K1: Mark Berry, Jake Bourdeau, Devon Carter, Eric Chase, Daniel Fowler, Ken Gordon, Jessa Solis, Matt ?
OC1: Ryan Galway, TC: Kenny DeCoster
Slice2: Bryan and Alyssa Wolf
The forecasted 15 mph wind wasn’t blowing down the Sou stream valley. With no wind chill, 41 degrees, even with all the cloud cover, we had a decent day ahead of us. By the 11 am meeting time, we had 8 paddlers ready to go. 20 minutes later, we were 12. Two of the paddlers were first timers to the Sou. The water level was 1 foot and the river was very fluid. The surfing at the first wave was outrageous and at Emerson, the waves were more challenging to ride.
The trouble happened in Crawford Rapid. After negotiating the ledge drop, a paddler ran up on the strainer sticking out from the left shore. The stern caught the current , the boat flipped over backwards, got sucked under the tree, and thankfully the paddler wet exited to the safety of the eddy. The paddle, stuck in the snag, was retrieved by a live bait rescue line. This is the third person being swept under a strainer that I’ve observed in as many years. It doesn’t take much to get knocked off one’s line and get into trouble. It was a very scary experience and rescue is more than difficult. Stay away from strainers!
2 people portaged Grand Falls (on the left side race portage to avoid the Lincoln log pile on the regular portage on the right side), while everyone else stayed upright careening down the left slot in the falls. Both of the canoes filled up and looked like floating bathtubs. 3 boaters got out at Papermill Park and the rest of us floated down the moving flatwater to the snowmobile bridge waves which provided plenty of surfing opportunities. I was glad to see that the left channel at the cement plant rapid had been completely cleared of the trees. Back at the parking lot, I couldn’t convince anyone to take on a second run as the sun started to shine, so we dried off and talked of upcoming river trips.