Today was an interesting day on the East Fork of the Lewis River
“waterfall run”. It's been raining a lot and the river spiked so it was, err, I guess you could say a little more exciting than we anticipated. It was my first time down, so I wouldn't have known any better if the people I was paddling with weren't saying stuff like, wow...the river is twice as wide as it was last Saturday! Actually, that's not true...I would’ve been able to guess anyway - trees usually don’t grow IN the river. If I were Catholic, I would've been crossing myself. I had a couple minor debacles and Brian had one BIG debacle. He got tossed about at the bottom of a drop, his paddle broke in half, then he swam out of his boat only to find out he hadn't zipped up all the way so his "dry"suit filled up with cold water. Fortunately, he didn't drown right then and there! Then he had to paddle the rest of the river with 1/2 paddle. He was a little worried about going over the 2nd waterfall with only 1/2 paddle, but fortunately he found a rope and we were able to lower him down around it. As we were lowering Brian's boat down to him, another group of kayakers appeared on the river. I looked up in time to see the first guy upside down at the base of the falls, but, well, that's not a big deal really. But come to find out he had gone over it way off-line and upside down! Poor Paul. His knuckles aren’t looking too good and we hope they aren’t broken, but I suppose it could’ve been worse... So then it was my turn. Despite all this trouble I was very excited and not terribly nervous........until I started paddling and almost missed my line. But then it was okay again........until I got a little sideways in the air so I flipped over at the bottom and tried to roll up a couple of times, then freaked out and went for a little swim. Being upside down at the base of a waterfall is a little weird. WEIRD and CHAOTIC. I have a pretty high tolerance for such weirdness (obviously), but sometimes it is a bit much even for me. Oh, well. It was still fun. If I could’ve hiked back up and run it again, I would have. It's a beautiful river and I meant to take lots of pictures, but turns out I was preoccupied with other things and only took a few. So, without further ado, here are pictures of these two waterfalls that I threw myself off of in a little hunk o’ green plastic.... Those of you that don't like doing such silly things can just appreciate the scenery! Sunset Falls
Horseshoe Falls
