From the boat’s perspective.
Being tied to a roof top all night is not a fun thing. It’s not so bad if you're right side up, but the last several night I was tied upside down against another much bigger boat. I’ve never liked bigger boats, they always make fun of me cause I am not as fast as they are. Oh, BTW, they call me Fuse. Not sure why they call me that, but they do.
When the guy who has been paddling me pulled me off the top of the roof, and the world finally righted itself, I got a glimpse of what we’d be paddling today. I was excited, I have never down numbers 6 & 7 of the Arkansas, nor the Fractions section of the river. I’d always heard they were exciting. I did have to get up some courage. The last two days had been nice, big and deep water. Today was going to be much more shallow. I realized I would get a few more scrapes on me. But, that’s alright, those are battle scares and they make you much more popular with the female boats. I’d also heard that there were a lot more chances to surf on these sections of the river. I like surfing.
After what seemed like forever, we finally put on the river. It was everything I had hoped for. Pushy water, holes, waves, and many back and forth across the river. I flipped upside a down a couple of times, but my paddler was quick to upright me.
At one point we stopped to take a break, something about one of the other paddlers getting cold and needing to put on some warmer clothing. Pttht! Stupid creek boats making their paddlers cold. See that’s the advantage of being shorter. Your paddler has to work harder to go faster and doesn’t get cold as easily. Anyways, while we were waiting for him to put on a fleece vest, I noticed a boat on the other side of the river against a rock without a paddler. This wasn’t good. Boats aren’t very good at running rivers without an operator. I tried to get my paddler’s attention, but he wasn’t paying attention. Finally, one of the other paddlers noticed the boat and said something about it. So, my paddler went into action and ferried across the river to the far side. He got out of me and proceeded to rescue the breached boat. And what do you know, it was a very cute red, white, and blue female Fuse48. She was hot. And not too rough for wear. Turns out she was lucky and had just been bought by an older guy. Unfortunately, this was her maiden voyage and he wasn’t quite as skilled at uprighting her as my paddlers was. I gave her a few words of encouragement, before her operator got back to her. She felt much better afterwards. Maybe if I am lucky I’ll see her again sometime on a river.
So we headed back onto the river and ran the remaining portion of Fractions. Got in several surfs. It was good day.
At the end of the day I was dreading being strapped upside down again on the minivan, but figured it had to be done. But, it turns out I got to be upright. The WaveSport Diesel that I had been strapped to the previous days was going to run the entire numbers section later that evening. So, I got strapped right side up by myself on top of the minivan. Turns out later that the other boat wasn’t going to do the whole numbers section, but rather than shift him back over to the minivan, the Diesel was going to meet us the next morning for the Lower Clear Creeks section.
I had a nice ride back to Denver that afternoon. I even felt a few sprinkles, first I’d had all week.
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