Spring 2011. I climbed off an airplane at 6am and in a fit of sleep deprived bad judgement I surfed over to PDX kayaker to see if anyone was running anything. Pete was headed down Opal Creek, so I tagged along and a few hours later I was humping my boat down the trail to the mine. It was about this point that I realized that I was way more tired than I thought, just totally out of gas. We got to the put in with the river running at 2000cfs and I slid into the water, feeling entirely un-motivated. The next few miles were really nice, no adrenaline, no stoke, just quiet strokes and conservation of motion as I wound down the steep and always beautiful class 3-4 rapids. I felt really good about it, relaxed, skillful, in control.
Then we came to Big Ugly where all of the water pours over a jumble of F-you rocks and slams into a wall on river left. Things that go into that wall often come out broken. I personally know of a cracked helmet, a broken shoulder, and the bow ripped open. Bad news. It’s not a really hard line to hit, but it’s also kind of a dumb rapid to run. It’s just not that fun of a drop considering what can happen. Regardless, I always run it because I’m too lazy to carry the boat.
We got out to scout and it looked good to go, I liked how the water had filled in the rapid and thought I’d snag the center line. Stay right in the slot, little boof, then cruise straight down with a bit of drive to the right. I hopped back in the boat and Ray just happened to turn on his video camera, not even knowing I was coming. Usually before anything bad happens on the water I get a voice in my head that says “Don’t do this!” (which I usually ignore) but in this case everything felt A-ok and I paddled up to the edge with lazy strokes, lining up on the right side of the slot, crossed the threshold, started to pull a light boof….
…AND SLIPPED OFF THE BOOF FLAKE. I plunged to the left, the boat started to flip, I shot out a quick brace and MY PADDLE TIP CAUGHT IN A CRACK IN THE ROCKS, reflexively I hip snapped off of it and let go of the paddle. (which soon floated back up) The current shoved me into the wall which I pushed back on, and I found myself in the unenviable position of heading straight down the left side of Big Ugly without a paddle. I had one thought and one thought only in my mind, “I have to stay in control so when I hit the wall I can hit it with my boat and not my body”. I got in a few hand strokes, and then came the wall, I fell backwards away from it on purpose, laid out in a sort of greenland balance brace position. To my surprise the forces in the hole equalized and popped me back up. Then all I could hear was “PADDLE PADDLE PADDLE!” I looked down to see my paddle in the water next to me, I grabbed it and paddled to the side of the river, feeling pretty sheepish despite the cheers.
I won’t dare ascribe any skill to my fortunate outcome, rather, sometimes you just get lucky.
Thanks to my friend Linda for editing this down for me and adding the clever music.
