Gettin’ better.

Took the Duh!k out for a long run today. Put in just below my house and ran downriver to the next larger town.

Water was comfortable, clear and LOW! My butt scraped through every set of rapids I encountered. Every! Single! One! The runs that are usually a blast to ride were more a case of scrape, push, tug, and maybe float out. I only had to portage one and it was the last one, and I was at the point of ‘screw it, theres the take out”

I’m a lot more comfortable in Duh!kee now, she’s still tippy as all get out, but my reflexes have adjusted to her. Even getting keeled on a rock in fast moving water didn’t freak me out like would have done earlier this year.

The skin did better than I would have believed. Rocks and trash in the water, scraping across all of it, and there are some marks, but nowhere near as deep as they would have been on the tupperware boat; more like a surface blemish. Even where the skin meets the chines and keel look good, and those did take a beating.

Heck, the tips of my paddle are in worse shape right now. Those tips hit a lot of rocks in 15 miles, and in places where I usually can’t feel the bottom.

No race this year: I believe I already mentioned that it has been rescheduled to April 2020. Hopefully the water will be up, but not too much. April is sometimes fliod season here. If its too high, I won’t be on it. Trash and the rogue tree are plenty of reason to say “maybe later”.