Kayaking the Lehigh

Spent both days this weekend kayaking the Lehigh river in Pennsylvania, about 2 hours west of New York. I was with a group of 5 others, mostly from Columbia. There was a release on the river (an upstream dam shedding water) and it was crowded with other kayakers and rafters.

Had a shaky start (I hadn't been in white water for almost a year) but then got my muscle memory back and it was fine .... more then fine: the first trip I didn't swim (i.e. flip and have to get out of the boat under water), and I did the eskimo roll in running water ... and learnt to surf (poke your kayak's nose on a wave and find the neutral spot where you don't have to paddle much to stay where you are, despite the strongly running water).

We also did a couple of adventurous stunts, like sliding the kayaks down sloping rock faces, or even crazier: launching ourselves into the water from a sheer 5m rock face.