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.