Posted by Erik
on 10/18/2009, 6:07 am
68.9.41.37
"Love the rock”. That’s what they taught me in my first whitewater class. If you end up sideways in the current, broached against an obstruction, you need to lean into the obstructuction to keep the upstream gunwale out of the water. If you don’t, the boat will pin and you will end up like this.
That’s what happened to Joe. Jeff and I hooked up with a few other polers for a fun day on the lower section of the Farmington in New Boston. We put-in around 11:00 and spent a couple of hours picking our way through the boulders as we worked our way up to the Bear’s Den Rapid. The river was not particularly high, but there were several class II sections with lots of rocks and ledge.
The last rapid below Bear’s Den is the most difficult. Marshall went first and took a swim. Aaron went next and almost made it, only to lose his pole. Joe went third. He got spun sideways and his boat quickly pinned on a large boulder. We worked for 20 minutes to get his boat off the rock to no avail. We finally decided to return today with more help. Then we will run the upper section.
Some pictures here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/slideshow/575145363BBsCPe
More to come.
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