This is The Last Time

Every time that I have gone kayaking in the last month, I have said
"this is the last time." The weather is getting colder, snow is sort
of starting to fall, and winter has pretty much arrived in our neck of
the woods. Sure enough a few days after a statement like that, it will
rain, and sure enough I will find myself wet once again come the
weekend. This week was no different.

Saturday night, the rain finally arrived, pooring down so hard that it
actually seeped into my house. I thought to myself, if this is really
going to be the last time I paddle in 2008 what can I do to properly
cap off my best year of kayaking yet.

The Du-Nord and Doncaster Rivers, just north of Montreal on Highway 15
were both running at a good level, and despite the fact that the
Middlebury, New Haven, and possibly John's Brook were all running,
Bill, Justin, and myself were all keen to get on two classic
runs none of us had ever done.

We met-up with our Canadian counterparts Bob, Steve, and Alex at the
take-out of the Du-Nord. It was cold, snowy, and grey at the put-in.
We were kind of in a hurry so scouting was not in the cards. We pulled
up to the first rapid, and ran right of a good sized hole. Justin
didn't quite get right enough and had a solid 30-second rodeo ride. He
came out just fine. In the second rapid we ran a really lame sneak
line in lieu of scouting the main line. Once again Justin provided
some entertainment by bouncing off the rocks (just like all of us did)
breaking his paddle and inevitably swimming in the frigid canadian
water. Lucky for him, his good friend Mutt brought a breakdown. The
rest of the run was less entertaining carnage-wise, with some sketchy,
but fun rapids. One rapid called reptile kept things particularly
interesting.

Quickly, we rallied to the put-in for the nearby Doncaster to meet up
with a huge crew of boaters. I mean HUGE...I think there were like 14
of us. The Doncaster had some really fun slides at the beginning,
followed by a significant drop that only Bob fired up. Below, there
was a long slide followed by what appeared to be a sweet boof. I found
out the landing was shallow, and boofing was essential. I blew the
boof, pitoned, and completely crushed the bow of my new Karnali...OOPS.
The rest of the run continued to be really exciting. Alex was getting
hammered in a significant poorover, and despite being seriosuly ill,
Justin launched a boof over him landing safely in the pool below.

I have no photos of our day due to my unwillingness to expose myself to
the elements by getting out of my boat. I will offer some evidence of
my crumpled kayak instead.

I feel pretty strongly saying this was my last day of kayaking
in 2008. There is some snow on the ground and snowmaking began at
Whiteface today. We will be skiing in a little more than a week.