Rocky Fork/Paint Creek kayaking trip report

Wow!
Extreme Grace had a great weekend of camping and kayaking. With temps in the upper 70's and plenty of sunshine, 11 hardy kayakers set up shuttle and headed for the putin at Barrett's Mill on the Rocky Fork River. Allen Lundy, Doug Jackson, Patrick Rhodes, Bruce Wullenweber, Greg Haman, Bob Israel, Tom Helbig, Robbie Corwin, Joe Cheatwood, Mike Neimeyer and Ryan Aberle set out for what would turn out to be a great adventure. Little did we know at the time that several of our trip members were planning on starting their very own "swim team". I think they must have stayed up late Friday night and coordinated their strategy because they didn't include me in the plans. Patrick was the first member of the "swim team" and that gave some of us other boaters a good chance to practice our rescue techniques. He was kind enough to give us a couple of rescue opportunities before getting to the bigger water so we could be nice and sharp once the "swim team" did their group swim act at the Chutes. The anticipation was building once Rocky Fork joined Paint Creek and we could hear the roar of the Chutes just around the bend. With game faces on we lined up for our first decent down. The details get a little fuzzy at this point since the swim team decided not to include me in their plans but I'll do my best to recap. I take point down the Chutes and am having a great time when I hear a whistle blast (signifying a swimmer) so I turn around and see that Joe has decided he wants to be on the "swim team". As I chase him and his boat I hear another whistle blast and see that Robbie has also joined the "swim team". They must have planned a duel performance the night before. Regardless to say we got them hauled to shore with nothing hurt but their pride. After dumping their boats they were ready for round 2. Mike being a little jealous of being left off the swim team decided it was time for him to join. He takes a nice diagonal route through the Chutes and rather than bust through the diagonal wave he invents a new kayaking move that I can only guess was some kind of stern squirting helmet boof. Even though he wasn't able to perfect his new move it was enough to earn him team captain of the swim team. When I pulled a sopping wet Mike out on his last trip down all he could say was, "Mike one, Chutes two". By this time Doug decided he was going to show the "swim team" how it was done. As it turns out Team Pyrahnna was there with us at the Chutes. These are professional kayakers that travel all over the world running the biggest water on the planet. They were doing cartwheels, flips, boofs and a number of other tricks in Turtle Rock. Turtle Rock is the one place in the Chutes the other kayakers stay away from. Not Doug though. He gets in there with Team Pyrahnna, does a couple of backenders, a stern squirt, loses his paddle, does a nice helmet boof over Turtle Rock and decides he would rather join the swim team than stay in his boat, pours over the giant munchy hole at the bottom where he was able to get a good fish count before being flushed out below the hole. All this excitement had us concerned for a moment but no worries. I was able to be on the scene in record time with my rescue camera to document his epic run. The "swim team" was in full throttle by this time and I lost count of who and how many swimmers we had. All I could think of was how much money I could make if I had my own tow boat service. Joe was not be outdone though. On one of his swim trips he decides to catch a micro eddy on the other side of the river where there was a six foot rock wall. There was only one thing for him to do at that point, climb the wall and do a seal launch off at the bottom. He made it look so easy I was a little jealous I didn't get to do it. Even a couple of the rec boaters joined us on the Chutes. Greg had an interesting run. He didn't have a spray skirt on to keep the water out of his boat so he swamped out and did some kind of submarine run. With his boat fully submerged and only his head out of the water acting as a telescope he had a flawless run. Bob had his own boat and it may have been the longest kayak I've ever seen. He had no problem getting through either but I think that's because his boat was so long that his front end was through the Chutes before the rest of his boat even entered.
After all the excitement we got to head back to the campground and pig out with the rest of the OAC in a big communal dinner and watch a great kayaking movie with Team Pyrahnna. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend.