Thanks to Jack for helping me haul my big a$$ boat up there. Going off that big of a drop was pretty unreal and everyone nailed it! Jared’s Knee came next and was a long, steep rapid that was a lot of fun. No carnage until we pulled off and saw Fish’s group come down and some dude pinned his kayak vertically. Saturday was a bit more tame, we ran the Ocoee twice that day. We ran into Walter and Cowper at the put-in and they were both happy to put Lucas and I through some Super High Intensity Training on the run. Also, Nolan Whitesell put on at the same time as us and we had the privilege of running down part of the river w. him. Sunday we kicked off the day with a run down the Upper, much thanks to Drew for showing us down. Everything was fine until my pump batteries ran out. I pulled over to dump manually a few times. I was headed thru that huge wavetrain right before the last bridge in the Olympic Section with a boat full of water. I knew that big rock in front of the bridge that drops 6 ft. straight off into a bad hole was coming up so I started working left and some kayaker I didn’t know gets right next to me and won’t let me over, and here comes the rock. So I just had to hit it straight on, get turned sideways, fall the 6 ft, get surfed for a second then wash out of it, right side up thank god! Now, here comes the part you’ve all been having sleepless nights wondering when it was going to happen. We get down to the bottom and I’m thinking “I really don’t want to paddle this pumpless boat down the Middle”. After several moments of deep thought and pondering, I finally decided I’d just jump in a yak for the first time and run it that way. So, after a quick roll lesson and a lot of freaking out, I found myself in the pool at the put in paddling furiously towards the ferry at Grumpy’s thinking “What am I doing?!”. Between nerves and trying to get the feel for the boat, I’m pretty sure I looked like uncoordinated spaz flying down the rapid, and Adam got a great shot of me low bracing pretty hard in Grumpy’s, but I made it down to staging eddy frightened and confused, hehe. After that I started getting the feel for it and everything else went great! Only mishap was at the bottom hole of Broken Nose, I got stuck and wasn’t in tight enough and my knees slid out and popped the skirt when I went for the roll. Sunday night we broke bread together, except it was really more like Adam taking advantage of my state of mind and convincing me to smash a loaf of bread over Corey’s head while he filmed. Monday was an awesome day as well. By this time I was feeling pretty strong and finally attempted the one move I came out really wanting to make this time, the elevator move at Broken Nose. She was kind enough to let me have it both runs!! My second run was great as I got to do it w. Archie and Dave Prentice, two of my frat brothers from school that are in their 3rd straight season of guiding out there. We got to the bottom and had a little fun in Hell Hole and that was pretty much it. A great trip with great people and pretty much the best time I’ve had out East yet. Like they say in LA, let the good times roll!!! 
Fellas, feel free to include anything I may have left out...and YES, there is PLENTY of footage coming very very soon my friends!!
