Dan Thomas, Andrew Bentley, Brian Pickett, Lou, and I had a fun run down the Noli gorge Saturday (11/17/07). The level was low of course, but higher than the last few times we ran it: +or- 380 cfs. The temp was cool, but the sun came out behind the clouds to greet us a few times during our run. A great day to be out on the river!
Dan led us down a new slide/drop line at Murphy’s ledge in the center, which was really fun and a lot safer than the normal right line at this level! This line is great to avoid beating the crap out of your boats below 700 cfs, but do not try this line if the level is above 700 cfs. You will be landing in a rather terminal hole! The line is right of the center rock of the drop. You want to line up with about a 45 degree left boat angle driving toward the center rock as you begin to make the drop. The slide drops down in front of the center rock with a little auto boof into the pool at the end. It is not a hard move at all; just make sure you get as close as you can to the center rock in the water when starting the drop.
Another highlight of the river trip was Dan showing us the little creek line around the right side of Maggie’s rock in the Souse Hole Rapid. That line was a lot of fun and it can be ran even at normal levels.
The coolest thing that happened on our trip was we were greeted by a family of 4 river otters between Twin Eddies and the campground. I have never seen an otter in the wild, so it was really cool experience to see four of them at the same time playing and being social with us as we paddled by them.
Overall the day was great in the gorge! Andrew and I had a dry hair day. Brian and Dan did some practice rolls to get their groove on before we left the put-in. Lou had one swim out of his Aire at the bottom of Rooster Tail, but we quickly recovered him and his boat and got him going again. Some rain is in the forecast for this week!
So pray hard for rain, so we can get some good boating in over the long weekend! I hope to see you on the river…
Wishing to you and yours a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
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