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