Paddlin’ Ed

Saturday May 10th came as a bright sunny blue sky day after heavy rains in the watershed of the North Mayo up into Virginia just over the NC line 24 hours earlier.  SRVCC members and TRR members both joined up at the put with the river running around 800 cfs, a nice healthy level.  With my travel limited this particular weekend to local day trip water,  I elected to joined the group and get in a little open canoe time.

Quite a sizable group showed up and banded into a trip of 15-20 people or so.  Bob M., Connie,  Jim Van L., Tim T., James C., Tersa, Will Van D. and a whole bunch of others turned out for the run with a mix of kayaks and canoes.  After most of us did a bit of surfing under the put in bridge on the Virgina end of the run, we started on down with a fair amount of play going on as the level had brought out some play holes and hydraulics.

A little ways down we surfed a nice little ledge with most avoiding getting into the hydraulic to side surf.  I put my OC-1 n and side surfed a bit,  and it was a sticky one.  After a bit I had to fight with the hole to get out.   All along there where little surf spots not normally found at more frequent lower levels, with so pretty sizable surf spots at some of the larger multiple ledges on down stream.  At S-turn,  it was a bit tricky avoiding the gotcha rocks in the turn as even at this level its shallow and with muddy water had to see those rocks.

Down at lunch stop ledge there where some pretty deep hydraulics going on over on river right, and several worked on their hole surfing while most of the group took a break over on the big rock outcropping on river left.  I did the slot on the left and then practiced the elevator move from the bottom up across the bottom tongue to the eddy up on the ledge a couple of times.

After the break a lunch stop the group ran on down to one of the neck downs with a shallow set of wave troughs and we found a really nice surfing ferry could be done back and forth.  Then on down to the confluence with the South Fork of the Mayo and the ledges section below.  Down in the ledges we had one of the younger members of the group have an altercation with a rock ledge after a flip running down it, and unfortunately chipped a tooth and bit through his lip.  After a bit of examination and discussion,  another member of the group got off and helped him walk just downstream to the cars. 

The rest of us finished out the ledges, playing our way down and then paddled on down the just above the “boiling hole” ledge.  Most dropped over and eddied out no problem,  however one or two held a spontaneous baptism amongst the waters below.  After gathering up all, we moved on down to one of several lines runnable this day at the “dog leg” ledges below.  I dropped the ledge right of center at the top and ran down and across right to the main drop/turn of the dog leg, dropped into the turn and out to the bottom.   Most ran far right and then a more straight line down through the the bottom and out.

Well it was nice paddle and a good day with good company.  I enjoyed getting out in my open canoe for a change of pace.  We all packed up said our goodbyes till the next time after an excellent day on the river.  Pictures courtesy of James C., of the run are in the picture gallery.