It is hard to believe that I just finished my last USA paddling roadtrip for the 2010 paddling season.
I had an amazing last few days with old friends plus meeting some new ones.
It all started last thursday when I left work at noon l and head south for my third Gauleyfest. The only differences this time around is that I would be staying and paddling with my friends from Charleston, WV on satirday and sunday. I also had made plans to paddle the Upper Yough river near Friendsville, MD for the first time. I was kind of nervous with running it but I had been practicing on my technical river running skills all season with that being my ultimate challenge at the end of the year.
I made a few phone calls to some of the boys to nail down the plan for friday. I even managed to convince Mick not to go squirt boating and come paddle with us through a triple dog dare. As I was driving through the toll booth going from NY to PA I hear a beep beep beep coming from the lane beside me. It turned out to be my friend Brandon and his girlfriend Laine and they were also headed to Gauleyfest. I pulled over to find out what their paddling plans were before they continured on. I was also curious as what the odds of the three of us meeting there so I posed the question to my statistical analysis friend Chris from FL with the following:
"Two separate vehicles
One leaving Ottawa
One leaving Toronto
Occupants do not know each other is heading to gauleyfest
Both vehicles end up in side by side lanes at the same time exiting the toll booth from new York state to Pennsyvania"
His response was:
"Odds are exactly 1:893,597"
I made a stop in Erie, PA for some snacks and gas. Soon it started to rain so hard you could not see. I phoned Brandon to see where he was and asked where they were going to be sleeping. Since they were not quite sure and the weather was going to be crap at least until the next day I offered to let them stay with me at a friends cabin for the night and come paddling with us the next day. Since they were way ahead of me I told them to find the Walmart at exit 78of the I79 and wait for me. After getting some groceries and other stuff we continued the journey to Paul's place and made dinner and watched a movie while it continued to pour outside.
Friday:
We left the friday morning and headed down to Friendsville, MD to meet up with Joe and Tony. Mick was still in transit and would just meet us at the put in. It was kind of cool to see more and more people I knew showing up in the parking lot at the put in even though they were paddling in different groups. This would be my 300th river trip in my boat since I got here in late August 2006. Joe and Tony were going down in a shredder while Mick and I were doing the open boat thing. Brandon and Laine would be in their kayaks. I waited for Mick to show up while the others paddled down to Wait Rock.
Mick finally showed and the two of us met up with the others.I also opted to wear my brand new elbow pads that my buddy Ryan bought for me.I was still kind of nervous but was ready for it as this river had been on my bucket list for two years. The river description is here http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_753#tab-rapids
A common saying from me thoughout the day to Mick was "your shitting me you want me to run that how".
I know I was out of my boat a couple of times. I know I hit a fuck you rock in some insignificant part of the river and went over but was quickly back in my boat. My only major one was swimming half of Bastard while still hold onto my boat and paddle. I also ended up having each end of my boat get stuck on two rocks at the same time. I had to standup and get out of my boat and pull it down off the rocks into the eddy behind them. Before getting back into it I used it as a long pole and swung it over to Mick to get him from his side of the river over to my eddy so he could finish swimming accross to the other side of the river to get his boat.
My last out of boat experience happend when I went over a big rock and fell off the backside into the water. So here I am hip deep in water with paddlers going by me. Mick asked me if I was ok and gave him the thumbs up.He paddled further down river and disappeared behind a boulder the size of a couple SUV's. Joe had apparently asked Mick where I was and he basically told him I was in the middle of the river trying to figure out how to get in my boat. Joe's repsonse was I am getting the video camera out. After about 5 minutes I figured out the line I needed to run the rest of the rapid without using any outfitting as I knew my chances of me hopping into my boat and getting the thigh straps off would be slim to none. I managed to get back into my boat by pretending it was a bobsled and doing the 1-2-3 go jump in quick and just start paddling. I made it the rest of the way down to where Mick and Joe were.
I must say this was a full on intense run. My skills were definititely put to the test. I had some amazing dry lines on some technical drops. I have only done on or two drops in my life and today there would be lots. Things that do stand out in my mind are:
Charlies Choice - I believe we ran the right side.
Triple Drop - ran most of it fairly dry
National Falls ran it on the left side fairly dry.
Gun Barrel and Henzerling - dry and clean.
Meat Cleaver - ran the right lineover the right pointy rock clean and dry
Cheeseburger Falls - this was probably the second scariest thing I have run in my life.Esepecially when your in a eddy up above it face up river and you cant spin your boat around. I had to put my paddle down and push of the rock I was beside with both hands and grab my paddle quick before running the perfect line totally backwards. I rememberd to throw my body weight up river so I would not end up doing and ender. I ran it toally clean and dry but had to get off the river for a few minutes as my heart was pounding and I definitely had one of those oh shit looks on my face.
We were startting to run out of water big time as the river was dropping and the bubble was now in front of us. Some of us elected to walk Fuck Up Falls as there was not a great line with the water being lower.
Double Pencil Sharpener - ran it clean and dry
Soon we were booking it down river quickly as we did not want to end up walking our boats off. We managed to get tot he takeout just before 6pm which is extremely late and it was the lowest that Mick had ever paddled out on in all his time running the river. I am glad I had the elbow pads on as they were all nice and scratched up. I will also wear pants next time instead of short to avoid get scrapes in my shins. We recovered the vehicles from the putin. I was just about to leave Friendsville when Joe forced me to stay for sausages he was doing up on the bbq. How could I say no :)
I managed to finally get to my friends place in Charleston fairly close to midnight and was totally wiped and was soon in bed.
Saturday:
Don, Jo, Jeff and I were up before 8am. We had to shift the boats around so we could just drop my car off at the takeout and not have to worry about wasting time there. Today would be my third Lower Gauley River run and the description is here http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_2379#tab-rapids
The plan was to meet up with some paddlers from VI, NC, and SC as we were going to run the river together. Todays run would feel more like a class 1 float through to me compared to the Upper Yough from the day before. My car ended up being the store everyone dry gear bags in it for the day vehicle as the others were going to the putin. Tip for next year .... park beside the woulds so you dont get boxed in at the end of the day.
Soon we were at the putin heading down river to Koontz's Flume. Most of the other open boats decides to take the left hand dry line and avoid Five Boat Hole. I decided to go into the hole ... only problem was a kayaker decided to get in there before me and I had to drop in sideways in order not to kill him. I also had to put my paddle down for a seconds to grab his kayak with both hands for the Hand of God move as I had pushed him over. I then pushed him out of the hole with my hands before grabbing my paddle and had to side and back surf the hole for a while before realizing I was not getting out of the hole. I then had to swim to shore with my boat and then get back into it. I did get lots of whooo hoos and whistles while I was in the hole.
My buddy David told me some kayakers had some concerned looks on their faces when I was heading over to the hole to begin with. He then had to explain to them that I really meant to go there and play in it unlike the southern boaters who stay away from them like the plague.
The rest of the river was super fun. I kept pushing myself taking different lines from the others in the group. I would always ask Don if there was anything that would kill me and if not I would just pick a fun line for me which was not necessarily a line the others would do. My second and last swim of the day came at Lower Mash when I was trying to take the Hero line from left to right across the huge hole to make the right hand eddy only to get spanked. I had been thinking all day what I would do at Pure Screaming Hell. My plans were to run it full on and punch it and was wall lined up to make my run when I realized I was sluggish with more water in my boat then I though I had. I then changed plans literally at the last minute and clipped the left 1/3 of the hole and continued on.
It was a super great day in the sunshine paddling with Jo, Don, Jeff, David, Gilley, Alex, Kevin, and Leah. The only thing that sucked was my car getting boxed in on all sides by other vehicles and we had to wait forever to be able to go and get the other vehicles. After a quick bite to eat ... some of us headed over to the main festival site to check out the pending shitshow that always comes with too many people and toooo much beer. I was suprised at how many other Canadians I ran into down there as well as my US friends.
Jo, Don, Jeff and I managed to get back to their place sometime after midnight and we were all pretty much exhausted and went straight to bed.
Sunday:
Today would be my fourth trip down the New River Gorge http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_2418#tab-rapids
It was the same paddling group as the day before except for Kevin and Jeff. It was pretty much a repeat of the day before .... lots of sunshine and great paddling. I did have a couple of swims while trying to make some different more interesting lines to only get nailed by a FU rock at the bottom of some of them.
We all met at Pies and Pints for dinner. This place makes amazing pizza with very bizzare and interesting ingredients. Well worth the stop which was followed up by ice cream at DQ before heading back to Charleston where had time to watch the Canoe Movie I had brought with me.
Monday:
This would be the day I dreaded the most. It is a eleven hour non stop drive back to my place. I did it it 13.5 hours as I made a few stops along the way which included shopping, having a nap with my blanky and pillow on the grass and under a tree at some rest stop in PA, booze shopping at the duty free, and a visit to a uncle of mine in ST. Kits. Like I posted on my Facebook status ... "I am friggin tired, beat up, scraped up, and sore ... but wtf ... it was Gauleyfest and it was worth it!"
This was my 62nd day in the USA for the year.
I paddled 30 miles or 50km this past weekend with only a few scrapes and bumps. Anytime you don't have to go to the hospital at the end of a river trip is a good trip in my books ... but .... on a sad note:
Two people died while rafting on the Upper Gauley during the weekend. A girl in her mid-20's came out of a commercial raft and ended up getting stuck in a undercut at 9am sunday. They managed to recover her body at 4pm that afternoon as they had to drop the river level. Another person died today. I had thought about running the Upper Gauley this year but decided against it I as I personally thought I needed another year of technical creeking river running under my belt. There is still lots of time to get that one off my list.
We all know as paddlers that their are inherent risks within our sport but unfortunately the same can't be said for the causal rafter who may just think of it as a fun day out and not fully realize the consequences. We all paddle with friends and keep an eye out for each other and trust each other with our lives.
Be S.A.F.E out there!!!!!
