Hey All,
I had a great time diving the river with the group last Saturday. I was happy to get to dive with Charlotte. I just hope the leeches didn't put her off diving the river again. They were very small leeches, afterall. I seldom get to dive with folks from my fav LDS (although Ed4 is changing that). I was happy to meet and dive with Matt too. Keep diving Matt. You'll find that the certification really means that you know how to not kill yourself. The best way to learn how to dive is to do so often. I hope to dive with you again. Harley and Ron, I was glad to meet both of you. Steve took some great shots. Wrestling the camera around in that current had to be a workout.
The river current was intense last Saturday and you had to do some serious finning to keep moving up stream. To put it in perspective, the flow rate was enough to fill the average sized swimming pool in about 2 seconds. Sometimes we were kicking for all we were worth and simply hovering. To move forward we had to pull ourselves along the bottom.
We still managed to take out a lot of junk. And as Steve mentioned earlier, he had gas money for the trip home thanks to some hapless (and most likely drunk) tuber. At least the guy was nice enough to put the foldin' stuff in a plastic bag so Steve didn't have to dry it out before spending it. I found some really nice sunglasses, not even muddy. They look like they were lost just that morning.
The last dive was the most extreme. Ed4 and I finned and clawed our way further upstream than I had ever gone. At one point we got seperated. A hand hold slipped and away I went. I was feverishly working to catch up when I saw a length of rope attached to a large concrete slab. I grabed it and climbed hand over hand. My body flapped in the current like a flag and my regulator was being pulled out of my mouth. I reached to adjust my reg and wouldn't you know it, away I went...again. This time I saw Ed4 as I whizzed by so I made for the bottom and something to hang on to. I finaly caught up to him after chasing him around a rock for half a lap. I think we gave the "turn" sign at the same time. The "flight" back is really the payoff for struggling your way upstream. It's the second most fun thing you can do in the water. The last dive took 40 minutes. I think for 35 of it we were making our way upstream.
I'm looking forward to going back to the river in a few weeks. I wouldn't mind trying some of the other dive spots along the Salt.
Steve.
