My canoeing partner for the day was Jodi. It was the first time we met. We've gotten to know each other better since then.In November of 2009, I went on a canoe trip with the Outdoor Adventure Social Club on the Rockfish River.
My canoeing partner for the day was Jodi. It was the first time we met. We've gotten to know each other better since then.
Jodi has really taken to the paddling sports. These days (summer of 2010) she's even talking about buying a second-hand kayak!
Jodi works on the curatorial team at Monticello and also does (teaches?) gymnastics. On another (recent, summer of '10) trip, she even executed a handstand in a floating canoe. I love meeting people with such diverse interests and experiences through OASC.
Ashley and Pete.
Jason and Michael on the left; Pete and Ashley in the blue canoe.
Obviously the day was cool enough that I chose to wear a sweater, but I enjoyed soaking up the sun!
Early in the trip, we came to a place where the river divided around an island. There was a tree leaning out over the channel to the left, and the current wanted to push you up against the tree. So Pete advised us all that we should stick to the right unless we were REALLY confident of our steering. Pete is an expert canoeist, so he went left and got through OK. I told Jodi we'd be going right. But before we got there, Jason and Michael decided to try going left, and predictably enough they got shoved against the tree by the current, leaned away from the tree, and fell in the drink.
Here's the tree in question, though from this angle (standing on the island) it's hard to see how the current wants to drive you towards the bank rather than out around the leaning tree.
We all stopped and hopped out on the island so that Jason and Michael could drain their boat and dry off. I took lots of photos since we were standing around for a while.
Kim talking to Pete.
Peter L., not to be confused with Pete R., though they are both expert paddlers.
Steph, Peter, Kim, Pete.
Later on, farther down the river, we rafted the canoes together for a rest.
Jason, Ashley, Michael.
Kim; Pete's legs.
Pete and Brian.
The river.
Peter L. and Steph.
One of the rapids that we ran relatively late in the trip.
Kim and Brian running the rapid . . .
. . . backwards. (As Jodi said recently, "You only get points for doing it backwards if you call it first.")
Steph and Peter L. running the rapid.
Later (I think this was a different rapid) they got stuck.
Jason and Michael watch Peter L. try to get the canoe off the rocks.
Pete and Ashley wait below the rapids. One thing I've learned from these group trips is that you should always wait and watch for the boats behind you to come through the rapids, in case they get into trouble and need your help.
They made it through!
Pete and Ashley turn around in the pool below the rapids and we all get under way again.
In a later rapid, Steph and Peter L. capsized. I did not catch a picture of them capsizing, but took my camera out afterward. My pictures of the aftermath are below.
A sodden Steph wades ashore, joining Pete and Ashley, while Peter L. works on recovering his canoe. Michael and Jason, who in the meantime had capsized a second time themselves, watch from the left bank (right side of the photo).
Pete wades out to lend Peter a hand.
Fortunately for Peter and Steph, when they capsized, we were not far from the end of the trip. Peter had brought extra clothes in his dry bag, and Steph was soon able to change into her dry clothes when we got to the landing at the end, where the Rockfish River empties into the James near Scottsville.