The Green Narrows – Chris Grindstaff
| River: | Green |
| Skill: | Advanced |
| Trip Date: | 03/01/2009 |
The Narrows is a special place for many reasons: the reputation, the race, the gradient, the mystique. I got a chance to paddle it this past Sunday after getting skunked on a Saturday run (Operational schedules are determined daily, but I secretly think it's hourly sometimes).
Beth Glazier and Jeff Matonis graciously agreed to show me down. As we made our way down from the putin we checked the level, it was a nice 8 inches. The rain from a couple days before meant we had a bit more water than a typical summer release, which I was told is a good thing – a bit more padding.
Some folks like to paddle a river with as little info or beta as possible. The you-can-only-run-a-river-blind-once school of thought. I'm in the other school, the I-like-lots-of-info-about-a-river-so-maybe-I-won't-die school of thought. I'd read AW's descriptions and watched Shane Benedict's "Steep Creeking" and Leland Davis's "Playin' in the Back Yard" videos.
Let me be clear here – while those are great resources they in NO WAY prepare you for what lies below that next turn in the river. The single biggest surprise on the Narrows is how close the rapids are to each other. In the "miracle mile" there are many places that if you flip you get one, maybe two, chances to roll before you're at the next class V rapid.
Our group rolled down through Bride and got out on river left to scout Frankenstein. Jeff ran the race line while Beth photoed and I watched. I ran next and felt great on the race line. As Jeff said, Frankenstein is one of those rapids that is about precision not speed. Beth ran the traditional line and ferried back out in front of the large undercut.
It seemed that most of the named rapids had some nice class IV boogie between them, which is to say, on another river the boogie would probably be named.
Pincushion was next. It has a blind entrance. Blind entrances are interesting because you never know what lies over that horizon. They become even more interesting as you get closer to rapids like Go Left And Die. There are a lot of blind entrances on the Narrows and they're one of the reasons you want to go with good guides.
Whale tail was uneventful – it really does look like a whale tail.
I don't remember a lot about Boof or Consequences except that a tree is down in the main line (has been for 8 months) so we ran the alternate line.
Next up is Squeeze, the class IV+ sneak for Go Left. The thing I didn't realize about Squeeze and Go Left is you start them the same way, and from the staging eddy I was sitting in all you see is another blind entrance. Well a blind entrance with Go Left visible below the horizon. As you approach the horizon you hit the drop with right boat angle for the Squeeze. A few feet to the left and your gonna be running Go Left instead.
We all had good lines through the Squeeze. Beth and I got out on river right and set safety for Jeff as he nailed his line on Zwick's. Beth and I ferried above Chief and walked down to set safety for Jeff who ran it.
We then walked down to the epic seal launch below Gorilla. There are several factors that make it epic: 1) Scream machine is very close by 2) you're dropping 6 feet or so into 6 inches of water. I should say you'll drop into 6 inches of water if you have enough speed coming off the rock, otherwise you land on a rock shelf. Ouch.
Jeff went first, then Beth and finally me. Jeff and I both ran the race line at Scream machine which feed us into the left line of Nies' Piceces. As my bow crossed the horizon line at Powerslide I felt water entering my boat on the left side. Opps, rookie mistake, my skirt wasn't completely secured. I thought the next set of rapids might be a bad place to take on lots of water so I frantically, I mean smoothly and with style, scrambled to actually finish putting my skirt on the boat. With my skirt back on I continued down into Nies' Pieces.
You get type-writered at the top of Nies' Pieces and power down through the hole. Beth caught the middle eddy after Scream machine and I think took the right line at Nies' but I'm fuzzy on that point.
Jeff and Beth had nice lines at Powerslide. I'm not exactly sure what happened with my line but I ended up doing a fairly undramatic side-surf to front ender out at the bottom hole. Mostly all I recall is a lot of white, side surf, force bow into front of hole, pop out.
Rapid Transit was next – another blind entrance, and quite a long one at that. I think I took the "Subprime Loan" line. Either way it was a lot smoother than I expected from the video I'd seen of this boat jarring rapid. Again lots of white.
After the awesome slides we paddled over to river right and walked down to below Sunshine. While hanging out below Sunshine we got to see one guy run it. It's an impressive rapid, like Stateline but with a harder line, more push and more consequences. (maybe it's not that similar)
A number of folks told me that once they're below Sunshine they can start relaxing a bit more. Which isn't to say things are easy below Sunshine, they aren't, but you don't have Sunshine to swim into either. I read somewhere that the rapids below Sunshine are like the Watauga around 190 cfs, which seemed accurate to me.
Quite a few of the post-Sunshine rapids would be named on other rivers – lots of funs slots and boofs. Colonel Dick's was a cool boulder garden culminating into a quick S-turn into a large pillow coming over a big boulder at the bottom of the rapid.
We ran the left line on Toilet Bowl and had drama-free lines.
Hammer Factor was next and is quite intimidating looking. Jeff and Beth both assured me that if I went under the huge undercut boulder that I would probably come out. (!!) I got a look from the last small staging eddy. This is a strange one to run because you feel like you're sliding/dropping right into the large undercut boulder. Somehow I managed to be mindful of my edges and come through a OK.
Jeff and I were sitting in the eddy below Hammer Factor watching Beth run the drop when a fish leapt 2 or 3 feet high right in front of her. I think the fish was trying to show her a good line. Either way it was a great way to cap the trip down the Narrows.
Jeff and Beth did an awesome job explaining the lines. I think it was the first time either of them had lead anyone down the Narrows. From my perspective it went great, not too fast or slow, not too much or too little info. Just an all around awesome day. Thanks guys. I'm still smiling.
More than one person has told me that your first run on the Narrows will be your best run for awhile, either way I look forward to my next trip there. It really is quite a special place.
Chris
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Chris Grindstaff | http://gstaff.org