An easy beginner's run...(Wilko sized trip/carnage report) Lower Rur river, Germany, 2002 Having planned this trip well over a month in advance, it was already clear that we were wholly dependent upon the mood of mother nature to give us enough water. The first weeks of January hadn't given us all that much water, as can be seen in the pictures of our Winter Wonderland trip on my website (http://wilko.webzone.ru/friends2.html last seven pictures). In the last week I had kept an eye on the online gauges, and on Friday I noticed a sudden increase in the releases from the dams in the area. Instead of a normal release of 7 m3/s, and an optimal (high water) release of 15 m3/s, they suddenly started opening the gates and released 40m3/sec (that's about 1400 CFS). The Rur river below the big lakes was one churning brown mass, with the water standing very close to the top of the banks. That was not something that we could take absolute beginners on... On Saturday, I ran the upper Rur a couple of times, as well as part of it's tributary, the Perlbach. The Perlbach gates were also open all the way, creating a high water run in the tiny (boat length wide) creek bed. I had not seen the Perlbach this high before. In Monschau we had the comfortable level of 110 cm's, which makes it a normal high water run. The second time we came down, the level had dropped a bit to roughly 105 cm. At that level, the lower Rur below Monschau, above the lakes would be a perfect class I/II run for the beginners. Or so I thought... It rained a bit on the way back, but I wasn't expecting the level of the Upper Rur to stay up untill Sunday. On Sunday morning, we picked up the paddlers from the student paddling club Okawa and drove to Germany. A quick stop on the way to pick up some rental wetsuits in Budel, and then we moved on again. The rain kept on falling, as we got closer to Monschau. We parked the cars and went to have a look at the Perlbach/Rur confluence. I was stunned: the Upper Rur had at least tripled in flow and the Perlbach was also still releasing with all gates wide open! Uh-oh! I met several German and Dutch paddling friends, who all said the same: Too high for us! Birgit arrived, and we had a quick discussion in our group. We decided to have a look at the gauge in Monschau, before checking the lower Rur. The gauge in Monschau was higher than I'd ever seen it, the pulsating water went from 1,90 to 2,10 metres. The highest I had ever run it was at 1,65 metres, and that ended in massive carnage for many of my paddling buddies (the ten little indians trip report: http://wilko.webzone.ru/98-11-3.txt ). We looked at the Lower Rur, and concluded that it was very fast, but probably not much more than class II with maybe some class III. Everyone quickly changed, and we drove the cars to the take out, fully intent on first paddling the Lower with everyone, and then running the Upper Rur as well as the section through Monschau with three or for good paddlers. It was not to be... After changing, we discussed paddling signals, talked to the beginners about safety and eddies and split up the group. As we put in, the plan was to run the river in the easiest possible way. It was not to be. Niels and I got in the Topo-Duo, and we caught the very first eddy. Seconds later Birgit came flying by, quickly disappearing in the distance, quickly being followed by Mirian. Mirian, who was paddling my Quadro for the first time, ran straight towards the bridge pillar fifty metres (~150 ft) doenstream of us, flipping as she bumped into the pillow near the pillar. I held my breath as she flushed under the bridge... She setup to roll, and to my relief, she made it! Way to go Mirian!!! Alas, my attention was drawn upstream again, as Steven loomed up in the distance, with an upturned boat and bobbing helmet next to him. Since he couldn't get past the boat quickly enough to reach the swimmer, I instructed Niels to aim for the swimmer and paddle hard. We both accelerated hard, but with the strong current we didn't move upstream all that much. As the swimmer got closer I recognised him as Sem, the chairman of Okawa. Just before I reached down to grab him, he asked "what do you want me to do?". It was great to see a newbie on his first swiftwater swim stay so calm. But I'm losing myself... I grabbed him by his PFD as Niels paddled hard. I told Sem to grab the rear grabloop, and started paddling hard as well. Together we moved Sem to the nearest eddy. Sem quickly told us that he had flipped as he got in, then he tried to roll, even got up, but flipped again and failed to roll a second time. As Sem was telling his story, I saw Steven disappear in the distance. After Sem got to shore, I asked him to go tell the other newbies to stay where they were. It felt bad to stop them, but we just got too much carnage already... Niels and I went after the others of our group. After a while Niels spotted Steven, and as we got closer, we also saw Mirian and a Prijon Invader which was stuck vertically against a tree in the current. We caught an eddy near the others and quickly talked about the options. Because the current was deep and fast, and the tree was too far from shore to easily reach on foot, we decided that I would take the Salto, paddle to the eddy behind the Invader and clip a throwline on the grab loop. Steven got out, Niels stood on shore and Mirian was getting out as well. I had not yet closed the spraydeck as a new arrival changed the plans. A swamped Prijon T-Canyon came down fast. I gave Steven a meaningful look, got his "go!", said something along the lines of "Sorry guys, see you downstream!" and I went after the T-Canyon. As I got close to the boat, I realized how deep it went under and how high the swamped boat sometimes bobbed up... It would be difficult to get a cowtail on one of the grab loops. Even if I would manage to do that, it sometimes hit tree branches (they were often hanging in the water, creating a natural slalom course), and I might get stuck with it behind me. As I went after the boat, I saw Birgit walk on the opposite shore. I waved and continued... Again I started to bulldoze the boat towards the right shore. The current didn't help, and as I got closer to shore, I noticed a low foot bridge in the distance. Whoops! It was obvious that I wouldn't get to shore in time, so I backpaddled, having the stern of the T-Canyon hit the bridge hard. I just ducked to get under the bridge, and continued my chase. Now I was helped by a bend to the left, so I bulldozed as hard as I could. The boat went in between some trees, and I just hoped that it would get stuck somewhere, as the branches hitting prevented me from staying next to it. As I got on the other side of the trees and "caught" an eddy (sliding to a stop on a partially submerged meadow), I couldn't see the T-Canyon any more. Strange. I looked downstream, but I was pretty sure that it hadn't slipped past me. Then I saw a pile of wood bob up. It was stuck against a tree, but something red seemed to be shining through the water flowing over it. I got out, grabbed two throwlines and had a look at the situation. The boat seemed to be stuck sideways against a tree, but I wasn't sure if it had begun to wrap around it yet, as not enough was visible. On the opposite shore two hikers had stopped to see what I was doing. I just waved and checked the water depth. The water near that tree was more than a metre (~3.5 ft) deep, maybe more, and the current went straight into the tree. There were a dozen tree trunks, branches and what more stuck against the tree. I looked at a couple of trees close by, and chose a clump of trees upstream of the boat to approach it. As I got close enough to touch the first tree, I stepped into the main current, and went down to well over my waist. I quickly grabbed the nearest tree and pulled myself in between the three four trunks sticking up from that one root system. Then I attached a rope to the thickest trunk and put my weight against it. Hopefully it would hold. Then I lowered myself in the water downstream, getting towards the boat. It was deep, and the current wanted to flush me off my feet. I started moving several of the tree trunks off the top of the pile, so that I could reach the boat. That took some time, but at last it came up enough so that I could see... that it had wrapped. Bummer! The student club already has only half as many boats as members, so this would hurt. I decided to get it out anyway, as it might still work as a pool boat. After several minutes, I managed to get it to move up enough to let some of the water out, and with some ropework, I finally got it out. What a sorry looking wreck. Here it is: http://wilko.webzone.ru/wreck.jpg I had been working for maybe fifteen minutes, but no-one had showed up yet, so I decided to try to get it to the take out myself. I emptied the wreck, and clipped it to my cowtail, then I got in my Salto and pushed off. This would be an interesting run... I ferried in between the trees into the main current and went downstream. In some narrower places the tree branches actually reached each other, which made manouvering tricky. Sometimes the flow was almost flat, in other places big waves caused quite a bit of a rollercoaster ride. As I would crest a wave, the boat behind me slowed me down. As it went over the wave, it would slam down and then start to accelerate, just as I was struggling up the next wave. I was looking behind me as much as ahead. I had to stop a few times to empty the boat, but I found big enough eddies. It was an interesting experience all right. After doing several kilometres, I had to start thinking about how to handle the take out. There is a small pub near the take out, and I recalled seeing a small channel next to it. That would be shortly after a sharp S-Bend. With this water level, it would have some holes, most of the current would feed into a river right undercut wall and below the wall it would probably have pretty decent sized boils. Sure enough, as I got there, I got up as much speed as I could, and tried to cut off the corners of the rapid. That went well in the first bend, but in the second one, the boat behind me pulled me off line for a while, and I landed square in the middle of the boils. I didn't have enough time to worry, since my trusted Salto went over the boils as if it was flat water. Wow! In my Quadro I would have done some involuntary stern squirts here for sure! When I finally reached the tiny channel near the pub, I got all my reserves out and paddled hard. It felt good to be here, but I still didn't have a clue as to how my companions fared. I started to get the wreck over the loose stone wall, and then I climbed over it myself, keeping one eye out for anyone paddling. Just as I had gotten my Salto out, a group of paddlers showed up. They noticed me, and as they got closer I recognised several of them, including Birgit. She had just gotten lucky, running into this group with whom we both had paddled several times in the Alps. They reported seeing my Dutch companions struggle with the stuck Invader, and from what I heard everyone behind me was now in one big group, without any beginners. We said goodbye to them and Birgit got out. I picked up my boat, and dragged the wreck behind me, moving to the car. Just as we were tying up the boats, Christian, (a friend that I first met on RBP) showed up. He was very helpful, offering to pick up the rest of the group whilst I would hurry to the beginners at the put in. We gave him a throwline, and a description if the others, while Birgit and I would move upstream. We were just getting in the car as I recognised some of our group. They told us some interesting tales, and pointed at the pub, where Mirian, Niels and Steven had landed. It turned out that Niels and Steven had a hard time navigating the last rapid (they were not used to paddle a tandem kayak together), and they had flipped in the boils. Then they had started a sequence in which Niels tried to roll, then Steven tried, Niels fell out and tried to get back in while Steven was trying another roll and finally they both swam. That made four swimmers... What a day! :-) At first Steven thought that the Invader they recovered was still lying in the valley, so he and I went on a recovery tour. I sprayed mud all over Christian when I drove away, which unfortunately doesn't show on the picture that I took of him: I was laughing and shaking too hard... :-) Moving upstream, we found that driving up the valley on very steep slippery paths (little creeks would be a more appropriate description) was no option for my Ford Focus. As we returned, the others informed us that the beginners had already recovered that boat and moved it upstream. A good lesson about communication! :-) We drove back to Monschau, to be greeted by a bunch of cold but still enthousiastic beginners. The swimmers had been telling tall tales, and some of them were relieved not to have been in a boat on the fast current. I was also happy not to have more carnage, but I felt bad about not giving them a good river experience. We loaded up everything, thanked our German friends and set off to the Netherlands. In Eindhoven we had a wonderful dinner, in which we got to know the new Okawans better. We also planned a newbie trip, which I went on two weeks ago. This time the temperature was even lower, and we had a lot of carnage (something like eight swims with four beginners...), but the river was better suited for them, and everyone had a great day. Wilko -- Wilko van den Bergh quibus(a t)chello(d o t)nl Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe ---Never take a no from someone not empowered to give you a yes--- http://wilko.webzone.ru/