I admit it. The main run on the Skykomish scares me. When I first moved to Washington, I ran the Sky and swam all of Boulder Drop. I didn't get hurt. I didn't lose any gear. But I still get scared running that rapid.
We had a fairly large group, and I was running my purple cataraft. The water level was just barely high enough for that boat, and I got stuck a few times in the early rapids.
When we got to Boulder Drop, we all stopped to allow some people to scout, and then 4 of us went ahead and ran the rapid while they watched. I went into the entry very fast and ended up spinning around backwards at the bottom. I made a quick decision to run the Needle, rather than going around to Airplane Turn. I hit the Needle with a right angle, which caused me to get pushed onto the Dragon's Back, which is a big rock that sticks up. I had some trouble getting my right oar out of the water, and once I did, I had to make sure I didn't go in front of someone else, so I waited. When I saw the next boat go by, I spun off the rock and finished the rapid. If sloppy is a style, I styled the rapid. In any case, I did make it. I hope that someday this rapid won't scare me so much.
The rest of the run was much easier, and I spent more time playing. One thing I try to do a lot when I'm on rapids I know fairly well is to try to get myself in minor trouble and then get out of it. That is, I'll get myself stuck or go into a big hole and then work my way out of the situation. I think that in the long run, this will help me on new runs.
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