by John Hubbard

What a great day on a beautiful river with a great crew. Robert, Daryl, Colby, and Jay were first timers. Steven, Adam, Stephanie, and I were second or more timers. Bayless Boof  (probably have name slightly wrong) and Pinball were scouted and ran without swims. Several ran the Boof again. Robert wanted to show off his combat roll on the second Boof run. Was a nice (read strong) hole to punch through next after Bayless. All ran it well. Well, Jay asked if I was showing the hero line by not quite punching it cleanly.
Everyone ran the class 5 uphill takeout line cleanly. I heard one say next time the downstream class 5 rapids were the preferable route.
Thank you Adam, Steven, and Stephanie for your great scouting and support since you knew it better than I, I having last been to the Upper some 10 years ago.
Five of us (Robert, Stephanie, Colby, Jay, and I) camped out on a bald at about 4500 feet elevation the night before. Thanks Stephanie for pushing us/ me to do it. Great evening and view. We all survived the 20 mph or bit higher wind all night and the 4 or 5 rains, one heavy, that came as we slept (or not slept) as the tent shaking happened.
So smiles by all at the end of two days paddling.  The five who camped and Daryl who did not. And Adam and Steven who joined us for Sunday.
Lots of pictures taken by everyone else except me. (The ones here are from Robert Haile.)