The Ottawa River by Sandra Kofler
| River: | Other |
| Skill: | Intermediate+ |
| Trip Date: | 01/01/2004 |
Standing on the shores of the huge McCoy rapid and looking at the thundering swells of this gigantic Ottawa River from my little Kingpin Icon, I felt so ready. Ready to conquer, ready to continue where I left off last year.
We drove the almost 1000 miles from Durham to the Ottawa River (DC-Syracuse-Ottawa- Renfew) and pitched our tents at the RiverRun campground, right at the shores of the Ottawa River. After a night of bugs, I was standing by the LS bus waiting to meet Jim and Dave, my coaches for the next three days. Dave worked with YGP (Young Gun Production) and they both had a lot of experience in teaching. We picked our boats, at first I went for the Liquid Logic Pocket Rocket, as I was impressed the last time I paddled it on the Ottawa. The later two days I paddled the Dagger Kingpin Icon, a boat that fit my style, size and the river volume very well. After meeting the other two students in my class, we set out on the river. At the put in, the Ottawa River looks like a huge lake. Very calm but you can almost hear the thunderous roars of McCoy, around a mile downstream. It was a flat-water showdown; everyone was pulling whatever trick he or she had. Me, being not even 110 lbs, still could not plow my bow under or double pump in vertical, but I had determination. Dave made us play a warm-up game, which was.…a real workout.
McCoy was coming up and we paddled to a good scouting rock. The Ottawa was running at 18', the normal summer level being -1'. Well, at normal water level, this is a munchy class 3+ rapid, but now the river is 19' higher. When I do the Haw, I'm concerned when the water is one or two feet higher. Now, it is 19' … that is more than 3 times my height.
The day before, we watched videos where we saw the huge 18' or 20' long rafts catapulting straight up into the air on this same rapid, emptying out all the passengers. It was interesting to see countless helmets, in all colors, bobbing around like ping pong balls in a gigantic wave pool. My heart was pounding. With two big holes to avoid and huge floating undercuts (rafts), this is a respectable rapid. Dave told us that the line through Sattler's hole was easier than punching Phil's hole, which can be a serious keeper. We all believed him and went for it. One person in my group decided to sneak McCoy but I had to run it. I came to conquer and was determined to run every rapid. Having no one to follow, I got just a little bit off line. McCoy is not like your average Haw or Eno rapid. Big, wide, violent and fairly long, the boat in front of you drops out of sight almost instantly. Instead of hitting the tongue through Sattler's, I hit the rocky drop to the right of it and dropped right into a good size hole. It did not keep me but after two attempts to roll back out, I pulled and swam. OK, so I was swimming McCoy, not really bad, except that the only eddy coming up was big and re-circulating, pushing the water right back into the hole with force. I had to swim like Mark Spitz on his epic gold medal attempt to make it back to shore just in time. Wow, I guess this is why I had to sign 2 liability wavers this time!! Now I was a couple hundred yards from my boat and it took me a while to make my way through the woods. Thank God, even at high levels the Ottawa is still a "drop and pool" river, the drops are just a whole lot bigger…
This first swim had not set any fear in me, or shattered my confidence, so I eagerly got into my kayak craving more. We paddled the half mile of "dead" water to Little Trickle. This was a technical class 3, at the "normal level". The rockiest rapid on the river, there was a hole at the bottom and a drop on top. It was a basic slide down and then a sharp eddy out behind a rock. The water pushes you into the rock wall if you don't eddy out in time, or pushes you down a channel full of strainers. The whole group ran it with no problems. At the bottom of the rapid is a clean 6 ft drop, which was fun, diving head first! Angels Kiss was nearing us as we finished Little Trickle. Angels Kiss is a fun wave, very friendly but big enough so that you can throw down almost anything. At first, I was a little reluctant to go in, but after hearing Dave remind us that it is very friendly, I dove right in. I front surfed a while and then side surfed a good minute. I tried a loop but just endered instead. When I tried to loop again, I didn't get any pop and made it not all the way around. The rest of the group surfed as well and we had a couple swims. After surfing for about 30 min, Dave reminded us that there was even more fun downstream.
We headed down to Garvin's, the gnarliest rapid on the river. Already a class 4+ at normal levels, we weren't allowed to run it. While portaging, I saw EJ and his son Dane float down the dragons tongue. Both ran in without problems, making it look so easy.
Hot lunch was available for the carnivores a little bit downstream. My veggie stomach didn't allow me to devour hot dogs and hamburgers so I ate my always handy cliff bars. Not the best tasting food, especially when you're paddling 7 hrs a day, but at least it was "dry" food. I met Emily Jackson during the lunch break and we talked a while. She is a super cool person, and she can throw down with the guys. I watched her play at 7/8ths hole a while…she is very, very talented and I was feeling so jealous!
We all wanted to snooze after lunch, none of us had the energy we needed. On every bench you saw people laying around. Since I had done the river last year, I knew the best two rapids were still to come….the "No Names". They are a continuous class 3+ with many holes. The Upper No Name had a sweet wave at the top of it, but you can only catch in on the fly and none of us managed to do that. We continued down the first half and eddied out right above the Lower No Name. We scouted it from shore while Dave patiently waited for us in the water. Each of us had a different line we wanted to run. I chose the "wild" middle line, which, as I found out later, gave me a good beating. While the rest of my group followed Dave's more conservative route, I stood behind for a few seconds so that I could chose my own line. I started off good, punched a couple minor holes and some waves but then came Vampires! Unknown to me, Vampires was a good size keeper hole, very sticky. Well I hit it dead on. Perhaps I should have followed leader Dave on the conservative route, but this is not why I came to the Ottawa. I came to see what the limits are, I came to see what boat and pilot can handle. Most of you have the kayak DVDs where pro paddlers go into the "big stuff". You can see them for a second or two, until the camera moves away, as the outcome is not something you want to see. But now, I was not sitting on my sofa watching a kayaker go into the wild stuff, now, the wild stuff was all around me! How in the world would I ever get out of here?
I hit the hole well, right at center and got thrown around. This was violent, this was wild. All I saw was boiling water. I made a move and rolled back up, thinking I was done, but the hole still had me. It had me good. I was still in it, surfing the monstrous wave with every trick I knew, trying to stay up and get out, but it wouldn't let me go. There was not only water under my boat, there was water everywhere around me and breathing was not easy. I did some mystery moves while being hammered and eventually, out of breath, popped my skirt and made a jump for it. Luck was on my side this time, I made it into the backwash and got flushed out. My boat stayed in the hole for a good time, but made it out eventually. WOW! What a rush! This was my first close up experience with such a super-size hole and everyone praised me for my good efforts and how I stuck in there. I must admit it was fun and would do it again in a heartbeat. Later on, Lisa, the videographer from Liquid Skill, told me that she documented my excursion into the forbidden zone with her camera. She was just 20 feet away and got some awesome footage. You all have to see it, I have it on a DVD !!!
Vampire also caught another person in my group but did not keep him quite as long. After Vampire pulled my paddle from me, I thought it was lost for good. Luckily, I found it floating down right next to my boat. Whew, I didn't want to tell my dad that I needed a new paddle. This fancy carbon something was custom made for me, and I sure would have had a hard time getting a second one….. While we ended the day paddling a couple miles of flat water, I couldn't stop thinking about Vampires, and it pumped me up so much, I just felt like going in again. Unfortunately, this was the last day and we practiced flat-water tricks until we reached the takeout. Coming last out of the water, my cravings were satisfied for that week. After longing for months for big water, I had finally seen all 18' of it. I felt proud that I had conquered all the rapids that I swam last year, and paddling the 7th wonder of the world truly made me realize how much fun kayaking is, and how much I love paddling. Dave came up to me and told me to never stop paddling, and I assured him I never would. Maybe this was a hint that my future career will hopefully have something to do with kayaking…
After paddling for three intensive days, my muscles were beat but it was absolutely worth it. This river is one of the magnificent wonders of the world and truly the best three days a girl could have…
Sandra Kofler, 16