Well gosh, summer went so fast, or at least it seems that way now that it is over with. I made my last whitewater trip of the year two weekends ago on the Dead River, me and two friends in an Aire Super Puma. We had a blast but it was over far too soon. We got away from the put-in at Spencer Stream as soon as we could -- well ahead of the commercial trips -- and in consequence more or less had the river to ourselves. The banks of the river were in peak colours but on the Dead that means almost entirely yellow and gold because the deciduous trees there are mostly all birches and poplars with very few maples to add their brilliant reds to the autumn painter's pallet. There wasn't much pink either because there wasn't much nakedness involved in this trip -- altogether too cool for that. However, but once we got below Poplar Hill Falls (the BIG one) we had a token period of getting nekkid for a bit before coming into sight of the highway and puerile civilization. We got to Crusher Pool and found it deserted -- a few vehicles but no people yet -- pulled out, packed up and headed out.
It was very anticlimactic and quite sad in a way. After a summer of several trips on whitewater rivers, a few more float trips on rather calmer rivers and quite a bit offshore kayaking it was time to dry everything out and put it away for the season. Now I must get back to school work and plan for next summer.
