TRIP REPORT
I'm not sure what to call this trip report. My choices have boiled down to
Gnarvan goes to Idaho
or
Stupid Should Hurt
The boring stuff first. The trip was 1350 miles and I got 8.6 MPG. This is one MPG better than last time I went to Banks to run the NF Payette. The increase in mileage kind of surprises me because I'd added aerodynamic drag in the form of a Aluminess bumper with big lights on it. I've also changed the gear ratio in the diffs from 355's to 410's and added at least 500 pounds of weight to the van. I did drop my cruise setting from 65mph to 60 mph so that is probably the answer.
The whole point of this trip was to run the NF Payette as many times as possible. I was there for 7 days and was only able to get in three runs. Mostly because of a self inflicted wound based on my own stupidity. I was able to get in 2 Staircase runs and 1 Swirley Canyon run though.
STUPID SHOULD HURT!
I had made arrangements to meet some of my Boise Boating friends for a nice mellow run on the Staircase section of the SF Payette when I got there as a warm up for the NF. I also didn't want to jump onto the NF after driving 10 hours. My friend Ted talked me into jumping into his round boat as part of a R3 crew. The three of us in the round boat are all accomplished cat boaters but we suck as a R3 team. I ended up getting dumptrucked out of the boat in a rapid called Staircase. As I as falling out of the boat my foot got hooked onto the strap I was using as a foot cup. I ended up hanging head under water with my leg trapped inside the boat. To make matters worse I was hanging from the leg that I had a total knee replacement done about 3 years ago. My friend Steve saw the problem I was having so he was right there and grabbed my hand to pull my head back up so I could breathe. He pulled me up far enough to get my head out of the water and my foot popped free. It felt good to be swimming next to the boat, even if there were some ugly rocks coming up. That was the first event that stressed my right leg.
The next day there were 4 of us that were set up to run the lower 5 miles of the NF. I made the bad decision that cost me that morning. Since I had run the section 5 times last year I decided not to scout Juicer and Crunch. I thought I'd remember the line once I was in the rapid. This worked fine in Juicer but I ended up getting munched in Crunch. There are two ways to enter Crunch. I've always run the left lead in where you punch through a couple of holes next to the bank and then work hard to the right to miss some rocks and an undercut ledge down river. My big mistake was not remembering to punch 2 and then move right. I punched the first one and then took a couple of big back pulls sliding right into a hole that grabbed my boat. It spun me sideways so fast and violently I was thrown out of the seat and slammed into the frame with my right leg hitting first. The next thing I know I'm chest deep stuck getting side surfed hanging onto the scout bars of my frame in between the tubes. I knew if the boat flipped I would probably loose my grip and end up swimming. Swimming this water without your boat is not an option. I ended up getting banged around in the hole for over a minute trying to get out. Every time the boat would try and flip I would reach high side on the frame and pull it back down. I didn't know how I was going to get out of the hole without flipping out of it and I really didn't want to do that. The boat was getting worked pretty hard with me getting banged up against the frame. Then it started to spin into a nose into the hole position which I knew would be a bad thing. Once the tube tips caught the hole the boat would be airborne with me swimming. As it was working its way to nose in, the boat started to surge a little bit. When it was surging its way back away from the hole I dropped my body as deep in the water as I could and the water exiting the hole down low grabbed me and pulled the boat out of the hole. Great......I'm Free.....Free at last......not so great. Now I'm still chest deep in the water headed down river backwards hanging onto the frame. I know there are several nasty drops coming up and things could go south again in a hurry. I crashed over the first drop ok but the second one had a rock that pinned my right leg to the frame as I slid over it. Ignoring the pain I scrambled back up in the seat, reset my left oar and worked hard right to miss the nasty rocks that were headed my way fast. By the time I got to the takeout I was having trouble walking and my right leg was already pretty swolen. I got some ice on it right away and played injured shuttle bunny for the next 2 days.
The hole that ate me
A look at Crunch from the top. It would have been a nasty swim. I was stuck in the second hole from the top
The putin for the lower 5 has two options. You can putin below a class V called Hounds Tooth or you can put in right in the middle of Hounds Tooth. The putin that launched you right in the middle is easier so that's what most people do. The problem with that is you only have about 5 or 6 warm up strokes to work your way out to the line for the main drop in Hounds Tooth.
While I was playing injured shuttle bunny I took a few shots of a couple of my friends in Hounds Tooth
Mark setting up his line for the initial drop
My other buddy riding the first hit out
For medicinal purposes only during my recovery I was nursing a bottle of Fireball. I like it Iced.
The Springs Fire in Idaho was burning during my stay and I got these photos of the fire. After sitting it out for 2 days I decided to so a Staircase run on the SF Payette to test my leg. I knew I could boat OK but the big question mark was if I would be able to self rescue in a nasty class V situation on the NF. I took these pictures while I was running the SF. My buddy Harold and I sat on the side of the river for at least an hour and a half watching the fire crews work the fire.
Helicopter working the fire
FedEx truck driving up the Banks Lowman road
The next day I was ready for a little more NF action but they fire had closed hwy 55 north of Banks so we decided to do a cocktail run on the Swirley Canyon Section of the SF. While I was waiting in an eddy with my camera out ready to catch my 2 friends as they came around the corner this commercial trip came by. The look on the boys face in the front of the boat is priceless
What would a trip report be with a picture of Gnarvan in action. Loaded up with a 2 stack after the redemption NF run.
Edit to include:
Stupid still hurts. It's been 11 days since Crunch and my right leg is still black and blue and swolen.
Do you have any heirs? If not, would you will me them new lights on the front of your van?
"let the swelling go down"
or we use jokingly use the term "enter the tongue and manuever as necessary". It's that easy. Not Lava, however. You have to take your lumps there. They say there's two kinds of boatman: those that have flipped and those who will. Here's mine in 2002. It's a timing move to miss the ledge hole that spans most of the river. Catch a piece of the lateral off of that and it funnels you into the V-wave. It's a big hit but typically you just get buried in water. I came out of that a little cockeyed and couldn't quite get it turned before I hit the Kahuna Wave off the Black Rock at the bottom. Went right over. I've had scarier swims. Didn't lose anything but a little pride and subsequently a lot of scotch. The $10,000 of survey gear I was carrying was high and dry.
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