Glorious sunny weather saw 50 competitors and loads of onlookers take to the River Moriston on Sunday 6th May for the UK’s most hardcore white water paddling event.

This year I decided not to compete - basically I had no chance against some of the best boaters in the country – however I did volunteer to do safety. So, the weekend started for me and the squad of 12 rescuers on the River Spean on Saturday for some white water safety training with Dave Rossetter of www.stirlingcanoes.co.uk.

Little water meant a day stuck swiming up and down Fairy Steps, but despite my fears, the sun did make it into the gorge, so spirits remained high as we ran through a variety of rescue scenarios and tried a few different mechnical advantage set-ups; thankfully none were required on the day, however!

After an unsociable early rise on the Sunday, we arrived in Glen Moriston just as the dam began to release. This had been one of Jim Flemming’s stresses; no water, no race! After the Falkrik stragglers arrive and our team briefing was over, my team bush-whacked along the southern bank to set-up safety beside ‘stick hole’, the boof ledge midway down that has a habit of catching out the unwary paddler…few escape a wrong line on this one!

Before the race kicked-off at 11am, a few folk decided to take their boats for a test run. Sadly, this resulted in the first incident of the day; a dislocated shoulder. But, thankfully, most folk escaped unscathed, ready for the first run.

The race ran really pretty smoothly and their was some great boating action to keep us onlookers entertained for the next few hours. A couple of swims on the top section, but all-in-all, success was on the water in bucket loads.

Inverness Canoe Club was represented by Matt Speke and Torq Fraser. Both had a good first run, while Torq took a wee swim at the top drop on his second run down. Still, they both achived very respectible times, with Matt narrowly missing the cut for the final session.

By the time the top twenty were announced and they’d hit the river, it was clear that fatigue was setting in for some. Aching arms were evident and lines were becoming less precise in some cases. This led to the only real action of the day for me, with one guy plumeting right into the guts of sticky hole, getting an unavoidable working and then catching my line as he swung into the bank. His boat then ran pinball on its own, getting stuck in a number of holes on the way down and getting a dunt in the bow for the effort.

Anyhow, not all runs ended this way, and some of the UK’s top slalom paddlers used their training to maintain their pace and ran in some pretty top-drawer times. In the end, Pete Scutt won the race with a very respectable 3:17:54, second came Matty Nicholas with 3:17:76, and third was Ed Smith (of Canoe and Kayak Magazine fame) with 3:18:48. The top girl was Sandra Hyslop with 3:25:39 and a big thumbs up to Thomas Findlay, fastest of the two Under 16 entrants, with 3:39:29.

A full list of result can be found on the MRR website: www.planetpaddler.com/MRR.html. Or you can check out the Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/169242013135914

Like most who attended the 2012 event, I can’t wait until next year. The Etive River Race, which this one repleaces, was a great event over the past few years, but in my humble opinion, the new venue has been a great move. A compact, testing and, this year at least, midge-free course; great for onlookers and guranteed levels. What more could you ask for?!

A couple of other bloggers have covered the race. You can check them out via the following links:

• Palm Equipment Team: http://www.palmequipmenteurope.com/blogs/ww/moriston-river-race
• Team Pyranha: http://www.teampyranha.com/?p=12636

Given the lack of rescuing work required, I managed to snap a few pics of the boats as they passed. Enjoy…

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Now, this is not a guide to a hardcore mountain bike trail, however it’s a sound 20km ride with some off-road forestry tracks, some bushwhacking (if you want), some quiet public roads, some nice single track and some jumps, bridges and switch-backs.

The single track is good craic and suitable for most, while the jumps and switch-backs can be pretty technical and tough; particularly in the wet as there are roots galore and a few deep, water-filled ruts to send you over your handlebars. The bushwhacking section (blue line on the map) is basically 1km of boggy forest and the supposed ‘path’ and ‘track’ shown on the OS is nowhere to be seen…beware!

Oh, and those eagle-eyed bikers out there may well spot other informal biking trails while following this route, for example, there’s a faily hardcore downhill route 1 or 2 km past the sawmill. There are some hidden gems, but they’re not formal and some have been there for some time (i.e. rot), so take care; follow this route at your own risk!

Levels were good; not too scrapy, but not to pushy. A whole lot better than our last visit there in 2011 when the river rose by a few feet within half an hour! And it was sunny to boot with no wind, which is very rare for the Carron when it’s a half decent level for paddling…

Anyhow, only a couple of swims in the first gorge, then after a bit of a slog, we reached Granny’s Hole. Most of us ran the river right route after the bridge, while the others provided safety. Just as well it was well protected, as there were quite a few swimmers and, after doing most of the rapid on its own, a holed Fluid Solo belonging to Foo…cracked from the bow to the cockpit…ouch!!

After the flotsam and jetsam was collected, we pushed on down to the Horseshoe Rapid (not sure if it has a proper name or not). Now, save in high water, this is never the nicest of rapids, but today it was horrible. Not a nice line in sight, but plenty for options for a stiff beating. So, most of us decided to scrape down the river right route; including Matt ‘Super’ Speke, who’s never one to skip a feature unless there’s no option!

Then, after some more flat stuff and minor waves, we reached the gorge at the get-out by the footbridge. Matt, Robert and Me went down the first section to show the rest of the group the lines, and then provided cover. No major incidents at first, then two, sorry, three swims in quick succession; these things are sent to try us!

Anyhow, with all boats emptied and folk ready for the final leg, we pushed down to the last section in the gorge; two stoppers, one narrow and grabby with an overhang and the second steeper with a big tow-back in the right (wrong?!) levels. We spent time checking out the lines and discussing options and scenarios with the group, then cracked on.

Matt, as ever, made it look easy. Robert over-cooked it and forced a roll. I paddled it quite well – even though I say so myself! In fact, everyone gave it a good shot, and we only one swim, which, to be fair, almost resulted in a sideways pin (nasty in that hole), but thankfully all worked out at the 11th hour and Martin manage to wash straight through into the waiting arms of a Palm throwbag.

So, and grand day on the river and great to see so many paddlers out and about, enjoying the fine paddling conditions; roll on the summer!

Don’t worry, I’ll be getting back to the kayaking soon though…

Really low, but it was the only water about…so much so, that half of the paddlers in Scotland seemed to be there and the car park was choc-a-block!

Randolph’s Leap was low, but four of us ran it and it went reasonably smoothly. Tripple Steps was a nice level, although a group there doing 5 Star Leader assessment (i.e. inspection over-kill) slowed our pace down and split our group for a while. Once the route was clear, our tail-end-Charlies headed down, with Titch pulling off a fairly awesome roll at the mid-point.

Oh, and talking of Tripple Steps, while I was taking pics of the middle step, one of 5 Star group (possibly an assessor actually) knicked my boat without asking to chase after one of their own boats after a swim – not cool, not cool at all – if it was a swmmer, fair enough, but a boat set loose due to poor safety cover is another thing (and it would just have got stuck in an eddy given the level was so low).

Anyhow, after getting over that minor irritation, we trooped down to Cork Screw. Again, low, but the left line went nicely enough. Matt did half of it backwards, I did half of it without my paddle after jamming it in a rock and John, who joined us momentarilty from the other ICC group, showed us all what a clear line looks like.

A nice few bimbly rapids later, Matt decided to run The Slot, while the rest of us portaged. One day I’ll give it a shot for sure, but didn’t look that nice today…I was more comfortable taking a photo!

After the torturous get-out, a quick change and then off to Logie Steading for coffee and cake; aaaaah, a perfect end to a day on the water!!

So, in the hope of getting some form of paddle I headed to the Blackwater with Matt and Caz. Cold was the word of the day, oh, along with scrape!

We scraped down the river and ran most of the drops, but it didn’t really feel like a proper paddle; never wanting to be short-changed, we then headed up Strathconon and paddled the Meig Gorge.

Like the Blackwater, it was low and a scrape. Lines, well they were either tight or not really there – it really needs a Thursday compensation flow to be worthwile - but it was worth it for the simple reason that it was boating!

Some top action, quality footage, awesome drops and maga brown flood water…just make sure that you don’t pick up a tropical disease à la Mr Fleming if you decide to head over to Africa to check it all out for yourself!

Kayaking in Kenya, Africa. from james fleming on Vimeo.

Headed up to a boney Upper Black Water for a quick blast down. Some nice drops as normal, but really rocky on the middle section. So, having decided that we’d done more punting than paddling, we headed to the Meig Gorge.

No real compensation flow coming from the Meig Dam up Strath Conon, and Loch Meig was about 99% ice, but the gorge was running – just!

A wee bit scrapy and some of the run-ins were actually a good bit harder than normal given normal lines were blocked by rocks, but still an excellent paddle.

Wish I’d brought my elbow pads, Cazz made us work hard at the constriction (boat and person rescue) and I took a STUPID swim on the final feature of the gorge, but well worth it nonetheless…and lovely, as ever, to shoot down Tea Cup Falls!!

Despite the sun and surprising warmth for a January day, down in the gorge it was freezing – literally!

Matt, Robert and me ran Randolph’s Leap, which turned out to be a wee bit pushier than expected, while Jo and Caz joined us just below. The river was a good level today, with all features running and not too many rocks on show. Some good waves too for fun and frolicks on the way down!

Highlight of the day had to be the ‘prawn crackers’, otherwise known as bizzare frozen circles of foam in an eddy just below the get-in. Not quite sure how they were formed, but they made excellent frisbies! Thanks to Matt for the photos…

While the lower section looked a good level at Randolph’s Leap, it also looked utterly baltic, so we decided to give the middle a spin; more open, so possibly a wee bit warmer?!

It was a pretty low level and a bit scrapy, but always nice to get out nonetheless. Couple of nice wee wave spots too; particularly in the gorge just after Dragon’s Tooth. Hoping to get out to the West Coast soon to do the Gruinard, Cuilleig etc., or perhaps Lochaber to get another run down the Roy or even the Gloy; just need some water and warmer air!