Kurt's Near Disaster

Posted by Kurt Maurer on Jan 12, 2005

Rob-O-Matic writes: "I just want a shot at using that nice saw.

Cashing in my brownie points today."

Robby, you have a lifetime supply of brownie points with me, dude, for posting your Class 12 Rapids story... For it did indeed loom large in my mind when Leslie and I found ourselves in the roaring, boulder-strewn whitewater of the Rogue River in SW Oregon in June of '03. I shall never forget the awe-inspiring sounds of splintering wood as we were bashed about in the wild melee. To this day I cannot understand how neither Mill Creek 13 ever produced the slightest evidence of abuse from that little adventure... All I can say is GREAT DESIGN, and OH SH*T. All I know is that I distinctly heard mine crack a few times, over the din of the washing machine; and one of the first things Leslie half-wept once safely ashore was "I think I broke my boat!" In retrospect, it was an absurdly difficult decision to abort that run, believe it or not -- I mean, we were actually debating whether we had seen the worst of it or not, etc., etc., etc. But thinking of your story cemented the deal in relatively short order. We rafted the run a couple days later (and had a BLAST!), and no, we had NOT seen the worst of it... Hah, thanks for the memories!

(Disclaimer: we had run the proposed river trip past a couple local outfitters beforehand, who pronounced our boats up to it. The idiots.)

Yes, sports fans, the MC13 is a wonderful boat. Just spectacularly wonderful. I will always be proud to own one!

The Delta saw is a dream, and reminds me of the sweetest table saw I ever used: a 16" (!) Tannowitz. Smoooooooth? Oh man!

Cheers, Kurt

In Response to: Re: Kurt's Curiosity by Robert N Pruden on Jan 11, 2005

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