McKenzie River Kayaking 2nd Trip

Wednesday August 5th was my 2nd run down the McKenzie river in central Oregon. We ended up being a flotilla of 3 canoes and 6 kayaks. John and Christy in John’s We-No-Nah Rogue Tandem White Water Touring canoe, Ben and Celia in an Old Town tandem white water canoe, Zak in an Esquif Raven solo white water canoe. Ed and Toni Ford where there with their son and daughter Kyle, and Taylor. Ed has a Dagger Mamba 8.5. Toni was paddling a Liquidlogic Jefe Chico. Kyle was in a Jackson Punk Rocker, and Taylor paddled a little Wavesport. Finally Linda was paddling a Jackson 2Fun.

Once we were on the water the little flotilla reminded me of a Navy Task force. A couple of heavies, a cruiser, and a whole bunch of frigates and destroyers. Another way to look at it with all the different colors we looked like a bunch of skittles skipping around on the clear cold water of the McKenzie.

The Mamba is a very different boat from the Jackson 4Fun that I paddled on the last trip. Dagger says it’s a creekboat, but the kayakers I know say it’s a river runner. It’s got some fairly hard edges which help it to carve nicely. It can also catch one of those edges and flip you over if you’re not careful. Just something to think about in the current. It’s a pretty stable boat compared to the 4Fun. I found that it tracked much better, but still had wonderful maneuverability.

The first mile or so I was a bit skittish. Took me a while to push things over. To find the edge just where my boat would go over. On this trip I only went over once. As we went down river I was looking for opportunities to grab every eddy possible. In particular I was looking forward to the eddy at Fin Rock which sent me swimming on my last trip. Coming up to Fin Rock I knew that John would have Ben and Celia catch it, and just about everyone else would crowd into it. The Fin Rock eddy is BIG and has a very strong eddyline. This was what threw me over on the previous trip. Today I eddied out about 200 yards upstream to let everyone else have fun at Fin Rock. The little boulder I chose had its own powerful eddy behind it, and when I stuck the Mamba’s nose into it, it grabbed hold like nothing I’d experienced before. I was really locked in. Then when everything settled down at Fin Rock I carved out of my little eddy and headed in.

Things were still crowded in the Fin Rock eddy so I came in from downstream. No dramatic eddy turn this time. And no swimming. Taking the opportunity to rest up for a bit. John had Ben and Celia peel out, then he followed. Ed tried and went for a swim as the strong current grabbed the wrong edge of his Mamba. When I peeled out I leaned way downstream with a high brace. The current whipped the bow of my kayak around so fast that the stern hadn’t cleared the rock. The bump almost flipped me, and it would have if I hadn’t been so far over. I had so much fun that I decided to go back and do it again. What a rush. The second time I was prepared for the stern to bump. I think that was one of the things that caught Ed.

As we continued downstream leapfrogging past each other John and Christy leading Ben and Celia into eddies. Zak feeling out the edges of the Esquif’s envelope. Linda attempting to surf just about every standing wave on the river. The Ford clan spread out amongst everyone, and I was catching eddies. After that little boulder, and Fin Rock I was really into it. It was fun going in leaned out into the river with the Mamba carving into the eddy. Something else I was doing was paddling more aggressively across the current. It’s a bit tricky because you’ve got to watch your edges. There’s a balancing point, and I’m learning to find it.

Coming up was the one place where I went swimming on this trip. River right was a really big boulder with a smaller one just upstream and to the left. I thought to shoot through the slot between these two boulders and eddy out behind the big one. This looked like a good plan until I got into the slot and realized that the currents were extra squirrelly. Perhaps this wasn’t a good choice. In spite of a quick brace and a solid lean I ended upside down. This time instead of punching out right away I made an attempt to roll up. However the roll attempt went I didn’t make it up, so I ended up swimming out.

I lost my paddle, and my water bottle. Linda recovered both of these for me and I swam the boat to shore where I found out that the Mamba isn’t as easy to drain as the Jackson 4Fun. It holds more water. Linda loaned me a little carabiner to keep my water bottle in the boat, and we continued downstream to the boulder garden.

The last time John challenged me to catch 20 eddies in the boulder garden. This trip my goal was 50 eddies, and no swimming. I’m getting pretty good at catching eddies of all kinds. Little bitty ones formed by a fist sized rock sticking up out of the water. Eddies made by rocks just below the water. Eddies where a cluster of boulders makes a lot of swirling and upwelling currents.

To be fair I didn’t catch all the eddies that I aimed for. Some of them were a bit two far across the river and I was carried downstream by the current before I could get to them. One thing I had figured out though. I was much more aggressive paddling after my swim than before. I think I’ll just have to play around in the put in rapid until I go over next time. Get the swim done early and paddle hard the whole trip. By the end of the boulder garden I had managed to catch 40 eddies. I was short of my goal by 10, but I had been falling behind the main group so I had passed up quite a few. Next time I’ll get 50.

By this time all the kayakers had gone swimming except for Linda. She owned the river in her little Jackson 2Fun. Ed had gone swimming in the boulder garden and I waited in an eddy for him to drain his boat and get back on the river. While I was waiting my boat did a couple of unexpected stern squirts. This would happen when the stern of the boat would drift into the eddyline behind me. The current would roll over the stern deck pushing it down into the water and forward. Sort of like pinching a watermelon seed between your thumb and forefinger.

As my skills improve I’m sure that this stern squirting thing will be a lot of fun. Today it was a bit unsettling as I tried not to get thrown over.

Next rapid down was Screamer, marked by a home flying a big American Flag on the right river bank. The first wave has a nice size hole followed by a long wave train. The canoes were dropping in, and then the kayaks. I watched from the rear as all the colorful little skittles seemed to disappear. The mamba made nice work of the hole and the standing waves even if they did look HUGE! I remember last time in the 4Fun these waves didn’t seem all that fun, but that’s just me learning. Everyone made it through Screamer upright.

The next exciting thing happened just before our lunch break. Taylor flipped over and went swimming. Then while Toni was helping her she got caught under a tree branch and went over. Linda and I eddied out in a wicked swirling eddy just on the side of the river. I’m not even sure what was making the current work this way, but we managed to rescue Toni’s paddle. Toni and Taylor made to the riverbank safely and spent some time getting their boats drained. Linda peeled out, and made it to our lunch break. Then Taylor peeled out. She went into the current and ran the rapid like she’d been doing this for years. Now it was my turn. I peeled out, and almost immediately got pushed into another eddy just downstream. Toni followed, but she got a little nervous and ended up swimming again. Once again we tried and made it through the rapid just above our lunch break. Wow! I’ll remember this one for a long time.

The next two rapids before the take out went pretty easily. At Eagle Rock Zak went swimming because he tried to surf the wave. He almost made it, but forgot that he was in a canoe. I watched him try to brace with a paddle blade that wasn’t there just before going into the river. I paddled through the meat of Eagle Rock and Manny’s run with no trouble at all. The mamba just makes river running fun.