Slept in again. It was warm! We were clean! We wanted leisurely coffee in the sun! Stop judging us.
We made the call to portage around Skinners Falls, which meant an extended portage down a very narrow footpath through scrub and poison ivy onto the ledges below the rapids. We prooooobably could have “stuck right and sent it” due to the high water levels, but it would’ve been a shame to flip and lose all our gear on the first truly warm day of paddling we’d had.
Due to the GLORIOUS weather, we alternated between lazily reclining in the boat and barreling headlong through the various class I and II rapids. Once we realized we actually had some skills, Steve got a little drunk with power and we started running… well, everything. Calm ahead, but handful of ledges on the opposite side of the river? AGGRESSIVE LEFT TURN, WE’RE GOING THROUGH! Standing wave? HIT IT! There seemed to be a lot more water coming in on my end of the boat than there was on Steve’s (I’m not convinced he was deliberately steering us through things that sent waves in my face) but aside from one or two tight spots in Cedar Rapids we managed not to swamp ourselves.
We spent the night in Pond Eddy at another campground/boat rental place that was still closed for the season. We strung a clothesline up for all our wet gear (correction: MY wet gear, since Mr. Stern was dry as a bone), picked the ticks that had been riding along since our portage off of our packs, and had the world’s worst camp dinner of chicken teriyaki flavored rice with budget-brand tuna. Barf. I made it halfway through my portion before admitting defeat and fighting back nausea for the rest of the night.
The big thing to come out of the day was that we named the boat: Blaze of Glory. Now we just have to make sure that whatever stupid thing we off ourselves doing, we go out in the boat. (Get it?)
