son of witless wrote:
I used to do that, but you need a bomb proof roll and I wasn't that good. I also used to roll a kayak that wasn't made for that. That's when my car keys went into the mud on a lake. Rolling in a river is much harder. A few times I couldn't get upright and I'm watching the river bottom varying as I'm flying down the river upside down. Again I wasn't very good. Sometimes I'd get right up, other times I couldn't roll to save my life.
I had a wet suit, but not the proper head covering. I wanted to brag that I had rolled the kayak in January on my local river. I actually got up okay, but the top of my skull ached with the worst brain freeze in my life. The brag was not worth the pain.
I used to do that, but you need a bomb proof roll ... (
show quote)
Along with a bunch of other assorted aviators, I made a couple of guided raft trips down the white water of the Arkansas River through Royal Gorge. That was a hoot.
The guide warned us about a rock in the river called "The Sledgehammer".
Said it has k**led some people over the years, especially when the water is up and running fast,
as it was on our extraordinary trip.
The Sledgehammer is actually a vertical rock wall that extends out from the right about 30 yards into the river
facing directly upstream, kinda like a half dam. Just imagine deep fast water hitting that wall and getting routed around it quite violently.
And just upstream from it about 50 yards is a steep sloped fall, about a 20 foot drop,
just enough to churn the water below into soap suds.
But the guide knew his stuff and we did our part manning the oars.
A hundred yards upstream of the fall, the guide directed us to keep far left (this isn't political, by the way),
to lay back going over the fall, then row like a sunuvab***h when we hit the suds.
"GO LEFT!" "MORE LEFT!" "STAY LEFT"! and like that.
We humped it on by The Sledgehammer, cold and wet and high fiving around the boat, feeling pretty good about ourselves. Considering how awesome yet intimidating that river and rocky beast is, I sometimes think we just got lucky.
I have pictures. Our trips down the Arkansas are documented in photos.
Rocky Mountain River Tours, the outfit we hooked up with, stations photographers at key points along the run.