...to have some bad days, then some good ones

Last Sunday sucked.

No need to sugarcoat it, the day blew and it was directly after Saturday (thanks Rebecca Black) and Saturday was great.

At 9am we hop in a boat laden Subaru and head to Greenville where we have been attending church. Halfway there my tire goes flat and it was only after "Whats that noise?" and "Whats the smell?" did we realize the back left tire had shredded itself. So here we are, Ashley, Marissa and I, changing a tire on the side of the road because God said "Don't go to Church today."

Bummer!!! But, after a possible $600 tire repair the day had to get better right? Nope, not for me anyway.

After lazing around the base we decided to go to the Moose River to practice kayaking. It's a great river to try to catch surfs on and its normally a blast. While Mason and Kyle drove away to shuttle the vehicles I was going to go over a "tiny" waterfall, eddy out, and wait for them, but it was not to be. The "tiny" waterfall flipped me (because I'm still a noob), I lost my air because I forgot nose plugs, I missed my roll, I couldn't grab the handle to pull my skirt and I generally freaked out under water until finally I escaped my boat. At this point my paddle is starting to head down the next set of rapids, a paddle that is not mine, a paddle that I can not lose! I push the kayak as hard as I can away from me and start swimming toward the paddle. I grab my paddle and then swim to go get my boat which is also not mine, which I also cannot lose. The Moose river is like 2-3ft deep and swimming for like 1/4 mile while being berated by boulders and raking myself on rocks was mildly unpleasant. It was the worst swim I've ever had.

Last Monday was much better.

I was able to find a used tire of the same size (Subaru owners know how important this is) in Skowhegan, Kyle and I were able to go to McDonalds and then Andrew showed up later that day! Things were looking good! We ventured down to The Marshall to chat with some more people about coming with us to the Penobscot River the next day and we all enjoyed a burger and beer for $6. (of course, substituting the beer for something with no alcohol) Although we didn't find anyone else to come to the Penobscot with us we did find a very angry girl who's boyfriend had broken up with her, and we watched some crazy videos of guys going over 30ft waterfalls in Rafts in the middle of winter.

Tuesday was the bomb.

We woke up early Tuesday morning, finished loading the cars, fueled up and headed east to The Nob. Mason and Ashley had run the river before but Kyle, Marissa, Andrew and I had not and boy was it sick! We scouted the gorge from the cliffs surrounding it, pointing out lines and talking about angles, when Three River's five boat trip started making there way down the gorge. The first boat made it fine, the second boat (filled with a good number of teenage girls) flipped and we watched them all swim through the Class V rapids knowing that they would never want to raft ever again. But, if 13yr old girls could swim this, psh, we got it for sure. We saddle up the 15ft raft and hit the river with Mason as our guide making it down with no problems at all. Farther down the river is The Cribworks which is another Class V section that Mason navigates with ease. Now it was our turn. After some joking about injuries and recirculation, Kyle, Andrew and I bring the raft back up to the dam for round 2! Here is how our run went...

Ian Guiding the Gorge, Kyle Guiding the Crib

We get back late Tuesday night, exhausted but pumped. The day on The Nob had been incredibly fun and challenging. We all had a blast and no one got hurt! Andrew got a taste of what we do and how we do it (although on a different river). He even guided Pompanoosuc falls once, what a boss.

So from bad to incredible those three days were all something to remember. Having Andrew coming up here was freaking awesome! Hopefully I'll see some more people from down south drive up 201 and pull into the Windfall parking lot.