I walked down to put in and checked the gauge and it read 3'4" which was a little higher than i felt comfortable since I just started boating again but I was super fired up and ready to go so I put on anyway. Getting busy was a ride and and so was Boulder Sluice but as i flew off the launch pad of Boulder Sluice i saw Hans upside down just to my left. I landed and my bow shot up and landed on his boat. He ended up pulling his skirt and swimming and swam the next sketchy ledge. I got his boat in an eddy right below the ledge and he self rescued right where I got his boat.
We kept on downstream through some more boogie water and made it to Island. Hans got out to scout and Rush Sturges and one of his friends were smashing down and stomped it. Ryan's friend ran it first out of the four of us then Ryan followed. They had a little close moment together in the bottom hole that was a little funny. Hans went next then me. He had a good line but i flipped in the bottom hole and ran the next little pour over upside down and rolled up laughing.
Smashing down some more fun named and un named drops we made our way to Wish Bone. Everyone had a good line other than Hans. He tried for the far left boof but got rejected by the diagonals and went right down the middle with the "oregon tuck" technique which is a sick falls to try to go super deep on. After missing a couple rolls he pulled his skirt and had his second swim. He got to the side drained his boat and prepared for the Gorge.
Ryan and his buddy Ran it first to set safety at the bottom of Horseshoe. Hans followed me through the Gorge and all went well until I caught a boil above Horseshoe which sent me left and I charged to catch the last eddy above the drop on the left. Hans was left to run it himself and had a good line. Me on the other hand had to climb out of my boat and use it to stand on to climb up the wall to hike back up. I slid back in and ran the drop then eddied out below with the rest of the crew.
The whole run I was pretty nervous and didn't think I was going to fire up spirit but as I was making the bend before it my adrenaline kicked in and i decided to give'er. Ryan ran it first and disappeared off the lip which looked to me like he was way to far right and when i looked at his friend and Hans they both dropped their boats and ran to the edge so I thought it was bad. After a few seconds they gave me the thumbs up. I blanked my mind except for what i needed to be thinking about which was the falls. As I approached I realized i was way to far left but had no time to do anything about it. I kept charging forward and took a huge boof stroke! I Ran it last weekend but this time i felt like I was falling forever! I landed, smacked my nose with my paddle, flipped, and rolled up as quick as i could cause for some reason I thought i was going into the right side of the falls. When i came up my contacts were blurred but I paddled forward as hard as I could and when they cleared I was paddling through the curtain on the left and struggled but made it out.
This video is from last weekend and is of me running Spirit Falls but I didn't post it so here it is now!
Me and Ryan were at the bottom of Chaos waiting for the other two to finish their portage and continue down river. They got in and we peeled out of the eddy. I told Hans about to Little White tradition of running a drop backwards and he looked super skeptical. We all lined up and hit it faced the wrong way and he saw it was all good and did it too. It's always funny seeing someone do it for their first time. We bombed through Master Blaster and the next couple dams and ledges leading tom the lake paddle out. The wind picked up as soon as we hit the lake but it felt good cause my stinky dry suite was a hot mess. No one had a beer for Hans so he could drink a booty beer so he will have to make up for it another time. In the end the run was amazing and I got to share my favorite river with an L-Dub virgin!
Sincerely, The Wonder Midget!
