Tandem on the River Teith from a New Perspective– 12/2/2006

Someone on a different website remarked that the entire week had boasted perfect paddling weather, except for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday followed the Scottish rule of multiple seasons, combining overcast, rain, sun, snow flurries and wind. Sunday was a wee warmer, and combined only the overcast and light rain. Saturday offered the first bump in the river gauges in weeks, so we were grateful. We paddled on Sunday, on a beginner trip with the Edinburgh Kayak Club. The destination was the River Teith in Callander and Saturday’s rain donation bumped its gauge from “low” to “medium”.

By Saturday afternoon, I had arranged transport with Robin, so we could bring the canoe in a bag and not break Lucas’ back riding the bus and walking to the lockup. Robin was late retrieving us, and was grateful to see Derek already at the lockup helping people get the boats they wanted. We squeezed five paddlers into Robin’s estate car and headed west to the River Teith. After following Derek, Robin learned that Callum’s route through the city was faster than Derek’s, as we didn’t catch up to him until we had been on the M8 for a while. Three more paddlers joined us via the Newbridge rendezvous for a total of 16 paddlers. Only a handful were worthy of the title beginner. The rest of us were just out to enjoy a nice day on the river.

The River Teith at medium is a pleasant grade 1/2 run. The usual faffing at the get-in gave us ample time to assemble the Pakboat. I was planning on paddling stern, so we set up the whitewater seats accordingly. After the shuttle returned to the get-in, we hopped into our respective boats and began the leisurely float downstream.

The bridge below the get-in gave us plenty of warm up break outs, break ins and ferry glides. Graham tried to use us to help with a canoe stall, and found the move worked better if we used draws and pries to counter his boat’s weight. Bridge fun subsided and we drifted downstream. Derek’s son Kieron found a football, so polo practice began. Eventually, we were asked to guard the football. Soon, Kieron found a second football, the practice reconvened and again, we were asked to guard the football.

Stern paddling was awkward at first. I felt like Lucas and I were fighting each other with our paddle strokes. Eventually, I remembered Daniel Boone’s advice and spent more time ruddering than paddling, which seemed to work better. I don’t know if Lucas noticed, at least not right away.

Eddy hopping was interesting. I think I was doing ok with the leaning, but not so great with what paddle stroke went where. Our early attempts at surfing left a bit to be desired, too. Watching Rhian paddle was quite fun. Our first ever EKC trip was her first river trip in a kayak. She had paddled the Tweed with her dad on the summer Canadian trip, but never anything on her own. She was timid running the rapids, but had great balance. With a solid pool roll with and without her paddle, her timidity was disappearing. As the rapids got bigger, she never stopped smiling.

The first of the more challenging rapids was the big centre boulder where the challenge is to catch the eddy behind the big boulder instead of ramming the big boulder. Some people ran left; others ran right. One of the beginners forgot to stop looking at the big boulder and end up doing a handstand on it for a while. Lucas hopped out to help and I clung to Ali and others to avoid stranding him on the boulder.

After the drama ended, we continued downstream. A few wee rapids later brought us to the big one of the day. Lucas and I were among the first to run it. We caught the big eddy on the left and watched the parade of paddlers run the big drop. Some eyes got bigger and some grins got bigger. We ended the day with no swims all around.

The usual faffing at the get-out car park was cut short by Robin’s need to watch rugby. We listened to the Scotland-Wales game on the drive home. The need to watch rugby slowly disappeared on the drive home as Scotland learned the hard way that it’s not a good idea to show up to a rugby match with only fifteen men. We later learned that fifteen men was a bad idea because that left too little bacon in the scrum. This trip to the Teith had all sorts of learning experiences for us.