Walking away

Sometimes you have to walk away from a run. It could be due to high water, low water, being tired, or being scared. It may feel bad, especially if you've traveled a long way to do the run, but you have to keep in mind that you might be protecting more than just yourself.

The first time I walked away from a run was on the main Tuolumne in California. I had driven 4 hours to the put-in the night before and camped out in a precarious position. The flow was very low, and I just wasn't feeling up to the 18-mile extended run. I ended up helping out with the shuttle and heading home.

The second time was on the NF Nooksak in Washington. This was also a 4 hour drive, and I was feeling fine until a local "expert" told us about the run. He made it sound very difficult, and I was concerned about flipping and taking a long swim. Now that I've done the run several times, I know it's an easy run. That day, I went home and ran a more familiar river.

I nearly walked away from the Lower Tilton in Washington. I was taking a new medication that made me feel weak and nauseous, and I wasn't sure I was up for the run. I had a little snack and felt better. I was glad I didn't walk away from that run. Despite 3 swims, it was still a great day on the river.

The third time I walked away from a run was on the NF Teanaway in Washington. I felt fine until I hauled my boat down to the river. There, I encountered two problems. First, I was sweating and tired, even though I hadn't really carried the boat very far. Second, there were logs across the river right off the bat. I was concerned that I would encounter more logs and have problems dealing with them. In the end, there were no logs to worry about (even the ones I had seen could be skirted without a portage), but I still think it was the right decision.

While I have had to abandon a couple of runs due to equipment failure, there was one run that I abandoned because I was worried I couldn't continue. This was my first cataraft run on the Tieton River in Washington. I had done the run before in rafts and an IK, but I hadn't used my cat in several years. I quickly found that I could not control the boat, and I was dangerous to myself and the others in the group. I decided to take out after 3 miles, and a few weeks later I sold the boat.

35 - 6/11/09 - Middle Middle

As the snowpack begins to run out, we take advantage of the remaining raft flows on the Middle Middle. We had 6 catarafts (including mine), 5 IKs, and 2 rafts. The flow was around 1800, so I did have to deal with some rocks, but it was still fun. Next Thursday, the flow will probably be down in the low teens, so it will probably be all IKs and maybe a small cat or two.

34 - 6/9/09 - SF Snoqualmie

With the snowmelt starting to run out, it was time to take advantage of the nice weather and run the SF Snoqualmie. I went with my next door neighbor, who will turn 80 in a couple of weeks. The flow was around 400 cfs, which is low but still runnable (I have run the SF Snoqualmie as low as 200 cfs and had fun). At one point, we passed under the bridge at a local camp on the river and had an audience of about 40 kids. The water was clear and it was great weather for kayaking.

Before I forget, here's an update on my shoulders and elbows. I've been doing to stretches and exercises and getting acupuncture treatments for about a month now. My left shoulder is the worst problem, and it's only sore after I work it hard. My elbows only hurt if I apply direct pressure to the areas that were sore before. So, I'm keeping up the exercises and stretches and hoping to keep going strong.

33 - 6/7/09 - Peshastin Creek

The night before, several of us discussed running Peshastin Creek again. We started with around 10 takers, but by the time we left in the morning, we were down to 5 - 2 IKs, a raft with 2 people in it, and a small cataraft. We decided to put in just below Fresh Squeezed because the bigger boats would have trouble without more water, and we decided to not run the Wenatchee afterwards.

Carrying rafts down to the put-in was not much fun and it took a bit of effort. The IKs left first, and I immediately got stuck on a rock. After that, the rapids were fast and fun. When the IKs made it past the first few rapids, we stopped to wait for the other boats. They showed up after 5 minutes and we continued on. The run was a blast as usual, and everyone had a good run. I'm already looking forward to next year's trip.

32 - 6/6/09 - Peshastin Creek/Wenatchee

(In my cataraft in Snowblind on the Wenatchee)

The first weekend in June, WRRR holds the annual Bob Johnson Memorial Wenatchee Rendezvous (Bob was one of the founders of WRRR). The first few times I went, I just ran the Wenatchee River both days. As I would drive to the Wenatchee, I would look at Peshastin Creek, the small creek that parallels highway 97. In 2007, the Wenatchee was running high and Peshastin Creek had enough water for a first run. So, on the Sunday rather than running the Wenatchee again, I ran Peshastin Creek, and it quickly became one of my favorite runs. In 2008, I ran it again. So, when people started talking about 2009, Peshastin Creek had to figure in our plans.

We had 10 IKers on the trip. 5 put in up above the Ingal's Creek Bridge to get all of the hard whitewater. 1 put in just below the class IV rapid, Fresh Squeezed. 4 of us put in another mile below that, where the whitewater was merely continuous class II+ with frequent class III rapids.

Some people have called Peshastin Creek "the Tieton on steroids". The character of the run is similar, and there's even a runnable dam on the run. A better analogy is Joe Sauve's "the Tieton on crack" because Peshastin Creek is much more jittery and narrow. Whatever the case, it's a blast.

When we got to the Wenatchee, we had lunch and ran shuttle to continue down the Wenatchee. I switched to my purple cataraft and we launched just below the Dryden dam. At over 13,000 cfs, the Wenatchee is the polar opposite to Peshastin Creek. The waves and holes are huge, and you tend to have to run them hard because they are hard to avoid. I was very nervous and I was relived every time I made it through a rapid without trouble. At Rodeo Hole, we avoided the hole and then watched as a group of people in a raft lazily went in and flipped. The aforementioned Joe Sauve got to play hero by jumping on their overturned raft and reflipping it.

After the run, we all went back to the campground for food and festivities.

31 - 6/4/09 - Middle Middle

With the river flowing in the high-2000s, I decided to see how my arms would hold out on this run. We had a big group (around 25 people) in all kinds of boats. I did very well, with the only pain being in my left shoulder. It kept me awake a little bit during the night, but I took some ibuprofen and it calmed down.

ATuffy Instant Tent

A few months ago, I was searching the web for something, and I came across a mention of Apache Tents, which is a company that makes tents that they describe as "instant". Like most people, this brought to mind the tents used in the movie "Congo" that do pop up instantly, but are not very sturdy, not easy to take down, and kind of large to lug around. But, I looked at the reviews and the video on the Apache web site, and I decided to give their ATuffy 2-man tent a try. I found a deal for $220 for the 2-man version - not cheap, but a reasonable price for a good tent with the right specs.

One of my old tents is a primitive version of this tent. The poles stay in it, so when it's time to put it up, you unroll it, shake the poles until they are together, and put them into place. This doesn't always work - if you get the poles mixed up the tent is all twisted and you have to pull it apart again, which is annoying when you arrive at camp after dark. This is also a tiny tent, so I don't use it all that often.

Anyway, I ordered an ATuffy 2-man tent and when it arrived I gave it a try. It's not a gimmick. You unroll the tent, grab it by the top, swirl it around until the poles snap into place, reach inside, and pull the umbrella mechanism. You attach the umbrella pole to a T-hook inside of the tent. If it's not cold, rainy, or windy, you're done. If you need to put up the rainfly, that's also pretty quick. You unroll it, unfold the pole (which is attached to the fly), snap the pole into a hole in the top of the tent, and unfold it over the tent. It takes less than a minute to put the rainfly on. The tent comes with enough stakes for a full stakedown if you need it.

Taking the tent down is pretty easy. The rainfly poles come apart and the entire rainfly rolls up easily. There are bungee loops to keep it rolled up. Taking down the main tent takes a little bit of practice, but it's really not hard to learn. One really nice thing is that the bag is big enough to put the tent and rainfly in without having to roll it perfectly or spend 5 minutes tugging on the bag.

The tent is made with good quality material and well constructed. There are pockets in the corners, and T-hooks in the ceiling for a gear loft (sadly, Apache doesn't sell these, but they are probably a standard size). Most of the tent is nylon fabric, with 2 small net windows. The doors have both fabric and net panels with 2-way zippers. There are doors on the long sides, so it's easy to get in and out. It weighs under 7 lbs. I have another tent that is around the same size and cost a little more, and it weighs 2 lbs more and takes a lot more time to put up and take down.

I recently used my tent on a 7 day rafting trip. We only had rain one night, and the tent was brand new, so I can't really make a fair assessment of how it will hold up in strong rain and with lots of use, but I didn't get wet that night. Overall, I found the tent to be very comfortable. It was easy to open and close the doors without getting up, so it was easy to control the temperature. The one complaint I have is that the walls kind of droop a little. For me, this means that I need to push my Paco Pad into the foot of the tent, which leaves some room at the head for my pillow to fall off. I fixed this by putting my small drybag up there.

I plan to try out this tent in an inflatable kayak trip soon.