Paddling Buds Farewell

 Camp is torn down. Campers are gone. See you next year!

Kayak - West Fork of North River

We drove an hour and a half southwest from Eminence to twin Bridges so that we could paddle the West Fork of the North river. 11 of us made the trip at the top of this river is a little bit slow and we were averaging over 20 minutes per mile. Everything was going smoothly and then an interesting thing happened on the river, we were paddling past a gravel Island and a woman yelled out. Can you help me get down the river, our introduction to Mary. Apparently she was out on the river with her grandson and some other family members for his birthday. Most of the party stopped paddling after someone had foot injury and they walked back to the pin whereas Mary and her grandson continued down river surprised that a group would do this, but then even mooore surprised to find out her grandson had peddle on and left her behind. we were all shocked that a group would be doing this on the river and also shocked that the outfitter continues like many outfitters to put very inexperienced paddlers on a river that is not necessarily for beginners in any case paddle with her for about 6 miles in between all of us, we gave her some pointers, she improved tremendously. At one point when Sally and I were behind she did get stuck on a gravel bar and Sal and I were a little worried because it might be us that would have to rescue her as we were at the end she managed to get her boat turned and got  down the rocky section. Then further down the river we got to William calls Skullcrusher Falls which is really not that big. But to get over it, you do have to go either extreme right or extreme left because the middle is very rocky. All of our paddling buds got over it, but then Mary flipped on it fell in the river and all of her belongings floating down the river we were able to save everything - shoes, hat, paddle, and boat. She was visibly shook up hung onto Williams boat until someone threw her a boat cushion to hang onto. She was pulled over to the shore and then others paddle her boat up to her. It was at that point I think she realised she needed to get off the river, even though we had been suggesting this all along. The problem is there are not many outfitters along the river, but we finally found one and left her on shore to call either the original outfit or the other in her party. After we dropped off Mary are average speed per mile increased from 24 minutes per mile to 15 minutes per mile although our day was tremendously slow down, we all knew it was the right thing to help her out as there are so many new people kayaking down the river, and she got excellent instruction from 11 very good paddlers. In fact, she probably had the best paddling day out of anyone in her group. We ended up paddling almost 17 miles and didn’t get to the takeout until 5 o’clock. We all decided to go to dinner and met at the wet spot in Eminence. It was packed with people as the campers with horses had arrived in town. We sat outside with Our pub like food and our drinks and I was even surprised with some cupcakes for my birthday. I can’t think of a better way to spend the week before my 66th birthday. We were happy. It was our last night although sad to be leaving Our group as we all agreed it was an excellent group of people and excellent of paddling and we had an excellent leader, William. Now, if the word doesn’t get out about this great week, we’re hoping we can all get into the group next year

Kayak

 

Kayak

 

Kayak - Current River (Akers Ferry to Pulltite)

 We put in at Akers Ferry and went to Pulltite. It was a challenge getting everybody into shuttle vehicles but we got all 22 situated.  (The big talk this morning  - the raccoons were able to open Leta’s Subaru hatch and pulled out her cooler and ate most of her food. Karen heard them at 3:00 am and went out to shoo the dozen or so raccoons away. ) We got into the river at the same time that some families were entering and we just couldn’t pass them so we started off a bit slower. We finally decided to pass them as we were able and picked up some speed. On this trip, we saw the springs on the right side of the river and then the cave on the left. The cave is always so cool to see. We got to Pulltite and half of out group got out.  11 of us continued to paddle the extra 10 miles down to our campground. At one point we thought it might rain, but the sun came out and we finished with sunny skies. At the take-out, it was another logic puzzle getting kayaks loaded into trucks, but we did it!

Kayak - Current River

Today we put in at Cedars Grove and took out at Akers Ferry. There were 22 of us.  I love the rivers here. But, I also love getting back together with friends we’ve made over the past several years and the new friends we’ll gain this week. There were no mishaps.

Kayak - Current River

We arrived at Round Springs Campground Saturday night and set up camp in site 5. It is the 2nd electrical site away from the road. Martha from Paddling Buds joined us and we sat outside for awhile . We had a quick dinner of crackers, celery and peanut butter and carrots. At 8:30, we joined the rangers program and learned about fly fishing. It was very interesting as the ranger was obviously passionate about the sport. I had no idea that there were so many different flies/insects on the water and that fly fishermen made their flies to imitate the real ones. There are thousands of different kinds of flies and there are patterns for them.

Today we put in at the Eminence ball field and took out at Twin Rivers Campground. We paddled for a total of 7.8 miles in two hours of paddling. Altogether we were on the river for a little over three hours as we stopped for a lunch break along the way. We went with Martha and Karen from the paddling Buds group and had an excellent day.