Upper River Isla – 14/1/2006

All week, the rain gods favored us with glistening water from above. When we stuffed ourselves and our canoe into Amy’s wee car, we had options across the entire country. The reading and gauge watching that Lucas and I did the night before narrowed our search to the region of Angus, north of Dundee (“up fae Dundee” in the whitewater book). On the drive to the boat shed, Bram and I talked about rivers and levels. We arrived as undecided as before, with the group headed to the Orchy in the midst of packing. We swapped adventure stories while packing and said our good-byes. Stuffing ourselves into the back of the car took some creativity, but we managed to find space for everything. We picked up Amy’s bike for shuttle and headed north.

Somewhere around the tallest hedge I have ever seen, Bram chose the Upper River Isla for our outing of the day. His basic criteria were fun-sounding grade 2 whitewater and no portages. The Upper Isla gave us 13km of exactly that. The SCA guidebook is not terribly specific in its descriptions of the rapids or how to get to the access points, but to its credit, it did stress the importance of not missing the get-out above Reekie Linn, a 50m grade 6 waterfall. Bram’s knowledge of the backroads (he doesn’t believe in maps) meant poor Amy ended up cycling nearly twice the shuttle she should have. The Pakboat was still not fully assembled when she returned, but it was close.

The important part of all the impromptu organizing was we launched on the Upper River Isla with a vague sense of what lie ahead and excitement to find it. Lucas and I led the way and Bram and Amy followed. Their left turns were still a bit creative, with beaching a frequent occurrence. My helpful advice to catch a left eddy resulted in their first swim from the canoe, so I promised to stop being so helpful. After dumping the water at the bank, each went running along the river to warm up before hopping back into the canoe to continue. Sadly, we photographed neither event.

As we continued down the river, the whitewater increased from grade 1+ to grade 2 within a few kilometers. The book said it would get continuous near a village. It got continuous, but I never noticed any village. The Upper Isla was never terribly wide, maybe 30 to 50 meters, tops, so in fast, rocky grade 2 water, catching eddies with 17 feet of canoe was challenging and impractical. It was read and run in the literal sense – reading then running worked only occasionally. The rapids continued for several kilometers. Lucas and I enjoyed both the mental and physical challenges of keeping up with the river. Amy and Bram appeared to enjoy the challenges as well. Sometimes they followed our lines, sometimes not. Sometimes they got creative, such as Bram’s boulder crunch low brace.

The boulder crunch low brace resulted in a few extra gallons of weight in their boat, so we took a quick break at the bank. The eddy was not quite canoe-sized, until the first canoe made enough eddy for the second canoe. After dumping the water out, Amy and Bram made their second chicken-crazed run up and down the bank for warmth. Warmth not quite achieved, we continued downriver anyway.

There were two long sections of continuous grade 2 whitewater, with more rapids scattered above and below these sections. Each of the big sections ended with a turn around a bend into a rather large standing wave. The first caught us by surprise, and we found ourselves drifting sideways toward it. A few quick paddle strokes got us facing downstream and out of its path. Because they were following us, Bram and Amy didn’t notice it right away, or at least Amy didn’t because she screamed when she did. They managed to not run it sideways or straight through the middle, so it worked out all right in the end.

After the second longer whitewater section, we found a spot for lunch and beached the boats for a little while. Lunch was quite elaborate, including leftover casserole, crisps and homemade salsa, oranges, manxego cheese and vanilla trifle (with chocolate accents, of course). Lunch was followed by more chicken running and then we hopped in the boats to continue.

The whitewater was less continuous after lunch, but didn’t die out completely. Finally, I had a chance to notice the landscape around us. Barren brownish hills on both sides of the river were dotted with white – sheep grazing on the brush. Occasionally, the sun poked out from behind the clouds. At home in our flat, when we look outside and see sunshine in the winter, we know it is a cold day. On the river, the cloudy days always feel colder. Every time the sun took a break behind the clouds, the temperature seemed to drop. As the day wore on, the sun poking out from behind the clouds made distinguishing rocks from waves all the more challenging, but it was still welcome.

The guidebook warned of an old broken weir just above the get-out, so when the sun reached a certain point in the sky, we started paying a bit more attention for it. A familiar hill loomed in the distance and I knew we would find the weir and the get-out soon. The river split around a few wee islands. I suggested left, since the guidebook said to shoot the weir left, but Lucas wanted the middle line. We noticed the weir under about a foot of water as we were crossing it. The rapids approaching and under the get-out bridge gave us one last nip of adrenaline before we caught the get-out eddy. Motivated by the Reekie Linn below, Amy and Bram made their best-ever river left break-out.

The cold had caught up to all of us, so our first priority was warm clothes. As the sun disappeared, frost began to form on the wet Pakboat. We loaded the club’s canoe on Amy’s car and then Amy and I set out to retrieve her bicycle while Lucas and Bram repacked the Pakboat into its bag. Amy was able to hitchhike part way through the ride, so she only made half of the 11 mile shuttle. On the way back to the bike, she showed me the shortcut that would have cut that ride to more like two miles. Bram will need a while to live that one down.

The post-paddle retreat to Bram’s cottage is becoming a fixture of our winter trips. The warm fire, good food and friendly cat make that part of the trip all the more welcoming.