Paddlin’ Ed

Well September is Gauley season, and this year Sept 19-21 was Gauleyfest weekend in Summersville W Va.  I met up with the boy’s from the Damascus Va. area (Jason B. in k-1, Billy A. in k-1, Micheal C. k-1, Chuck R. k-1, and Kevin K. oc-1 ) on Friday morning for a Lower Gauley run In addition we where  joined also by Gif G. c-1 and Joey k-1.  I was in my k-1 playboat.  Typically the there is about 2,800 cfs released into the upper Gauley at the Summersville Dam during season,  and with very little coming in from other feeder creeks this year,  I expect that total flow at the top of the lower was just a little more than that.  Our day quickly shaped up to be a nice sunny day with a few clouds,  temps into the 70′s with little wind.  After setting shuttle and doing the climb down the mountain side, boats on our shoulders and aided by numerous sets of wooden steps at various angle and pitches we arrived at the put in,  caught our breath and got on.  (more…)

Chattooga VI Gorge was on the agenda for Sunday 8/31 as part of a  Labor day weekend that had been a trilogy of gorges for me having run Watauga on Friday, followed by Nolichucky, and now Chattooga to wrap up a great weekend of paddling.  Having gotten up with John H. the evening before,  I met up with his group of mostly SRVCC members at the put in east of Clayton Ga.  Paddling in John’s group where John H. oc-1, Richard H. oc-1, James C. oc-1, David B. 0c-1, Bill H. in C-1 and Ann H. in fun-yak, plus paddlin-ed in k-1.

It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day warm temp. and clear water, running around 1.15 on the bridge gauge (around 300-350 cfs on the usgs with a good bit more coming in below from the feeder creeks due to rains a few days earlier).  The group had shuttle set when I arrived and they had headed down to the put in,  I took the path to above Bull Sluice and ran the Virgina slide and met the group at the put in for section IV below.  This was a fairly laid back group with several very good paddlers in it a couple of which new the run well.  Oddly,  I was the only kayaker in the group and most all of them where canoeists, seems like only a few years ago I was usually the only canoeist among kayakers. (more…)

Labor Day weekend 2008 was turning out to be a nice one.  Rains earlier in the week had had been big enough to still have water in the Nolichucky up for a nice run for the first time in over 2 months on this beautiful and technical class 3-4 run.   I was joined by the boy’s from Damascus Va. area – Jason B. K-1, Brian C. K-1,  Billy A. K-1, Kevin K. oc-1 and a couple of long standing TRR members  – Jerry H. K-1 and Bill H K-1, plus paddlin-ed in k-1.  The river, according to the gauge was running somewhere in the 1250-1300 range that morning but from experience it seemed to be a good bit higher and with having been extremely low for months and then getting over 8,000 cfs 3 days earlier may have been out of calibration.  Personally it seem closer to at least 1,500 but that’s guess.  Anyhow it was a beautiful clear sunny and warm day,  with the water almost completely back to clear after the rains several day before. (more…)

Rains came in a couple of days prior to Labor Day weekend ’08,  and I was ready to get some paddling in after a long dry summer.  It was Friday and the Watagua gauge was reading around 178 by mid day.  Water was clear and clean,  with blue sky and plenty of sunshine, warm but not hot,  when Darron, Kevin and I met up at the takeout.  We dressed out quick and wasted no time in getting up to put in.

Watagua’s gauge is upstream several miles at the start of another section, and with the feeder creeks along the way and those into the gorge section its always a bit hard to tell exactly what you have getting on.  The level read to be a lower modest levels but quite doable,  and in fact once downstream a bit enough flow was coming in that it turned out to be quite a nice level but very technical.  I had run it before a couple of times at higher levels and actually found this level a good bit more technical.  (more…)

Saturday July 26th, brought the annual Kibler Valley race/release,  just in time with everything in day trip distance about dried up from lack of rain.  This occurs on Section 1 of the Dan starting at the Pinnacles Hydroelectric station at Kibler Valley Va.  The upper most part of this run features a nice class 2+ to 3 creeky run.  The hydro station cranked out around 10KW this day, close to full release, so there was enough water to play this section.   The middle section of the run opens up a bit but has some nice class 2 play features along the way.  The lower section  is moving water with a few play features but mostly a paddle out, though moves well with full release.  I had decided to open canoe and ran into John H. another open boater almost immediately and paddle my first run with John. (more…)

New River Gorge was on of the few rivers in day trip distance with water this year,  so Darron P.,  Gif G. & Joey, and myself did the early morning run to West Virginia.  After we all gathered at Tamarack for breakfast we headed to Fayette Station at the bottom of the gorge, set our shuttle, and did the run up to the Cunard put-in.  We had left NC thinking it was going to be just above 0 on the gauge but the dam upstream cut back overnight as it was -6″,  which in the New River is still a lot of water. (more…)

This years CCC (Carolina Canoe Club) – WOR (Week of Rivers)was a enjoyable week of river running in Western North Carolina with good attendance this year despite another summer with little rain.  Turnout for the week was excellent, and I suppose that the fact that it is held in an area centrally located amoung several key dam released rivers in addition to many other rain dependent runs, certainly helped. My week started out with a late drive to the campground at SMM late on Thursday night.

Friday – June 17th, 2008 – Middle Ocoee- Well Friday morning came and I was glad to find a group of other early folks I knew making the pilgrimage over to the Ocoee about an hour away.  In the group where Don and Karol G. both in K-1,  Sandra and David L. both in K-1 and Woody K-1.  I opted into my EZG-60 playboat for the run.  Raft traffic was present but light and the day was sunny and warm with a good release. (more…)

Saturday, June 21st started early for the ride to WVa. out of NC.  It was  sunny, blue sky summer day, with mild warm high temps into the low to mid 80′s.  NRG was running about -0.60 ft.  which with its size and volume is still plenty of water.  In fact with not much rain for the last few weeks it was one of the few rivers around runnable.   The gorge is a beautiful section of river running from Cunard put in to the take out at Fayette Station WVa.  with most rapids of significance in the class 3 to 4+ range.

This section of river holds such well know rapids as the Kenney’s (upper, middle, and lower) with feature large waves and holes in a stair-step succession down through all three  back to back, Double Z which is a very busy long rapid with lots of under-cut out-cropings and boulders, plus holes, and about every feature you can name to keep one busy along the way, and its final rapid Fayette Station where the river funnels down to a third of its width and blast down through a stair-step of ledges and features into a boiling line of large waves and holes.  Its a nice run even at lower levels,  as changes in level changes it’s features and brings new challenges and play opportunities. (more…)

This was my first experience at the US National Whitewater Center, in Charlotte NC.  After meeting up with Darron and a couple of others,  we geared up, paid our fee’s and slipped our boats into the upper pool.

The first run we did the “Wilderness” channel, which is supposed to be a bit easier but is very short and drops into the “Big Water” channel.  Second run we did the entire “Big Water” channel.  Personally I could not tell much difference entering either way, the upper end of both are similar and 80% of both runs is the main section of the “Big Water” run. (more…)

Well it started with Eric R. posting about interest in doing the Pigeon this Saturday earlier in the week.  Lack of rain was starting to leave a lot of rivers low, so with Pigeon-Waterville released started for the season,  serveral of us worked up a day trip run.  Eric R., Robbie G., Karol G., and myself Paddlin-ed all piled in the car with our kayaks and head out for Waterville at the Tenn.- NC line of I-40W for a day on the Pigeon.  There we where joined by two other paddlers,  Jack in OC-1, and a newcomer to the Pigeon Don A. in K-1.

Once shuttle was set the 6 of us set off downstream for a really nice day on the river.  It was Sunny with blue skies and a few whipy white clouds here and there.  The water was cool up not uncomfortable,  quite nice with Temps in the high 80′s in fact.  We played the entrance down the left catching eddies then a hard ferry across for the rolling bottom have full of holes, run after we caught the eddies along the right band just above the bottom run. (more…)