I thought it was an unlikely it would run, as it hasn’t rained in weeks and it’s ran for the past 3 days, but I was very happy when I called the number and heard the familiar words… “Tuxedo hydro station will be running one unit at 100% capacity from 7:00 am until 12 noon....” It was go time. My dad had really been wanting to see what the green was all about, so I got him to hike in and take some pictures. It was running at a low 100% and the warm-up class II felt scrapier then ever. I passed through Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein with ease, then arriving at Pin cushion where the line has changed semi-recently. Skirted around the log and continued to bomb the boogie water. A lot of this top stuff is really fun to bomb down, especially in the Magnum, which is the fastest creek boat I have paddled. Soon I arrived at Boof or Consequence after Boof, I eddied out above Go Left and Die.. This was where my Dad was supposed to be. I didn’t see him around so I got on on river left and began hiking down.
I found him and our weird dog named Lyra at Gorilla.
Both were looking a little worse for wear from the hike. We hiked back up and I ran Go left, banging the slot a little as I came rocketing through. That slot gets so narrow at these low water levels…
I went and caught the Zwick’s eddy, then peeled out and boofed the hole.
Next game Chiefs, which gets sketchier and sketchier the lower the water gets. I waited as my dad made his way down to just above the notch. Then Pencil Sharpener… I went for the flying squirrel, (far river left). It went smoothly and put me in perfect position for the notch. I caught the eddy just above gorilla, going from a boof to rudder stroke and planing into the eddy.
I boofed off the pad, with a big lefty, and hit speed trap straight on. It spun me in the eddy, but didn’t keep me luckily. (I got caught in there for the first time the day before).
The slides below gorilla only add onto the enormous rush that you get after you run gorilla. 
Rapid Transit was bouncy and scrapey as usual. A lot of boat-breaking potential in that rapid for sure…
I got down to nutcracker, and ran the far left slot. Evidently there is a line in the middle of the river, it’s pretty sketchy though. (Get your bow hard left, or risk an awful piton and/or a nasty pin). Spencer Cooke ran it recently, and it will be interesting to see if more people start firing that up… Groove Tube is always fun. Kicking it down on the center line.
Sunshine was sketchy low, I got a good amount of rock and my boat drove up on top of the rock and I landed fairly flat in the eddy below.
I paddled around in a little circle inside the sunshine cave, before peeling out onto the second ledge. The rest of the run went smoothly, and I was thinking about how little people I had seen (it was a Saturday after all), when I got to Hammer Factor. Here I found about 20 people all hanging out at Hammer Factor. (Sprinkle, Chris Houston, Steven, both Nicks, etc etc etc). Everyone was fired up because about 4 tubers had just run Toilet bowl and Hammer Factor, and evidently there was some good carnage. A little disappointing that I missed their runs, but it was pretty funny hearing them talk about it. Got to the takeout, where the usual summer scene awaited. (Hot tubing girls/ little congregations of paddlers talking about their runs). Sprinkle gave me a ride back to the put-in in his super sporty shuttle rig. Another great day on the river!
Signing out,
Nathan Silsbee
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