A Hiwassee Farewell – 8/28/05

The Hiwassee marks quite a few beginnings for us. It is the river where Lucas and I both learned how to kayak and where I first started learning how to canoe. Our first awkward maybe it’s a date maybe it isn’t trip was to the Hiwassee. We took our first whitewater tandem trip here, and were promptly separated because we were doing well and others in the group were struggling. We took the TSRA whitewater tandem class here together. If the hurricane had arrived earlier, we would have gone somewhere else, but neither of us were disappointed to end our time on the rivers of the Southeast on the Hiwassee. It was important to me to end our time here in the tandem boat, too.

Joining us were Steve, Amy, Jody and Matt from the day before. Matt had stayed out at the Nanny, but met us at the put-in. Steve, Amy and Jody had camped with us at Gee Creek and endured the Boy Scout Invasion with us. Chris and his girlfriend Amy joined us, too. Both Amy and Jody were in need of a little bit extra attention. It was Jody’s first real whitewater trip in a solo canoe and it was the second Amy’s second whitewater trip in a kayak. When we put in, we admonished his ignorance of the first commandment of paddling. Thou shalt not teach thy significant other how to paddle. In his defense, the insurance issue with TSRA put a bit of a damper on other opportunities to take a class this summer.

We played near the top, surfing the little waves while most everybody drifted downstream. Then we caught eddy rock easily in then surfed and ferried our way to the big friendly eddy at the bottom. Jody decided the river left line was where she wanted to go, so we led her and Amy through that route into the big friendly eddy where Belinda and Jimmy adopted the pet snake in our tandem class the year before. Lucas and I surfed a really nice wave on the river left side. I leaned and occasionally ruddered to keep us in there while Lucas helicoptered his paddle above his head.

After a clean run through the Esses, Amy went to the river right eddy to stay out of trouble with Jody and ended up getting tangled with a dangling tree and losing her paddle. Steve to the rescue again. We rafted Amy around a strainer to reunite with her paddle. We took everybody through the left cheat chute at Bigney’s Rock. I told Amy she got through her two swimming spots from yesterday, so now it was ok to swim again. She looked unconvinced.

Lucas and I ferried up and ran Thread the Needle cleanly for the first time. We’ve hit it fine running straight through, but struggled with the ferry out and turn maneuver. No difficulties this time. Oblique Falls and the little drop before it that Jean calls “Oh Shit It’s Not Oblique” were easy for everybody. Jody considered taking the cheat route on Oblique, but we talked her into running the big drop.

The Stairsteps at Lunch Stop were a good place to get tangled up. We were taking our time so Jody got ahead of us pretty quickly. We watched and paddled, making sure she stayed out of trouble, but we took a different line. Amy took something in between the two of our lines, but everybody was upright in their boats at the bottom.

After lunch, we enjoyed one last jungle tour. Higher water made the Fantasy Island hole a bit more interesting, not something I wanted to share much time with. We hit just left of center, again following Jody because of an earlier tangle. Her line was great. Amy’s was fine because the spray skirt of a kayak does marvelous things that an open canoe by definition can’t.

We surfed a few new waves in the wide open part above the Needles. Along the way, Lucas convinced me to try his river right chute at the Needles. He said you run it left to right and it’s sort of a hard right to avoid the rock at the bottom. We didn’t set up properly and ended up in the drink. I was doing my crossover draw to set our angle so I was leaning right. He stayed in the boat a second longer because of an eventually faulty low brace, so he ended up falling on me. At the time, I wondered why the “hole” was so deep. It sure didn’t look that way. Nope, that was 200lbs of Lucas pushing me under the water. As a result, I came up coughing. Still, it wasn’t all bad. We were able to self rescue and get back in the canoe without the help of a fellow paddler or a river bank.

With the extra water, Devil Shoals was a bit washed out. Everybody made it through without difficulty. The experienced paddler Amy and I swapped boats. She tried the bow position of the canoe and I tried her Jackson Fun playboat. I surfed a little in the ledges below Devil Shoals and was reminded that I’m never really going to be much of a play boater. One of the waves grabbed my bow and pulled it down. I went from smiling and happy to “Oh shit!” in less than a second. The canoe is definitely much more my style.

So that’s it. No fanfare, except for the last minute rain shower. No more Southeastern Rivers for a while. I’m sort of glad I have the (but not limited to) disclaimer in my blog title, because in a few months, hopefully less, “Southeastern” will be replaced by “Scottish” and our boat of choice will be a PakCanoe. Tally ho, y’all!

Nantahala River – 8/27/05

We camped at Gee Creek on Friday night and headed for the Nanny bright and early Saturday morning. Jody, Amy and Steve drove there in Steve’s SUV. To carry his boat in the truck instead of on the roof, he had removed a couple seats, so the driver and two passengers had to ride in a row instead of like normal people. Jody drove, Steve took the passenger seat and Amy napped in the back hatch. We met Rich and Sarah as well as Daniel Boone’s son Matt at the put-in. Mac had said she may or may not join us and not to wait on her, so we didn’t. Matt had already run shuttle, so we hit the river. The Nanny was definitely a step up for me in the canoe, so I was a bit nervous.

Patton’s Run and I continue to have an interesting history together. I have never had an issue there in my kayak. Actually, in my kayak, it’s one of my all-time favorite rapids. In a canoe is another story. Many moons ago, Hugh Bullock and I had plans to go mountain biking at Tsali during my first GAF. The night before, he called me up and asked me if I’d like to try tandem canoe instead. I asked him if he could tell me what to do and he said no problem. A hundred yards from the put-in, we broached on a small rock just above Patton’s and it was no small feat to remove the boat from that rock. We continued down to Ferabee, patted ourselves on the backs and called it a day. Lucas and I never really had any problems with Pattons in the tandem canoe. Maybe some bobbling and awkwardness, but nothing more severe than that. Running it in my solo canoe had my nerves up for sure.

Lucas explained the “canoe” line to me. He said to start farther right than normal because one of the top waves would kick me to the left, too far into the big curling wave in the center. Unfortunately, I did exactly what he told me not to do and the big curling wave corkscrewed me before I knew what hit me. I did well staying with my boat through most of the waves. I bounced across a few rocks as Rich and Sarah helped we find my way into an eddy. Steve retrieved my boat in what must have been a satisfying change of pace for him. Less than a year before, I had discouraged him from getting on the Nanny before the summer and here he was hauling my butt out of the drink. I felt pretty proud of him, too.

Swimming Patton’s Run didn’t do a whole lot for my confidence being on the river. I felt like I was in over my head for quite a while longer. The water was moving faster. Ferries were harder. I felt gunshy with the eddies. It wasn’t until I forced myself to start catching eddies that I relaxed enough to enjoy myself. I didn’t have any difficulties with the stuff between Patton’s Run and Ferabee Park, but I needed more than just a successful run at Pyramid Rock to feel like I wasn’t in over my head. With no offense intended toward Rich or Lucas, I found myself missing Mama Di and Woody. I had a loose sense of where everybody else was on the river, but the day was very much a “me” day.

We picked up Rich’s friend Vicki at Ferabee Park. She paddles a Probe 12, too, but not a Probe 12 II like mine. Delabar’s Rock was the next rapid on the run. I hit the left line without any difficulty, caught the big left eddy and then said hello to Vicki. After running the left sneak at Quarry Rapid – a small tongue between two wave holes – I started to get comfortable in my boat. I caught eddies, big friendly eddies of course, and worked on my ferries some. The secret to the river was eddy hopping, just like any other river. Break it down, run each piece before worrying about the next piece. I felt much more relaxed, but I also wore myself out pretty easily.

I was nervous about Root Canal and Whirlpool Rapids because they were back-to-back and because Lucas and I have flipped coming into the bottom eddy avoiding the whirlpool. I had no difficulty with Root Canal. Maintaining a right angle at the entrance helped me work across the pushy water and stay away from the left bank. I was set up perfectly for Whirlpool but I was too busy staring at the whirlpool to avoid it. My Probe just slid across it without any problems, nothing like being in a kayak. I caught the eddy above Steve and caught my breath, too.

By the time we reached Surf City, a break was most welcome. My knees were especially cantankerous. Aside from standing up on the beach at Patton’s, I hadn’t come out of my foot pegs or thigh strap since the put-in. They had good reason to be cranky. Mac caught up with us during our break. She had put in at Ferabee and paddled hard to catch up with us. Rich and Vicki surfed for a little while, but Sarah evicted Vicki before we continued down the river.

My memory of the remaining rapids before my favorite concrete slab takeout is pretty hazy. They sort of run together. I was definitely getting tired. I still caught eddies and ferried occasionally. The water didn’t really feel as pushy. I had already made up my mind that I wasn’t going to run the Bump or the Falls. The right sneak at the Bump was easy to hit and for the first time, I got a good look at the hole. Not something I wanted to run straight on in my canoe. Probably not in the kayak, either.

The concrete slab was a welcome sight. I set up below the Falls to take pictures and, if necessary, do a little fishing. Lucas ran it twice, first with Jody in the Caption and then in my Probe. Rich ran it without Sarah. She hung out with me, ready for some fishing if need be. Amy and Steve had great lines in their kayaks. Mac followed Lucas on his second run and hit it clean, too. A first for her and her Viper.

We paddled down to the big pool above Worser Wesser to take out. There were some pretty gnarly waves and holes there. I just barely missed more than one of them. Something got Mac, and she nearly had to hike to the base of the big falls to get her boat. I was more worried about her running it than her boat running it. Thankfully, she got to the bank ok and thankfully one of the safety boaters from the racing club helped her retrieve her boat before the big falls. I dragged my boat on the beach beside the two spectators who were helpful enough to point at Mac swimming but not helpful enough to stand up, step forward and help me out of my boat to go help her. I scrambled down to help her with her boat, which consisted of me carrying her paddle while she carried the canoe overhead. I swam at the beginning (albeit before she was on our trip) and she swam at the very end, sort of like bookends.

I’d do the Nanny again in my solo canoe. Even Patton’s Run. I’d do it tomorrow, too, except in this case, tomorrow was going to be our last Southeast river trip for a while, and for that I wanted to paddle tandem with Lucas.

Emory River: Nemo to Camp Austin – 8/20/05

So Lucas and I decided to do our own thing this weekend, and we ended up on the same river trip. He and Jody paddled the tandem canoe. I paddled my solo canoe. Leslie borrowed Andy’s Redline for the trip and Gene and Sheila paddled their kayaks. It was Leslie’s first time in a kayak since Ellie was born and her previous trip had been over a year earlier. I promised her a fun weekend back in her kayak since it might be a while before the next free weekend.

People don’t do Nemo to Camp Austin very much because of the shuttle. It’s a II/II+ run with a class V shuttle. On the paved roads, round-trip is over an hour. On the Forest Service roads, the miles are fewer, but round trip is still over an hour. It’s a fun run and quite a treat when it comes up in the summer, because ample daylight offsets the length of the shuttle. We were especially lucky – we were able to run it at around 1200 cfs on the Oakdale gauge. Normal summer surprise runs are more in the 400cfs range.

Just around the corner from the put-in lies the biggest rapid of the day. Nemo rapid is class II+/III-. It’s a river-wide ledge with a bit of a bend just left of center. There are three straightforward tongues through the rapid, two on the left and one on the right. At the bend in the ledge is a pretty deep hole. It’s a pleasant swim both times that I’ve taken an excursion from my boat. We scouted first so everybody knew what to look for. Lucas took the right line. Leslie decided she wanted to run left instead, so I led through that side. I hit the tongue just left of the big hole and picked up a boat load of water. I turned to see her run it successfully before I lurched into the eddy to dump the water. As I paddled in, I heard a whistle. I turned to see Gene’s boat, paddle and then Gene himself float past me. Not much I can do with a boat full of water, plus, it’s a pleasing swim with no looming consequences below, so I got out and dumped my boat before seeing if he needed help. Sheila had a great line, and she and Leslie helped Gene get his gear in order.

Apparently, Gene ran right into the hole, got flipped and worked pretty good. He finally had to swim out. My guess is the aeration plus the added buoyancy of being upside down still in the boat kept him from getting pushed out. When he abandoned the boat, he sunk deep enough to float out.

After Nemo, a couple more class II+ rapids followed. Wave bouncing, rock dodging and eddy hopping were skills that Leslie enjoyed reconnecting with. She wasn’t doing much playing, which I can understand. We regrouped above Ginger’s Silence because that rapid has sometimes as few as one or two lines. No problems there. The extra water even opened up a few more routes. More eddy hopping and surfing followed. Leslie hit a combat roll after an eddy line below one of the rapids flipped her. None have names, so this one was the big boulder that makes me nervous. It has a dimple type undercut that’s hard to get to, but doesn’t look all that friendly.

We lunched below most of the major rapids. It was scorchingly hot, so we enjoyed a nice swim after lunch, confident our mothers would scold us for not waiting the requisite 45 minutes after eating.

Just above Crooked Fork Creek enters the river, we played musical boats. Jody hopped in my solo canoe, I hopped in Sheila’s GT and Sheila hopped in the tandem canoe with Lucas. I had fun surfing, although the shortness took some time to get used to again. The double blade didn’t take as long – I was surprised that in the remaining mile, I never tried any crossover strokes on accident. We had no swimmers after Nemo, even with the round of musical boats. Leslie had a good re-introduction and was ready for day 2.

On the grunt of a takeout, Lucas took a wrong turn and found himself on a less than hospitable trail. I did some exploring – the cleared trail went left. With his canoe like a turtle shell, he only saw the beat-down grass path right. We grunted up the remaining trail, loaded boats and people, and finished the remaining leg of the shuttle back to Nemo. What a treat to enjoy a Plateau run in the heat of August!

Hiwassee River – 8/21/05

Leslie and I had made plans to meet up with Andy and Lucy at the Hiwassee put-in in the morning. We headed for Gee Creek campground, found the overflow field infested with Boy Scouts and set up camp at a regular campsite instead. At Scotty’s the next morning, we had breakfast with Marilyn and Tom Phelps. Marilyn is a fellow MINI owner, so both of them had car envy seeing mine with boats on top. We met Andy and Lucy more or less on schedule. Larry joined us, too. Given the option of Boy Scouts or us, I don’t think his decision took much time. Larry, Lucy and I had very little difficulty catching a ride up to the top considering it was the Hiwassee on a Sunday. On the Ocoee, catching a ride takes less than a minute, especially if you’re a girl. On the Hiwassee, waiting five to ten minutes isn’t unexpected. We had waited maybe five.

It’s an odd feeling to be one of the people playing the hardest, but not completely unwelcome. I missed the initial ferry because of an unscheduled collision with a tandem team “supporting” one of the Boy Scout groups. I surfed most of the top waves and caught eddy rock before running the bigger rapids. I caught a mid-rapid eddy at Surprisingly Good and ferried over to one of the other drops. I surfed some of the tailwaters there, too. Leslie wasn’t in much of a play mood, but she did go back up and run Thread the Needle. I still haven’t figured out the ferry in my solo canoe. I know it, but I don’t really know how to make my canoe do it yet. Someday.

Andy looked very comfortable in his new Diesel. He’s becoming a different paddler than he was in the Redline. I’m happy that he’s finally found his boat, and hopeful that he’ll go show the Nantahala a thing or two.

We ran the rest of the run without much trouble. Lucy’s 360 hole at Three Bears looked different, so she stayed out of it, content to side surf elsewhere. I surfed some of the smaller waves there and then had some fun on Diann’s wave at the Needles. The Probe, even my 12 II, surfed there like a champ and I was able to pivot sideways and back to front surf easily. I couldn’t tell if the water was up or down, but the level felt perfect there. Devil Shoals was a bit washed out, so I’m going to guess it was up a bit from normal. I’d heard rumors of Apalachia Dam spilling, because people on Boatertalk were talking about getting on the Dries, so that makes sense.

I ended my day surfing the little ledges below Devil Shoals, finally able to catch more than one wave there and Leslie ended her weekend happy to have spent some time on the rivers this year. We had dinner with Andy and Lucy on the outskirts of Chattanooga before heading for home. Once home, I happily bragged to Lucas, I got to go paddling and you didn’t. Nyah Nyah.

Lost and Found

Cleaning and packing tend to lead to interesting discoveries. On the way to GAF last year, Lucas and I wrote up shopping lists. He drove, we discussed, I wrote. I found that sheet of paper yesterday buried under an assortment of rubble.

Lucas' Musts
throw rope
dry suit or dry pants
canoe paddle (x2)
air bags (canoe)
triple saddle
"oh shit" dry bag, preferably clear
little stuff sack
impulse buy
pump for bailing

Lucas' Maybes
hydroskins
repair stuff
canoe dry box
tent heater
four season tent - cheap!
old man tent - cheap!

What did he buy? The impulse buy came first -- it was an Ocoee Swim Team bumper sticker. We also found the dry suit, the canoe air bags, the little stuff sack, and the bailer at sales throughout the weekend.


My Musts
dry suit or dry pants
canoe paddle (x2)
Ladies dry top
medium stuff sack
hydroskin pants

My Maybes
canoe/outfitting
paddling jacket Mens L
paddling jacket M-L/W-XL

What did I buy? I found a fully-outfitted canoe during the pre-sales on Friday afternoon. On Saturday, I found a canoe paddle and a drysuit. On the river later that afternoon, I tested the dry suit and the canoe paddle. The dry suit passed its test -- we flipped at Whirlpool trying to eddy out with a boat load of water and I came up cold but dry. The paddle soon belonged to Lucas. It was too big for me, but I can't complain about a $10 paddle. Although he "borrowed" after that trip, I officially gave it to him on our Christmas trip.

I wonder what other treasures I'll find before I'm all packed up here.

an update on the baby turtles

So my friend Miki said that the baby turtles were confusing our campfire for the moonlight. When the babies hatch, they follow the moonlight reflecting off the water. Our trip was over the weekend of the new moon and they were confusing our campfire for the moonlight reflection. Poor babies! I hope nobody got roasted!

GEAR FOR SALE

MINI Cooper $19,500 -- SOLD
BRG/W with Premium and Cold Weather packages, DSC, Invisishield, Yakima roof rack, great warranty coverage, well-trained on shuttle routes


Werner kayak paddle $40 -- SOLD
203cm? 80deg feather?


North Face SMU Pebble $50 -- SOLD
2 person tent, barely used
fits two people stranded on a mountain or one person car camping


Gazetteers $5/ea -- SOLD
AL, MS, CO, UT available


First Aid Kit $5
carried in my car, never used because I have two others that travel in their respective gear bags


Clothing/Shoes donations requested
assorted polypro, mostly womens S-L
Columbia river shorts, purple, W-S
IR board shorts, blue, W-8
black water-resistant jacket, W-S or M
cycling/triathlon shorts, S
Teva canoeing shoes, kids size 6


EMS Crash Pad FREE
self-inflating air mattress... leaky valve needs replacing


Small bungees and ropes FREE (once they're not in use)


Plastic storage bins FREE (once they're empty)


If you're in the market for any of the above items, please let me know. Tentatively, I will be at the Ocoee/Hiwassee the weekend of August 20/21 and the Nantahala/Hiwassee the weekend of August 27/28. Of course, if the hurricane fairy visits and the Plateau comes up, all bets are off.

French Broad River Section 9: Barnard to Stackhouse – 8/14/05

Rich, Larissa, Lucas and I headed for the French Broad, figuring there would be plenty of water for a good run. The gauge reading at Newport was 2900cfs. When we got to the take-out at Stackhouse, Rich thought it looked higher than 3000cfs and when we asked at the put-in, somebody said 4300cfs at the other gauge. The rain had been stronger than we expected. This trip would be Larissa’s first time running it in her kayak and our first time running it in the tandem canoe. Lucas had run the raft at this level and Rich had never seen it this high. There was a pretty good crowd at the put-in, so we weren’t the only ones who thought it would be a fun day.

The first mile or so of small ledges, waves and boogie water was a nice warm-up before we got to the bigger rapids. We practiced our eddy turns, peel-outs and ferries, getting used to the boat in the weird water. The warm-up went by much faster than the last time we were out on the river.

The diagonal ledges were still visible. The eddies behind them were not very easy to stay in without clinging to the rocks themselves. Higher water made The Doors rapid easily run on river right and river center. Some of its eddies were friendlier than others. We ran through a couple of longer, bouncy rapids, alternating between eddy hopping and wave hopping, before coming to the two most difficult rapids on the run.

The Entrance to Big Pillow and then Big Pillow rapid itself were a bit closer together because of the water speed. I sort of remember Kerry running us through a big hole on river right on the last trip because of an undercut rock on the left route. Lucas and I watched Rich and Larissa ferry in front of a clamshell rock, and I wondered if that was the undercut. Lucas and I opted for a slightly different route, and we ended up sliding sort of sideways on one rock and barely missing another before finding the tongue that led us the rest of the way through the rapid. We caught an eddy above Big Pillow rapid itself and decided to scout. Rich decided he wanted to take the entrance channel on the right and then catch the big dynamic eddy on the right. We were thinking maybe catch the eddy or maybe just stay on the right of the wave train beside the Big Pillow rock, still avoiding what we thought looked like a second hole. We ferried out high before entering the rapid. We hit the latter line easily and sure enough, there was a hole where we thought there was. We dodged it just to the right. Rich and Larissa each took different lines. Rich hit his line. Larissa caught an eddy above his big eddy, then dropped into his eddy and then got spun a few times trying to get out of the eddy. Lucas and I felt even better about our line, because we had both expected that eddy to be very swirly. She made it out ok – nothing like nerves as a good motivator – and caught the eddy where we were.

Some more eddy hopping and rock dodging brought us to the flat stuff and then the big waves above the usual lunch spot. We waited for the rafts to get through before running through the meat of the big waves. The waves were easily as big as what I remember them being in the kayak, so they had to be bigger. Rich made fun of us later for taking the raft line, but that’s the most fun way to go! The surfing wave beside the lunch rock was beautiful, equally as popular as the big wave itself. We surfed, we lunched and we surfed some more.

After lunch, we came to a river-wide ledge below some class II boogie water. We decided to scout the ledge and enjoy the show that a larger group put on running the ledge itself. The biggest entertainment was watching a couple in a tandem sit-on-top with canoe paddles bumping rocks and swapping sides with their paddles. The lady in the front flailed a few times, sticking her leg out on one side and her arm out on the other. They made it to the bottom upright. We took a creative line there, too. Trying to hit the far left chute, we caught an unexpected eddy. I was thinking, I hope Lucas remembers to lean as we spun into the eddy. It worked out ok. We peeled out and hit the chute we had wanted to hit.

Our only swim came on the sneak around Pinball. The approach was congested with rocks disguised as waves as we came to the far right chute. We should have been a little farther right on the drop itself, or I should have opted for the low brace instead of the offside air brace, or Lucas should have gone for the high brace sooner. None of those things happened, so just after we dropped down from the ledge, we found ourselves swimming beside our boat. Easy recovery, one that I much prefer over swimming Pinball itself.

The last big rapid of the day was the rebar/Stackhouse rapid. We eddy hopped our way down river left and eventually worked our way right to a big eddy above the last few drops. After a discussion over the difference between the left and right sides and the difference between left and right, we decided to take the easy right drops to the takeout.

In these last few weeks before the move, we’re ticking the “I want to…” summer trips off the list. Overnighter, check. French Broad tandem, check. Next weekend is my adventure with Leslie. Then one more adventure weekend before it’s time to go. Right now it’s kinda fun, but I think sooner rather than later, it’s going to be sad. I’m sure we’ll see some of these rivers again, but it’ll be a little while.

Nolichucky River – 8/13/05

I have to admit, tandem on FB9 was the reason we headed so far east this weekend, but the lower Nolichucky really was a treat. Because of home repair issues, we made it as far as the Smokies exit on I-40 Friday night. We rolled into the campground a few minutes before our scheduled 11am trip meeting. Rich and Sarah were nowhere to be found, but we figured out where we needed to be. Actually, the guy at the campground who wanted our $6 launch fee figured that out for us real quick.

Rich, Sarah and Larissa arrived a few minutes later, as we were about halfway unpacked. Sarah chickened out of paddling her C-1, so there were going to be two tandem teams on the trip instead of one. The only reason that made me sad was because I had gotten my hopes up about getting trashed in it.

We launched about noontime, with one of the two whitewater kayakers officially leading the trip. Turns out she was someone who helped me down Clear Creek on a trip so many moons ago when I wasn’t having such a good day in a kayak. She, Pam & Jim Floyd, Kathy & John Moyer, Bob Simpkins and Laura Malarnee helped me down the Barnett to Jett section after I swam twice and made it clear I was in over my head without some guidance. I think I have the group complete now. That day was at TSRA Rendezvous in 2001, it was my third day ever in a kayak and it was not the right kayak for me to be in at my weight back the. Ah, memories. I think all paddlers need to have at least one of those in-over-our-heads memories to talk about every so often.

There were two tandem teams, a handful of solo canoes, a sit-on-top kayak and a recreational kayak. I had the rec boater pegged for the most swims of the day, but the sit-on-topper took that prize. The rec boater quickly realized that either he was in the wrong boat or he was on the wrong river, but he made it down ok anyway. I think by the end of the day, we had him convinced he should get a whitewater boat, too.

We had a lot of fun eddy hopping and playing. Occasionally, the group stopped to swim and lounge. Depending on when, we were either near the front of the pack or dead last by a lot. Early on, the rapids were pretty continuous class II with some good waves and such for playing. For the guy with the sit-on-top, it proved to be fairly continuous class II swimming. Every time I turned around, he seemed to be heading one direction and his boat seemed to be heading the other. The first swimming and lounging break had us within sight of the radio tower.

Radio Tower was the biggest rapid on the run. The other Debbie had been getting herself worked up about it since Lucas and I started unpacking at the put-in. I was sure she was going to swim, but she survived it. A number of others didn’t. The line was explained as “stay right” and we found out the hard way that there was a big hole in the middle to avoid. Our boat was full of water at the bottom, but it was upright and we were still in it. It was all good.

A few rapids after Radio Tower, we took our second swimming and lounging break of the day. It felt like a good time for lunch, too. The heat of the day made swimming feel all that much better. After break #2, we played musical boats. Sarah and I paddled together and Lucas and Rich paddled together. Sarah fired the first shots of the inevitable water fight that ended several minutes later with both of us in the drink as a consequence of our collectively-misplaced lean. Lucas and Rich helped us get back in the boat and we ran a couple of the easier class II’s together.

It was incredibly awkward being in the stern of the whitewater boat. I’m used to seeing everything and reacting instead of planning ahead. I was fortunate that I could rely on Sarah to make the bow corrections for me. Rich suggested I might need to tell her when and where to make the corrections, but she didn’t need me for any of that. Quite the opposite! We talked our way through each drop. I did better on the times when I had set us up a little too right of where we needed to be. Sarah hit the crossover draws easily and I was observant enough to react to them. I’m still trying to figure those pry things out, so her on side draws kept throwing me. Sweeps worked, but not nearly as well. We swapped back just before the last series of ledges and waves, which was good, because we would have (and most definitely could have) bombed through those instead of eddy hopping and surfing. True to form, we were the last boats to the takeout.

I don’t like to end these things on a bad note, so promise to end the paragraph on a positive. Don’t stay at Nolichucky Gorge Campground if you have a better option. It cost us $9/ea to stay at a cramped campground surrounded by loud people, but Lucas justified that by saying we definitely enjoyed an $18 meal at the APES picnic earlier in the evening. That brisket was good.

Buffalo River (TN) aka the Great Turtle Rescue – 8/6 and 8/7/05

After a trip as large as fifteen was threatened, we ended up with six people on our Buffalo River trip. We took the scenic route to Buffalo River Canoeing and Camping, since a bad wreck had closed a portion of the interstate. Dinner at the Log Cabin restaurant was good. That morning, we packed up and headed for the river, with the BRCC people planning to help us with shuttle once we were unloaded.

Lucas and I paddled together, as usual for these trips. Amy the Turtle Savior paddled with Jody. Chase and Sarynna paddled together despite all the divorce boat talk. While Jody and Lucas ran shuttle, the rest of us packed the boats for two days of paddling and lounging. While we were packing, three trailers of canoes unloaded and launched, ensuring our trip would be neither quiet nor remote. The local sheriff stopped by to tell us the access point was no longer available to the public because a "Conservancy" owned the land. He later confessed the Conservancy was really the Sheriff's Office intending to curtail the partying and trashing of the property that had been ongoing for years. Misleading? Police? Never.

Sadly, in early August, the Buffalo is infested with rednecks, most in canoes from the rental outfits, but others just driving in to one of the party spots. The three boat trailers full of people were just a hint of the traffic we would see on the river. The river was practically wall to wall redneck for the first eight miles. We found a few quiet spots here and there, but not all that many.

Rivers + teenagers + beer = natural selection hard at work.

Sarynna and Chase took pretty well to the canoe. I had explained the different strokes while everybody else was running shuttle. Their big difficulty came when running the trickier spots like the strainers. Chase got pretty good at ruddering, but didn’t realize that he needed to help with the paddling part, too. Once they solved that issue, navigation got a whole lot easier.

Amy and Jody found a turtle pinned between a few branches. He got himself wedged there so that he was sitting vertically, legs flailing just a few inches above the water. Amy and Jody got in there and freed him. Little did we know, the theme for the trip had just been announced.

The skies started getting darker as we got closer to Heath’s Canoe Rental. Thankfully, Heath’s was where 95% of the rednecks would be done for the day. We ran a little rapid above their takeout and then a few minutes later, the river was quiet. Thunder in the distance made us wonder if rain was headed our way and it made me grateful Lucas had picked up a tarp in town. We might need it. We started looking for a camping spot soon after and had a hard time finding one to our liking. We passed an access point on the right. A couple of guys were there with trucks and beer, so we were all hoping to camp far enough away or hoping the threat of rain might chase them away. We got lucky on both accounts. Just after them, we came to a big island. We took the left channel and found a nice camp just around the bend.

We set up tents pretty quickly and Lucas set up the tarp. We started prepping the appetizer and dinner. Based on position, we thought the rain would pass us by, until we realized the dark clouds surrounded us. The baked brie appetizer came out, dinner went on the coals, and then the skies opened up on us. We relocated everything we needed under the tarp. Six chairs, a table and all of the food fit under a 10x10 tarp. We used the extra paddles to prop up the appropriate areas of the tarp so that rain wouldn’t pool on top.

We ate the Mexican lasagna dinner and the berry cobbler dessert under the tarp and then the clouds parted. We built a campfire and relocated our lounging to there for the rest of the evening. Our lounging was interrupted when Amy spotted a baby turtle running into the fire. She rescued it. Then Jody spotted another one. And then another. And another… By the end of the evening, at least twenty turtles must have been rescued from running into the fire. We even spotted one running away from the fire. He learned. We were worried that we had built the fire over a nest or something, but I think it was somewhere else and the brightness must have distracted them from their run from the nest into the river. I’m all about natural selection, but I think we all felt bad about it applied to baby turtles. Rednecks, yes. Baby turtles, no.

Normally, we let the fire burn itself down, but in light of the turtle issue, they poured water on it. The next morning, the restarted fire made all kinds of fun crackling sounds and made some of the rocks jump. I thought it was fun until I took a hot rock to the eye. It’s all fun and games until…

We didn’t see any baby turtles in the morning, or any baby turtle carcasses, so at least they seemed to have fared well with the soggy fire. We took our time packing up and heading out and we enjoyed the last few miles at a leisurely pace. Lucas even let me paddle in the stern and promised to behave himself with the correction strokes.

Amy rescued another turtle on Sunday. This one was tangled up in some fishing line. She freed him from the tangle, but couldn’t get the fishing hook out. We tried a few different things to free him from the fishing hook, but nothing worked. He hid in the stern of her boat until the takeout. When the outfitter didn’t have strong wire cutters to clip the edge of the hook, she wished him well and set him free.

The Great Turtle Rescue ended without much else fanfare. We had no unintentional swims and only one argument that I know of. And many turtles lived to see another day.

amy and jody paddle hard

chase is having too much fun

nice beard

tired puppies

rescued baby turtle

george jones fan

bocce ball

the evil physicist's plot is unveiled

i get to drive

the turtle savior

sunday's rescuee

Hiwassee River: Diann Takes a Turn at Getting Older – 7/30 and 7/31/05

The second TSRA Canoe and Kayak School was cancelled because the club’s insurance issues hadn’t been resolved. Smaller groups planned to paddle anyway. Diann Woodall’s birthday gave everybody an excuse to gather after the different river trips. An early morning group headed for the Nantahala on Saturday morning. We planned to paddle the Hiwassee with a couple of less-experienced people, including my friend Rachel, Mac’s friend Monica and some of Diann and Woody’s other river children. Gene and Sheila opted for the Nantahala run with Kelsey, Ann and Rick.

Our group was late as usual reaching the put-in Saturday morning, even though we were camped about 20 minutes away. Rachel and Patrick were there waiting for us. After running shuttle, we launched amid a sea of plastic and rubber. The TVCC swiftwater rescue class was out there in rafts, helpfully getting in the way at times. Hard lines were the order of the day. I think I ended up making Rachel swim three times before the day was up. The first swim was at Bigney’s Rock. I blew the Thread-the-Needle move, Heather cut out too early and Rachel cut out even earlier, finding an eddy line and scouting the streambed beneath it.

The TVCC guys were somewhat in the way at Oblique Falls, so I ran the drop a little to the right and caught the eddy below Velcro Rock to catch a picture. Unplanned but convenient!

At lunch stop, Patrick and I filled Lucas’ canoe with water while side surfing. Chris snapped a couple of pictures of us there, including Patrick’s inappropriate crossover draw. We paddled back toward shore and attempted a roll. Patrick swept one way, I swept another. The boat kind of bobbed upward as we both fell out. Patrick helped me with a solo roll for a while before we headed down river. It’s getting closer.

We caught eddy hopped and surfed our way down river until Devil Shoals. After successfully running the rapid, I talked Rachel into trying the hard peelout. She quit her lean too early and ended up out of the boat. We bumped boat to shore and she decided to try it again. Think instant replay. Attempt three involved sneaking out the eddy at the bottom. Another day.

Back at camp, we had quite the party even before everybody got back from their respective trips. Bob O and his girlfriend joined us. I’m not sure if it was Diann or someone else who noticed Kelsey’s canoe at camp. Somehow a throwrope became attached to it and then that throwrope found itself looped over a tree branch and then that throwrope found itself attached to another tree and then there was this canoe hanging from a tree. Paddlus Erectus.

Diann’s goddaughter had found a yellow puppy shivering under the bridge near camp. The puppy was terrified of all of us. She had obviously been abandoned there recently. Jan doesn’t allow pets at Creekside, so we had to keep her hidden. Baby Gee was very sweet despite her anxiety. She led them back to find her brother and both of them hung out with us at camp. The dingo-colored brother was more social. I’m not sure who took them to an animal shelter. As cute and sweet as both were, they were sure to be adopted.

The group continued to grow as the Nanty crew returned and the Gee Creek campers joined us. Baby Gee and her brother got bolder, running around a bit more and allowing people to pet them and feed them. Patrick decided to stay and invited Shannon and Max to join us. We enjoyed potluck supper with everybody. At one point, it looked like we had at least thirty people hanging around at camp. The puppies started discovering the boons of bravery. People would feed them if they came over to say hello. With all the good eats that everybody brought for potluck, they made out pretty well. I think they lost out on the desserts. The Grand Marnier cheesecake that I made for Diann was demolished within the hour. Heather had a few brownies at the end of the day, but those would make a fine addition to our lunch the next day.

Lightning flashes interrupted the darkness periodically. The rains followed soon after. Most of the party called it a night by then, but a few of us were still lounging near the campfire when the rain picked up. During the biggest downpour, we huddled under Rick’s shelter hoping Tellico! Tellico! Sadly, the morning’s gauge readings didn’t show enough water for even a bump and scrape trip. The Hiwassee was still a treat. Patrick, Shannon and Max decided to paddle a ducky, giving Max his first taste of whitewater. Hugh Bullock joined us in the morning, too, as did Heather’s husband Matt.

When we launched and Diann gave Max the water gun, I knew there would be trouble. Sure enough, after eddy rock, I found myself on the business end of the water gun. Max got to pick one person to shoot and I was that lucky one. My favorite picture of the trip was from the perspective of the water just about to hit me, with the mischievous three-year-old on the other end.

I bopped back and forth between the back of the pack and the front of the pack depending on the rapid. Diann and I let Heather lead us through Surprisingly Good. I showed her the Thread the Needle move that I had missed the day before at Bigney’s Rock. At Oblique Falls, I hit my line a bit to the right on purpose this time, so I could catch the eddy and take a picture of Shannon, Patrick and Max going over the big drop. I had to work hard to stay in the eddy, but I got that picture.

At Lunch Stop, we had quite the downpour. Hugh let Max borrow one of his polypro tops, because he was the closest in size of everyone. Shannon and Patrick used a spray top as an umbrella until the rain stopped. Heather, Matt, Lucas and I spent too much time playing after Lunch Stop, because the last we saw of everyone was them in the distance at Three Bears. Mist had rolled in, so the river started looking a little more eerie and intimate. We played our way down the river, including some quality time at Needles. I surfed the usual wave. Heather and Matt did stern squirts on one of the other waves. Then we watched Lucas take swim on one of the other waves.

Below Devil Shoals, Matt and I swapped boats. He hopped in my Probe and I wedged myself into his EZ. Since I have more hips than he does, I was stuffed so well in there that I couldn’t quite reach the backband. It worked fine for the easy ledges on the way to the takeout. I even surfed a few of those waves. I think Matt had fun, too. We might have talked him into trying a canoe on the next Hiwassee outing. I’m not sure I’d want to paddle his playboat the whole length of the river, though. My legs were asleep long before the takeout, and that was maybe a quarter mile from when I wedged myself in. Maybe it’s like knees and canoeing. The body gets used to the abuse, whatever it might be.

Many thanks to photo wizard Chris Widick and his stalker lens for the photos of day 1. :)

lucas approaching oblique falls

me at oblique falls, with an audience

convenient (but unplanned) eddy turn

rachel

side surf

side surf (2) -- nice crossover stroke, Patrick. :)

side surf (3)

side surf results

side surf results (2)

side surf results (3)

lucas & mac enjoy the show

inevitability