Thanks to everyone(all 11 0f us) who made a rainy afternoon much more exciting than surfing football games.  I really enjoyed bumping our way down the S fork.

And thanks to Tom for ditching his boat to fish me out of the weir woodstack.  A potentially scary situation made better by being out with a great group!

Lucy

(And blegh to football)

I considered breaking up into two groups.  It is hard to not get streched out in a large group, particularly on such a small river.  There are not too many 11 boat eddies on the SF.  Your right though, whistles are handy, especially when the river is noisy as is often the case.  If nothing else, eveyone got a little rescure practice yesterday.   

Maybe on that subject.....a lot of us I suspect have not been through formal training and kind of learn as we go (like me), things I have found most helpful in the last year:

Float bags - towing a boat without them is a real pain for the rescuer.  A good thing to have if you want a higher success rate of recovery of your boat.

Spare paddle - I have been lucky enough to find my paddle when I have swam, but others in groups I have been in really benefitted from the spare paddle in someone else's boat until they either found theirs or made the take out.

Tow line - I have been on the benefitting end of this more than I have used one, but i carry one nevertheless.

Whistle - I carry one, but never had to use it so far.

Throw line - so far, not been needed, but I have one.

Rescue kit - I am guilty of not carrying one, but should.  Probably leads into me needing to get a swiftwater rescue class under my belt.

A tasty beverage at the take-out.  Critical.  Absolutely critical.

Anyway, most of the above things I sort of figured out by watching others or experiencing the benefits of first hand....

Hope to see folks this weekend!  I was part of the group that ran the SF before you and had to resist powerful temptation to run it a second time with you.