Our First Class II Rapids!!!
June 12, 2024
mile 121.7-146.2 (Plattsburgh) (3.5 miles of portaging)
I needed that sleep last night more than any sleep in my life possibly. I woke up feeling better than I thought I would considering how I felt when I laid down last night. We ate breakfast, packed up and sat at the picnic table while Craig went over the map with us and gave us some pointers on the next section coming up. We walked back down the road to the put in and had a beautiful 9 miles of continuous fast water, it was like a dream. It flew by quickly and before we knew it we were at our first portage around Woods Mill Dam.
Midway through the portage we had to put back in the river, paddle across to the other side and bushwhack to a road because of a condemned and removed bridge. The bushwhack felt pretty ridiculous, we crashed through the trees and the brush trying to find a path the canoe would fit through best- being 18.5 feet long means you can't exactly make sharp turns through dense brush.
Next up was our first section of class 1 and 2 rapids- 6 miles of it! We took our time organizing the canoe, lacing up our trail runners, and putting on our life jackets in case we would happen to flip. I was nervous- not exactly for myself but for our gear. We weren’t sure what the rapids would be like and if we did flip it would be a complete yardsale of all our gear floating downriver.
We set off and had so much fun. Scraped a few times on some shallow rocks but dodged most of them and flowed through the rapids effortlessly.
Onto our next portage- Treadwell Mills Dam Carry where we walked down a canal and then down a nice green pathway. Very short paddle to our last portage- Imperial Dam Carry where we had to climb out into stinky swamp water, pull the canoe up a steep ass bank, and push it through a hole in the chain link fence before carrying it down the other side.
Back I the water I was feeling nervous again, we were in the final stretch of water to Plattsburgh which includes multiple class 2 rapids. I filtered some water quick while Henry reorganized the boat, we drank some electrolytes and set off at 8, racing against nightfall.
We set off and nailed them all. The rapids run right through town so we had an audience for all of them- kids fishing off bridges, couples sitting on picnic blankets. The last rapid we went through we ran right down the center, a deep V running under a bridge. I prayed there wasn’t a hidden rock and we sent it, a huge wave washed over the front of the canoe and soaked me and I screeched with adrenaline, wishing we could run it again.
As we popped out from the last rapid the sky was awash in the most beautiful sunset we’ve seen so far and Lake Champlain came into view.
We were elated and exhausted but still had 1.5 miles to paddle across the bay to get to Cumberland Bay State Park where we would spend the night. We also had to try to get to Dollar General before they closed at 10 pm so we could get a small resupply for the crossing tomorrow.
Those 1.5 miles felt like they took forever and my arms were on fire but we finally pulled up on shore at 9. We decided our best plan of action was for me to wait with our boat and our gear while Henry jogged to DG before they closed. A cloud of mosquitos surrounded me and I set my tired mind into survival mode. My headlamp made them worse so I kept it off and dug through my backpack by touch, throwing all of my gear out into the grass until I found my Thermacell mosquito repeller. It takes 15 minutes to kick in so I quickly turned it on before moving onto my next task of covering every exposed piece of skin with clothes. I then ran inland where they weren’t as bad and paced around until 15 minutes was up and I could return to my little bubble of safety.
I was exhausted and ready for bed but we hadn’t even found a campsite yet and had no real idea where we’d landed in this campground so I tried to orient myself with a map I found online while I waited. Henry called me on the way back and stayed on the phone saying he’d seen some sketchy people on his way there and wanted to make sure I was safe. When he made it back we set off down the road towards what we hoped were tent sites. A park ranger in a white truck sat outside the gates and we smiled and waved like we were supposed to be there even though we had no reservations. He waved back and we walked down the dark streets of the quiet campground.
We found a perfect site away from other people and close to a showerhouse and plopped down at the picnic table. The adrenaline was wearing off and we spaced out trying to think of a plan for tomorrow. The ranger drove by twice but never stopped and we were so grateful he left us alone.
Our original plan of waking at 4 to cross the lake was seeming more and more unlikely the closer it got to midnight so we decided on Plan B of waking up at 8 and at least trying to get partway on the lake to a campsite on one of the Hero Islands.
I ate as much dinner as I could, washed my face and took a melatonin hoping for restful sleep.
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