Paddlin’ Ed

Well, it was a bit cold for New Years Day 2008 so most of us opted for the local paddle on the North Fork of the Mayo River along the NC-VA line. Several of us had run it the day before in unusually warm winter weather at a great high level. Today however it was windy and colder, 40’s with high in low 50’s and windy, but it was New Year’s and a paddling tradition to paddle somewhere for New Years. Still a bright sunshine day out, lower water than the day before, only around 400cfs but still above average for flow.

The trip was joined by a collection of paddlers largely from SRVCC but also TRR & CCC club members. It was a nice New Years day run for all, and while a lot of the surf spots on the upper section that opened up the day it was still a fun paddle. The group moved along a little faster this day as it was considerably colder than the day before, mostly in the 40’s with some wind and wind chill thrown in.

S-turn ledge went without any significant incidents in the group. At sliding board ledge, after a break above I was getting cold and so got back in my kayak which I was running this day to stay a bit less exposed and warmer and caught the platform eddy in the middle on the way down the slide. Several of us surfed a bit there at the bottom.

Down at the ledges below the confluence with the south fork, I opted to try some optional lines in area I had not tried before particularly on the far right working down to the bridge, some areas good other thin and scrappy so down toward the bridge I move back into the usually channel.

At Boiling hole only a few took off above. I dropped down and caught the eddy immediately to the left to set for safety. We did have one of our K-1′ers have a brief alteration with the hold at the bottom of boiling hole and got them to the rocks just below on the right where they reunited with their boat.

Once everyone was down and ready we ran the dog-leg ledges and slot. I dropped through the upper ledges on the left and worked right across on the third tier and hit the slot into the 270 degree drop and turn through the dog-leg slot right of center. Most everyone else worked down fine, so running the ledges and some going for the far left and running a cleaner line directly down into the slot avoiding the dog-leg turn. One of our OC-1 paddlers spent a little bit of time rolled and hung up on the rock ledges trying to make the ledge/dog-leg run and after recovering on the rocks worked on down.

Once we all got out at the bottom the wind had picked up and temps started dropping so everyone while having had a great time was ready to load up, and change into warm clothes. We said our good by and all thought we had a great new years day paddle.