Author Topic: TR: Achigan in flood  (Read 2110 times)

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Offline jforbesca

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Re: TR: Achigan in flood
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2017, 04:33:14 PM »
Attaching a couple of photos.

Offline Stephen Depooter

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Re: TR: Achigan in flood
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2017, 07:37:55 PM »
The Achigan delivered, in spades!

Awesome river, with a few rocks just below the surface to trip me up.  Gotta work on staying upright in the class 1 and 2 stuff...

I got go pro video for my first swim and paddle recovery, as well as the pin and z-drag. Beyond that the battery died. 



Offline Gwenne

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Re: TR: Achigan in flood
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2017, 04:58:02 PM »
Sounds like a fantastic day. 

Offline jonyak

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Re: TR: Achigan in flood
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2017, 04:54:45 PM »
Too bad I missed it.

The Achigan always delivers... maybe next weekend!?

Offline ChristianG

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TR: Achigan in flood
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2017, 03:36:33 PM »
Well, our trip to the Achigan river in the Laurentians could be called 'epic'...

This river is really a gem that can only be run once or twice every year. A great mix of long continuous Class III, small and big drops and a couple challenging rapids. Including the last one, which is nothing at all really--if you nail your line. However said line is a 1 meter-wide rock flake next to a river-wide giant hole... And that's if you managed the big wave Class III rapid above it all: last year 5 people ended up visiting the big hole, with one boat split in half from the violence!

Yesterday, we had never seen the river this high. 5 guys, 6 swims including 2 in flatwater (!!!), one pinned kayak with its pilot sitting on a rock in the middle of a rapid under a big blue sky, local residents watching... A perfect opportunity to practice rescue and boat extraction! It went rather smoothly, in fact. Luckily we had between the 5 of us enough pulleys and carabiners to do a 3:1 system. My pin kit was in the car--lesson learnt!

Don't ask how the pin situation occurred, it's almost embarassing... Or the 2 flatwater swims. The rest are legitimate swims.

Jim took some good photos, and Steve should have good footage of the river, above and below surface.

Jim fought hard in a Class IV rapid, rolling back up at least once, but it was a bit chaotic there and he had to bail in the end... See, as Bill remembered it, you went right, but not this time: left was the way. As I said, river was big...

The folks who live at the take out were expecting us and had made it very cozy, with an outdoor bar,
complete with a nice welcoming message to 'our kayak friends' on the chalkboard! Too bad we didn't bring beer...

Sadly, Ursula, the owner of the house whom we had befriended over the years, died in her bed last January at the respectable age of 86. Half of her ashes will be in her favorite backyard river (we can not agree more with this!) and the other half will be brought back to her native Germany by her daughter Andrea who lives there now. Very nice people, Andrea even agreed to shuttle our vehicle back to her house where we take out--basically last spot to take out before the suicide waterfall in the village.

It all ended with duck wings at the brewpub in St-Jerome. Best part: it started raining only after we had dinner! One of the best days on any river.

--C.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2017, 05:00:06 PM by ChristianG »