O aaRghh T : It Never Rains in California Part III

The Western Whitewater Champioship Series (WWCS) keeps rollin on.

We drove through the Scott River Valley on the way to the Cal Salmon. Just 2 weeks prior we had run the Scott River, on this occasion we had made the drive down from Portland to run the Scott’s sister river, the Cal Salmon, which is also part of the Marble Mountain Wilderness area. I had never seen the entire South Fork of the CS, a wrong turn rewarded us with some new scenery.

We were the first party into the lower Nordheimer Campground this season, the grass and trails were completely undisturbed and the sun shining through the tree tops began what would be a very special weekend. The ORT Grey team soon arrived and Ben hopped out of the back of the truck already in his pirate costume, apparently he had been busy frightening folks all the way down the I-5 corridor from Ashland.

We rigged the boats, set the shuttle, and off we went to do a practice run with 5 kayaker friends in tow. After a quick scout, the Grey team dropped into Cascade and got hammered against the left wall in quick fashion. The Red team confidently discussed our line and then charged in with the same result, yet the outcome of missing our line was even worse as we wrapped on the rock near the exit. Aargh! I hope nobody sees this. Bryan made sure they did by showing the video to everyone in camp when we got back so by 9pm or so the entire event knew we choked. Achilles, Last Chance, and Freight Train went without incident, our confidence coming back, we cruised back to camp for a hearty pasta dinner and some down time.

Race day we woke up, wolfed down some pancakes and fruit while getting the gear all dialed in the 70 degree sun. This included putting on make up and ear rings and placing little rubber pirate duckies on the bow and stern of the raft. Aaarrghhh! After stealing a foam sword I ran all over the campground in a caffeine induced rage yelling Aaarrghhh! until the race began.

We started towards the end of the mass start pack which included rafts, kayaks, and catarafts. Without formal prompting Paul yells go and the water erupted with all sorts of frenzied paddling and yelling. After getting beached at the start last year, we chose to hang back a bit and let the chaos cancel itself out. Sure enough a few holes opened up and like a tailback reading a double team we burst through the line. By the second corner we had passed all the rafts, and dueled with Tom in his cat for a bit before breaking free with the faster kayakers. 1 mile downstream after Bloomer the field had pretty much, settled in. We would terrorize one green kayak in particular for 6 miles by reeling him in on the flatwater, then losing a little ground in the rapids. It became quickly evident that this guy did not want to lose to a raft and pushed quite a bit harder than if left on his own accord.

We approached Cascade to see crowds of folks lining the walls to get a good view. This run we timed our approach into the top ledge and charged in with a sprint and hard angle right. Blowing through the nasty entrance lateral we smoked through Cascade in a hard all forward and never looked back. Despite sprinting through most of the flatwater, we still greased the lines at Achilles, Last Chance, and were fortunate enough to actually be smooth through the bottom of Freight Train.
Aaaarrrgghhhh!
We were super stoked. I told the boys that with their aggressive and enthusiastic paddling, that was probably the best single run I had ever had in 20+ years of boating. Good energy, chemistry, and a sense of brotherhood were the unseen variables that made it happen.
Big thanks to Ox, Hoser, WFE, Rasta, and Jeff for just getting after it.
Also a big shout out to the Tony and his crew at AIRE for getting our boat out to us in time for the race. http://www.aire.com/AIRE/Our long time supporters help ORT keep the momentum building:
http://www.aquabound.com/http://www.whitewaterhelmet.com/http://www.immersionresearch.com/And our new sponsor Viso for giving us the juice to run the juice!
http://drinkviso.com/
Just a few events left, hope to see you all at the:
http://upperclackamasfestival.org/And the big daddy, the USRA National Rafting Championships which will determine who represent the USA in Bosnia at Worlds next year.
http://www.pbrkayakevent.com/
The Divine is not something high above us. It is in heaven, it is in earth, it is inside us.
- Ueshiba.