Difficult Times

...a few weeks ago, most of the Homegrown crew was out of town. We caught a good bit of local rain, and Difficult Run popped up to a nice level. Curt and I decided to head out for a stroll on the swiftly flowing waters of fecal fun.

We paddled Mather Gorge and stopped for a quick surf session at Rocky Island. The water level was a bit too high, and the wave was starting to wash out. We headed down to the confluence with Difficult and began the short hike up to the put-in.

The wind howled as we scrambled up the muddy leaf covered river bank to the trail head. I was excited to get a run on Difficult. I ran it once before at a similar water level, and for a local creek it contains a few decent manky drops, before hitting the crux of the action in the gorge.

The first drop is a right to left move, over a manky boulder and down a center chute. We meandered through a small boulder garden, and the second horizon line appereared in the distance. We lined our boats up with a bit of left angle and took a quick boof stroke off a four foot ledge. Passing through another small boulder garden, we caught a tiny eddy and lined up for the approach into the gorge. We each took a strong stroke through a small hole, and headed river right. I peeled out of the small eddy, hit a nice boof off the center ledge, and turned around to face up stream.

Curt took his stroke, sparks flew, and the nose of his boat dove deep into the muddy mank. He surfaced river left in a tight little pocket hole guarded by an undercut and was repeatedly trashed to crispy perfection. He rolled up, and took some big strong strokes out of the hole, and we commenced our portage of the last drop.

We perched our boats precariously on a tiny ledge. I climbed inside and launched into a short freefall. I turned around to watch Curt. He slid off sideways and was momentarily wedged between a boulder and the river right wall before pulling his way through.

We continued downstream, back to the confluence with the Potomac, eager to get back to the warmth of home, but thankful for another cold day on the river. Leaving the river that afternoon, with the onset of the holiday season, I knew it would be almost two weeks before I was able to return to my boat and my friends. In the meantime, I did have the deep north woods of Maine...