Four of our beginners' first river trip was a great success! The beginners, Tyler, Emily, Sam and Zach, all did great. Despite many "overs," NO SWIMS! Lots of good rolls, and lots of good "hanging in there" until rescues showed up. "The Cascades" ended up being even better than expected as a beginner training spot. It's probably not as gentle of an introduction to eddying out/peeling out as is starting at Dexter-Huron, but the new crew all handled it with aplomb.
Among the many spectators observing the shenanigans were Susan Quackenbush — a club member who hasn't been able to paddle with us yet, Mark-whose-last-name-I-can't-remember, a former club member who has put in his time on the Yough as well as other rivers, followed by Kathy, Thorsten and James after their excursion on the upper Huron. I suppose the dude with the six-pack (beers, not abs) and chewing tobacco also merits mention.
The attending non-beginners were Lee and Michele Green (in the green QE II), Paresh and Sharon Patel, Greg Weddle, Alex Janke and Jan. The water was a bit cool; as Paresh said, we could have used another 10 degrees. We met at the Longshore Park/Argo Canoe Livery; Paresh and Jan drove down to Riverside Park (90% of the parking lot was mud puddle) and ran (well, walked) shuttle. After a safety talk, we paddled up to Goose-Crap Island to warm up (okay, not really sure of the Island's name, but it is an accurate description), and then down to "The Cascades." We spent a fair amount of time at the first 3 or 4 chutes, after which the cold set in for a few less-equiped, and so we spent less time on the final chutes. Some of the skirts were clearly operating under duress, and let their displeasure be known by allowing what their wearers would attest were prodigious amounts of water into their respective boats.
After basking in the sunlight (and stiff breeze) at the take out, Emily adopted the Patel changing snuggy and wandered around armless-but-warm for a while. Then we loaded up, returned and washed the gear at the NCRB, and Sam headed home looking forward to writing his paper in blissful warmth.
A fine outing -- we're all looking forward to doing it again soon!
(And yeah, I forgot my camera, so mea culpa on the no pictura).