Mulberry Fork of the Warrior River, AL (3/12/05-3/13/05)

So last minute, I stumbled across the information for the North Alabama Whitewater Festival. It was a first-time event held at the Locust Fork of the Warrior River. For $5/ea, it looked like a prime place to sleep and hangout between paddling trips. For a first time festival, they attracted a number of celebrities of the kayaking world. Team Jackson Kayak swept the pro men's rodeo and EJ's kids placed 1st and 3rd in the junior's rodeo. I know this because they did the awards on Saturday night, in between the LVM premier and some video propaganda for the boat manufacturers. Otherwise, I never would have known. Rodeo is an interesting thing and I do enjoy watching it, but generally my preferred venue for rodeo is on video on a weeknight. If it's a weekend and my boat is with me, I want to paddle.

The guy on the phone told me there would be trips headed out from the festival and all kinds of good stuff. Not so much. It was all about the rodeo. Which was fine. We enjoyed the misadventures on the boat ramp Saturday morning (where they slide down the ramp into the river and try not to eat it too badly) and decided the Mulberry would be the best way to not plow through the rodeo. Ender hole was the rodeo locale, just above the semi-legal Locust Fork takeout, so we would have to take out at Swann's or find a way to hike around them if we wanted to do the Locust. Mulberry sounded like a fine choice, so we headed to the putin.

By chance, we were able to hook up with a group of open boaters at the put in. I could tell they had been around for a while, and when somebody started asking one of the ladies in the group how many national championships she had won, I knew we were in the presence of old school greatness. It was a good day.

The weather was a bright, sunny, windy 75 degrees. The water level was just about a foot on the bridge, which made for a great level overall. I'm not sure what it was on the internet gauge. Not as big as the first time we paddled the river, not as scrapey as the second time we paddled it. I paddled my kayak, testing out my new pogies. I thought about trying my solo canoe, but decided I needed to remember what a kayak felt like. Lucas took the Caption. The wind was a bit pushy at times, especially with the canoes. Poor Lucas spent much time in the back, paddling that big boat by himself. I paddled with more of a sea kayak stroke on the flat stuff, high cadence but low power. That wasn't the best move for the rapids.

Lunch time was big, splashy fun. Others above and below were fun, too, but I don't know their names. It's only a 3mi run, but it feels as long as the Hiwassee. About the same number of rapids. The other ones we learned the names of were training wheel, a very forgiving side surfing hole that they weren't getting me into in the winter, and Mary's hole, a very unforgiving don't surf here hole near the end of the run. I'd love to lead a trip at the Mulberry sometime soon.

I could feel the fatigue of the work week. Awake til midnight every night has it's effect. My body might have felt like I was pushing it back toward dissertation mode. It was certainly rebelling against that idea. Not again! cried my sleepy eyelids. I found the dry line at 5-0 and decided I had enough for one day. I enjoyed watching everybody play, play, play, and got out the camera to take a few pictures.

We headed back for round 2 on Sunday, this time in the tandem canoe. No paddlers were at the put in even though the weather was gorgeous. Sunny & 75 again. We got our gear out and set up. I offered to run the shuttle, literally, after we paddled. It's 2-3mi, so it wouldn't be too bad. Lucas cheated. He asked one of the guys at the put-in, who was about to head out, if would take an extra few minutes to help us out. He did, and 20mins later, we were off.

The river was ours. Aside from a few people fishing at the top, we didn't see anyone until near the bottom. It was beautiful, serene. It had been a long time since we'd been in the Caption together, and I enjoyed the reminder of how awesome tandem paddling can be. Of course, I'm spoiled with an awesome tandem partner.

We were a little concerned about the water level, but that concern turned out to be unfounded. Everything was passable. We scraped maybe once or twice, but we do that anyway. Most of the lines were easy to hit. I guess I'm a kayaker at heart, because I like the big splashy lines even if they swamp the canoe. Did that a few times, not quite swamping, but collecting a decent amount of water. We didn't do a lot of eddy hopping, but we hit our lines really well. Without other paddlers, neither of us was anxious to try anything that might extract us from our boat.

I think the rapid with Mary's hole was better at lower water. The line is a series of big, splashy standing waves. We plowed through those, collecting some water. In the bow, I acted as a sieve for Lucas. I took the splash. The water pooled around his knees. It was warm enough that the surprise of cold water wasn't too overwhelming.... Still, we opted for the dry line at 5-0. It was a great way to end another awesome day on the river.