Paddlin’ Ed

Well, after a run on the Cheoah on Saturday,  I headed out of Robbinsville NC, toward the Ocoee area to meet up with a couple of friends and supper up toward Murphy and in the morning on Sunday 11/4/07 went to run the Ocoee with them.

After catching breakfast with the group we all headed up to the put in of the Middle Ocoee, dropping our boats and donning our gear at the put in.  Then off for quick shuttle to drop vehicles down at the bottom.  In our group was Robbie G. & Jeff R., Robby H., and Dane W., plus myself – paddlin-ed, all in K-1’s.  The day started out a bit cold but by the time we put on around 11am it had started warming up nicely and the sun was bright.

Quick as we had shuttle set we where geared up and down the ramp to put in.  Off down through Snow White, and on past Gumpies to the first surf wave over on river left for a couple of rounds.  Robbie H. was already hard at it when the rest of us got to the wave.From there on down through whirlybird to surf a bit and play, then on to Gonzo Shoals, and down to Broken Nose, all playing and working the river along the way.  Now Broken Nose has a series of eddies at the top end/drop that sort of form a ”z” pattern, with #1 eddy being right above the drop against the right bank and #2 being a ferry straight out toward river left to a rolling/boily eddy forming off a rock just under water above.  Once in #2 your sitting mid channel and then moving agressively river right in an upstream ferry you work to slide/ferrry down a diagonal tougue going back right down the drop and land off the end into #3 eddy in the corner of the ledge and the right bank, right below eddy #1.  From #3 eddy the tougue coming down and the hydralic hole below are directly river left of you with eddy #4 just below to the left.  Eddy #4 is achieved by serveral methods from #3 ideally, plus there is opportunity for a variety of other moves in this area.

At Broken Nose,  I hit eddy #1 after fighting a vexious rock and hammering down to pull in and joined Robbie G. in the eddy.  Robby H. had already gone from eddy #2 to #3 right below.  I ferried out to eddy #2 and had to work a bit to stay up on the upstream side and ride the tougue down into #3 just below Robby H,  I was in my EZG60 and had not tried playing the Ocoee in it before and finding it a bit different than my traditional Super EZ.

Going out to do the ferry across from #3 to #4 eddy,  I buried the nose of my EZG and bow stalled on the back of the hole and to fight it back down, had to turn and run which put me running down the right side which takes some effort move off of.  After moving out to the middle I decided to head back to the far right just above the 1st bottom drop and either do the eddy or drop the crease below,  I ended up cutting tight in the right corner of the drop and running the crease hard back left to the center of the ledge and dropping the bottom headed left, clear of the right corner hole.  Below I eddied right and then ferried over to the rock pile left to get some pictures.

Mean time up top of Broken Nose,  Robby H. was showing the moves including back ferries from #3 to #4 and back, as well as other nice moves.  Dane had dropped into the top and so had Jeff R. who was working the top end too.  Mean time Robbie G. came out of #3 and headed down moving to the left end of the upper drop, came over and had a bit of dance with the last part going into the final drop, tucked and hung over the bottom and rocks below and roll up and into the eddy where I had been taking pictures.  Jeff came down hitting more eddies along the way, mean time Robby H. was still at it doing some awesome moves up top and Dane starting on down.

Robby G., Jeff and then myself headed out from the rock pile ferrying out across to far river right then working down on down eddies, waves, etc., follow by Robby H. and Dane.  From there Robby H. showed us a move at the ledge above slice and dice.  Robby G. hit the tougue of the platform eddy on the ledge and head down to and through slice and dice.  I followed making the tougue move off the ledge and running the “green tougue” around the right end of the holes in Slice and Dice and eddying just right of the surf hole.

From there I ferried over and played the hole and worked back up the left and played it a couple more times.  Jeff R. and Robby H. and Dane in the mean time played down through slice and dice and took their turn surfing.  Then we all head down to Moonshoot,  I trailed behind a bit and played the area just above before dropping down to the eddy.  From there we took turns in the hole at the drop at moonshoot.  Robbie H. showed us some serious spin action on the far left. Jeff R. got in and worked the spins some too.  I got up and surfed briefly but could not seem to get set up right in the hole with new EZG, got to work on that.

Then down through double suck and play the ledges below on the right going on down to double trouble.  Jeff R. and Robby H. went at surfing the big wave holes at double suck from the eddy on the far left just behind a small boulder.  Then down on through the rapids below with the group, working the river,  on down to Hollywood.  Below Hollywood, Robby H., Jeff G. and I believe Dane W. did a move I had not seen before from the far left end of the drop down and around and back across the left side going right back over to the eddy/slot just right of center to drop into and go for the Watagua move.  Robbie G. head down into the eddy/slot the more conventional way, I opted to just ferry right and run the drop.

From there on down the doldrums, where Robby H. said his good-bys and got out.  Dane W. hung there and Robbie G., Jeff R. and I headed on down to suprise ledge and on to the top eddy at tablesaw.  We all ran tablesaw, and on to diamond splitter.  I did the line over to far right above and drop just right of the splitter rock and headed back left into the eddy below to set up to get some pictures.  Meantime Robby G. and Jeff R. head to the left side above the main drop and played down through the boulders and ledges, and then went for the eddy behind the splitter coming in from the left side.  Jeff got behind the splitter briefly,  Robbie G. came next on past the splitter, through the hole and did a big stern squirt coming out, I got a nice picture of the squirt.

From there we stopped briefly at Gerbel hole and Jeff and I did a few spins, or at least I attempted with limited results in the EZG but better than up at moonshoot.  Then on down to and through Accelerator, and on to Cats Pajamas where I did the skin the cat move followed by Robbie. Jeff played down and made serveral moves.  From there on to Hell Hole,  all three of us running the hole, with Jeff and Robbie first,  I brought up the rear leaning hard forward and digging in in my little EZG to make sure I did not stern squirt on the back side of Hell Hole or the foam pile/wave behind it.

On down playing the right end of powerhouse and on to the old take-out.  It was a nice run with friends on a beautiful day,  good time had by all.  And so we closed the Ocoee taking one last run on the river on the last release day of the season.  See you there next year!!!!!

Paddlin-Ed