...to ride the big water

Now, I want to say first off that I don't exactly plan on posting everyday but today was quite exciting and I thought it would be a good adventure to share. Obviously, I went rafting today. It was a little play boat adventure guided by one of Windfall's seasoned guides so sure to be a good time. Now, remember how I've been saying that we've been rafting at 4800cfs? Well, today, due to the rain, we would be hitting it at roughly 12000cfs, nuts.

We meet Mason down by the Ballfield around 11 and head to Harris Dam, marveling at the amount of water we can see ripping up the banks of the Kennebec. The rain is going to make things a bit different today, killer of course, but different. Mason, with his new creek-boat (a more buoyant, super special, really cool, blue, beat up, kayak), meets us at the bottom of the stairs next to Harris Dam and we can barely believe what we're looking at. The water coming out of the dam looked unreal! So much whitewater was shooting down the concrete mega-structure, it was so.... cool! Without further ado Heather, Marissa, Kyle, Ashley (as guide) and I hit the water. Now, when I say everything is different it really is true. Waves at 4800cfs that would be killer are nonexistent while new waves appear and other waves get much much more massive. One wave that just gets bigger and bigger at higher cfs levels is Big Momma and the Three Sisters. We were told to avoid it or hit it with full force and crush through it. So, Ashley makes a good approach a bit to the left of Big Momma and everything seems to be going ok until we get into the Sisters. First sister turns us a little, second sister turns us a bit more, and then we head into sister 3 completely sideways, bad. Now, to get this into better perspective you have to picture how big these waves are. I would say that from the bottom of the approach to the breaking point of the wave would be roughly 25 feet. It was this wall of impenetrable whitewater that flipped us. That is our 350lb boat, filled with 5 people, dumptrucked completely by the same stuff that you take a shower with. I hold onto my paddle, remembering my training, (a guide is useless without his paddle) as I fly into the water with 4 other people. Luckily, our boat landed right side up and I swim as hard as I can over to it and climb aboard with Kyle and Marissa. Then several things start to happen at once. We get Heather in the boat and then realize we're missing someone, Ashley! At this point she is about 30 yards away from the boat getting swept downstream by the current. We have to get her but OH NO! Heather and I were the only ones who held on to our paddles! We only have two paddles! And then we look out to see that one of our throwlines is trailing in the water, something that needs to be fixed immediately. Having 50 feet of rope trailing around your boat is one of the most dangerous hazards on the river. This could snag anything and drag our boat under the current, or into the shore, at any moment. Heather and I start reeling it in and Heather begins stuffing the rope back into the throwbag. At this point our boat is pin-balling out of control through the Alleyway while we try to regain our positions and get down to Cathedral Eddy. Marissa has been up front stabbing at the water with the only paddle we have to do any paddling with. I take over paddling and with Kyle at the helm and we survive the Lower Alleyway. Just before we eddy out I see another one of our paddles floating in the current, just out of reach of the boat. I make a split second decision and launch myself off the raft, back into the current, in the direction of the paddle. I grab it and begin swimming back to boat where Heather helps me in and we eventually eddy out. WHEW. Craziness over. We find Ashley holding on to Mason's creek boat and she climbs back in and regains the guide spot. Now that we have three paddles, and Ashley, we make it down the rest of the river with ease. Magic and Maytag were washed out at this point. By noon the dam was supposed to be releasing 12700cfs and adding the water from the creeks and streams that empty into the Kennebec we probably hit Maytag at 14000cfs so the 20ft wave was easy to smash through when t'd-up at. And that was it. Big Water on the Kennebec. We survived and drove away with warm clothes (because we weren't training anymore we could change) and a new appreciation for the river that we call home.

Next, after a lunch at Three Rivers, Mason, Kyle and I go adventuring. Mason had heard a tale of a river called Parlin that was an amazing class V at the right water level. After some searching around various logging roads we find it and it literally blew us away. The "small" river was a torrent of water moving so fast that if any of us had fallen in we would have most likely died. The crashing, pounding water shot down a gorge with an unreal ferocity. I'm not even going to try to explain it because well, I took pictures. (Check Facebook soon) Technically it could be classified at class VI because no one had ever gone down it at such a high level of cfs. It was normally a class V due to the numerous amount of "must" make moves linked together for over a mile. It was just crazy. The river was left un-kayaked and respected but we drove out with a new spot to kayak (at lower levels) in the future and some pretty sweet pictures.

Ok, I think that's it! We had a chill evening at the Boronows with the MRO crew and then we all peaced out for bed. Like I said at the beginning of this I don't exactly plan on writing everyday. What I can plan on is writing about exciting days like this one where mad shiz goes down. Tomorrow I think I'll be driving with Kyle to his root-canal appointment haha, exciting!!!

Alright y'all that's all I got for now, keep checking this thing for tales of adventure!!