I was scheduled to shadow a guy this past Sunday, so I could watch an experienced video boater in action and see how it's done. I decided to try and hop on a Saturday trip as well, just to get a feel for the river before I had to start working it.

That didn't happen.

On Friday, when I took my boat over to the "backstage" area where the gear trucks get loaded, my boss was there, loading kayaks for Saturday's Lower New runs. I mentioned to her that I was planning to run with one of the Upper New trips, and she said,"I'd love to stick a camera in your hand if I could, 'cause the guy who's supposed to be doing that section isn't gonna show."

I balked a bit, but she talked me into it. So at 10:30 the next morning, I was on a bus, camera box in hand, ready to depart for my first kayaking run of the Upper New . . . and my first real day of work . . . and my first time taking my personal boat on actual whitewater. I was kinda nervous, but the trip leader was a girl I knew, and she had promised to help me pick shooting spots and keep track of what was up next.

The beginning of the day was all right; I got most everyone on video at the put-in and got all my stuff in order in time to set out . . . and then I dropped into the first rapid, caught an edge, and was upside down before I knew what was going on. I tried to set up for a roll and realized I couldn't remember how, so I popped my sprayskirt loose, got hold of my boat and paddle, and started swimming, thinking all the while how much I hated my job and wondering if they'd ever had to evac a video boater before.

I'm pretty sure it took about two minutes to get to shore -- from about 20 feet out into the river -- and once I got there, I had to wait for one of the raft guides to come help me drain my boat. I was terrified and mad at myself for making a stupid mistake (either catching the edge of the boat or taking the job; it was hard to tell which was dumber), but I got back in and rocketed off to the next rapid to try and get the shots I had intended to get at the first one.

At the second rapid, I almost stepped on a snake. Fortunately, it wasn't poisonous and/or angry. I got the video without further incident. Same for the next rapid and the lunch stop. By then, I was starting to like work again.That changed at the big pool.

I'm not sure if it's Thayer or Fair (pronunciation is ambiguous and I've never seen it written), but it's basically a couple miles of flat water right between the good bits of the run. And it's horrible. I had to stop partway through to put band-aids on my thumbs, thanks to the beginnings of paddle blisters, and after that, I had about a mile of the hardest paddling of my life to get ahead of the group in time to beat them to Silos. My arms hurt, my back hurt, my shoulders hurt . . . everything. The foremost thought in my mind was, "I have to do this again tomorrow?!" Then, of course, I had to run Silos.

Silos is a Class III+ rapid, though the plus only comes from an undercut rock on the top right that I stayed well away from. I also stayed well away from the main part of the rapid, because it's a gigantic wave train -- piles of heaving water at least seven feet high -- and I'm not comfortable dealing with that kind of stuff yet. I had to cut across the wave train at the bottom of the rapid, where it peters out to two or three feet high, then get out of my boat in an eddy where the water was surging a good six inches every couple seconds (that was tons of fun) and climb up the rocks to a good vantage point. Then I had to wait about five minutes, because I had gotten so far ahead of my group in my mad rush.

All things considered, the run wasn't a bad one. The video wasn't very good, but it was my first, and two copies sold anyway. I had a high-protein dinner and went to bed.

That night, I had nightmares about water. I woke up around 3am, too alert to go back to sleep, and realized I had to go to the bathroom. When I went outside, I realized I was scared of the dark -- something totally out of character for me. Even after I got settled safely in my tent again, it took me a long time to go back to sleep.

The next morning, I was ready for work with time to spare, and I spent that time sitting on the bus feeling sick and apprehensive. I knew the previous day was as bad as work was likely to get on the Upper, but that didn't make me feel any better about going out.

The day started off a bit badly, with the lead raft pushing so far ahead I couldn't beat him to much of anything, but once we got that sorted out, things went smoothly. I would up ending the video abruptly, because I had a bad feeling about trying to shoot at Silos, had plenty of video already, and hadn't decided not to do it until I got there . . . but I didn't flip, had some good fun, and wasn't nearly as sore as I expected.

And when I stopped by the store today, one of the ladies told me she heard one of the owners say these were the best Upper New videos in years. I hope he was talking about mine and not Sam's.

Labels: bad run, good run, rivers, story, swim, Upper New, work