Paddlin’ Ed

Well,  Labor Day Weekend arrived this year with a nice present,  the Cheoah was releasing on Saturday 9/1/07.  Darron, Will and I had pretty much had our focus on it for sometime, with the long dry spell, especially in the last two months or so leading up to Labor Day.

To say the least its been dry all summer and especially since just before July 4th week,  pickings and been few and far between.  Myself I had been on pretty much a paddle-less spell,  except for Kibler Vally run day in late July where I opted to get a little open boat practice in, for my only other recent paddling consisting of teaching a canoeing clinic in mid August.  It had been a prolonged dry spell both physically and paddling wise for a lot of us.  The Cheoah was a highly anticipated and welcome change for most of us.Darron, Will and I had decided Friday afternoon to meet up at Huddle House in Robbinsville NC on the road to the put in.  The three of us where also joined buy Griff and Joey,  Eddie C. and Eddies buddy.  After the group polished off breakfast we all head for the take out down at Calderwood lake, changed, loaded boats on Eddies truck and my van and headed up top to O’Henry’s parking and put-in.

While setting shuttle we where suprised to see a nice full release where we expected to see minimal water due to the lack of rain we where greated with 1,100 cfs.  Our group gathered up boats and gear, climbed down the bank across from O’Henry’s and after a little warm up and a few rolls, headed down stream.  Grif was dealing with having blown out at thigh brace strap getting into the boat and was on a “let’s see how this goes basis of continuing” otherwise we where all into the event.  It was a great day, plenty warm but very nice for the end of the summer, not the miserable heat we had in previous weeks.  Water was clear and clean by the time we started down,  not cold but cool and refreshing for a warm day. Sky was clear blue with a few white clouds here and there, making for a beautiful bright day on the river.

There where lots of folks on the river,  all trying to catch this wonderful release, a welcome break.  Quite a few more rafts than I had seen in the past, though for the most part they seem to be fairly careful not to run up on hard boaters, and most of us with a little warning gave them a clear path when possible.

Well as the Cheoah goes, there is just a bit of warm up stuff and your into it pretty quick.  Plenty of push, but with the increased volume a lot of stuff that caused problems at lower levels was also padded out.  Our group hung together and worked well down the river over the first mile or so, but then at some of the larger, better defined rapids we began to get mingled with other large groups, so that at one point we ended up split into two sections or groups for a while, pretty much from just above swinging bridge down to below take-out rapid (not the actual take-out just a rapid by that name with an acess below it) where we joined back up and took a break as group.

Coming down above take-out we had a little discussion on the best approach, concensus was best to drop in behind the big rock ledge right of center and run right and down the right side of the rock ledge as opposed the more narly charge down the center to the left.  Either way was not for the faint of heart,  we all ran the right line with Darron leading off.  I hit the top in good position and just as I was about to clear the end of the rock ledge when I got my thrill of the day, and nosed into a low back flowing diagonal that promptly spun me around by the bow, and got the paddle knock out of my right hand on the right end of the rock (I am backwards at this point).  Time for focus, digging in I reached out and back a bit and grabbed some friendly current with my left hand end of the paddle, braced on it, and used it to swing the bow clear around to complete the turn well clear of the ledge and quickly recovering the right end of the paddle shaft in my right hand.  So having made the turn,  I dug in and dropped down past the ledge stern first and then spun bow down stream on the lip of the next drop, and ran the rest of the drops and holes to join the group at the bottom.

After the group re-united and took a break, we headed off again down through numerous rapids including “Land of Holes”,  where I took a little roll practice twice coming around the past the end of a big pour-over on its sidewall and squirrel, rolled up continued to work down this long series of ledges, holes, pour-overs, drop and collection of overall river features packed in and all going every direction possible non-stop all the way down.  So far our group was doing well with some rolls here and there but overall quite well.

We pretty much kept our group moving down through rapid after rapid down to the pool before the bridge and on down to the bridge.  Then things begin to pick up.  The group overall worked well together, trying to space out but give way when someone needed to break and make a move due to their line or position in current.  Finally we dropped down the last drop just above the bend to the rapid above Bear Creek Falls, to the rocks on river right where most folks pull out and scout just above dropping into the rapid/run down to the falls.

It was pretty crowded along the river right rocks, most in the group pulled out,  Darron, Will and I having run it before and lacking a good place to get out of the current and up the rocks peeled out and headed down.  The last rapid had some push in it and paddling focused, effectively, and good in earnest bracing coming off drops and chutes was the order of the day.  I cleared a rock pile down the next to the last drop on the right and caught the current I had been looking for into a nice ferry across from right center to a big eddy above the fall on the left bank.

From the eddy on the left we waited and watched some paddlers already there make their runs and studied what was going on with their runs and the currents.  Eddie C. and serveral of the group got to the eddy just as I was getting ready to ferry out and set my line for the falls.  After fielding a couple of questions on the line for the falls I ran the right of center line over the left “main falls” side.  With the flow I was suprised how quickly I cleared with the push of the river, planted a last stroke nicely but found myself having react quickly to lean forward to bring my knees up as the water really pushed you off and down at the level.  Landed good and paddled right to the 2nd eddy.  Eddie C. came down behind me followed by others.  Eventually we where all waiting on Grif, and a bit concern due to his running without a thigh brace strap that had blown out at the put in.  After a few minutes Grif face appeared and over he went in his C-1 landed beautifully, doing quite well dispite no thigh strap.

From there most went and did the far left channel line,  I headed over that way but found and excellant line and current over in from of the big boulder to the left of the main channel above the rock ledge drop and hit the line just in front of it over and down.  Pretty squirrely at the bottom, and not much eddy, so I worked over the eddy behind the center rock below.  Then peeled out for my run down left of center, down to the eddy on the left below where the other came back in on the left channel.  I had a roll along the way after nosing into a hole a bit (always adds to the thrill to roll up running the ledges backwards), but it’s spin and run.  Down at the eddy eventually all of the group gathered up except when Joey showed up he was asking if anyone had seen Grif,  about that time we got indications from others coming down that someone was having trouble upstream, and just as one of the group was getting out to climb up the bank, we sited the end of Grif’s boat evidently up on end on a rock upstream,  and eventually Grif,  beside it.  After some hand signals it was determined he had both boat and paddle and was coming down. Talking to him later he had pinned somewhere up high in the left channel, but had been able to get free and up on a rock to drain and get back in, definately not a comfortable situation since he was at the rear of the group a out of site due to the rocks above.

Darron lead off, down toward the Tapco lodge and bridge,  I came up in the back of the group and fielded some question on lines below pointing out to move right down toward the lodge around the end of the rock bar/island, staying away from a bad pinning spot on the left in front of the lodge.  I was pretty worn out by this time, and getting a bit annoyed with a couple of young bucks (not in our group) darting all over in and out and ferrying constantly in front of on-coming traffic down through that section (I don’t mind anyone playing but don’t constantly pull out in front on people running drops and holes especially at the end of a run when they are tried).  I am pretty much focused on finishing out the run as are most of the group at that point.

We all briefly only touched the eddy on river right across from Tapco lodge and headed around under the bridge.  I elected to just kiss the eddy under the bridge to slow my decent a bit and buy time to pick my line as the eddy was just to full and blocked and I was ready to get on with running “Yardsale” a nasty hole running most of the width of the river (run far left past the upper end or far right through the hole in a slot move that often enders you over).  Most of us went for the slot on the right, as did I.  There where some tricky holes with the level on the way down that you had to do some serious bracing for (bad place to go upside down - shallow, fast, and toward the hole).  While many just ran straight for the slot,  I pushed right into the eddy just above the hole on the right wall, saw plenty of water over the boof rock at the end of the eddy above the end of the hole and went for it.  As I came over the boof and drop straight down into the slot turning right to line up, hung on, dug in, and leaned forward to fight the ender I expected, and suprisingly only squirted up a bit, braced up, and imediately dug in to get to the far end of the 2nd hole below a couple of boat length right.  Cleared the 2nd hole on the far end and head left to the gathering up eddy below.

The last of the goup gathered up in the eddy,  myself, Eddie C., Grif, Joey and one or two others.  Sponged out the water from that falls down, and caught our breath.  Darron, Will and anyone else who had run the river had already gone on so I lead off down the last 1/4 mile to the lake, weaving down the ledges, holes, chutes, and diagonals to the opening of the lake.  We all had a great time but where all pretty wasted from a great run and ready to paddle out.  Great day, great group, all had good runs.  Grif did fantastic job paddling with his C-1 thigh stap gone.  Young Joey did awesome, as did all the rest with more than half the group doing 1st runs.  Level was excellant, day was fantastic, great day and river for a paddling.