dear life
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the ASCI Course is 1700 feet long and drops 24 feet
- the course has 6 waveshapers that are able to change the character of the features at each location (these waveshapers form wave and hole features
- the rocks dug out of the mountain-top to form the whitewater course were then reintegrated into the course to form the artificial river and provide a natural river-like setting
- there are squirt seams for serious downtime
- the course was designed by folks from McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group and received active input from the likes of Jimmy Blakeney and Risa Shimoda
The eddies in the course were super swirly and the flow in some places felt rather unnatural. This seemed to be due to the flat concrete riverbed. On a natural river, the eddies have rocks and plants in them to slow the recirculating flow. There are no such “speed bumps” on the ASCI Course.
Once at the bottom pool of the course, you paddle up to a conveyor belt, which takes you back up to the top pool for a restart of the course. There was no sign, but apparently 30 foot spacing between boats on the conveyor belt is required or a dude at the top stats hollering at you. Rich and I sitting side-by-side on the belt and throwing punches at each other just wasn’t cool…
The course can release two pumps for a class II-III experience, 3 pumps for a class III experience, and 4 pumps for a class IV experience.
The waveshapers could also make any surf feature more or less difficult.
This was a pretty exciting spot, fun rapids, lots of friends, no take-out hikes, and super surf features. It was like spending the day at Canada’s Wonderland in your kayak!
Ha Ha Raft Carnage, even on a concrete river
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back
Steppin’ it up on the Upper Yough
River: Upper Yough
Level: 2.1
Paddlers: Me, Rich, Matt, Jeff, Carl,
Date: 28 Sep 07
I have had my eyes on the Upper Yough for a while now, but not sure if I was ready for it. The majority of my experience has been with big water like the Ottawa River, and the Yough is steep, continuous, rocky class IVish.
Normally I only would have trusted Jeremy to lead me down the river, but unfortunately today was the beginning of the US Nationals, including the Squirt Competition (which saw Jeremy as the 2007 US National Squirt Champion). I was getting desperate, and knew that while I was here would be the only change I’d have to paddle the Yough. I posted on the Monocacy Canoe CLub board, and with the help of Rick Roberts, who assured anyone willing to take me down that I was cuter than a spotted puppy under a red wagon, I ended up receiving an email from Jeff, whose group was willing to take a beginner down and show her the lines.
Rich wasn’t sure if he would be able to paddle with a bum shoulder, but after an ‘EJ Cocktail’ decided that he would be fine.
We ran shuttle and put on. The one thing I really liked about the YOugh was that it started off slow and then began to pick up pace. I was able to get a good warmup before the steeper drops. Once they started however, it was full-speed ahead until the river tapered out again at the bottom of the mountain. Few sections of flatwater between drops, and do-or-die technical lines. OK, so maybe it wasn’t do-or-die, but there were a couple sketchy spots on the river.
I barely remember any of the rapid names or the lines, and have no photos as the river was non-stop, hardly scoutable, but I was definately ready for it, and it was definately a step up for me. I’m glad I was able to get on it, and that I made it down without any major mishaps!
Now I’m back at the ASCI Whitewater Course at the WISP Resort in Deep Creek, MD getting ready to volunteer at US Nationals tomorrow.
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back
US National Championships
Jared Seiler (Pyranha) is very easy to photograph…
Jeremy Laucks (Pyranha) goin’ big
I helped Kristine all day with scoring and tallying. During the finals rides I got to sit up at the front, take the scores from the 5 judges, knock off the highest and lowest, then relay the middle three to Kristine. At the end of each round, the competitor order was reset according to score (highest scoring paddler going last). Once they figured out the system it seemed to work well.
The scribes I sat with were US Army Veterans who had gotten involved in the Team River Runners. Part of their rehab was provided by kayakers who volunteer their weekends to teach vets how to kayak. These guys had lost limbs in Iraq. I was honoured just to be sitting next to them and scoring with them. If you live in this area and can help in any way, look into this: http://www.teamriverrunner.org/welcome.php
Seth Chapelle (Fluid) looping his C1
Today is also the day I became an official Regional Team Paddler for Jackson Kayak. Look for my bio and cool write-ups on their website soon!
SYOTR
Jen
Dane Jackson making the grown C1ers cry…
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back
Playboating the Upper Gauley
The Upper Gauley is unlike any river I have ever kayaked on. It is big, fast, pushy and steep. Most of the major rapids have specific make-or-break lines.
I paddled the Upper last year twice, both times scared to death all the way down.
This year, I paddled the Upper 4 times in a Pyranha Ammo, and decided today to give it a try in my playboat. Playboating the Upper Gauley would definately be a step up for me. Jeremy also decided that I was going to remember the lines and lead through every rapid. The lines don’t change in a playboat, but you have to muscle your way through each rapid a bit more than in a creekboat or river runner.
I also brought my brand new camera with me on this run and got some playboating shots. At Hungry Mother, I pulled a pretty big loop, but Jeremy was helping someone with their backband and didn’t get it on film. I’ll have to go back and do it again on Friday.
Original post by Jenny and software by Elliott Back