Thursday I took a few hours out of the middle of my day and went to run Big Creek in the National Park. Jesse and I had planned to run Upper Big Creek which has a rating of IV-IV+ with the possible V thrown in. I have ran the upper many times before at medium to medium low flows. It is a great, continuous steep run with lots of 6-8ft drops.
When we arrived at Big Creek campground the creek was really pumping. we walked up the upper and decided it was more than we were wanting...well I decided that. I have been off the water for 8weeks and it was too high for a welcome back run...or any run for a mere mortal for that fact.
We put on the lower and should have known something was wrong when Jesse got stuck in a small overflow at the put-in waiting on me to get it. He was getting a quick trashing on something that shouldn't even be an issue. Lower Big creek is 2-2.5 miles of constant whitewater. usually a solid class IV it had a few strong class IV+ in there this day.
After paddling down for a bit and getting shoved around like were weren't even paddling I dropped into a hole too close to a rock in the river center. It decided I needed to get more acquainted with it and it pulled me back in for a ride. Jesse got a great show of my beat down which was a few minutes of getting power flipped and very low braces to try and get out. After rolling up for maybe the 4th or 5th time I starting wondering when this icy cold keeper hole was going to let me go. Finally after another power flip it flushed me into the eddy and I rolled up with an ice cream headache from the cold ride.
Later down the creek we started to question the level. The creek was bigger than I had ever been on it and we both agreed we were getting shoved around a lot more than usual. A few rocks later I got flipped and took the hardest hit to my helmet I have ever taken. It actually cracked the yellow poly coat in a few places. You can see the Kevlar fibers now in my helmet. I would like at this point to say how great the Shred Ready TDUB helmet is. The impact just barely gave me a headache and the impact really didn't hurt. Thumbs up for that helmet and design. Had I not been wearing a helmet I would not be writing this.
Finally we made it down to the bridge with the gauge on it and saw it was between 3.8 and 3.9ft. Boatingbeta.com says that 2.0 is low optimal and 3.5 is high optimal and 4.5 becomes deadly to mere mortals. At almost 4ft we were pushing those limits. It set a new benchmark for me as a strong paddler and reminded me that 8wks off is never a good idea.
I will post pics of the helmet later, but I got none of the river that day.
When we arrived at Big Creek campground the creek was really pumping. we walked up the upper and decided it was more than we were wanting...well I decided that. I have been off the water for 8weeks and it was too high for a welcome back run...or any run for a mere mortal for that fact.
We put on the lower and should have known something was wrong when Jesse got stuck in a small overflow at the put-in waiting on me to get it. He was getting a quick trashing on something that shouldn't even be an issue. Lower Big creek is 2-2.5 miles of constant whitewater. usually a solid class IV it had a few strong class IV+ in there this day.
After paddling down for a bit and getting shoved around like were weren't even paddling I dropped into a hole too close to a rock in the river center. It decided I needed to get more acquainted with it and it pulled me back in for a ride. Jesse got a great show of my beat down which was a few minutes of getting power flipped and very low braces to try and get out. After rolling up for maybe the 4th or 5th time I starting wondering when this icy cold keeper hole was going to let me go. Finally after another power flip it flushed me into the eddy and I rolled up with an ice cream headache from the cold ride.
Later down the creek we started to question the level. The creek was bigger than I had ever been on it and we both agreed we were getting shoved around a lot more than usual. A few rocks later I got flipped and took the hardest hit to my helmet I have ever taken. It actually cracked the yellow poly coat in a few places. You can see the Kevlar fibers now in my helmet. I would like at this point to say how great the Shred Ready TDUB helmet is. The impact just barely gave me a headache and the impact really didn't hurt. Thumbs up for that helmet and design. Had I not been wearing a helmet I would not be writing this.
Finally we made it down to the bridge with the gauge on it and saw it was between 3.8 and 3.9ft. Boatingbeta.com says that 2.0 is low optimal and 3.5 is high optimal and 4.5 becomes deadly to mere mortals. At almost 4ft we were pushing those limits. It set a new benchmark for me as a strong paddler and reminded me that 8wks off is never a good idea.
I will post pics of the helmet later, but I got none of the river that day.
