Another USA roatrip to paddle the Ocoee

Life has been busy the last couple of weeks.

In between doing some photoshoots for some new friends of mine for their modeling portfolios I managed to squeeze in five and a half day trip down to the USA for some fun paddling.

I left work just after noon on friday 18-Jun and arrived at my friends Pam and Pat in West Virginia around 8:30. I spent some time catching up with Pat and the renovations he was doing around the house. I wish I had his skills with some of the stuff he has been doing. We had a very late BBQ dinner before I headed off to bed.

I left early saturday morning as I had a long drive to the NOC near Bryson City, North Carolina. I got there about 2pm where I met up with Alex in the putin parking lot. He was glad I was there as one of the newbies he was paddling with lost a paddle. I ended up lending him my spare paddle for the day.

I geared up quickly and caught up to them on the river. I thought it was kind of bizarre considerin was about 32C outside plust humidity and people were putting on drysuits. It was until I started paddling into the fog I realized the was was beer can cold. You could put a case of beer in the river and it would be chilled and ready in 10 minutes.

The six of us had a great run down the river. The newbies did verry well considering two of them had not been in moving water too much. I ran the drop at the falls or hole before you get tot the slalom course twice. I want to catch the eddy behind the big boulder just beside the hole. I almost caught it the first time and did it the second time. It was a rush for sure as I slipp stream through the hole on the right angle to make the eddy. After that I ran the slalom course and did really well.

After packing up my geat I made the just over two hour drive to the Ocoee River area in south eastern TN. I finally found the Ocoee River Rats campground and hooked up with some of my Alabama friends for the night. I spent some time catching up with them before crashing for the night.

I was up early sunday morning. It was great to have a shower followed by a great breakfast with my friends. After that I said my goodbyes and headed over to the putin for the Middle Ocoee early as I was not sure where it was. It is a fairly easy shuttle to do my hitch hiking. I picked up a butt boater and gave him a ride to the putin. This would be a personal first decsent of this river. It is one of those classic souther rivers that has been on my list for a long time.

I only had to wait about 30 minutes before my friend Kimberly showed up from NC. Soon the TN boys were there. Kim and I setup our own shuttle as we were running the entire river. The TN boys were to wimpy to paddle that far.

The Ocoee is a beautiful river. It is quite busy with rafts but a fun fun. I never had any swims running any of the features. I did swim a couple times when I went back to play in the holes which consisted of some fun side and back surfs. I ran what I thought were all the technical lines as the rafts and the other rec boaters were taking the easy way down the river.

My best move of the day had to be at Cats Pajamas. It was a pour over into a hole that look straight forward. I waited for the squirt boater to finish before I did my run. The only problem was that it was a deep hole. I did a mystery move with the first six feet of my boat into the hole. I was pretty much vertical and the front part of my boat was gone. I ended up doing a whole bunch of low braces and back sweeps and managed to recover. Kim and the squirt boater thought I was a goner for sure but I came out with a big smile on my face.

Hell Hole was a blast. After getting the high sign I started my run and a butt boater decided to try and play chicken with me as he thought I was a raft only to be yelled at that I was a open boat. He got out of the way real quick. I crested the top part of the huge wave and Kim said it looked like I surfed it for a bit before dropping of the backside into the hole where I filled up. I had to run Power House very carefully. After that it was a short paddle to the takeout where Kim packed up and headed back to Asheville, NC for the night.

Whe caught up with her husband Karl and went out for Thai food followed by icecream for desert. I had never really been downtown Ashville before in the summer and in daylight. All my trips through there had always been in March and total darkness. It is a beautiful city.

Monday would be a non boating day and a leisurely drive to Charleston, WV to stay at my friends Don's place for the night. We had a great dinner together with his kids but unfortunately his wife Jo was out of town on business.

Tuesday would be a run down the New River Gorge. It was the third time I had run the river and definitely the highest I had ever paddled it. I had lots of fun on the river. My most memorable moment would be running Lower Keenies. Last time I caught the eddy behind the huge rock half way down on river right. This I would not be able to because of the high water. I boat scouted the run while the others got out and looked at it from shore. The run at this level reminded me of the Normans on the Ottawa River. It was a total blast.

Soon we were done. It was great to paddle again with Don, Jeff, and David plus meet Kevin, Kevin, and Amber. It is always a great experience on my paddling trips in the USA to see my old friends and meet new ones. I cannot believe how many people I have met over the years plus the people that know me that I have never met in person yet. It is great meeting those people when they go your the guy that did blah blah or this and that.

After goodbye were said I made the two and a half hour drive back to Pam and Pat's place for the night.

Wednesday was a leisure drive back to Canada with a stop at the duty free for some booze.

Ottawa River - First paddle of the 2010 season

I had a great time paddling both channels of the Ottawa river for the last saturday. This would be my first time for the 2010 paddling season. It would also be the lowest I had paddled the river in the last three years with the gauge being at -1.25.

I met up at the putin with some of the Petawawa River Rats. After shuttling and gearing up we hit the river and headed over to McCoy's.

I hopped out to shoot photos of the gang and spent some time scouting the extreme right hand sneak line at Phil's Hole. There isn't much wiggle room for error when paddling a barge like mine. A slight mis-calculation would take me into rightside phil's which is not a very nice place to be. I ran the line fine and fairly dry for the most part. I ended up having an out of boat experience when I was not exactly setup on for centre Horshoe. I ended up in rightside which is a so so place to be but life was good.

I tried three times to side surf Babyface. Almost had it a couple times but at least i came off without swimming. Soon it was time to head down river. I wanted to paddle both channels but most people were only paddling only one channel and would be finished by noon. My dilema was soon solved when I ran into Jim and his merry bunch from Esprit. He offered his services to shuttling me back up top with them after they finished lunch. Sweet life was definitely getting better.

I met up at Iron Ring with the Rats before we spent some playtime at S-Bend. I was happy to catch the top right eddy at Butterlfly. I even managed to get a half decent front, side, and back surf in leftside Butterly before spending some time in the water. I almost recovered but I need to cool off anyway.

Soon we were at the big roar of Garvins. I carried my boat around at Elevator Shaft and setup to shoot the Esprit gang running the Dragons Tongue. I spent some time looking for a line. One of these days i want to run the tongue. Jim's only comment was don't follow our line ... just make sure you drop off the left side!

Upper No-Name was a breeze. I eddy hopped down the right side of Lower No-Name and was really happy when i caught the eddy just below Vampire. It is a half-circle indentation in the rocks that my boat just barely fits into. I first caught it a few years back when Neil and i were there. After that I jet ferried over to the Esprit lunch spot where my baby ended up as snug as a bug with the rafts on top of the bus.

After lunch we head off to the main channel. I ran the entire main without getting my shirt wet and I ran everything. I ran into Paul Mason just above Garb plus saw some other friends at Push Button and the takeout. I headed over to River Run and the Tours to say hi to some of my friends that i have not seen since the fall.

It was another great day on the river.