Fall Outdoor Fun!

It's been a good season for outdoors activities! I've been keeping busy with COE (Cornell Outdoor Education) both teaching and taking classes. I decided to try something completely new this semester, so I took a whitewater kayaking course. We spent a few session in the pool, learning how to roll and recover and getting a feel for the little boats, then we took two trips. The first trip was to a standing wave on a river a couple hours north of here in Watertown that was fun to play around. But the whole class was leading up to a weekend trip to actually run a couple rivers.

We packed up the boats and gear Friday night, then took off Saturday morning on a beautiful day. We headed down to northern PA to run the Lehigh River, which was going to be class 2/3 rapids. One thing I didn't know is that they actually do dam releases just so that people can whitewater kayak and raft on these rivers on the weekends. Interesting. The boats themselves are little tiny things that look like they should flip over with someone sitting in them. But they are extremely maneuverable, indestructible, and after the pool sessions I was pretty comfortable with them.

The river itself was nice. Nothing super crazy, just lots of sun, trees, whitewater, and good times. It was a pretty long run, so we ended getting off the river getting on towards evening. We decided to camp nearby at a rafting company campground, which turned out to be an experience. The place was crawling with junior high kids and had the atmosphere of a summer camp. There was a store, a zip line, an arcade... you get the idea. Better yet, after dark just as we were about to crash for the night the camp DJ turned on the lights and music in the pavilion across the field from us and fired up the dance party. You're kidding, right?? I was embarrassed to be there in a COE van, but it did make the whole experience fairly memorable.

Me on the Mongaup. The class 3 section is below the bridge this was taken from. (photo: Scott V.)

The next day we drove to southern NY and ran the Mongaup river, which had an real class three section at the end. It was a shorter run, but a lot more intense. Also extremely nice, in the same northeast tree-lined river sort of way. The Mongaup empties into the Delaware at the bottom, but the first time through I ended up hitting the last rapid too close behind another student and got spit out into the mighty Delaware upside-down, bumping my (helmeted) head against rocks along the bottom. That would never do, so fortunately it was reasonable to carry my boat back up and run it again unencumbered. So I managed to stay up that time, and end the trip well.

I've also been doing as much climbing as time permits, including trips with friends and even leading a COE outdoor climbing class last weekend over the 4 days of Fall Break. The weather was absolutely gorgeous fall weather, with the tree colors in full swing, cold, crisp nights, and days that got warm enough to shed a layer or two. The students were awesome, and we all had a good time. Earlier in the season (and a bit over the summer) I had the chance to work on my trad lead climbing. Always good times to spend a weekend with friends and rock!!

Trad climbing earlier this summer. I obviously didn't lead this one, but I lead for the first time later this day. This imposing overhang is actually only a 5.8. Gotta love the Gunks!

Toproping at Peterskill in the Gunks. Good times! (Photos: Jen)