go.

I almost forgot to write about this. I paddled the Bowling Alley section of the North Chick (North Chickamauga Creek) this past Saturday morning. It’s been raining almost every day for the past 3 weeks here in Tennessee, so I’ve been itching to go kayaking.

A good friend, Jeremy Malin, invited me and offered to let me use one of the boats from his place of employment. The boat was a Kingpin 6.3. I had paddled one before, but it was on flatwater. This one had foot pegs, and I opted not to take them out (mistake) to save a few minutes.

When we got to the creek, we could see that it was running well. It was at about 6.4 ft. I’ve run this section a handful of times, but this was my first in a playboat, I hadn’t paddled this boat before, and I hadn’t paddled real whitewater in a few months. I was a little nervous.

We put in and I could tell immediately that I would have to adjust the seat of my boat. Even on flat water, I felt like I might tip backwards at any moment. I found a shallow eddy and moved the seat and backband forward, but it was too late to remove the foot pegs. The boat felt much better, though.

After taking the line around the right side of Bowling Pin, I made a small drop into a hole. As I paddled out the far side of it, I hit a small keeper wave and (with me not leaning forward enough) my stern got sucked into the hole. I was promptly upside-down. I rolled up as I entered another rapid, which upended me again. I’m not sure if I rolled once or twice more after this, but it was a frantic few seconds. Finally, I rolled up and stayed up. The creek flowed into a pool and I eddied out to rest after giving Jeremy a thumbs up to let him know I was OK.

I had bruised both thumbs, but not badly. I rested and calmed myself while Jeremy surfed a nearby wave.

I was a little shaken the rest of the trip, but having learned to lean forward through any rapid, there were no more incidents. I did a couple squirts, which I could do paddleless with the boat set up this way, and surfed a little. For the most part, however, I concentrated on getting to the take-out uneventfully.

More information available on American Whitewater’s North Chick page [americanwhitewater.org]. And here’s a local blogger that mentions the North Chick [chattablogs.com]! That makes me very happy.