Actually...that's a good question...Some friends and i went down (with a guide...to keep us away from the class 4 stuff) the crap i can't remember the names...2 rivers in north central and eastern Wisconsin...maybe it'll come to me later...I have a pen with one of the rivers name on it...
Ahhh the Wolf river was one...i can't remember the other name, it had an indian name i think. Anyway, yea we did that first river you see in the picture, and the rapids were insane, i hadn't ever done anything like that before. We did it in the middle of Fall, and the water was up, omg cold. Anyway, that first drop was about 6ft or so, but it was in to a deep pool, so i didn't have any trouble with it, just had to stop at the next rock and dump the water heh. I credit myself to only flipping about 3x or so lol. Before that day, i had only flipped a couple of times. Once on the Chattahochie (man i can't spell) in GA, which at worst is a class 3, most of the time it's got 1 class 2 (horseshoe...) and the rest is easy (i flipped while standing up in the canoe...imagine that lol), and the natahala in south carolina or was it Tenn...anyway, at near flood stage. That was awesome...We were stopping every half mile or so to dump water. It was really funny, the 3 of us all flipped in the first 50 yards. There is a spot where the river comes to one skinny passage, and the water was up so high, that i knifed in to the second wave (when i shoulda turned sideways...meh) and literally sank. I lost my helmet on that run...like an idiot i had it in the boat but not tied down...who takes off without tieing down all the equipment? Honestly! meh. We were told it would take us 5hrs or so to make the run, it took i think an hour and a half. I even ran the fall at the end, that was a trip! (the first fall after the take-out, not the second lol, the second would have ripped me up bad).
Edit: Oops, i forgot to answer your question... The second river we went down in Wisconsin, i actually cracked the front deck plate, and have been wary of running any major rivers since. I haven't been ww canoeing since, honestly, and that's been two years. I have an ache to get back though...Especially now, that i've been cooped up for the last 3 months. Wisconsin: The guys that a buddy and i went with (the guide especially...), was nuts, seriously nuts. Background info: The first river started on an Indian Reservation (cost me like $120 all told...it sucks being white sometimes...), and the guide knew all the guys there, and knew about a party that was going on that night. What he didn't tell us, was that the 'party' was for an indian who had died diving in to shallow water on the river earlier that Fall. Well, so we went after canoeing, and i swear, when we walked in, everybody just turned and looked at us (i'd almost swear the music stopped too...but that might just be in my head...), i've never had such a urge to bolt in my life. But one of the ladies came up and our guide hugged her, and suddenly people stopped looking (the music started again...heh) and we began drinking. After our 2rd pitcher of beer (between 2 of us...the other guys were ordering their own beer), i decided i was well spent...And a buddy and i went back to the place we had rented out. Anyway, those other three guys, two of which happen to drink like fish, came back and wanted to know if we wanted to go crash a wedding reception they got invited to after we left...I turned that down (being a pussy and all...and wanting to keep my scalp...). They got back about 5am, completely smashed, the van was parked over the cement parking thing, and you could see where they drove up the wrong side through the yard to park there. So at 9am, we were on the next river, with our guide hung over, but still going lol. Anyway, we got to the last major rapid on that river, it didn't look to bad, which was called hammerhead falls or something or other, and i found out why it was called that... I took on a bit of water, and when i got to the bottom, there it was, calling to me...nothing i could do could steer that stupid canoe from its course, it knocked the wind out of me when i hit it...And so now i have a few good stories, and a cracked deck plate. /criesInToBeer
Sorry folks.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram