Wesley’s Wild World of Kayaking w/ the Jackson Action Wagon (J.A.W.)

This past Saturday (1-5-07) Dan, Shane, Dallas, Lou, and I hit the Noli Gorge for the coolest river trip ever - both literally and figuratively!  The river was at a much better level than the past summer and fall runs.  We estimated that it was running somewhere around a whooping 700-800 CFS.  The air temperature was somewhere in the high 30’s to low 40’s.  The skies were partly sunny when we put-in and it became overcast by the time we were halfway down the run.  So the weather was decent.

The water was an entirely different story!  Due to the snow melt-off and 4 nights of subfreezing temps before our trip, most of the eddies were a solid sheets of ice.  We realized this when we arrived at the put-in and we had to do some ice skating to get into the flow of the river.  The water temperature was in the mid 30’s.  Can you say extreme ice cream headache??

We knew this was going to be an interesting day on the river when we saw the put-in, but the action immediately started at the put-in.  Dan, Shane, and the others got in the river before I got down there; due to some outfitting adjustments that I was working on in the parking lot.  By the time I got to the icy pool of the put-in there was a nice pot hole of busted ice created from the others getting in their boats.  Now the only thing separating me from the flow of the river flow was a 6″ ledge of a solid sheet of ice about 50′ long.  There was no way that I could get enough speed from paddling in the short distance that I had to get me up on the elevated ice ledge and knew I did not want to put my feet in the water.  So I had to throw Dan my rope to be pulled into the river.  I can honestly say this was the first time that I had to be rescued to get into a river flow!

The quote of the day came from Shane after he had the cold hand of the river smack him in Last Chance Rapid.  He was in his new Pyranha Rev play boat instead of a creek boat for our artic run.  He quickly found out that the water was cold!!!  When he got to the bottom of the first rapid, he looked over at me and said BURN…  He meant this statement both literally and figuratively too!  He wished he had brought his Pyranha Burn and the cold temperature of the water burned.

Most of the run was spent dodging floating icebergs and large sheets of ice in the rapids.  It added a whole new feature to running the rapids.  It was quite challenging!  When we were not dodging the ice in the rapids, we found some fun grinding on the edge of the ice on the eddies.  It was like a terrain park!  It definitely made the flat water much more entertaining!     

The highlight of the trip occurred between Railroad Wall Rapid and Souse Hole.  The large pool of flat water between the rapids, that is normally a bore, had frozen solid.  There was no were to paddle through the pool.  We actually had to portage about a quarter of a mile to get back into some liquid!  This was also a first for me.   I thought I would never see the day that I would have to portage flat water!!  It was wild!

The run was great for all of us.  Shane and I both decided that it was one of the best trips we ever had down the gorge.  Dallas had a few flips from surfing and running Souse Hole, but all resulted in good combat rolls.  He confirmed that the water was cold and his red color of his face proved it.  I was thankful for a dry hair day!

Dan took a few photos that I will post up when he gets them to me, but until then… Stay safe and peace out!