On the first day, we left my house at about 8:30 and it was almost 2:00 by the time we were ready to launch. We did not have any extra cargo capacity and the IKs, cat, and raft were rather full. Jerry self-supported other than the group gear and group food. The day run section went well. I rowed the raft below Overboard through Exhibition, and Michelle took a turn at the oars and in the IK. Ted swam at Overboard, but held onto his boat and paddle and self rescued after the rapid with little help. It was not a traumatic swim for him. We camped above the Ledges on river left on a sandy beach at mile 49.3. I prefer the camp Mike and I used in 2008 below the Ledges, just above Walnut falls, at mile 48.6, because it has flat rock ledges as well as sand.

On the second day, I ran the hero line at Rat Trap (the left), flipped over to my right side, and had a non-traumatic swim. I self rescued. Tom flipped at White Rock, but reported that the swim was not bad. We worked hard to cross Pete’s pond against the wind. Ted got frustrated and stopped for a break, but was ready to go in a few minutes. We were tired when we got to Eye of the Needle. Jorge had scouted it and told us how to run it – all but the raft going right around a rock and then through a chute. The raft had to go left through a big hole on the left. Jorge said it did not look good, but as it turned out, it all went well and according to plan except that Ted lost his paddle near the beginning. I told him to get out if he could, and he scrambled onto a rock, but was not able to hold his boat, and the boat floated downstream. I was distracted by all of this taking place behind me, but was still able to run the rapid on the route that Jorge had laid out, and then picked up Ted’s paddle and bulldozed his kayak into an eddy on river right below the rapid. Ted climbed down the other side of the rock and Tom gave Ted a ride down to his boat. We scouted Black Rock (except for Jerry, who did not stop and ran the hero line successfully), and Jorge ran the drop while we watched. It looked like a bad drop from above. Ted, Tom, and I snuck it on the left, which involved getting stuck on rocks in several places. Mike, Michelle, and Gerry ran the hero line successfully in the raft. We pressed on and camped on river left just past mile 34. We would have preferred to have made a few more miles, but were plenty tired at that point.