On Saturday I got up to the Nanaimo River. Tim told me that Larry and a few others would be paddling the Nanaimo, and since it had been raining, the level should be good. I drove up – with no contact info – just basically blind, in the hopes of meeting paddlers around 10:30 at the river.

I got to the Bungy Zone, and saw no one was there, but fortunately I knew the area as I had paddled the Nanaimo a few times before. I drove up the road, and just looked for paddlers. I came across 3 at a different take out than what I normally knew (but I did not realize that at the time). At that take out were Larry, whom I had paddled with before, Martin, whom I think I have paddled with once or twice, and Ian, who I have never paddled with before.

We got all organized, and set off for the put in. The water was high. VERY high. In fact, none of them had ever seen the Nanaimo that high before. It had rained the night before, and the day was hot and free from clouds. Thus, it was probably a large amount of snowmelt. The guages for the river were broken on the government site, so nobody knew the height before hand.

I had made some modifications to my Jive the night before. I removed the Perception thigh hooks that had been in my boat since I bought it. They tended to put my left leg to sleep, and made the fit fairly uncomfortable. Still, I was always able to control the jive very well.

It turns out that the lack of thigh hooks do in fact make the jive more comfortable, but I found my performance went down. I did not feel as assured as snapping the boat from edge to edge without the aid of the thigh hooks was considerably more difficult. This made me less self assured in the dependable jive. That, and everyone was a tad concerned by the level of the river. I had forgotten what the drops were like, and I could not remember most of the lines. That, and the character of the river had changed.

So, when we got down to A Frame, Larry (who unfortunately had a swim) and Martin opted out. Ian and I had a discussion about where we would paddle to, and agreed to go down 2/3 of the run and take out. I did not realize it at the time, but I would have been fine to paddle the whole thing, but I did not feel comfortable having only 2 of us on the river, as a swim by either of use would have resulted in a yard sale…

After A Frame, Ian and I happened upon a fairly nice wave with an eddy right next to it. We played around in that, then rode through one of the more difficult rapids. There were certanly some scary spots in places, but the lines were obvious, so you could easially skirt the bad stuff if you knew what you were doing. Coming around another corner, we found a huge eddy, and a good wave, and further down stream, out of the eddy zone was a beautiful big green wave. We surfed on the one next to the eddy, then Ian gave the green wave a shot, and had a good surf. I headed down after, and thought I had missed it, but the Jive being the dependable surfing machine it is, (combined with quite the ab workout!) I was able to get on the wave and I got one hell of a ride. It was probably a 5 min surf. In fact, the only reason I came off was I no longer had the core strength to get my stern rudder fully planted while carving as my abs just gave out, and I blew off the wave. It was a fantastic surf.

We ran down to the next rapid, where there is a “boof” section. We ran the boof section – which had no boof! Just a big green tongue into an eddy. Quite a cool drop – especially on this bright and sunny day. We rode more of the rapids before pipeline, and then took out at pipeline. I suddenly realized that we were taking out where I had always taken out when doing the Nanaimo! Ian explained that the river was still really cool down the “ledges” to “house rock” and I wished I had opted to keep going, as I have never seen the route from Pipeline to the House Rock. Still, I hope to get another chance. After a very long portage back, we met up with the other guys who had hitched a ride to the pre-planned take out, and had managed to get vehicles. Ian gave me a lift back to my car, and after checking out my place in Nanaimo, I headed back to Victoria. I did try to take a swing by Tugwell Creek Meadery, but I did not get there in time – I made it into Sooke at 5, so I just missed getting there. Oh well.

Last Sunday, 15 of April, I was driving through Duncan, and I saw a bunch of kayaks being loaded on to Vehicles on the side of the road by the Koksilah. I thought for a moment, and then turned my car around and decided to drive over and say hello. I am so glad I did. I spoke with Tim Marks who is a Lake, Moving Water and Ocean Navigation instructor – he paddles Open Canoe and C-1. He offered to take me with him on the Cowichan on Saturday as the Vancouver Island Whitewater Society was having their annual general meeting at the Warm Rapids Inn near Lake Cowichan. That name sounded familiar to me for some reason…

I followed Tim up from Goldstream Park on Saturday morning, and we went to the put in on the Cowichan river. Turns out we left really early – I was up at 7 am, but due to the way paddlers are, we did not get on the river until noon! Not Tim’s fault though. As it was, scores of other paddlers showed up. There were open canoes, kevlar kayaks, playboats, and even an NRS 6 person raft on the river! I had a blast. I was a bit nervous heading down the river as I did not know it, and my hip pads were not glued into my Jive. I elected to paddle the Jive as it is a rock-solid boat for me compared to the Super Ego. The water was cold, and my left leg kept going numb, but my body remembered how to paddle, and paddle well. I remember fireing into an eddy, thumping the hull of my boat and announcing to Rose, Steve and Wes: “This, THIS! Is where I belong! What the hell was I thinking not being on a river like this!?”

It was a near religious experience, and for those of you who know me you know that is saying something. All my moves came back, and I found despite being very out of shape, that my training in flatwater K-1 racing had dramatically improved my forward stroke. I was able to properly apply massive amounts of power to the blades, despite my abdominals screaming in protest. There were some unnerving spots at first, as I did not know the river, S-Bend, Double Whammy and of course Final Drop. However, as I approached each of these my experience took over and I thought “You have paddled much much worse than this”. And I had.

After paddling, there was the Annual General Meeting out in the cold, where various topics were discussed. Then a BBQ and beer. I sat around talking to everyone, and during the course of the day I met many paddlers. Don and Rose run the Warm Rapids Inn, and I had paddled with Don before – in fact, we both got our ACA instructors at the same time from Jodie Dixon near Castlegar. Sean Plecas was there, and I have paddled with him as well. There were others too who were new to me: Shane, Jessica, Georgia, Rose, Tim, Wes, Steve, Will, Christine, Mark, Kelly… And others who will have to forgive me for forgetting their names right now. I was impressed at how many of us on the river were certified instructors, and how many were newbies. I like paddling with a diverse group – people of every level. I find I have more fun that way. I certainly had fun!

I headed home that night as I had not planned to be there until 10 PM, everyone else camped out, but I was not planning on that and had none of my camping gear, so I headed back home to get some rest. The next day I was up early, firing back up to the Cowichan. I had to make some interesting stops along the way – such as WalMart to get contact cement for my hip pads. And we hit the river again. The second time around was better – although I did not get in as good of a surf at S-Bend as my muscles were starting to complain. I could feel little aches all over – in places like my rotator cuff, pecs, wrists, shoulders, and of course, my abs. Nothing was going to stop me from paddling though. I remember giving myself tendinitis on the Clearwater because of my refusal to stop paddling good water.

Other than missing a few good surf waves, the second day was as good as the first. We did a much longer run, which had some very long floaty bits. That required me getting out of the Jive a number of times as my left leg kept going to sleep. I still did not flip once. My low braces are on target from K-1 training as well. Goes to show you cross-training is a good thing. I took some good chunks of plastic out of my boat, the rocks in the Cowichan are very sharp. There are sections that appear to be undercut. Goes to show you how inner tubers die on the river every year in undercuts. Other than my boat being gouged up, my legs got carved up a little as well, because when my legs go numb in the Jive, I usually fall out of the boat as I am unable to stand when getting out. That put some marks on me.

After getting back around six on Sunday, I had to head out and get some shopping done as I had no food left. When I got back in around seven or so, I barely had the energy to put the food in the fridge, and trying to set my alarm clock I fell asleep in front of it, and had to drag myself over to it to get the time set properly. I crawled into bed and fell instantly to sleep. Not that it was a great sleep, given how much of my body was sore. Today as I write this, I was sore as well, but I forced myself into the Gym as I know I will heal faster with more workouts, and get in better shape faster for more paddling. I can’t believe I denied myself this sport for so long. I also got more river booties, extra outfitting for the jive to prevent my legs from going to sleep, looked into raising the seat in my Super Ego (after inspecting a similar Drago Rossi with a raised seat) to make it easier to roll. And I even got some drypants on order.

Now instead of the sea kayak which I have been considering buying since September (as I now get “free” Sea Kayak access from ORPC) I am considering adding a new Steep Creeker to my quiver. There are a number of steep creeks on the island, and I am determined to get out more.

I signed up for the club of course, I also signed up for the Puntledge river festival on May 25-27, including the playboating clinic. And of course I signed up for the Surf Kayak Fest in September. There may not be much water in the summer on the island, but you can damn well bet I will be running any of it I find. I am also signing up to head out to a “secret” spot on the island to surf tidal rapids. I am not mentioning where as the number of slots available to go on the trip are limited, and I want to keep mine.

It is good to be back.

I have been wanting to try mead for years, unfortunately it is very hard to come by. That, and I have been told my many people that it is not very good, and has a very skunky taste. Still, I had this quest to try some. I decided to start Googling for Mead on Vancouver Island, and found that there are at least 2 places on the Island that make it. Furthermore, one of them is in Sooke: Tugwell Creek Farm

I called around the list of places that sold mead, and found that in Victoria, only Smugglers Cove Beer and Wine Store had any in stock – they had a few bottles of the 2004 Sack Mead – Wassail Gold. At $24.95 a bottle, and only 200 ml per bottle, this was the most expensive alcohol I have ever purchased! Still, I badly wanted to try it. I got the bottle, pulled out the cork, and got ready for a bad tasting mead… I was pleasantly surprised. Given how much it cost I am rather glad it did not taste bad! However, I was so surprised at how good it tasted that I am amazed more people don’t buy it. When Tugwell Creek releases this years mead vintage, I am going to pick up a bottle of Melomel, as it is far less expensive than the Wassail Gold.

Well, finally some good news. Much has been going on with my Mortgage and house hunting, both good and bad. My house looks totally different from what it did when I bought it, I have my Mother to thank for that as she co-ordinated all the people to perform all the various repairs on the house. She knows so much more about home repair than I do, having years of experience doing it herself. Of course, she also did quite a bit of work on the place herself, that is just what she does.

On another note, it looks like I can get my Toyota 4Runner back on the road. Which would be great. I really missed having that truck running. I can carry loads of kayaks on it, I can sleep in the back of it as opposed to a tent, and on hot days I can take the roof off and cruise around 4X4 style! I won’t be needing the fuel efficiency of the Tercel anymore, what I will need is a way to carry kayaks, and a good place to sleep when car camping. And lets face it. My 4Runner is perfect for that. I tried to get a diesel engine, but even though they are around, I did not get much luck with one. I am still going to take one more brief stab at it, but it just may not be worth it economically to go diesel. Besides Gas is easier to find, and I don’t need to drive except when shopping or doing exciting trips. And when going on trips, I probably need the 4Runner anyhow! There were a few places around Nanaimo I wanted to go back to, but could not as my Tercel won’t make it. I won’t take my Tercel up the fire road to Mt. Arrowsmith, that is for certain!