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!