Jared: my friend the narcoleptic

On Saturday February 13, my friends and I decided to paddle our local playboating run the Tilton. The day wasn't particularly exceptional, we surfed, and played down the river, stopped a few times to stretch the legs and regain feeling in our feet. But there was one instance that is memorable just because of how hard I laughed.

On this day Chris and I had gotten behind the main group for a moment in order to empty out the gallon or so of water that was sloshing around at our feet. We dumped our boats, and then got back in the water and paddled downstream in order to catch up with the rest of the group. The rest of them were floating in eddies around the corner waiting for us to run the rapid and group up again. The rapid that separated us was an easy class III with multiple lines, I started on the River Right and weaved my way over to river Left to catch an eddy that Jared was in.
Oh, here is some background information on Jared. Jared, is one of the first people I started paddling with when I arrived in Olympia, and he has a peculiar manner of things, but a good guy all around. The guys and I always give him a hard time about his sleeping habits. "If he doesn't get his required 17 hours of sleep he can't function" or, "Jared the undiagnosed Narcoleptic". The kid can sleep anywhere and anytime, sitting up, standing against his car, at a stop light, and now in his kayak.

As I pulled into the eddy Jared had his paddle in his lap, holding onto a rock, elbow resting on the cockpit rim, and his cheek against his hand. Dozing. Initially I didn't realize he was sleeping, but when I pulled up next to him and said "what's up!" and he startled awake I lost it. I laughed for the next 20 minutes, I had to go up to everyone and explain why I couldn't stop laughing. It became infectious, the legend about Jared and his need for sleep just gained notoriety. This morning while I was in the shower I thought about it again and started laughing just as hard. If I didn't know him like I do this event wouldn't have been very funny, it might have been even a little scary. I might be lead to believe that he was having a stroke or a heart attack, or some other disorder that was killing him. But no. I laughed. I laughed hard. I've woken him up enough times in a variety of other situations, but this was a first. Fast asleep, sitting in his kayak, at the bottom of the Tilton gorge. Classic. Sounds like a Seinfeld episode.

I think that doctors could use him as a case-study to write there doctorate thesis' on, any man that can sleep even while there adrenaline gland is pumping is truly special.

Tilt-on

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Tilton River 1300 cfs.

Class III-IV

Today was a low key day on the Tilton river, which is typical for our backyard run. We met at the regular meeting spot, a department store similar to an up-scale version of Wal-mart. It was a small group this morning, Chris, Gregg, and I.

At the Ike Kinswa state park we ran into another group, chris knew one of the folks but the rest were strangers. We suited up and made our way to the super-secret-put-in that is located on a christmas tree farm. Our friend Brian knows the owner and got permission to put-in on their property instead of putting on 2 miles upstream on a class II stretch.

I decided that I needed to paddle the playboat again today, a decision that I always end up regretting during the last mile or so, sore ankles, knees and spending plenty of time upside-down contribute to that. But the surfing part is really fun so it's a double edged sword.

At the top of "surf city" we pulled over and hung out while we took turns surfing the glassy wave at the top. While we surfed the other group caught up to us and we spent the rest of the trip paddling together.

I got unintentionally worked in a hole in surf city, and spent a little time trying to figure out how to get out of it. In the picture you can see the hole over Gregg's shoulder.

Once we reached the lake we decided to stop and stretch the legs and take a walk up Cinebar creek and took a look at the water fall that pours through a narrow notch in the rock. A short hike with a sweet view.

The temperature was cold but there was no rain so it made it more comfortable. All in all it was a high quality day on Tilton River. It was nice to have a low adventure day to finish up the weekend.