Tohickon Release - March 17-18, 2012

[Tohickon Release]

Signed up (8/50):

[Nick Bowley]

Eric, are you camping?  I am game to ride up with you.  Below are the arrangements we did last year which worked out pretty good.

For carpooling I think we will meet at the park & ride at 95 & 152 (Exit 74) around 6:30am.  Feel free to make your own carpool arrangements with someone else coming that works better for you. 

[Eric Ruhl]

I may camp, I am going whichever way fills my van up   gotta keep an eye on the budget;  hope to know later today or early tomorrow.

[Nick Bowley]

Adam wanted to camp which is why i made it a camping trip.  He isn't coming now though.   I am thinking of "NOT" camping and making it a very long day Saturday.

[Caveman]

I'm in for an upback Sat

John>

[mike_k]

I reckon I might meet yall up there, mhmn.
French-fried pertaters.

[Caveman]

It'll be a day like every day, PACKED with adventure!

(Attributed to Larry, with whom I use to race.  He use to say it everytime before we headed down the race course.)

John>

[Nick Bowley]

We had a good trip to the Tohickon.   It was John Kemper, John Becker, Peiting, Tara, Eric, Mike, and  myself.   We saw a lot of friends in other groups at the put-in and throughout the day.  The weather is as good as it ever gets.  The temperature was in the 70's and it was sunny.

The first run took about two hours.   I learned the correct lines down the river based on a map I brought and scouting some rapids.  I have only run the river like 10 times and never really knew the standard lines.  We scouted a few rapids, something I don't do often enough (never) as a trip leader.  This might be something I start doing more often instead of expecting people to "read and react" like I like to do.   

Mike surfed quite a bit and had a lot of nice rolls while playing, but had a swim starting at the top of the Race Course rapid which is probably the worst rapid to have a swim in.  We should have had him sign a waiver before following Eric to make sure he knew what he might get into.  He got out unscathed with his paddle and Eric pushed his boat to the side impressively quick.  Usually getting a boat full of water under control in this river is pretty tough.  Other than that, everyone ran nice clean lines and no one else had any swims.   John Kemper got to see the entire river this year and had a nice run.  This was Peiting's first time on the river this year and was able to pick her own lines down the river and read the water.  Peiting also had a clean run down the river.  She hit the lines better than I did. 

Eric, Jon, Tara, and I did a second run after lunch.  We were a little more picky as to what holes and waves we surfed instead of trying to to surf everything we could.   The second run was nice.  There were not nearly as many people on the river.  The second run was uneventful which is a good thing.  In the fall, our second run resulted in 3 swims.  People tend to get tired after the first run and push themselves for a second.  Peiting relaxed and read a book in the sun next to the Delaware.

After we left the river; John, Peiting, Eric, and I went to Jon's on South Street in Philly for some cheesesteaks.   It was St. Patricks day and it was kind of crazy there.  There a lot of "interesting" people that came out to celebrate.

It was a fun time with great friends and can't wait to get there again for the fall release.

[Nick Bowley]

Look like Road Dog took some photos this year. 
The photos span multiple pages and are posted in reverse order which is a little confusing.

Here is the link for our group:
http://www.roaddogphoto.com/sports/000124/3/

Here is the link for the other Baltimore group:
Jeff, Angie, Johanna, John
http://www.roaddogphoto.com/sports/000124/6/

Link for some of the Conewago group, at least I see Beckie
http://www.roaddogphoto.com/sports/000124/8/

Here is the other page with the secon Conewago group. 
Bill, Laura, Jason, Evie, Richard, etc...   
http://www.roaddogphoto.com/sports/000125/8/

I had my helmet camera on, but dont feel like putting a video together so I might just strip out some still photos from it.