a hair-raising good time
last thursday morning i played hookie from work to meet with jono of hairy scary evolutions to get my paddling & climbing certs for the upcoming SMAR. we started at the "marietta mangler", a rockface overlooking the chattahoochee river in the indian trail/east palisades area. it was great to get on a different rock with different challenges; i had been over to vickery creek twice now and knowing that i'll be experiencing something epic up in NC (potentially a 400+ foot rappel), i needed to test myself on something new. i rappelled down a few times with a figure 8, prussic, atc, and petzyl stop and ascended up using normal jumars and foot loops. this was the first time i've ascended up a rock with an overhang, so that was a new experience.
then we hit the water in some hard-shelled, medium-sized kayaks. we paddled a short distance and got out at a sandy area. i was then instructed to run up the trail back to where we started and swim down. yikes!!! first, swimming in the 'hooch?? icky. i'll definitely have to take a sanitizing bath after this. then the water isn't exactly warm. pretty chilly in fact. i waded out as far as i could before losing contact with the riverbed, then swam out as much as i could, hoping for a good line down the rapids. yes, rapids. class 1 & 2. and that's me.. swimming, er, floating down (or was it bobbing?). the rule is to keep your feet straight out in front to deflect the rocks that will be inevitably coming your way, and keep your arms out for floating/balance. this is where it's hard being a woman with a center of gravity at my middle... as my butt naturally hangs down further and got more than its fair share of bruises from the rocks. in all, it was a pretty ok experience... even with the last rapid that sucked me under for a second. i bobbed to the surface fairly quickly and thankfully didn't ingest any of that nasty water.
now that i was more than soaked to the bones, i climbed back in my boat and we continued on our way. i was refreshed on the basics of river navigation, reading rapids, the dangers of strainers, and eddying in/out. i must have been looking too dry, as the next test was me flipping the boat and righting it again. i tell you, purposefully flipping the boat into cold water isn't a natural thing to do and it took me a few rocks back and forth before i finally went over. first i slid the bow of my boat over jono's, got some leverage, and flipped her right side up, then comically hauled myself back into it. while this was successful, i had to try it one more time, this time swimming the boat over to shore and flipping it over there. by the time i conquered this, i was chilled to the bone and my teeth chattered uncontrollably. thankfully we were almost done and the hike back up to the cars (literally, up and up and up some more) warmed me up nicely.
now that i was now deemed knowledgeable in these disciplines, i drove home, soaked myself in a scalding shower (to warm up more and get the 'hooch off), then headed up to the office for an afternoon of work.
then we hit the water in some hard-shelled, medium-sized kayaks. we paddled a short distance and got out at a sandy area. i was then instructed to run up the trail back to where we started and swim down. yikes!!! first, swimming in the 'hooch?? icky. i'll definitely have to take a sanitizing bath after this. then the water isn't exactly warm. pretty chilly in fact. i waded out as far as i could before losing contact with the riverbed, then swam out as much as i could, hoping for a good line down the rapids. yes, rapids. class 1 & 2. and that's me.. swimming, er, floating down (or was it bobbing?). the rule is to keep your feet straight out in front to deflect the rocks that will be inevitably coming your way, and keep your arms out for floating/balance. this is where it's hard being a woman with a center of gravity at my middle... as my butt naturally hangs down further and got more than its fair share of bruises from the rocks. in all, it was a pretty ok experience... even with the last rapid that sucked me under for a second. i bobbed to the surface fairly quickly and thankfully didn't ingest any of that nasty water.
now that i was more than soaked to the bones, i climbed back in my boat and we continued on our way. i was refreshed on the basics of river navigation, reading rapids, the dangers of strainers, and eddying in/out. i must have been looking too dry, as the next test was me flipping the boat and righting it again. i tell you, purposefully flipping the boat into cold water isn't a natural thing to do and it took me a few rocks back and forth before i finally went over. first i slid the bow of my boat over jono's, got some leverage, and flipped her right side up, then comically hauled myself back into it. while this was successful, i had to try it one more time, this time swimming the boat over to shore and flipping it over there. by the time i conquered this, i was chilled to the bone and my teeth chattered uncontrollably. thankfully we were almost done and the hike back up to the cars (literally, up and up and up some more) warmed me up nicely.
now that i was now deemed knowledgeable in these disciplines, i drove home, soaked myself in a scalding shower (to warm up more and get the 'hooch off), then headed up to the office for an afternoon of work.
posted by cathi at 10:11 PM
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