On a calm overcast morning, 4 of us set off from Miller St all kitted up – Leigh (our trip leader), Marcus, Clive and myself. We met up with Graham Roy at Callander car park with his open boat. After leaving some cars at the Torrie lay-by some miles downriver, Leigh gave us an excellent pre-trip brief of the day ahead of us, safety checks, signals, etc. and we all showed off our individual kayak experience (or lack of). It was a busy car park. It looked like we were sharing the river Teith with a big group of kayakers from the Stirling Kayak Club.
To get us warmed up we went upriver a bit to practice ferry gliding and breaking in and out of the current, which allowed the Stirling group to go on ahead. Leigh went to the front of the group to show us the correct lines, with Graham bringing up the rear in the canoe. After a lazy section through the town waving to tourists, we soon caught up with Stirling so we pushed on ahead of them to avoid crowding the eddies. Further down, we had fun at a faster section ferry gliding back and forth and practicing some surfing. No names will be mentioned to save face, but one of us went in at this point so a bit of rescuing was called for. The river was a bit on the low side, so it was easy enough to get out and swim to shore quickly.
The last time I had been on the Teith the level was high. This time the rocks were peeping through or just under surface, so there was plenty of hull scraping along the way, sometimes getting stuck. We enjoyed some nice rapids to power through and we all managed the Big Rock with ease, although we lost sight of Graham at the rear, because he picked a line left of the rock and snuck in to the eddy from the other side.
After lunch, we ventured on down some bigger rapids, ducking in behind exposed rocks every now and then. At the Torrie rapids, Leigh went down to scope out the line for us newbies. It also helped that the Stirling group powered on past us at this point to show us the way as well. This is a great section, well in the capabilities of most beginners who have been through lessons out at Loch Lomond and the pool. Key is to pick the right line down the left side and power through paddling until you get the eddy further down on the left. We all survived and stayed dry (no capsizes). We did have a paddler go in just short of the get-out point (again no names!). Graham managed to pick up the boat and paddle and the paddler floated feet first to the get-out.
All in all, we had a great day out with some great paddling for our level. Leigh was fantastic as trip leader (her first, apparently). If you get the chance, try out this river as it’s set in some lovely scenery and is a good test for beginners and improvers.
Paul Malloy
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