Wonderful Day

[canoe]

Whow, Pam woke me up at 7am, telling me Richland was 4 ft. I called Andy Monfee and said"can you be here in 30minutes?". 50 minutes later we were on the road, put in on Richland with 12in. airspace at 9:10 am, and buggied down, off by 11am(first time that I've ever beat Pam to the takeout), drove to Greenwood to the Buccella"s crawfish boil, where we ate ourselves sick, played a great practical joke on Mike Wiseman, home by 10:15pm. Leaving for parts east Wed. Can it get any better? Dale

[davidbob]

ARG put rubber on Richland about 2 1/2 hours after you and Andy launched. We managed to keep from screwing up the shuttle and NO RAFTS FLIPPED (I cannot stress that enough). Ranger Rich and I rowed Super Pumas, and Stewart (aka Capt. Downstream) R3ed a Super Puma with Jim and Lynn Walton. We did a little mini-portage around Roadblock on the left, and took the sneak route around Green Room to the right. I got hot rowing that section above the Falls and took a little cool off swim in the pool below, but NO RAFTS FLIPPED. Big fun at Cindy's, Apple Pie, USU, LSU and Maytag. Great to see so many people on the water (even if the rest (except Lazer in the Shredder) were all kwakheads). For the record; (1) I heard ABSOLUTELY NO WHINING from Renee at any time whatsoever; and (2) I am now the only member of the RBF to run upper Richland in an open boat, a paddle raft, and a rowing rig.

The only "downside" was that the trip produced no new material for The Paddler's Guide to Hiking Richland Creek (unless we include a chapter on the Rafter's Guide to Cooling Off in the Pool Below Richland Falls).