Day 11 –
Kayak, Flip Test,
Swim Test, and First Rapids
February 10, 2008
Submitted by Pat
One of the benefits of the cliff dwellings is a little green bucket under each of the beds. The perfect potty for nighttime pees. So much easier, and safer, than wandering through camp trying to remember the way to the real toilets. So it’s quite humorous to watch folks head down the path from the cliff dwellings to the toilets carrying their little green buckets by the handles. As usual I’m the first person up and happy to get the first cup of coffee. Breakfast consists of huevos rancheros, bacon, these orange scone things (yum!), and fresh fruit. No juice – orange or otherwise. I’m really missing my morning juice.
We hike back to the bus and are driven 40 minutes to the put in. On a trailer behind the bus is a catamaran. At the put in, Aaron hands out helmets, wet suits, and life jackets. He gives us his standard safety lecture – how to use a paddle, what to do if you fall out of the kayak, what to do if you fall out of the raft, how to avoid sweepers and strainers (trees or branches overhanging the water or actually in the water), when to swim with our head downstream and when to float with our feet downstream. Peter, one of the Chilean guides, takes the catamaran and the rest of us grab a single inflatable kayak. We’re to do a two hour kayak on the Rio Epsolon, one of the feeder tributaries of the Fu.
After the aggressive paddling we had to do with the two-man inflatable kayaks on the Lakes, these little single seaters respond to the slightest touch so it’s like learning to paddle all over again. Once I figure out how to stop going in circles, I make headway. The weather is perfect, although too hot for us in wet suits and paddle jackets. The roughest water we paddle through is maybe Class 2+. Half an hour into the paddle, we come through a little rapid that sweeps us in a tight left turn and the current wants to push us off to the right toward a mass of low hanging tree branches.
As I come around the bend, I see Don has gotten too close to the branches and almost in slow motion I see him try and maintain his balance. Nancy is also over there and Aaron yells for her to hold out her paddle to Don, but before he can reach out and grab it he is swept into the water and Nancy finds herself in trouble. She’s able to get herself out while Aaron, in a kayak, goes to Don who is struggling and unable to get back into his kayak. Don doesn’t like deep water and he’s reminded of that in no uncertain terms. He’s hyperventilating by the time he ‘s able to crawl back onto his kayak. Aaron stays with him until he’s okay, but the whole thing shakes me. I know that kind of fear and even though I’m not the one who goes in I can’t shake my own sense of foreboding. I just know that if I don’t actually try and get back in the kayak like Aaron had shown us I won’t be able to relax, so I ask if I can bail out and get back in and he says yes.
It feels great to hit the water and cool off and it’s harder than I expect to grab onto the stern of the kayak and hoist my body high enough to get enough purchase so I can climb forward to the seat. Having done that, having broken through the fear, I feel much better and enjoy the rest of the paddle during which we see Cormorants, a couple of Kingfishers with crests extended, some Buff Neck Ibis, and a weasel (bison) crawling along the banks of the river.
We pull out and drive to the raft put in where we eat lunch. Aaron talks to us about the flip test – all of us are to stand on one side of the raft while Aaron uses a rope tied to a carabiner attached to the opposite side to pull the raft over with the bottom up. That is harder than it sounds as we all try to stand on the side of the raft and get enough weight and momentum to be able to properly flip the raft. Just as I feel the balance start to shift toward a terminal fall, Aaron yells and Frank leaps forward back into the boat. The rest of us, except Frank and Aaron topple backward into the water. Immediately the current starts to take us down river while Frank and Aaron flip the boat by themselves. By the time it’s over, we are well away from the raft and have to swim upstream to get to it. The combination of the paddle jacket, helmet, life jacket, wet suit, paddle, and river shoes make it difficult to make headway. I finally reach the end of the raft and someone grabs the shoulders of my life jacket and hauls me onto the boat like a dead fish. I proceed to haul others up until we are all on the raft. Then we tip it back upright again and proceed to get everyone back in. Not much fun, I can tell you. But we all make it.
Nancy and I are in the front of the boat, the least stable and most exciting part of the raft. We paddle downriver to a series of rocks where Aaron tells us to get off, jump into the water, and swim downstream to the raft. I go first and by the time I get to the raft, I’m breathing heavily and done with swimming. Aaron hauls me onto the raft and I turn around to haul in the next person until we are all back on board. All that is good enough to earn everyone the magic okay to run the Class V rapids. We do a few smaller rapids and reach the take out point where we all help haul the raft up the bank and onto a trailer for the bus ride back to camp. Dinner is fish, salad, smashed potatoes, and dessert.