O.C.T. Goshen Pass 1/4/14

[bambam]

Short and sweet, GK Kinsey and I enjoyed a chilly low-water run of the Pass yesterday and there's a reason why I'm the one writing the report.

Bundling up at the put in we had discussions about dry-hair days and elbow pads.

Summoning up some positive attitudes in the face of a headwind early in the run we found ourselves enjoying the ice formations along the edges along with those on the surrounding cliffs.

(Couple-o-ice photos at the end of this collection.)

https://picasaweb.google.com/1107193697 ... dlingShots#

Heading into the first significant rapid, Undercut, I noted that when the wind paused I became rather instantly hot.

With all of these potential ironies firmly in place we entered the rapid with GK running the ledges on the left in his kayak and me taking a center line in my canoe.

Simple enough, violating my guideline, a little, of "if you are going to swim, try to do it in class II", I pulled off the lip of the first ledge, landed on my offside rail, paused for reflection at the tipping point, and went over. Oh well, bumpy runout, bailed, not wishing to repeat the original bambam maneuvers from a dozen years ago. No real blood, no real foul, I swam about twenty feet and recovered.

Later in the run I realized I banged an elbow pretty hard, fulfilling the last of the jinxes discussed at the put in.

All around a fine day though, thanks to GK for joining in !

Ken Dubel

[tolyho]

Love this reflection thanks Ken

[bambam]

Silly little swim, nice to get it over with on day 4.

Cheers,

Ken

[JDzielak]

I'm wearing elbow pads on the pass from now on regardless of water level. I crushed my elbow on the slot move in the top right of kitchen. Hurt for about a week.

[MichaelME]

[quote="]I'm wearing elbow pads on the pass from now on regardless of water level. I crushed my elbow on the slot move in the top right of kitchen. Hurt for about a week.[/quote]

Safety gear is not run or level specific.

[allwet]

If you want to wear elbow pads all the time, no worries. But you wont see many on the upper james, lower james, or new gorge at summer levels. If people want to wear em great but I think some safety aspects are level and location dependent.......

[Boat Medic]

^So in other words, the "cool kids" don't wear em??^