Sunday on the Saluda - May 1, 2005
Submitted by Pam Reutebuch on March 16, 2006 - 10:56pm.
By Dave Mullis
| Just to start this report off please acknowledge this was the original idea of Dennis Catoe as a means to introduce club members to the wonders and thrills of the whitewater experience without their spending a cent. Thank you for your insight Dennis.
The river was running at around 1500 cubic feet per second which was a good rate for beginners in a wild variety of craft and with varied boating skill levels. Everyone came adequately outfitted with helmets and good PFDs and, above all, good attitudes. Those participants using spray skirts were almost subjected to preliminary wet exit ability exhibitions but after careful scrutiny by the Nazi leaders were excused from this freezing start to the trip. This is not to say that future participants will be excused as this can mean a life or death situation and we try to avoid death type events, so be prepared to get wet at the start if you paddle a craft using a spray skirt. Wildlife ran rampant and with the howler monkeys shrieking from the zoo in the background numerous sightings of the Ivory Billed Woodpeckers were observed as they battled the Orca over the fifty pound Stripers (you didn’t know Ivory Bill’s gave up on bugs?) that were almost capsizing our boats. I think the highlight came when Kate attempted to ride one the few Emu that frequent the Saluda Shores. She’s quite an adept athlete, but those Emu’s are fast afoot and proved a bit too hasty for the hardy Kate. We were able to dine on some Emu omelets later on thanks to a recipe provided by a local rock person we found passed out at Twelfth Street Rapid in his BVDs. I could go on and on as to the day’s adventure, but you’ve just got to come next month to experience the wonder yourself. We truly enjoyed the company of our troop consisting of: Linda, Al, Ken, Tim, Kate, Dennis, David and Dianne |
