good day. nay, I say great day

It was a great day today in spite of the tragedies. The last couple of days we have been running Coal Creek, the river that runs down Cedar Canyon, and through Cedar City. It has been so fun, and the water keeps rising. Here is a better, but sideways graph It's a very small river with tons of fun drops. Today was particularly fast and fun. It was non-stop action.

I am telling you guys, this run was so so so sweet. I'm on such a high right now.

There are a few good stories from it, and a couple tragic ones.

I will start with the sad stories.

I lost Jason's camera. I had it on a mount on the front of my boat when we took off. I got worried that I might hit it on a rock and it would come off, so I put it in my boat. Everything went well, but at the takeout, as I was getting out, I lost my balance and my boat filled up with water. The camera must have fell out. This wasn't just any camera either, it was a GoPro. I was sick to my stomach about it. Jason was so cool about everything. I didn't see a second of frustration or anger on his face. "It's fine man, if I cared I wouldn't have let you take it." "it's just stuff" is what he said. If I've ever met someone with a heart of gold, he has it.

Second sad Story

Josh had bought a yellow kayak years ago from Jason. The first day Josh took the boat down the river, it cracked. Recently he bought a nice used kayak. It's a boat that is as nice as mine. At the take out, he discovered a huge crack in it. I couldn't believe his luck. Poor guy. If you ask him though, the trip was sweet enough that it was well worth it.

If you ask Jason about this next one, he might not think it's a good story. Jason hit a rock and a tree (Rocks are unavoidable on this stretch) and it sounded like he got pinned up on something and the river popped his spray skirt (the thing that keeps the water out.) He tried to roll up, all while getting beat and hitting his head on rocks. There was just too much water in his boat, so he came out. Sick of having this now super heavy boat drag him along rocks, he let go and got to shore. There were no calm spots for Josh and I to get his boat over. I was worried, because I knew there was a large twenty or thirty foot water fall coming up, and I did not want his boat to go over that. I saw one of his sandals, that came out of his boat, floating in the water, so I grabbed it and put it in my mouth. Josh put the other sandal (chacos, mind you) in his mouth. Josh Paddled down stream and grabbed some plants on the side of the river to anchor himself there. I pushed Jason's boat to Josh. Josh grabbed the boat and hung on. I pulled over and hopped out of my boat in time to grab Jason's, and none to soon to avoid going over the death waterfall.

We all got scraped up, and beat up, but loved it. We kayaked over one super fun water fall and all almost got sucked back into it.

Even in such a small river, there is sooo much power.

Here is that waterfall in lower water. There is about four to eight times (or more!) as much water running through there today, as there is in this picture.

This is Hayden. He's quite impressive. This is a great picture. 

Jason got the video on his helmet cam. When it's available, I'll post it here.