Steve T
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River Greta, 25/10/08Yesterday there were six of us on the Greta, paddling from Threlkeld to Keswick (Allen & Anneke, Jon, Chris, Carl & me).
At the get in the level was a few inches above the spate marker, higher than the last time but not too scary. It was probably about 12:45 when we finally finished the shuttle and got onto the river. It was raining pretty heavily, and had been all morning, and there was also quite a strong wind. We had read about tree hazards on UKRGB so we were paddling with an eye out for these.
The first few grade II warm-up rapids were run without drama, the speed of the water meant that we were quickly through the grade III "magnetic rock" rapid and down at "the wall" in no time at all, where we had lunch. We were starting to realise that the water was continuing to rise, it was becoming quite a fast, big volume run, and breakouts were getting fewer and smaller. Typically it was like this (some bigger, some smaller):
The waves were getting bigger and faster, with some chunky stoppers to power through. Before the big grade III rapid where the river splits, we got out to inspect and saw about 200m of this:
Not shown is a river wide stopper over a rock shelf which looked quite meaty too. Two-thirds of the team settled in for a portage, while Chris & I were up for running it. However, a look downstream and a bit of a think showed us that there was nowhere that the others could get down to the river to protect us, and any swim would have taken us directly into these trees:
So we joined the rest and portaged this bit, which was probably close to grade IV in this level. I know Chris wasn't 100% happy with this but I stand by the decision.
A bit further down we squeezed past a huge stopper under Forge Bridge (which gave me the washing machine treatment last time in much lower levels) and just below this it all came unstuck with three swimmers all at once. By the time this was sorted we were in the outskirts of Keswick and it was getting on for 16:00. Again a hard decison was taken to finish here after Carl & Allen scouted ahead and reported another 500m-ish of fast Washburn-style grade II without breakouts. The decision was reinforced when a blue & green kayak came tonking past without its owner. Once more, Chris & I thought about running this to get to my truck but in the end we made a decision for three of us to hike through Keswick town centre in dripping paddling kit to Portinscale bridge. Chris had spotted an empty car park by the Royal Mail sorting office with a canopy to get changed under, so at least that was in the dry.
This was Jon's first river trip, and in these conditions it was a baptism of fire. He acquitted himself very well, especially given that he was in an Acrobat and three of us were in creek boats!
When finishing the shuttle we had another look at the get-in, where the spate marker was invisible, the water was murky brown and the path to the river was flooded - easily two feet higher than when we started, probably more.
A fantastic run, in full on conditions, with a couple of well thought-out group decisions which were absolutely the right things to do given the conditions. This was the hardest trip we have run this year, and for me the best so far.
Later that evening, the news that the mountain marathon in the next valley had been cancelled with lots of missing runners emphasised the conditions and the maturity of the decisions we made not to be too gung-ho about things.
Steve
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Mel Stoddart
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Sounds like it was a good trip and think I may have struggled quite a bit in my little boat!
I heard on the news about missing marathon runners, but happily no mention of paddlerless kayaks appearing in Keswick 
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CarlS
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I found some parts of this harder than the upper sections of the tryweryn and would agree with Steve that some parts could be classed as grade 4. The last time I did this run it was in my G-Ride and I only remember having to do one support stroke the entire trip. Yesterday I had to one roll and at least three strong supports. Steve seemed to almost have to do a half-roll at one point (he probably doesn't remember this as he was busy chasing a boat at the time). The trip was challenging and whilst we did debate running some sections which we eventually portaged, the correct decision was made given our risk assessment. Had we done the last rapids I felt that any swim would result in loss of boat.
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Steve T
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Yes, some of the boat chases were challenging - I do take a perverse pleasure in chasing gear as you tend to run stuff on sight and it adds a bit of adrenaline to the situation. A couple of years ago I ran Chapel Falls on the Tryweryn in my Maniac chasing a boat, and didn't realise until I was walking back up the river!
Having said that, in yesterday's conditions I did feel exposed when separated from the rest of the group and I didn't know what was round the next bend. Some expletives were uttered. It was worse because the lack of eddies without trees meant the chase could be quite long. It's important to know when to quit, you don't take unnecesary risks to recover gear.
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Jon W
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Thanks to all for taking care of me and my gear. As predicted I had trouble sleeping Saturday night as I was reliving the (giant) waves and dodging of trees and rocks.
It was a little scary at times but fun in a perverse way. The stuff learnt on the White Water Safety course certainly came in handy when riding the rapids without a kayak!
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CarlS
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You did well Jon and don't worry about swimming and subsequent rescue. We have all been through this and accept that we can become involved in swims or rescues at any time, the trick is not to panic (which you didn't).
As a club we do have a good safety record and the experience to know
when to paddle or portage. We definately made the correct decision to get off when we did. When an eddy disappears in a matter of minutes, paddlerless boats go past you at top speed and the locals are starting to place sandbags on their doorsteps you know the river is not going to get any lower!
I am now saving up for a creek boat.
Carl
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Allen
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Greta reportI agree with Carl and Steve about the level of paddling and about the safety decisions we made. I felt myself I could probably have tackled that last section but totally agree with the group decision not to split up. The news at night confirmed how right we were.
Anneke and me were looking for a gradual way of getting back into serious paddling; we're back but not gradually! We thoroughly enjoyed it, as Jon puts it, in a perverse fun way. By the way Jon, as we said on Saturday you did very well. We all still swim from time to time and you really went in at the deep end for a first river trip (sorry about the pun).
Allen
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