Dave's New Year Resolution

On the Saturday afternoon, driving back from my first trip out with the mountain bikers I was feeling tired and rather sore and I wished I hadn't said I would go out paddling with Dave the following day. Do they have to try really hard, I wondered, to find circular routes where you spend seven eighths of the time pedalling (or in my case, pushing) your bike uphill, against the wind? I was tempted to ring Dave and cancel, but I knew that he knew I was nervous of shooting Low Force and would think I had wimped out. When we got home, after washing the mud off the bikes, with the help of the boys, I decided to save time and sort my kit for the following day. Francis opted not to come with me so that meant only one boat. Without thinking I took the little one and threw it into the back of the car to save the bother of putting on the roof rack.

As I drove up Teesdale the following morning the weather was reasonable. The wind had moderated since the previous day and rain was threatening rather than actual. It was a select group which met at the High Force Hotel. Pete, Wendy ( without boat), Dave, Claire and Kay (without boat, with small offspring). Eventually Johnny turned up and made whimpering noises about how high the water was and tried to persuade Dave to change the venue, but our hero was resolute. We did the shuttle and walked down the path to the river.

It was at this point that I noticed Johnny had a different kayak to the one he usually paddled and commented as much. Volume, was the answer. The last time he had done Low Force in his RPM he had back-looped. I realised that I had made a serious tactical blunder. Looking around I was the only person sitting in a bit of plastic less than 3 metres long.

The first section was fairly exciting given the volume of water. It was quite bouncy, with the occasional shelving drops with stoppers and sufficient rocks to require a degree of concentration. We got out to inspect Salmon Leap Falls and Dave decided to take it on the right. However, after seeing him go over the first drop and nearly disappear in the froth at the bottom Johnny opted to go down the dogs leg on the left. We all managed to follow him without too much difficulty, although I nearly came to grief half way down as I was rather close to the edge and suddenly and unexpectedly found myself ejected into a small eddy. It took a few nerve-wracking moments and a fair bit of effort to get myself back into the main stream and acquire sufficient momentum to get safely over the next drop.

We proceeded round the corner towards the top of Low Force, and it was here, about 30 yards from the drop that Claire got stick on a rock and capsized trying to extricate herself. She could have chosen a worse place to swim, like 20 yards from the drop. We decided to rescue Claire and leave her kayak to its own devices. I was quite impressed by the turn of speed Dave, Johnny and Pete managed to put on as they ran to the end of the gorge to retrieve it particularly as it was only 2 weeks after Christmas.

We decided to take Low Force on the right, taking a small rocky shute on the upper fall which avoided the fearsome frothy bit, then going over the main drop a few feet from the right hand edge. Right on cue, Kay and Wendy arrived with children and cameras to record our acts of heroism (or should that be stupidity) for posterity. Dave and Johnny went over first with no difficuhy at all. I followed powering over the main drop as hard as I could, and promptly back-looped. I attempted a roll which failed. The turbulence became much stronger and I was unable to get my arms up to try for another roll. I had the sensation of being pushed downwards. I decided this was probably the time to pull my deck and get out, and was rescued by Johnny and Claire. It was Claire's turn next, but unfonunately she came down the first shute too far to the right and was caught in an eddy which made it difficult to get up sufficient speed going over the main drop, and she suffered the same fate as I did. As expected Pete got over without any difficulty.

The drop below the bridge caused no problems to anyone except Johnny who took a rather unusual route down the rocks. The large tongue of water just to the right of centre was obviously not challenging enough for him, and of course, one has to consider the audience on the bridge. The next section, with a series of sloping drops and rapids was very enjoyable, and enjoyed all the more because of the relief of having Low Force behind us.

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	Swaledale Outdoor Club

Dave's New Year Resolution

Ann Jones