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Ok. Savage River in Maryland. It was me and Ray, Grayson , Shawn (a friend of theirs) and the leader, Mark Cooper, from GBCC. The take out is very near the confluent with the North Branch of the Potomac at the end of the Bloomington Run. It can be a kickass river but the level was 400 cfs, which is considered quite low, so it wasn't pushy. Continuous rapid for 4.5 miles - there are tons of little eddies at this level, but no big pools to relax and regain your wits. First rapid is AT the putin, so not chance to warm up or anything. But warming up is for wusses anyway.
Setting: sunny day, warm, water cold-ish but not bad. The Savage is a river, but the creekiest river I've ever seen. Of course I haven't seen many rivers at all, and ANYTHING is creekier than the Potomac. Anyhooo, at low water levels, I'd highly recommend it. At higher levels, no freaking way I'm going near that thing. That's where they used to have the slalom competitions in the 70s, that river can be super pushy. But on Saturday, it was all rapids, and not pushy. Just the way I like it
One of the drops was on river left, about half-way into the run, between a large rock on the bank and a smaller rock in the stream. Width of slot about 8-10 feet - you had to stay VERY VERY close to the bank to run the line clean. I didn't know that of course, so I was on the right in the slot and went over a giant pourover. Landed rightside up, actually got myself 100% submerged in the white fluff but came out rightside up with a big grin on my face (thinking "schweet, I made it, check ME out!) and started
paddling toward the folks in the eddy, and then that sinking feeling overcame me. You know that feeling. It's the "oh no, I'm getting sucked back in" feeling. Tried to paddle hard but just as I was getting backendered in the pourover I saw Ray's boat coming over the drop to knock me out of it (well, originally I just thought he didn't know I was there and was running me over by accident, but it turns out he did it in the hopes of getting me out of the pourover). I felt a big impact, then rolled up, and I ALMOST got sucked back in again but I was far enough that a few of the good strokes got me out into the eddy. You know these good strokes. They're the ones you take while thinking at the pourover "OH NO YOU'RE NOT GOING TO GET ME AGAIN". Good times!
Now the carnage report:
We'd just finished Triple Drop and I felt like a badass creeker because
I hadn't even flipped, not even close, and I had gone over one of the
whitest, fluffiest, biggest drops I've ever done AND in a very narrow
river. I felt totally SIK
The rest of the group went ahead overthe next drop while I was chatting with Ray in the eddy. So it was the
two of us and he asked - do you want to follow my line or do you want
me to run sweep? I said "I'll find my own line, thank you very much"
(notice how badass I felt right about then, but not for long, as you
have guessed since this is a carnage report) and I peeled out.
The scene was gloomy. No sun coming through the thick tree stands on
the banks even though it was a clear bright sunny day. A large tree
was strung across the two river banks - high enough that it wouldn't be
a paddling hazard, but it was just above the drop giving it that
CREEKING feeling. Large channel to the left, very small slot to the
right of a rock about the size of a large creekboat above water. I
didn't know which way the others had gone, and for the life of me I
can't quite say why it wasn't obvious to me to take the LARGE channel.
I thought, maybe I should head down the little chute on river right.
Which, if I had decided to do that, probably would have been just fine.
I had that feeling that it was a trick, that people would THINK they
should take the large channel but in fact the sneak was the little
slot. Why did I think that? I have NO idea but y'all know how
simplistic the thought process becomes when you're on moving water. So
I picked the slot, but was not totally confident about it. I hesitated
"should I go left? right? left?" and as you have guessed by now,
ended up pinned sideways on the rock. (note to self: next time commit to which side you're going to pick, even if it ends up being the wrong one)
I flipped on the rock (not upstream) and used it to right myself back
up, but I right-ed myself back up too much and my upstream edge got
caught and I flipped again. At that point I could feel I was pinned on
the rock, and there was white fluff all around me (I was in the pillow)
and I couldn't feel that the current was going to flush me out. So I
swam. I was remarkably easy - got out at the very first eddy, got back
in my boat, and ran the rest of the river just fine. It was totally
awesome. I wanna be a creeker!!!!!! So Saturday night I felt so
badass I thought I should get myself a creekboat and one of those body armors the creekers use. But not a full-face helmet, these are for wusses.
Then Sunday I went to Dickerson (the powerplant - whitewater training course that kicks me butt every time), fooled around too close to the
pourover on river right below Scribblers during my ferry/peel out
practice, swam, and got all mad at myself and spent the rest of the
afternoon sitting in the car thinking I don't know how to paddle
anymore.
So I realized I wasn't so SIK after all
But in any case, Irecommend the Savage!!! Some of you good boaters could most likely handle it at higher levels - I think the dam releases at 1000 cfs generally.
Riverwuss.
