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.