Its been a classic week or three of rainchasing now. Lots of promise of stuff flasing up after heavy summer downpours. I reckon the ratio of getting on the water to not, has been about 50/50. Still Its brought on some nice dog walking on the days it hasnt been flowing;

A trip came off yesterday though and we got the Upper Esk done. Dash from work, meet, grab a load of calories and upset the domestic balance (sorry!). Sort kit and hike up, then and paddle down the Esk in the three hour window we had. Its a nice run, and can be a mellow 4 if you start below the falls. I really fancied that trip because it has the feeling of a mini mission, and a sense of geography. I've been lining up a bigger mission overseas but its still very much uncertain. The time, money and motivation are all in place, but the water levels are not under my control. I'm sat here waiting for the melt thousands of miles away and its draining tmy nervous energy. Uncertainty is hard work. Do I need to be going all out to sort head and body, or shall i just slump back to routine? I needed to stay enthused whilst waiting for the snows to melt and the call to be made. I needed another reason to go boating, so the Esk fit the bill;

The entry moves are at Vica Swa. We skipped the corner above the pictured drop due to time, lack of safety, and fear! This one goes fairly well though, and gives a nice feeling of moving off down the valley.

Then its steady away with a couple of grade 3/4 slides until Birk Dub (above) Its a nasty squeeze with a very awkward entry. Higher water gives an escape route from a line on river right but that was just closed, so we just had to get ugly with it. We had to take the slot on a slower than the water entry move.

Kail Pot is a hoot, its hard to do it with any grace but it's easy and safe. The water squeezes round a dog leg and its hard to read or find the flow over the lip. If your up there looking at it with your mates then "i'm just gonna float over and see what happens" is the only line you have any certainty of making, so go for that! A few more rapids and some easy water slide and a couple of k's of easy water, lead back to the car.

But the snow still hasn't melted....

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