Joe entering one of the bigger rapids on the White
When we planned this run, we thought we would have 4-5 people, but in the end it was just Joe and me. We didn't like the look of the usual takeout, and we found a much nicer one upstream. This would make a big difference later in the day.
We started out easily enough. The White has a lot of wood in it, but most of it is along the sides and is easily avoidable. The rapids are easy, but fairly continuous, so the run is pretty fun... except when disaster strikes.
OK, so maybe "disaster" is a little strong, but I did get myself into trouble. There was a place where we had 3 choices, 2 of which had obvious logs. As we started down the remaining channel, we saw a channel-wide logjam. Joe made the eddy, and I didn't. I went downstream and stopped next to the shore. I handed Joe my paddle and went to get out by holding onto a branch and standing on a rock. I slipped, the branch broke, and I went downstream. I grabbed for the shore, but had no success there. I saw the logjam coming up, and I remembered my training. I got into the aggressive swimming position (head downstream, on my stomach) and pulled myself up onto the first log. A few moments later, my boat was next to me, wrapped on the log. My foam footbrace came out, and I ended up having to send it downstream.
After a few minutes, Joe showed up with my paddle. I was fine, but I needed to get to shore and that wasn't going to be easy. Joe went back up and got his boat and a rope. While I waited for him, I shifted position and ended up losing a shoe. This made things a little tougher, especially for climbing out. First, we got my boat tied off to shore. Next, Joe tried to help me climb up the rootball, but it was steep, high, and crumbly. Everywhere I tried to stand fell apart. We finally decided that the best way for me to get out would be to get onto my boat and then climb onto shore. It was shakey going, but I made it.
Finally off the logjam, we still had to portage, and the shore was steep. We dragged the boats up the hill about 40 feet, walked downstream 100 feet, and then slid back down to the river. Back in the river, I waited for Joe. As we headed downstream, we found my footbrace stuck on a log, and Joe was able to rescue it.
Short one shoe but otherwise unharmed, I continued downstream. The takeout we chose was easy and I was able to drive the car right down to the river.
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