We staying the night our at Kris' place that gave us a great oportunity to check out the town and grab some dinner at the Trillium before crashing on Kris' floor.
Sunday we woke to find that our 9am meet time at BZ had changed to 11ish. When we met up the small crew had grown with the Corvallis crew of James, Ej, Meggie. Dave Gridley from Pdx, his little sidekick from Bend (sorry I forgot her name), Kris Litz from HR and Chris that's from the Couv. The level was 2.0, but far higher than the summer 2.0 that I had been on before. Every drop of water was coming from the top that made for some really amazing drops.
Well, maybe other than Bob's Falls were I popped my cherry and joined the "Truss Swimteam". We all ran the far left that's normally the sneak line at lower flows. At todays flow it was drive from the eddie on river right to far left with a left boof. All went as planned till my bow caught some of the swirly water near the lip and instead of having a 20-30 degree left angle I dropped in straight about 6-10 inches right of the happy area. The result was getting tractor beamed back in the hole, flipping, hitting a roll, tossed back over, trowing a few enders and then getting pushed deep. After hanging a few and not going anywhere I opted for the swim of shame. Bob just isn't one of those drops that gives ya a hug and says good by. Nope.
Me, my boat and paddle were in there. I started out on the left side of the hole and by my swim. I was swimming out of the right side it. I aswam as hard as I could to get out and was nearly clear when according to Devin and others a boil exploded in front of me and got reeled back into the beast.
Now at the beginning we had safety on both sides, Chris and James Bagley on the left. James was below the drop on a shelf and Gridly was river right. When it came my turn it was only James below and Gridley was getting back into his boat as I was. Not my ideal situation, so I knew I didn't want to miss my line. Oops! With Gridley seeing my beatdown e was back out of his boat coming back over to help but the first hope that got thrown and I luckily heard it was coming during a cycle I felt for it as I headed back down. Great, I've got a anchor to shore. Hold on for a few and it'll all be over soon enough. The only setback was the rope thrown was from James on river left parallel to the hole and I was on the other side of the hole. OK, hold on, relax and I'll feel myself getting pulled over. I'm not sure how much James was able to pull but the line seemed to just be tight and I wasn't moving. Wanting a change of scenery, I started pulling hand after hand on the rope that was gonna either getting me closer to breathing again or I'd lose grip and my lifeline. The second never crossed my mind probably due to how hard I was gripping the rose.
James was able to provide enough of a anchor for me to pull myself through the hole and to safety in the eddie. My boat finally came out, ran the next ledge and was rescued. My paddle was fished out in the eddie on river right at Bob's. I was soon back in my boat and very humbled and happy to be with great company.
Random shots taken Sunday morning prior to the run
