Paddlin’ Ed

Saturday, March 21, 2009 brought an opportunity to paddle with several people from TRR (Triad River Runners).  Joining the group where Bob & Connie, Leanne, Mike H. and a couple of others in k-1 as well as myself in k-1.  It was looking to be a nice late winter day,  sunny but still a bit chilly, so dry suit and tops where the order of the day particularly as water temps where still cold. 

French Broad 9 – know locally as the “whitewater section” of the French Broad is run either in entirety from Benard to Hot Springs or a shortened run from ending at Stackhouse.  As it was still winter with short days plus chilly air and water we elected to run to Stackhouse.   We had plenty of water, though a modest to medium level.

After dropping vehicles at Stackhouse and dressing out we head up in my paddling van to the put in at Bernard,  geared up and put on.  There where a couple of first timers in the group,  so we took a few minutes here and there to brief on lines what was ahead.  Everyone played a bit down to the 1st rapids of any size, and then I lead off and eddied out for safety toward the bottom of the first two long rapids of note.  Beyond these we came to S-turn and gathered everyone in an eddy to explain the rapid.  I led of to demo the line and then set up for safety boat below and hopefully get a few pictures.

After eddying out below S-turn,  our first couple of paddlers came down, followed by our first timers.  While discussing the lines above,  great emphasis had been put on the final out flow chute below the S-turn maneuver and keeping far left.  The right side  which appears to be a wide chute with a clear route in fact drops over a ledge into a nasty hole such that at lower levels one slams the rock at below or at higher levels the paddler is dropped into a nasty large hole, either way most become acquainted with the large and nasty paddle snake that lurks below.  All to typically despite the warning, seeing what looked like a easier line from above two of our first timers moved right instead of left at the last minute and fell into the trap, off into the hole and became separated from their boats after wrestling the paddle snake.

Just as I was about to pull out after the first errant paddler dislocated from his boat,  the second one followed.  Fortunately Bob and Connie where below me and went for the 1st victim,  leaving me to recover the 2nd one.  Our 1st victim however was not recovered until after washing through Big Pillow rapid below with Bob and Connie in hot pursuit.

After wrestling our paddler in and bumping the boat into the eddy, just in time to keep from washing into Big Pillow,  I was left with most of the group above Big Pillow.  Once our 2nd victim got drained and reunited with his boat, behind a rock just above,  I went over the run through the rapid below,  which is one of the major rapids on this section and has some pretty serious hydraulics in it and a lot of push even at modest levels.  Part of my explanation was like the rapid above, to avoid falling into the trap of what looked like an obvious line below on the right, which leads right into the “pillow hole”, but run right to left at the end of a hydraulic ledge above, and then cut back right below the “pillow hole”. 

I ran down first,  and caught and eddy far left where I could keep an eye on the group and signal the first one down the entrance line, after which I moved back right into an eddy to the right just below the pillow hole.  The next two or three came though and cleared left of “pillow hole” before cutting right, but two more followed and drifted right into the hole,  one bobbled, braced, and recovered, and the other flipped and swam.  After a bit of a chase,  our paddler self rescued below the bottom ledge and I got the boat just below.

Meantime,  Bob and Connie where well below completing rounding up our wayward boat from our first bottom mapper who’s boat went AWOL at the bottom of S-turn, and the Mike H. was way over on river left with the bottom mapper who had run all of Big Pillow OBE.  Mike ferried the paddler over on the back of his boat while I towed it upstream a bit on river right.  Once all where reunited we set off again downstream.

From here we played down to Sandy Bottom rapid and took a lunch and rest break.  After surfing a bit below Sandy Bottoms,  we where off again through a long fun play section with multiple ledges, hydraulics and holes all the way down to above the island with Pipeline on the left and Creek move on the right.  Several in the group elected to go right to the easier but fun Creek move side of the island.  I lead the rest down Pipeline to the left over by the far left bank.

Pipeline is a fun rapid but very congested and busy, with lots of very sharp edged rock and tricky lines.  Most of our group did fairly well,  though one flipped just above the last ledge drop at one of the uglier points as we watched below.  Fortunately when we got to our OBE,  he was ok and only slightly bruised.  With boat recovered and reunited with paddler and the rest of the group joining us we move on to finish our journey.

Shortly below Pipeline,  there is a big flat faced rock just above the end of a long thin island mid-stream of the left side of the river, which marks where you need to start moving far left to avoid being entangled or worse, impaled on large iron bars running from river right bank about 2/3 of the way across.  Left over from sawmill days at Stackhouse,  when these where used to catch timber flushed down the river in spring floods,  these remain a serious hazard.  After moving below the iron bars we came to Stackhouse rapid just above our takeout and worked down through it chutes and ledges to the pool below.

We had a great late winter paddle and day.  Good time had by all.  Myself after recovering my van from the put in, I headed over to the Nolichucky Campground for the night and the next days paddle.

SYOR – Paddlin-Ed