I got on a lot of new runs this fall, i'll try to name them all: Watauga, Wilsons, Beech Creek, Laurel Fork Doe, Middle Fork New, Red Roof, Boone Fork, Steeles Creek, Nolichucky, and The Elk. Outside of Boone area, I got to do the Gauley and the Russell Fork too.
My brother and I on a nice November day on Wilson Creek
Freewheel on Watauga
With the good water this fall, I got on the Watauga a whole lot of times. Its only 20 minutes from Boone, you can do a round trip in around 3 hours. I have run the Watauga as low as 130 cfs and as high as 1600 cfs and it provides something interesting and fun at all levels. We got so comfortable on the Watauga, one fine full moon night we did a midnight run. I have done moonlight runs before, but never on anything hard. We had a nice flow of 400 cfs, and a perfectly clear night. There was not once when I did not know exactly where I was. The moon was so bright that night it was reflecting off the white in the water which made for stunning scenery, and also made it very easy to see where to go. Conditions worked out just right that night, and rolling back into Boone at 2am after that run was a super cool feeling.
Will throwing a freewheel on our night run.
Pretty colors
Hydro at 1600cfs
Watauga finished off my Jefe with this huge crack about halfway through the gorge on the 1600 day. It made for an interesting rest of the run.
Stateline @ 1600 cfs
The Watauga becomes a special place for paddlers in Boone who run it all the time. Cooper decided to skip formal graduation and have his on the Watauga river with a big group of friends. Here he is coming through Hydro in Cap and Gown!
I got on the Gauley River for the first time this fall and I must say it was a blast. I spent 2 weekends up there, Gauleyfest weekend and 2 weekends after that. I ran the Upper 3 times and the the Lower once. The Lower gets underrated, it has a lot of fun rapids to run to itself, and the play is awesome!
Hanging out a pillow rock and jumping off
Myself, Alex Brantley, and Mac Mcgee blue angel through pillow rock on the Gauley
I also got on the Russell Fork this fall for the first time. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of this awesome river, but it was really fun, and really really scary at the same time. It reminded me a lot lot of the Suicide Section of Little River Canyon in Alabama, at high water. Maybe a bit easier that that, but still really scary looking rapids. It was a lot of fun though and I am looking forward to going back.
Steeles Creek is a steep, remote, low volume creek that flows of the rim of Linville Gorge. After finding pictures of awesome looking waterfalls on waterfalls.com, Mac Mcgee and myself were itching to get over there and check it out. Before we even had the chance to go over there and hike in and scout, we got a severe rainstorm and decided to go for it. Teaming up with Frank Stansberry and Scott Magley we made the drive to the creek. Scott informed us Kirk Eddlemon and Keith Sprinkle had done the 1st D on this creek a few months ago, but we did not have any more beta than that. After riving around dirt roads and looking at an atlas for about an hour, we decided to put in on a tiny creek and follow it so Steeles. We knew several creeks came together all at once and formed Steeles proper.
Well after 2-3 hours of bushwhacking and crawling under rhodo and portaging 200ft waterfalls, we reached the first gorge of the creek, which consisted of a set of teacups into a large slide avoiding a rock, then a drop to slide resembling right-right on the Raven Fork, then a slot that would go at higher water, and then a final 30-40 foot drop into a wall, resembling wall drug on Tatlow Creek in BC. Mac was the only one to fire up the last drop, called "Beverly Hillbilly" and he styled it.
Scott in the first gorge
1st slide drop after teacups 
Mac running Hillbilly
After this first gorge it mellows out again for a half mile till you reach the second gorge. We called the first drop "Twisted Steele" we found out later Eddlemon and Sprinke called it Kamikaze Gorge. This thing is a monster, and on the verge of runnability. As we were portaging, Frank slipped and almost fell in, but thanks to a well placed rhodo branch, we caught himself and avioded swimming the whole drop. His boat and all his gear washed through and we amazingly recovered it all. In the drop below kamikaze, a 12 foot boof, we found his helmet, and dubbed it "lost helmet"
Twisted Steele aka Kamikaze Gorge (look closely for me at the top for scale)
Large slides in second gorge
Fun drops in the second gorge
Steeles was a fun adventure, with some quality rapids and a lot that were really huge and nasty, but everything is definetly runnable. I can see everything in here being run in the future.
Another creek I was fortunate enough to get on this fall is the Laurel Fork of the Doe. This is the perfect run! It has a super easy shuttle but is very remote, has high quality rapids, no mandatory portages (one highly recommended though), great scenery, no hike, and is just fun. Mac Mcgee and I got over there and had a great day this fall. Here are a few photos:
Mac in Darwins Hole
Mac on Quadruple Drop
Mac on the Laurel Falls 1st D!
Me in the gorgeous paddle out
I did make the trip down for a few Tallulah weekends this fall, which is fun as always. Also got on the Cheoah, Cascades, and Upper Nantahala. On this run the crew was me, Mac, Paul Griffin, Jay Mahan, my brother Ben, i think thats all.
Jay in Oceana from overlook (thanks Mackenzie!)
The crew coming through Tanners
Thanks Mackenzie and Sydney for shooting photos and running shuttle!
The Elk - Twisting Falls Section: pretty accurately described by Leland's book: big but not super hard, and very adventurous. the drops are indeed big and fun, but not super hard. Compression falls was a highlight, while we all stayed away from big falls this day. Plus it was lower water. The twisting falls portage is definitely sketchy, climbing out and around that ledge is tough. Its not THAT bad though, its just very very exposed.
Scouting Big Falls
The Portage
Edgar boofing a smaller fun double drop
Stomping it down in the Pirouette
About to plug it up for a nice line
Overall this fall was really good, just getting to explore rivers in an all new region. The extra water this fall made that even easier and it was great.
peace
-Clay
No comments:
Post a Comment