Class IV kayaking

So I got ruined by the gorge the last time I was in there and I needed to get back in there and tackle it again. So a couple of days ago me and Aaron got back in the kayaks and had another run through, but this time we were going to scout the rapids. I was feeling pretty nervous about it all. I knew I could get through everything fine, especially after scouting the rapids but its like when you're a kid and you have to fetch a ball in the neighbors yard with a dog. If you go in there the first time and the dog bites you, you're going to be a bit wary if you have to go in a second time. So there we were, getting back in the gorge. We eddied out above sunshine and scouted it. It had changed quite a bit. The water level had dropped a lot and although the features weren't as big, the line was a lot more techincal. It worried me a bit more than last time. Well no time to hang around so we got back in our boats and set off. No problems. We both hit our lines and got through just fine. The commercial photographers even took our pictures so when I get my hands on them I'll post them for you. So sunshine falls was out of the way and we moved on through grateful dead and towards sledgehammer. This was where I swam and snapped the padedle last time. Again we got out and scouted the rapid. We got a good line picked out and got back in the boats. This time things went a whole lot better. I got my line and cleaned the whole section. Scouting did help a lot, and I saw all the crap I swam through last time. We continued down like that for a while. We pretty much ran it read and run after that except for scouting the other class IV rapids, wall slammer and boat eater. But again we had no problems and ran the rest of the river well. It felt really good to have run the whole thing clean and to have scouted and checked out the major rapids. The only disapointing aspect was that the water level was about half what it had been. I would really like a chance to take it on again when the water is back up but that won't happen until next year when I probably won't be here.

We hit another class IV section today as well. A bunch of us were low down on the standby list so we decided to take the day off and head up to Buena Vista and run the numbers. Aaron and I were in kayaks and Cale, Drew, Craig and Austin took a 10 foot adrenaline raft. We drove up, set up the shuttle at the BV play park and cruised to the put in. We all got ready and set off. Aaron ran lead and was just running the river read and run style but he had kayaked it before so he did have an idea of the lines. I followed him and the raft came last. We went through numbers 1 to 4 no problem just read and run with the raft bouncing off a pile of rocks but at number 5 we decided to get out and scout it. It's got the biggest move on it with a 6 or 7 foot drop so we had a look. After scouting it we jumped back in the boats and hit it. Everyone styled it pretty well and we did just fine. we carried on with the read and run to railroad bridge were we took a little break. After that came the number 7 which is also the miracle mile, a continuous section of class 3 or 4ish river. After this point it was getting a bit nicer and easier, class 2-3 stuff and a good float down to BV. By the end of it I was pretty tired because it was a long section of river to do but it was an awesome day. That coupled with the success on the gorge earlier really boosted my confidence in a kayak.