English Story
Adam Hackenberg
Gambrell English III H
Autobiographical Incident
September 15, 2006A
Rainy Day in the World of a Kayaker
On Monday we got a ton of rain during the morning to afternoon hours. Some spots in Pickens got up to thirteen inches of rain. With many of the rivers in the area being over flood stage Dad and I decided we should go kayaking after he got off of work. At this point in the day most of the rivers had already spiked and where coming down but they were still really high. When we got to Pickens some of the roads where closed off due to Twelve Mile being flooded, so we took an alternate route which had a few other rivers at the bank bursting level and some past that but none on the road ruining stage at this point in time.. When we got to Little Eastoe it was at the highest water level we had ever seen it, and the water also smelled of poop. We scouted and looked at the river for a while then set up a shuttle. While Dad was running the shuttle I had a chance to suite up slowly going threw all the lines in my head, where to place each stroke, and which eddys, areas of low pressure behind a rocks or structures that cause the water to flow in the opposite direction of the main flow, to catch. With adrenaline already streaming threw my body I make the walk down to river, a short walk down a gravel road to a short and steep bushwhack down to the rivers edge. At the put-in spot I popped the sprayskirt over the lip of the boat then pushed off into the water waiting below me.
Being in the water I soon noticed that the water was more of an opaque than a transparent one with the deepest depth to be seen being no more than one inch. Looking back I saw that Dad was in the water and I headed down some easy water to just above the first drop, Chelie, there I told Dad just to go down center the next two rapids. While taking my last few strokes to the brink I doubted this was the right slide but on the brink I realize it was and slid down it slowly heading to the left to where a jet of flow came in from the left making sure to have a good right hand stroke and to lean downstream as I hit it. After that I caught a small eddy on the left after the rapid to make sure everything was fine, it was. I Peeled out of the eddy and headed to the next rapid Face Crusher, it really isn’t as mean as the name implies but I guess someone else thought so. I slid off of the three foot waterfall taking a stroke at the lip of it so I would land flat then into a small maybe eight foot tall slide which terminated into a hole, a depression in the water in which the water tries to fill the depression with backflow a hole can stop, hold, or even in extreme cases kill a kayaker, which I got over with a small stroke. I caught another eddy and watched my dad come down he ended up getting buried in the hole but got threw it none the less and came to rest in the eddy with me. There I briefed him on the lines of the remaining rapids.Once again I pealed out of the eddy and went down the short section of easy whitewater in which on every passing stroke my heart would beat faster until the climax at the brink of Truck Stop where the river becomes a closed in canyon in which the water ricochets off of the rocks which will stand there for all of a humans underestimated eternity as a gate for every drop of fleeting water making its voyage to the sea and at that point my heart beat ceased to exist. The first ledge is an easy straightforward drop that I ran on right and is just there to build up speed so it will hurt more if you hit the rocks on the next drop. A few more paddle strokes to stay river right and gain momentum and I hit the next slide which runs into a rock pile on left that is calling for you to piton into, a situation when the boat gets stuck in a rock and another good way to die, and some more rocks on the right. I went straight down the right side of the slide then used a good right stroke to keep my angle and leaned downstream to hit the strong push of water heading to the right, I kept my momentum and kept heading straight. Another stroke or two and I was over the next slide on the right side and picked up some more speed then a short break for the last drop of this rapid. I ran this one right again with a good right sweep stroke so I would have right angle that I used to bounce off of a rock on the right on this slide. Once at the bottom of this slide I used a micro-eddy to turn around to see Dad come down. He was successful at running the rapid right side up but he had almost flipped but he issued out a high brace appropriately and saved himself. I immediately peeled out so he would not spear into me. Here I noticed my heart was still gone but this time my arms had gone completely numb and I was building speed into the final slide also none as Green Wave. This final slide was the largest and fastest of them all with reactionary waves, waves coming from an object and pushing away from that object, pushing me away from the undercut and also trying to push me off my line so right strokes where in use to counter act the waves pushing me off to the right and trying to spin me. With one last power stroke I cleared the hole at the bottom and hit the river left eddy. Dad ended hitting the reactionaries wrong and spun out halfway down the slide. The hole stuck him and he was up for a short surf, the hole flipped him and he swam because he had the mentality that if he flipped it would be better to swim because of the fast speed of him, the slow speed of the rocks, and the shallowness of the creek. With the water, sun, and energy, quickly dropping we ran the Green Wave a few more times and then headed home satisfied from our afternoon run on the Little Eastoe.
Gambrell English III H
Autobiographical Incident
September 15, 2006A
Rainy Day in the World of a Kayaker
On Monday we got a ton of rain during the morning to afternoon hours. Some spots in Pickens got up to thirteen inches of rain. With many of the rivers in the area being over flood stage Dad and I decided we should go kayaking after he got off of work. At this point in the day most of the rivers had already spiked and where coming down but they were still really high. When we got to Pickens some of the roads where closed off due to Twelve Mile being flooded, so we took an alternate route which had a few other rivers at the bank bursting level and some past that but none on the road ruining stage at this point in time.. When we got to Little Eastoe it was at the highest water level we had ever seen it, and the water also smelled of poop. We scouted and looked at the river for a while then set up a shuttle. While Dad was running the shuttle I had a chance to suite up slowly going threw all the lines in my head, where to place each stroke, and which eddys, areas of low pressure behind a rocks or structures that cause the water to flow in the opposite direction of the main flow, to catch. With adrenaline already streaming threw my body I make the walk down to river, a short walk down a gravel road to a short and steep bushwhack down to the rivers edge. At the put-in spot I popped the sprayskirt over the lip of the boat then pushed off into the water waiting below me.
Being in the water I soon noticed that the water was more of an opaque than a transparent one with the deepest depth to be seen being no more than one inch. Looking back I saw that Dad was in the water and I headed down some easy water to just above the first drop, Chelie, there I told Dad just to go down center the next two rapids. While taking my last few strokes to the brink I doubted this was the right slide but on the brink I realize it was and slid down it slowly heading to the left to where a jet of flow came in from the left making sure to have a good right hand stroke and to lean downstream as I hit it. After that I caught a small eddy on the left after the rapid to make sure everything was fine, it was. I Peeled out of the eddy and headed to the next rapid Face Crusher, it really isn’t as mean as the name implies but I guess someone else thought so. I slid off of the three foot waterfall taking a stroke at the lip of it so I would land flat then into a small maybe eight foot tall slide which terminated into a hole, a depression in the water in which the water tries to fill the depression with backflow a hole can stop, hold, or even in extreme cases kill a kayaker, which I got over with a small stroke. I caught another eddy and watched my dad come down he ended up getting buried in the hole but got threw it none the less and came to rest in the eddy with me. There I briefed him on the lines of the remaining rapids.Once again I pealed out of the eddy and went down the short section of easy whitewater in which on every passing stroke my heart would beat faster until the climax at the brink of Truck Stop where the river becomes a closed in canyon in which the water ricochets off of the rocks which will stand there for all of a humans underestimated eternity as a gate for every drop of fleeting water making its voyage to the sea and at that point my heart beat ceased to exist. The first ledge is an easy straightforward drop that I ran on right and is just there to build up speed so it will hurt more if you hit the rocks on the next drop. A few more paddle strokes to stay river right and gain momentum and I hit the next slide which runs into a rock pile on left that is calling for you to piton into, a situation when the boat gets stuck in a rock and another good way to die, and some more rocks on the right. I went straight down the right side of the slide then used a good right stroke to keep my angle and leaned downstream to hit the strong push of water heading to the right, I kept my momentum and kept heading straight. Another stroke or two and I was over the next slide on the right side and picked up some more speed then a short break for the last drop of this rapid. I ran this one right again with a good right sweep stroke so I would have right angle that I used to bounce off of a rock on the right on this slide. Once at the bottom of this slide I used a micro-eddy to turn around to see Dad come down. He was successful at running the rapid right side up but he had almost flipped but he issued out a high brace appropriately and saved himself. I immediately peeled out so he would not spear into me. Here I noticed my heart was still gone but this time my arms had gone completely numb and I was building speed into the final slide also none as Green Wave. This final slide was the largest and fastest of them all with reactionary waves, waves coming from an object and pushing away from that object, pushing me away from the undercut and also trying to push me off my line so right strokes where in use to counter act the waves pushing me off to the right and trying to spin me. With one last power stroke I cleared the hole at the bottom and hit the river left eddy. Dad ended hitting the reactionaries wrong and spun out halfway down the slide. The hole stuck him and he was up for a short surf, the hole flipped him and he swam because he had the mentality that if he flipped it would be better to swim because of the fast speed of him, the slow speed of the rocks, and the shallowness of the creek. With the water, sun, and energy, quickly dropping we ran the Green Wave a few more times and then headed home satisfied from our afternoon run on the Little Eastoe.
posted by Adam Hackenberg at 7:51 PM
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