Emory River: Nemo to Camp Austin – 8/20/05

So Lucas and I decided to do our own thing this weekend, and we ended up on the same river trip. He and Jody paddled the tandem canoe. I paddled my solo canoe. Leslie borrowed Andy’s Redline for the trip and Gene and Sheila paddled their kayaks. It was Leslie’s first time in a kayak since Ellie was born and her previous trip had been over a year earlier. I promised her a fun weekend back in her kayak since it might be a while before the next free weekend.

People don’t do Nemo to Camp Austin very much because of the shuttle. It’s a II/II+ run with a class V shuttle. On the paved roads, round-trip is over an hour. On the Forest Service roads, the miles are fewer, but round trip is still over an hour. It’s a fun run and quite a treat when it comes up in the summer, because ample daylight offsets the length of the shuttle. We were especially lucky – we were able to run it at around 1200 cfs on the Oakdale gauge. Normal summer surprise runs are more in the 400cfs range.

Just around the corner from the put-in lies the biggest rapid of the day. Nemo rapid is class II+/III-. It’s a river-wide ledge with a bit of a bend just left of center. There are three straightforward tongues through the rapid, two on the left and one on the right. At the bend in the ledge is a pretty deep hole. It’s a pleasant swim both times that I’ve taken an excursion from my boat. We scouted first so everybody knew what to look for. Lucas took the right line. Leslie decided she wanted to run left instead, so I led through that side. I hit the tongue just left of the big hole and picked up a boat load of water. I turned to see her run it successfully before I lurched into the eddy to dump the water. As I paddled in, I heard a whistle. I turned to see Gene’s boat, paddle and then Gene himself float past me. Not much I can do with a boat full of water, plus, it’s a pleasing swim with no looming consequences below, so I got out and dumped my boat before seeing if he needed help. Sheila had a great line, and she and Leslie helped Gene get his gear in order.

Apparently, Gene ran right into the hole, got flipped and worked pretty good. He finally had to swim out. My guess is the aeration plus the added buoyancy of being upside down still in the boat kept him from getting pushed out. When he abandoned the boat, he sunk deep enough to float out.

After Nemo, a couple more class II+ rapids followed. Wave bouncing, rock dodging and eddy hopping were skills that Leslie enjoyed reconnecting with. She wasn’t doing much playing, which I can understand. We regrouped above Ginger’s Silence because that rapid has sometimes as few as one or two lines. No problems there. The extra water even opened up a few more routes. More eddy hopping and surfing followed. Leslie hit a combat roll after an eddy line below one of the rapids flipped her. None have names, so this one was the big boulder that makes me nervous. It has a dimple type undercut that’s hard to get to, but doesn’t look all that friendly.

We lunched below most of the major rapids. It was scorchingly hot, so we enjoyed a nice swim after lunch, confident our mothers would scold us for not waiting the requisite 45 minutes after eating.

Just above Crooked Fork Creek enters the river, we played musical boats. Jody hopped in my solo canoe, I hopped in Sheila’s GT and Sheila hopped in the tandem canoe with Lucas. I had fun surfing, although the shortness took some time to get used to again. The double blade didn’t take as long – I was surprised that in the remaining mile, I never tried any crossover strokes on accident. We had no swimmers after Nemo, even with the round of musical boats. Leslie had a good re-introduction and was ready for day 2.

On the grunt of a takeout, Lucas took a wrong turn and found himself on a less than hospitable trail. I did some exploring – the cleared trail went left. With his canoe like a turtle shell, he only saw the beat-down grass path right. We grunted up the remaining trail, loaded boats and people, and finished the remaining leg of the shuttle back to Nemo. What a treat to enjoy a Plateau run in the heat of August!