River Teith Flush - 26/11/2006

Despite the Where's the Water? gauge saying the River Teith was at "medium", I knew from Friday's driving adventure that the water was likely to be spilling into the car park at the get-in and thus the level was going to be somewhere between high and very high. A total of five people expressed an interest in bimbling, but through an assortment of excuses, the bimble was reduced to three. Magnus and Dirk met me at the boat shed at 9am. We were loaded fairly quickly – amazing how small group can minimise faff – and set off with 2 vehicles between us.

Driving toward Callander, I could see rapids as we drove alongside the river. Definitely, the river was high. Normally, the last bit is just one drop into a wave train followed by a few lazy, mid-river rocks. At high water, the last rapid become last rapids, with a longish stretch of waves and such leading to the get-out. The last bit would be fun. We dropped my car at the get-out layby, got dressed for the river and drove up with Magnus to the get-in. The second car park had some water in it and the footpath was underwater, so we unloaded in the normal car park and launched from the footpath.

As we approached the first bridge, I tried to explain the joy of the eddy to Dirk, as it was his first time on a river. He didn’t believe me and drifted downstream well away from the eddy that I caught below the bridge pylon. A second attempt at explanation resulted in similarly sceptical drifting well away from the eddies below the second bridge. Two thoughts passed through my mind. This trip was going to be either very quick or very epic.

After a few bends in the river and some help from Magnus, Dirk caught his first eddy at what is normally the first set of wee rapids. I caught some offside eddies. Though awkward, they slowly got easier as my boat and I bonded. I had to be careful, though. One too many eddies and Dirk and Magnus were gone, hurtling downstream faster than my stubby boat and half a paddle could catch easily. At one point, it took a solid five minutes of work to catch up with them.

Catching up was well timed. I was able to tell them to run right of the big boulder. Turns out, at our level, it was stubby rock, not a boulder. Right we went, through bouncy wave train fun. Dirk followed me while Magnus forged ahead. Again, I ended up chasing to suggest the niceness of eddies. I told them of another bend in the river where they were meant to go right of an island. One too many eddies and I ended up in hot pursuit. I bobbed through wave train mania trying to catch up. Instead of message in a bottle, I felt like messenger in a bottle.

After many bobs through many waves, I got Dirk and Magnus bundled into river right eddy just above the last rapids. I explained the basic line and we decided amongst us that the best approach would be for me to run it first and catch and eddy to watch. Then Magnus would go with Dirk close behind, ducky style. I bobbed, bounced and grinned my way through the first drop and wave train, and slammed into a one boat eddy against the rock face to watch Magnus and Dirk.

Magnus came bobbing along and caught a similar one boat eddy below mine. No Dirk was in sight. We watched and looked for him to no avail. After a minute or so of looking, I saw a small kayaker shaped figure lower down in the same eddy as where we started dumping out a kayak and I realised the one flaw in our plan. I had neglected to mention the concept of the ferry glide to Dirk. He had been manhandled by the eddy line.

After dumping the boat, Dirk got back in and ran far right through the same bit that we ran far left. At normal levels, it’s a rock shelf. At our level, it was a very friendly wave train. Magnus and I broke into the current from our respective eddies to join Dirk. I forged ahead and bobbed through the second half of the last rapids and then semi-flats looking for the get-in. A tree was in the water just a few metres above the get-out, marking it helpfully but making the approach much more dynamic. With everybody safely there, somebody checked a watch. Total time on the water was less than two hours. It was a flush, not a bimble.