Beginner Kettle Run

  Rachel, Barb, Lisa, and Kim all got their first whitewater runs in on a steaming hot day on the Kettle!  Nick was along for his first run of the year, but looked like he’d been at it all season.  Amy and I were there to help guide them all down the river at about 460 cfs. 

Because of the state shutdown, we had to start about 1.4 miles above the normal put-in at the Highway 23 bridge.   This gave us a great warm-up and a chance to learn some final skills before jumping into the whitewater. 

When we did arrive at Banning, we took out, scouted Shoulder Hole and had lunch.  The bugs were vicious and we looked more like a bunch of pox victims than paddlers by the time we got back in the boats.  That didn’t slow anyone down, though.

From there, we put in and the newbies got their first taste of whitewater bumping down through Shoulder Hole.   Everyone aced it!   From there, it was off to the races.  The waves in Teachers and the rocks in Mother’s delight each claimed one swim, but other than that the newbies absolutely owned the river.  

The highlight of the day for a few of the newbies was the seal launch off of a cliff into the river.  At this low water, the fall was probably close to 15’, so it was definitely exciting!  Not a bad way to jump start a paddling career!

By the end of the day, we were all bug-bitten and tired, but definitely left the river as successful whitewater paddlers! 

Canoe U!

Well, it's that time of year again! Like last year, Bobzilla and I taught the Novice Refresher course, but our students absolutely kicked butt, so we actually got a bit beyond what we had planned. We had 6 very strong boaters who weren't afraid to push their skills and try new things. I hope that they were able to feel as much improvement as we saw, because it was pretty impressive. As a bonus, we even had warm weather this year! Looking forward to the Colorado trip next weekend, then the Continuum class the weekend after!

Halloween Kettle Trip

As if anyone needed further proof that snowflakes and wind make for great paddling weather, a great time was had by all on the Kettle River Saturday.

Mother nature decided to hand out both tricks and treats to us for our Halloween paddle. On the tricks side, it was barely above freezing with high winds and snow falling when we put on the river. On the treats side, however, we had good water levels, great company, and even a little sunshine before the trip was over.

Nora, Andy, Dave, Spot, and I arrived at the river in two groups, but were floating together by the time we hit Dragon's tooth. The level was about 3' on the bridge gauge (1400 cfs), which left us with not one, but two decent surf waves at Blueberry. If it was warmer, I think the 2nd wave would have been bouncy enough to try some blunts. The waves at the end of Dragon's tooth were also large and steep, and made for easy down-river wave wheels.

The kayakers also took advantage of the water running over Wolf Creek Falls in front of an audience of hikers. I had high hopes for getting a helmet-cam view of running the falls, but was foiled by the cold. Turns out rechargeable camera batteries don't last long in chilly weather and the camera died literally on the lip of the falls. Next time I'll bring some lithium ones.

Dead batteries aside, it was a great way to spend a chilly Haloween afternoon. Here's hoping the rains keep coming!

Launching Into Canoe U!

From Canoe U

This weekend was the first River weekend of Canoe U! We had over 40 students, about 10 instructors, and a whole bunch of safety boaters. The weather was nice (cold in the evenings, but warm and sunny afternoons) and the level of the Kettle was close to 800 cfs on Sunday.

From Canoe U

I taught the Whitewater Refresher course with Bobzilla. We had a great student-teacher ratio with 2 instructors, 6 students, and 2 safety boaters - Jeremiah and Ben. Jeremiah was with us both days and had some rock-star rescues. Ben joined us the second day when we had very few swims, so both safety boaters were giving tips and assistance to the students instead of chasing gear. It worked great, and I think (and hope) that the students felt that way as well.

From Canoe U

Speaking of the students, we had Lynn, Drew, Dan, Tim, Derek, and Liz. Each student had some paddling experience, but wanted to get some additional technique work in to get the most out of this paddling season.

From Canoe U

We spent both days on the "upper" Kettle, the first day on the flatwater and then Blueberry Slide, and the second day running the whole river. The level was high enough to challenge everyone, and it pushed the learning curve a little steeper. While that led to a couple of swims on Day 1, it also led to noticeable improvements in ferrying, eddy moves, and general comfort in dynamic water by day 2.

From Canoe U

Day one was loaded with drills and stroke work to get a solid foundation of basics. Day two was putting those skills to use and incorporating water reading and river judgment to become more independent as paddlers. By the end of Day 2 students were picking their own lines, punching holes, catching mid-rapid eddy's and more. It was really fun to watch.

From Canoe U

Big thanks to all the students that participated in the class and made it so much fun! Also, huge thanks to Chad, Art, and all of the others who put in so much time and effort with the planning, logistics, cooking, and other behind-the-scenes work that made the weekend flow smoothly. Really looking forward to Graduation Weekend and the Continuum class!

Check out the "My Web Albums" link on the right of this page to see more pics. Thanks to Derek for taking a bunch of the on-water shots!

Kettle Again!

Yesterday was a pleasant surprise. After having a crazy busy week that was capped by a really fun wedding (congrats to Meaghan & Nick!), I was happy, but lacking sleep. The original plan was to head up to the N. Shore w/ Nora and hit the French. When I found out I'd have to leave by 6am to meet up with them, however, I changed my mind and decided to do something later so that I could get a little sleep before the workweek started up again.

As it turns out, it was a great decision. Nate G happened to be looking for someone to do the Kettle with, and so we made that our new plan. It's always fun paddling with Nate, and it was great to catch up. Plus, I got to sleep in a little and (more importantly) had time to rig up my new Helmet cam before heading out! Huge thanks to Meaghan and Nick for the awesome gift!

The level was good (approx 3'), the water was starting to warm up, and it was great catching up with Nate. We did a video run through Dragon's Tooth, then went back up and surfed at Blueberry. Both the wave and hole above it were in, and we had a blast. The wave was just fast enough to get some small blunts in, which made for great practice for sturgeon.

Check out the pics and vids below. The videos are from the new helmet cam. Unfortunately, YouTube wouldn't play the music I set the first video to. Instead, it offered to automatically select a song that it felt would work and didn't require user rights to post. It chose a rap song in Spanish. Go YouTube. If you don't like it, turn the sound off and imagine "Standing Outside" by Primitive Radio Gods in your head. That was what it was supposed to be set to. After that debacle, I just left the two shorter vids w/o sound.

Enjoy!

1st Kettle Run

There was pretty much an armada of kayakers on the Kettle today for what was my first run of the season. We had over twenty in our group when we put on, and as we were leaving we saw another group taking out. There were paddlers from the Twin Cities, Wisconsin, St. Cloud, Duluth, and more. It was really fun to see everybody, and to meet a handful of new people!

To make things even better, the river was at a great level (2.7' on the bridge gauge) and it was a nice mix of play and river running. The snow and cold stayed away for the afternoon, and we had sunshine on us for most of the run.

Newbie Aaron had his first day on a non-verm river and did great. Several of us ran Wolf Creek, even though it was a little low. There were a couple swims and a couple saves, but on the whole it was just a lot of fun. Bring on the '09 season!

Fall Kettle Day

Nate G, Bryan and Sarah K, and I headed up to the Kettle river to take advantage of the recent rains and fall colors. We were greeted with warm weather, warm winds, and banks lined with gold and red leaves that would rain down whenever the wind blew. The level was around 3', which is high enough to be fun, but not high enough to give us anything to worry about.



For Nate, it was a return to paddling after a summer filled with work, training for the Twin Cities Marathon (way to go!), and loads of other activities.

For Bryan and Sara, it was their first time on the Kettle since just after Canoe U, and their first time seeing it at anything other than scrapey low water.

The Kettle is one of my favorite midwest rivers, largely because it's so different at every level. Today was great play at Blueberry (the wave/hole in the middle of the rapid was just like a 15' wide version of Donut), followed by some good-sized wave trains in each of the lower rapids. I was able to hit a nice wave-wheel in the wave train below Dragon's tooth, and we got some cartwheel practice in at the nearly-washed out Last Chance Ledge. Everyone also got to practice their stern squirts at the rock outcroppings between the Tooth and Hell's Gate.



Sara Had a big day, getting her first taste of bigger water and hitting 12' Wolf Creek Falls! She ran it twice, with a perfect landing on the second one. She used my boat for the drop, so don't let the green color fool you.




Bryan K had an awesome day as well. He was snapping up combat rolls with confidence and leading the group run-and-gun style down some of the rapids. He also made two good runs on the Falls and had some surfs on the glassy wave at Blueberry.






I had a good day surfing blueberry and playing in the wave trains, but my cockiness got the better of me at Wolf Creek. I have run the drop many times and have never had an issue (except coming up in the middle of a tree once). This spring I decided to run it backwards, and it went great with a soft and smooth landing. Tried the same trick today, but with very different results. I went over the falls and hit the pool pretty vertical. I felt the impact of hitting the water, but in the commotion of landing didn't notice anything too strange. I bobbed up vertically and the boat flipped upside down. I rolled up and heard Nate saying how I'd Piton'd and what a loud noise it made. I disputed that, saying that the noise must have been the boat hitting the water. Later I looked at my boat and saw that the back left corner was bent upwards about 15 degrees from what it should be. No cracks, no creases, just a slightly different shape than it was before. I guess Nate was right about the Piton. The good news is that it basically just gives me more stern rocker on that side, so left-handed spins should be even easier now!

Bent boat aside, it was a great day with surprisingly great weather. Hopefully we'll have a few more before Old Man Winter takes hold. Thanks to everybody for taking the pics, and especially to Nate for sending me the ones from his camera so quickly.

Newbies on the Kettle

Today Dennis and I met up with Bryan, Sarah, Lynn, Pike, and Derek to head up to the Kettle River. It was low for playboating, about 570 cfs (2.2' on the bridge gauge), but a good level for beginners. When we got up there we also got the happy surprise of meeting up with Kate, who didn't get to paddle at all last year, and a bunch of open boaters from MN and WI. On a funny note, there were 4 Bryans (including the Brians) on the river at the same time, which made communicating a bit confusing. There were also three lawyers on the river at once (myself, Kate, and Derek), but fortunately there was no dam or flood gate that anyone could open up on us.

The group we were with did great. People were making their eddies, learning to surf, hitting their first combat rolls (way to go Derek and Pike!), and doing the seal launch. They even got some experience reading water and paddling without following anyone all the way through hell's gate. There were a few swims, but nothing too bad and I think everyone picked up some new skills.

The only major problem we had was the bugs. Anytime you were out of your boat you were instantly swarmed with hundreds of mosquitos. They were vicious enough to make scouting a rapid far more painful than running it blind could ever be. If you go, bring bug spray. Lots of it. And bring it down the river with you.

On the whole, it was a great day. Bryan K snapped some pics of people at Blueberry, so I'm anxious to check those out. Pike also was kind enough to get some footage of people running Hell's gate, though I'm not sure whose camera it was on. I got some video of the Seal Launch, but that's about it. I got a couple of them posted on my YouTube page, so hit the link on the right side of this page to check em out. Unfortunately, both the videos and the pics in this post were taken with my poor old point-and-shoot which got flooded last year and has kind of a haze thing going on with the lens. Just think of it as a diffuser and it's all good.

Epic Kettle Day

Wow, that was fun! There were a whole bunch of us that met up at the Kettle yesterday. Though it was cool, overcast, and became rainy, I don't think I've ever had a better day on the river. The level was about 1800 cfs (3.4 feet bridge gauge) and just about every feature on the river was awesome. We had big waves in Blueberry, great hole action at Teacher's pet, and 4' wave trains through Mother's, Dragon's tooth, and Hell's gate.

To make it even better, I think just about everyone hit some sort of milestone today. Aaron and Caleb were really putting Teacher's Pet through it's paces, surfing, spinning, and nearly making their cartwheels. Props to both of them for throwing it down like that. Kim, who was making his second descent of the Kettle ever, not only rocked in the big water, but proved that he actually has a scuba tank tucked somewhere beneath his PFD. He definitely gets the award for absolutely refusing to swim. It was cool to watch him fight it out and come out rightside up! Nora was looking great in the big water and came through the whole day without even getting flipped. Nate had some sweet flatwater moves and laid down some sweet video commentary - can't wait to see it. Bill was rockin in the Flip-stick; surfing up everything and working on flatwater ends.

As for me, I had what was quite possibly my best paddling yet. Everything was just working. I hit a couple ends in Teacher's, managed my first successful wavewheels, and managed to get locked into an inadvertant bow stall that went on all the way through the lower portion of Hell's gate.

Between the water level, the amazing luck I was having on the water, and the awesome company I was with, I really can't think of a better day on the river. Can't wait to get out again.

These pics are all from warm up wave and Blueberry, but Nora's got some great ones on her blog from further down so check 'em out!