Ivan, Cathy, and I left CMU Sunday morning around 9:30 to meet everyone else at the Boaters Changing House (the place where everyone meets up in Ohiopyle). We ran shuttle and waited a while for Nick and Allison to get their shredder ready. We finally got on the water around 12:30pm. We got in some surfing at entrance and then we all got practice chasing a boat and swimmer down Entrance, which a true Lower Yough tradition. (Laura and her Fuse). Everyone had good lines down Cucumber. Piddly made for some entertainment. I watched one guy go for the attainment and get stuck in the pourover and get worked. I admit, I was amused. I was in a giant club boat, The Response, so I tried it as well...and did the exact same thing. I usually paddle a little playboat, so getting worked in long boat is a lot different, especially a boat that is really really hard to roll. I believe that is the first time I truly contemplated swimming in several years :) Fortunately, I was able to eventually roll back up. The rest of the loop was fairly uneventful.
We got to Dimple and Cathy&Laura both walked it. We met up with David and Adam at Swimmers. There were only a few people there and the line was very short. We stayed there for a little while, but the shoreline was already in shadow and it was starting to get cool down. We had 1 swim at Bottle of Wine. At Double Hydraulic, Cathy missed her peel out in her ducky went right through the first hydraulic :) Everyone had good lines at Rivers End. Fortunately, everyone also made it down Killer Falls successfully. By the end of trip, Ivan and I had gotten pretty good at being torpedos hitting the shredder to a point where almost knocked off Allison if she wasn't paying attention :)
Overall, another great day on the river. Afterwards, some of us stopped at the "Out of the Fire Grille", in Donegal. It used to be an awesome place to eat, but as David Stone stated so eloquently stated, "They sold out to 'the man'".
-B. Kish
