Monday, April 25, 2011

A Week Away from The Cheat!


Thursday March 24: The Team Gives it All!

On Thursday, Ben, Liam, Jonathan, Zach, Tom and Sandrine met at Angler's for an attainment workout.  It all started with a "gear explosion".  Gear and clothing were found in a 50-yard radius around our changing spot.




A careful inspection of the scattered items led to the discovery of one black sock and one white one, which were suspected to form a pair. Of course no one was daring enough to get too close to those evidences but we all had a pretty good idea of the identity of their owner...  The black/white mismatch CLEARLY pointed to one person in particular!! (Need a clue? See the previous pages of this blog) :))





 



Before getting on the water, Zach "insisted" to demonstrate his dancing (I think?) skillz, while Liam kept proudly flexing the powerful muscles he developed after three weeks of Cheat Training.
We finally made it to the water.  The river level was about 4.5 feet. A rather challenging level. 
After working on ferr
ies (including back ferries), we tried to attain on the Maryland side.  The ferry required to reach river left was arduous but everybody gave it a good try.  Those who made it showed extreme perseverance to make a tricky attainment move along the wall on river left and came very close to succeeding. 


We ended up paddling to Center Chute and doing a very long ferry almost all the way to the Virginia side.  We tried to attain at Virginia Chute and Center Chute but the Po' was not in a cooperative mood that day and the Dream Team was compelled to portage over the rocks between Virginia- and Center-Chutes before attaining farther up the Gorge.

On the way up the gorge, Ben decided to make friends with a goose, who did not seem so interested in socializing.  However, her standoffish attitude never discouraged Ben, who did not hesitate to ferry to the other side of the river and to even back track to keep chasing her.  Or maybe was he simply practicing his ferry technique?



After an hour and a half of hard work, the Dream Team ended up gathering by a pierced rock on river right before using their last bit of energy in a final sprint back to Angler's.  Ben asked for a head start to try and find is favorite goose but she had vanished without a trace... most likely traumatized for the rest of her life by Ben's chase "a la Pepe Le Pew".  Zach held his ground in a sprint against Tom and was the first of the group to reach the take out but everybody paddle very hard to the end.



Everyone did a great job and tried their best that evening.  The Dream Team showed it deserved its name!


WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND?
Those attains and ferries taught us a few important things:
  1. Momentum is important when crossing an eddy line or when paddling over boils.
  2. Maintaining a good angle between our boat and the current is key for a successful ferry and also to make most attainment moves.  To do so,
    1. Avoid opening your angle too much when you "hit" the fast downstream current.
    2. Maintain and correct your angle with stern sweeps (since you are pointing upstream.  You will use bow sweeps when you travel downstream)
  3. You want to alternate your strokes and engage your torso (and not just your arms) in order to not lose too much ground when ferrying and to overcome the downstream current when you attain up



Saturday March 26: Last Slow Grinding Death







We all met on Saturday on the Maryland side of Great Falls National Park for the last Slow Grinding Death of the season.  Fortunately, the boats made it there too, despite a somewhat dubious tying job. :))


 The guys did not seem too enthused  by the idea of a 7-mile paddle to Sycamore Island. So they came up with all kinds of creative alternatives to the Slow Grinding Death, most of them involving "playing at Center Chute" and "Taking out at Angler's".  After considering these propositions for about a tenth of a second, Ashley and Sandrine agreed there was something very wrong with this picture and that it would probably be better to "stick to the plan". 

We carried our boats to Sandy Beach and warmed up with some ferry and peel-out practice as well as a nice challenging attainment move leading to the bottom of the
Fish Ladder. The level was around 5.2 feet and the current was fast and powerful in the main river channel.

We made it to the bottom of Rocky Island by paddling down the tight channel directly across from Sandy Beach. Everybody did very well.


From there, the plan was to paddle all the way to Sycamore Island and to time ourselves.  Will and George asked for a head start in order to "pay a visit" to Center Chute hole.  The rest of us would go down the Maryland side.




The boils b
elow Rocky Island were massive and treacherous.  This caused a little misadventure to Jonathan, although he may only have been testing the quality of his dry-top and neoprene pants. In the meantime, Ashley had paddled down to meet with Will and George, and Liam was a few eddies down, waiting for Jonathan and Sandrine to catch-up. 

Jonathan, Liam and Sandrine were making their way downstream in an attempt to catch up with the rest of the group when, after passing Maryland Chute, the weirdest sight caught their eye...




Ashley was in the middle of a rather peculiar rescue.  She was pulling George's boat, but his boat was hooked to her's with... HER HELMET!!  With this rig "a la MacGyver", Ashley managed to tow the boat all the way to Center Chute, where George was waiting after having spent some "quality time" in the hole.  A few minutes later, George got back in the saddle and the Team was reunited.  We all paddled down non-stop to Sycamore Island for one last time before the Cheat.

GOOD JOB TEAM! YOU DID IT !




WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND ?


  1. Always keep an active paddle blade in the water!!  This will make you more stable.  This is especially important when running rapids and when driving over sneaky boils! Just KEEP PADDLING!
  2. Holes loooove long boats!! Once they grab them, they do not always want to let them go!! :))