Rapid of the Day - Big Water Wednesday

[Big Daddy D]

Today we venture west to the North Fork of the Payette.

We pay homage to Nutcracker, Chaos, Jacob's Ladder, Hounds Tooth and Crunch.

Big Water Wednesday is locked and loaded. Sack up!

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[Eric Esche]

A small group of us from Georgia Tech's ORGT program ran the North Fork in the summer of 1976 like late July. First pass by it when it was high and muddy, we kept saying well we could put in "there", and there, and there without ever saying where we would have taken out or what we would have bypassed entirely, as we all knew it was serious stuff. Roadway was blocked for 4 hours by cranes trying to fish out a car that had gone in and then been tumbled down two miles. It was a ball of steel, missing many parts when they got it out. We went elsewhere first, I think the Selway, after the middle and main of the Salmon.

WE didn't run it the first time by, but 3 of us came back to run about 8 miles of it with a friend of Walt Blackadar's at a lower water level, I'd guess about 1800 cfs, green and clear. Walt's friend Dave hadn't ever run there before, but Walt told me he was a strong paddler and he could lead or sweep. Sorry I can't remember his last name (started with an "R"?), but he was as good as we were. It was a faster gutter run on the side of a mountain than the Loksha and all the drops steeper, tighter, and closer together, but Ocoee like when it openned up into fields along the sides in a couple of places. I know I came away from my run there with a healthy respect for it and 5 cracks in my Lettman MkIV that had to be repaired before I could run it again, and I didn't hit or broach on anything. All the cracks were from cussive hoop stress getting hammered in holes. Other two Tech boats were in same shape as mine and Dave said his was leaking badly from it's back seams. We had no swims or lost gear, and were very glad of it as a swim in a small group like that would have meant not seeing your gear again most likely, and the swim would have been punishing. We didn't land scout much as eddies were too hard to find that you could crawl out of you boat in along the sides, so we took turns and had hand and paddle signels IF they could be seen. Fast river and more continuous than the Loksha. You just tried to keep everyone in sight without being too close or stuck in the same hole. Lead switched constantly with folks eddying out, and IF someone hit an eddy and you didn't, you were always worried they saw something you hadn't as you were swept along into stuff you couldn't see all of. Light/dark contrast in shady corners in late afternoon made seeing with glasses hard in more than one place. Would have been safer to have started earlier. Water was nearly as cold as the Nantahala. Not sure I would have been up to it at higher water, but by the end of that trip I felt I was. We were all letting off hollaring whoops to celebrate at the takeout which was just a wide spot on the side we could climb up to and park the two cars. Reminder of how far I have back slid since then too. It's not the Chattooga or your backyard creek for most of us.

Scenery on the shuttle is very nice if you are not having to keep your eyes on the road. Only get glimpses on the river as you are too busy going down stream and too busy counting noses, or catching your breath or gulping water if in an eddy. Remember hearing truck brakes and down shifting whenever we were near the road, and wondering if we would have one come down on us as they seemed to be just 'up there'. We got to paddle the Loksha the day after a cracker truck flipped and dumped it's load in the Loksha that summer and we scooped up 5 boat loads of crackers to eat for weeks after. They were those sealed up containers of cheese, crackers, and a red spreader bar. One of our guys used the red spreader sticks to build Lincoln log type designs at night.

[CapnTom]

Hmmmm...
Summer of '76, college days,loads of cheese 'crackers, red spread-stick houses.
Gotta wonder what was going on there?

[Eric Esche]

We were broke college students who had spent all our money driving out west to run rapids for several weeks. We caught and ate a lot of fish, and free food, especially when it came floating to you on the river by the box and loose bushel full was not turned down.

And as to the obsession with the spreader sticks, I think Richie may have OD'ed on fumes from patching his boat so often. He also kept saying he was going to melt them into the cracks on his boat when he ran out of resin and cloth to patch with. No one had plastic boats back then so he may have been ahead of his time.

It was also in the days before walkmans and I-pods and there was no radio reception where we mostly were. I took a few books with me on the trip, and we made a production of making cakes for desert on reflector ovens by the fire every evening, but if you didn't sing or make music or have some other diversion, our evenings were sort of dead, and we went to bed early after a long day of paddleing.

[sugarmtngal]

Incredible! Thanks for sharing the action. Someday in the future I really hope to be able to kayak that capacity of water (I've been told a couple more years ).