A very cool pic - if I get at least one of these each time out I'm stoked
So an old friend of mine that I hadn't seen for a couple years was in town, and he wanted to go riverboarding. Being that we're both very spur of the moment, I met him out by the river the night before he had to catch his plane back home, with the plan being to hit the river first thing in the morning.
Riverboarding by morning light
Mike had never riverboarded before, although he had spent some time on an inner tube with me many years ago in the Clark Fork river (near Missoula, Montana) during a rafting trip. Ironically, it was the same trip where a kayaker alerted me to the existence of riverboards for the first time. Anyway.
I haven't laughed so much on a riverboarding trip in a while (or seen a newbie do so), and I heard later from a third party that he had described it as "the time of [his] life", so that's a good thing!
And that despite the following:
swimming through a rapid with the board upside down and sideways
boarding through a decent sized drop, er, make that swimming through a decent sized drop. Sans riverboard. BACKWARDS.
Uh oh...
Well, I guess that's a good sign!
and going airborne off the largest rock in the middle of a rapid I've seen anybody actually TRY to hit!
Not "the" rock, but a cool pic. And it's kind of like what happened. Sort of. Ok, not really at all. But he's riverboarding. And there's a rock down there somewhere. Ok, I'll leave it alone already.
He obviously survived, this pic is just after doing an endo off the rock, still in the middle of Toilet Bowl. I've run this rapid many times (Class IV at higher flows), but it's a little more difficult to do backwards, holding on with one hand and snapping pictures with the other. That pic is worth it though!
Warning! Non-sequitur ahead!
So we got up to the river the night before (we're both REALLY random, so I thought I'd take a little detour for ya here in honor of blondes and A.D.D.) and the forested campground was pitch black, I mean REALLY dark.
And because I'm always super prepared, I did not have the following required camping items in my vehicle: a flashlight, some firewood, and an AK-47.
I did, however, have the following non-required camping items in my vehicle: 2 footballs, 6 flourescent orange training cones, and 1 bottle of ultra-bronzer hemp tanning lotion (retail price: $85).
Despite the fact that footballs are already tan, plus the fact that excited campers through the course of the summer had apparently been using a Dirt Devil on the forest floor, AND the fact that my car battery was fading quicker than Donovan McNabb in the 4th quarter of a playoff game, well, despite all that we were actually able to scour up some wood by the pathetic glow of our cell phones.
"Wood." Ha! Yeah right.
We had to burn my tent poles, but Mike got a fire started. That feat in and of itself deserves a medal.
I don't have any medals, but will a picture on my blog be sufficient reward?
And we now return you to regularly scheduled programs in progress. More riverboarding photos for you to peruse and luxuriate in. I'm going shopping for a new tent.
Excited first timer approaching a hole
Just chillin' through the slow stuff in the morning sunshine
Mike's first big rapid, Carter Falls
FaceLevel.com's new poster boy?
A happy new riverboarder at the end of the run
Since we'd only taken one car out to the river, we'd gambled on being able to hitch a ride back up to my car at the put-in. It was a gamble that ended up reminding me of a simple life lesson.
During the weekend there are many boaters out there, and it's easy to catch a ride in the back of a fisherman's truck or with a kayaker - it's only about 4 miles. But on a Tuesday morning, well...not so easy.
Apparently commercial raft companies have "rules" about giving other whitewater people rides. Rules that don't invoke thoughts of good karma. They said no. Repeatedly.
As did the guy in the taxpayer funded van, burning taxpayer funded fuel while he filled out his taxpayer funded paperwork 27 feet away from us taxpayers. Plus about threescore other cars that whizzed on by without so much as throwing a banana peel in our direction.
After a while I just decided, "Screw it. Walking is faster than sitting." (Yes, you've just had a glimpse into the mind of a blonde.)
So I took off in the direction of my car, still tightly clad in my suspender-John wetsuit, sloshing in the lukewarm water that filled my boots. Mike stayed behind with his thumb out, a gesture that worked in our favor. (Maybe that was the problem - was I using the wrong finger? D'oh!)
About a quarter mile past where I'd started from, a couple guys in a pickup truck rolled up and stopped in the middle of the road, motioning me to hop in back. I started across the road and then changed my mind, considering a fully-loaded logging truck was bearing down on me from the other direction. Not a good time to ponder the chicken question.
Anyway, long, drawn out descriptions aside, I got a ride with some decent fellows and Mike made it to his plane.
But the point was this - waiting for the conditions to be right is not only stupid, sometimes it's not feasible. It was Tuesday morning! But moving in the direction of the goal, well, you do that and good things happen. And a little teamwork can be a huge bonus too - it gives pickup trucks towing heavy machinery a quarter mile or so to slow down and stop. =)
~The Athlete Formerly Known As Ice~
www.FaceLevel.com
Do you want to experience whitewater at face level with us? Let us know and we'd be happy to take you out on a local river! Email extreme @ facelevel.com or call 971.570.9006.
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