Despite the lack of rain that has left most of the more appealing rivers too low to even scrape, Michael Ward kindly organized a Grade 2/3 paddle for the club on the River Dee. We met at the get-on at the Horse Shoe Falls carpark, at 9am, an ungodly hour for a Dee-paddle in my opinion. The morning was pretty chilly, with light sleet and the promise of snow a bit later in the day. There was some slight confusion over how the car-shuttle would work. Michael was digging deep into his basic numeracy skills as Nick Topley gave us a breakdown of the seating available in a Skoda Octavia. Michael was pretty amazed to discover that you could fit five drivers into an Octavia. Personally, I am still inclined to think that there was only one driver and four passengers, but we will let this pass. On the drive back to the get-on, Michael decided that the Dee was on a ‘high low’, which Dave Garland pointed out might be a ‘medium’. I think the tone for this trip has been set.
Back at the get-on, Dale Clarke pushed Michael to give a full brief. This was pretty interesting. One thing that was clear was that our illustrious leader would never point to the danger we should avoid. He promptly pointed to a massive log on the side of Horse Shoe Falls and told us to keep clear of it. You probably know by now that this trip report is going one-way.
Our newest white-water paddler, Beka Jane, looked a little bit nervous as we all got on, but made it down the first stretch of rapid without a hitch and got in a bit of ferry gliding at the bottom. Just as she started brightening up, we turned the corner to face the rather larger wave-train under chain bridge. After a brief pep-talk and instructions to “just follow Dale’s line”, she paddled through like a pro!
Again, a few minutes of respite before Michael shouted out… Serpent’s Tail! And told us to hold back while he went to find a suitable eddy. Beka looked a bit pale again, but put on a brave face. Somehow, miraculously, Michael found an eddy at the top of Serpent’s Tail and promptly gave the ‘Everybody down’ hand signal… As I paddled past him, I asked him if he had maybe meant to give the ‘Come to me’ signal. Fortunately, we’re all very intelligent people and psychically knew what he meant and picked one of the many nearby eddies.
A quick inspection revealed all to be good with the feature. We set up safety and Michael gave us a very expert demonstration on how those of us intending to run it should do so. While I have been giving Michael a ribbing in this report, I have to admit that his descent of Serpent’s Tail was well-controlled and showed his experience as a paddler. Those of us who ran the rapid made a good go of it. Some with better lines than others, but fortunately with no river-bed inspections in our descents. Despite just missing the top eddy, I was super chuffed to achieve a nonchalant surf to the other side to control the rest of my descent. I was happy to see Rob Harrison follow me down, also fully in control of his boat.
As we progressed down the river, we all had opportunities to play on the few waves and stoppers that the Dee has to offer and I was delighted to see Beka taking these opportunities and giving it her best shot. I believe that on one of these, I was the first to actually go over and successfully rolled back up with a new perspective on how cold the water actually was. Later, on the stopper at JJ’s, we saw Dale playing rodeo on the stickier side of the feature. Fraser Watson braved up to give it a go and also showed us how expertly it could be done, but it was very apparent that the stopper was holding boats and not letting them go very easily. I chickened out knowing full-well that stoppers are a weak point for me and also now very aware of the the temperature of the water. Michael stepped up to the challenge to show us his skills. It did not take him long to flip over, but we were all very impressed with the many roll attempts he made before he exited his boat. One of his rolls even had him fully upright again for all of a few seconds. Michael will confirm that the water was very very cold.
Further down the river, a group had gathered around the bottom wave, making surfing on this a queued up affair. By this stage, I think I was starting to back off and was struggling to commit to my surf attempts. I had decided to save my strength for Town Falls. I’m glad I did, because I finally saw Fraser get tripped up on a surf. Fortunately he was saved a swim by a nearby boat that he T-rescued himself off of when his roll went pear-shaped. Everybody has their moment.
At Town Falls, we struggled to make a good inspection as the flow was pretty strong and walking across to the set of rocks overlooking the falls was treacherous. We could see enough of the falls to pick a line and work out what we hoped to do. While some of the group paddled around the back of the falls, Dale made the first run so that he could offer some safety at the bottom. I followed, and despite the good intentions of my planned line, I got knocked slightly off-course and had to do some quick thinking as I planned the rest of my run on the move. I was delighted to make it down, with a fully unintentional eddy out at the bottom of the falls that made me look like a pro to the onlooking spectators that were gathering on the bridge. Nick Topley followed and duffed his line as well, keeping too far river right so that he knocked off a rock and took a swim. Which goes to show… a Grade 2/3 paddle down the Dee can still teach everybody a great many tricks.
Special thanks to Michael for organizing (please make the next trip to the Dee a 10 am start) and for the leadership. The usual obligatory thanks to Dale, who makes many of these trips possible and always offers his expert guidance and tuition. Thanks also for the great friends who come along on these trips and make them so enjoyable. This club is built around the people that step forward to do these trips and who work together to make them enjoyable and safe, and its always good to do a trip where that is evident. Peace out! — Rowan Puttergill