Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Got Boof Goes North '09

Beau on Colton Falls

The following is a contribution by our newest Got Boof Member: Beau Smith

The 2009 summer season ended with a bang this year when I was fortunate enough to be invited up to the Adirondacks with the Got Boof crew. After boating for an entire summer on the Upper Yough, I felt confident enough in my boating skills to try my luck. The drive was suspiciously flat, but I was assured that massive, steep drops were hidden somewhere in the placid landscape of upstate, rural New York.

On the first day, we ran the Raquette river, and the first rapid lay within a short walk of the put-in. For those of you who have not seen Colton falls, you will probably sleep better at night having not seen it in person. That was my first reaction anyways. Pure terror. As I was carrying my boat towards the put-in, there was some uncertainty in my mind about if I would live through the day. Luckily for me, I cruised down through the rapid with no problems. It was so much fun, I decided to carry up and run it again. Everyone else came through and we headed down the river for a great day of giant rapids and good times.

















The rest of the weekend was a little more mellow with some fun class four rapids on the Moshier and Taylorsville sections of the Beaver, and some exciting park-and-huck action on the Eagle sections.

















I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. Every area of the country offers something different for kayakers, and New York is no exception, especially coming from the PA-MD-WV region. Besides getting to see some new rivers, this weekend provided me the opportunity to run my first class V river, and push my mental and physical limits to new levels. Thank you to Jason, and all the other guys who I boated with this weekend. It was a great trip, and I hope that I can travel back to New York and do it again next year.


The Chambersburg crew also made their way north this weekend. Check out some photos of their adventure here.