Week of boating out of GA again

After two last low water runs on the Watauga for a few months, I packed up all my things and headed home to Georgia.  It was a real good year of school, paddling, mountain biking, skiing, and good times. I kept a little log of paddling days for the year, its pretty accurate for the most part. Here are some quick stats:

1st semester: 35 days on the water, 15 new runs

2nd semester: 42 days on the water, 6 new runs

I logged 31 runs on then Watauga as well!

Not too bad, I think.  

When I got home, I had about a week of free time until my knee surgery, so I resolved to go kayaking as much as possible until then. I started off with a trip to run the Chattooga with Greg Garrard and Sam Causey, two real good friends that I hadn't got boat with in a long time, so it was good to be back boating with them like I did all through high school.  When we all first paddled with each other, we thought the Ocoee was badass, and the Chattooga was the absolute shit.   We planned to meet Katie Worley and Zach Dean to run shuttle with, but they werent off work until 5 so we decided to head over to the upper Tallulah for soma laps while we waited.

To be continued...since my photos are not uploading for some reason

High Water Raven Fork Trip Report

It all started on tuesday night at 2 in the morning with Marks facebook status updating to "really wants to run ravens tomorrow."  The river was primed already with rain forcasted for the morning, so I gave him a call and we made plans to leave Boone after my 10 o'clock class.

We kept speculating levels on the way down, the rain was off an on so we really had no idea what it would be like. We both agreed about 12 inches on the stick would be our max for this day, if it was higher we would try for west prong or big creek.

Meeting Paul, Jay, and Justin Kleburg at the gauge, it read about 11 so we decided to put on. Paul was nervous about the level so he opted to go get drunk with Emmanuel while we paddled.   It was Kleburgs first time on Raven Fork.

We hiked in in the rain, catching glimpes of the river through the trees we could tell it was high. At Anaconda, I knew it was way higher than 11 inches. We all fired it up and had good lines but I subbed out for a long time in the first and second drops.  We all portaged headless, as the hole was disgusting looking.

Everyone had good lines everywhere down to Mike Tysons. Mikes was probably the fastest I have ever been in my kayak and was completely mind blowing.  Caveman was sweet as well, water was going all the way off the end of the slab rock!

It was a great day out there. We met up with Joe Barkley and Dustin at Manny's, it turns out Dustin swam and lost some gear at headless. Joe estimated the level to have spiked into the high teens, and he would know. They were only shortly behind us. After chilling with Emmanuel for an hour or so and listening to some hilarious stories, we headed out and checked the bridge gauge on the way back and it was at 17 inches.

I wouldnt have thought about hiking up at this level if I knew thats what it was, but honestly after paddling it, I would go back at that level.  It is definitely a step up from the normal Raven Fork run, mostly because of holes and some more push.  But it was not un-managable, and was still drop pool. the rapids only got better and more fun, which is hard to believe because its so awesome already.  It was a great level and a sweet day out in the Cherokee reservation and I cant wait to go back.

Sorry I have no picturess, I wish my camera was not broken so badly, especially for this day!

-Clay

End of Spring

Its been a while since I last did an update, due to the end of the school year, finals, and moving back home to Georgia for the summer.  I had no time to do any updates, but I did get to go do some good boating a few times in there.

I'll start with Paddlefest, which took place in and around duck pond, on ASU campus. This was the first time I have been able to go, and it was a fun event with relay races, a throwbag competition, rolling competiton, and other events, most of which my good buddy Ty and I took 1st place in. Chan came up in the van with some new Pyranha Burns and Molans  for demo on the pond. There is only so much you can do to test out a boat in a tiny pond but the Molan was fun to throw around in the flatwater for sure. Everyone else had fun paddling and showing some people who had never been in boats before the basics. 

    Throwbag competition

Me and Ty throwing down in the new Molans in front of the fountain

I'd also like to shout out to Outdoor Programs who supplied loads of raffle prizes for the event, almost everyone went home with something!

After a fun night chilling with everyone in town for the festival, Me Chan and Mac headed down to eternity hole, where we met up with Paul Jay and Colin for a surf session and to test out the new Molan for real.  I gotta say I liked it, it was definetly a very fast boat and also popped really high.  I have never been much of a playboater at all, but I finally got my loop dialed in this session, it was awesome.

   Mac going real big in the small.

                                          Me throwing one in the medium

Cool photo of paul looping, check out that spray

Colin blasting

After a night in Cullowhee, we all headed to the Green for Jerry's baddle. Jay was the only one of us to race, I wished I had thought about it and done it cause its a super cool event.  The race was also Jay's first time running the monkey, he had an iteresting line for sure but it all worked out. He has since run it clean!

You can see me cheering him on real loudly on the bank

Jay, by the way you scared the shit out of your dad. 

Colin was going back to Boone, se me and Mac caught up with Will Selle for some overflow laps on sunday, rounding out the weekend. Overflow was juicy when we got there around 2ft, but dropped to around 1.4 by the end of our second lap. It was a super nice day, overflow is a great creek. That concludes the weekend!  Next up, Raven Fork at 17 inches trip report and more!