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
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!
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!
Mi camera es still broken...so no original pictures from me again. But fortunately Colin has got some sweet still frames from his camera so I have something to work with!
Colin has been putting together all of the footage we have taken in the last few months, and here is the result: Includes Raven Fork, Watauga, Tallulah, Green, Chattooga, Wilsons, Laurel Slides, Cheoah, Elk, and probably some more cause this video is stacked.
Like I said in the last post, we headed down to Cullowhee and got on the Raven Fork again on friday afternoon. It was timed perfectly, me, Colin, and Mac were all out of class by 11 and left Boone by 12. By the time we met up with Paul, Jay, and Jake, set shuttle, and hiked in it was about 5 o'clock. Jake and Paul had never been down before, so it was a little bit stressful trying to show them the lines while trying to keep moving and be out before dark. Plus there were 6 of us, so the eddies were crowded as well. Everything went great though, good lines everywhere. And I remembered my elbow pads! yay. I looked at Big Boy for a long time but had to walk away...this time. Jake and Mac fired it up with great lines though!
Getting to Caveman was a relief, we all walked back up for more goodness. At Mangler, it officially got dark and we blue-angled through the rest of the "boogie" to Emmanuel's.
Going from sitting in English class in Boone that morning to running the Raven Fork made for one great day!
Here are a few surprisingly good quality still frames from Colin's camera:
"Think Werner would sponsor me if we take a picture with all of their paddles?"
Hiking into the beautiful, lush Ravens Fork
Mortal Combat
Mac Mcgee is a big boy
Me in the ring with Mike Tyson
Paul airing out Caveman!
Jay - caveman is a lot harder at low water!
Jay boofing with Mac on cave saftey
Colin avoiding the cave, nice line!
Me in caveman at low light, it got dark shortly after.
Thanks Jake Ament and Colin Hunt for the photos!
Saturday we woke up early and went to the Cheoah. It was a juicy 1500cfs and it made for a really fun day, we did one forest service bridge down lap, then a full lap, and then 3 more fs bridge down laps. It was great, but left us feeling extremely tired and beatdown after the Raven Fork the day before especially.
Sunday we tried to go to Eternity hole for some playboating but were skunked! Apparently its the first time it hasn't been running since about december. Not feeling like trying to boat anything that would require more effort than park and play we headed back to Boone to work on building a playhole of our own...but that has to remain a secret for now :) Nah not really, its on the Watauga and doesn't look like anything right now but hopefully we can get some good work done on it when the water drops out.
Paul looping at eternity a different time
Speaking of getting skunked on playboating, it happened again yesterday when Colin and I tried to go to the Nolichucky. We were turned back by forest fires of all things! They were dunking the buckets from the helicopters in the pool at the put-in and wouldn't let anyone put on. Crazy.
Thats all for now, oh yeah when we got skunked we hiked a creek instead and found a West Prong-took-meth style creek very close to Boone. Can't wait for rain :)
So the past few weeks have been eventful, but unfortunately I have no pictures of anything due to my camera dying on me. Hopefully I will be getting a new one soon but in the meantime here is a little update on whats been going on.
The Watauga Race was great this year with juicy water levels, a great turnout of over 40 racers, and perfect weather. Hopefully this can become an annual event! I took 20th overall, but 2nd in short boat. I was pretty happy with my finish, but next year I am going to try to get my hands on a longboat for sure, I just could not keep up with the greenboats in the flat sections.
Here is a nice write up with photos and a video from the race: http://riverkeeper.appvoices.org/2010/03/
This weekend was a really good one for boating, it almost felt like summer! Going with no drytop for the first time in 6 months felt awesome, along with swimming in the river. We started the weekend off with a run down Tallulah on saturday with Colin, Mac and my brother. Here is a nice video Colin put together, showcasing the major rapids in the gorge:
On monday, I got to paddle with my dad on section 4 of the Chattooga, along with Colin, and two guys we met at the put in, Craig and Fast Fred. We had a great time on another beautiful day. Two swims in the 5 falls and a beatdown in socemdog made things a little interesting!
Tuesday we headed to the Green, where I got to show my brother down the narrows for his first time! It was a nice 10" and a great first time level. He did great until a skirt implosion at hammer factor, and yes it counts as a swim! We took some video on Colin's camera that should be up before too much longer.
Back in Boone, Matt, Ty, Jesse and I went to the Watauga for a nice low water run, the first in almost a month. The level was around 160 cfs, plenty for a fun run. It channelizes really well and some fun boofs and different moves open up. Not a bad playboat level either, the Watauga is full of good splats and rockspins. Stateline was good to go as well, its just a lot more of a fine line.
The rain is falling, tomorrow we are headed to Cullowhee in hopes of creeking in the smokies, then Tallulah again the rest of the weekend, see you out there!
-Clay
Yesterday, 3/24 I got the opportunity to go run the Twisting Falls section of the Elk river. I was supposed to go run Linville but not having a car got in the way again, so I got on board with Frank and Edgar for my 2nd ever Elk run.
We decided we didn't want to drive the 45 minute one way shuttle, so we opted to try out the hike in option, where the shuttle is more like 4 miles, with a "15 minute hike" to the river. After making our way up the road we found the trail and started hiking. The trail disappeared into the woods after about 100 yards, and we ended up following game trails and hiking through rhododendron and following a creek until we met the Elk. I was relieved when I heard Edgar whoop when he saw the Elk, I was starting to have Steeles Creek flashbacks.
Frank hiking beside a cool boulder
With the hike in option, you only miss two rapids and it is a lot less time consuming than driving the long shuttle and paddling all the flatwater. But personally, I would rather do that then the hike, unless the trail was improved a lot. We may have just missed the easy way at some point though.
The level was medium-low, but still good, the Watauga was at about 600 cfs this day. Shortly after putting on, we met up with Andre, Pete and Josh and paddled with them. After making it through all the big, shallow, fast slides the Elk has to offer, we made it to the Twisting Falls Portage. Now I am not usually very scared of heights, but this portage is not fun at all. Especially because i was worrying about my knee the whole time.
Passing the boats along the narrow ledge
The consequences. I am against the wall.
Twisting Falls
After gingerly making our way around and down twisting falls, and a sweet boof over a big hole, we arrived at the goods. The 15 footer had a very juicy hole at this level, while a few chose to run it, with one beat down, most of us seal launched from the ledge next to it, of equal height. Then came the prize, Compression Falls. The height is debated, my guess is around 30 feet of vert with another 10 foot high roll in for a total close to 40ft.
Andre went first, and broke his paddle on the landing, even though he ran it perfectly clean.
Rolling off
I was next, and had a pretty good line I think, but I was a little more vert than I hoped to be. I tucked up tight and landed fine though. I think I was about completely vertical, but the curtain on compression is a little off vert, so you want to have a little bit of angle. Unhappy with my line, I hiked back up for a second shot at it while Josh, Frank, and Pete fired off with good lines.
My first line
I knew what to do on my second attempt, I just needed to tuck up later, not as soon as I spotted my landing. I did and it worked out perfectly.
My second lap, about to tuck it up
After my good line on Compression I was much happier, as the last 2 I did I went vert too much. Compression is really the only "must plug" waterfall I have run so far, there just are not that many around the southeast, or Colorado really. I am more interested to find more around here though, I know there are some, they are just not very plentiful.
Waterfalls are a lot trickier than they appear, timing your tuck as to not go over the handlebars or break your paddle is tough. Edgar has run the Elk around 10 times, he said every time he has been someone has gotten hurt or broken something, this time was no exception. Compression does have a big hit at the bottom, it don't tickle. But, I am pretty stoked on waterfalls now, and looking forward to doing more bigger ones.
Boogie on the paddle out, with compression in the background
It has been a solid week so far, with me and Colin paddling some Red Roof and Laurel Creek slides on tuesday, Elk wednesday, Watauga today at a juicy level, and the rest of the week looking like Watauga race training and then the race on saturday, and clean up on sunday. Another great week of boating in the high country, an awesome place to be in the spring time!
With the warmer weather and good water, I have been really stoked on kayaking lately. I am usually pretty excited about boating, but this past week its all I have been thinking about. I managed to get on various sections of the Watauga 6 days in a row this week, with today ending the streak unfortunately. I did the Red Roof one day, just the Gorge 3 days, the upper Watauga and the Gorge one day, and a Gorge and Wilson Creek double one day. I got to paddle with a big variety of people, and saw a lot of other friends out on the river too.
The first day the level was around 400 with Beech and Laurel putting in a lot more for a level of about 550 or so in the gorge. Throughout the week I rode the bubble all the way down to about 200 on the gauge. Every level of the week provided something a little different, and I couldn't begin to pick a favorite level. They are all pretty equally fun.
Since I ran the Watauga so much this week I finally took a few pictures from out there, I dont know why I havent before.
Mac on one of Watauga's many good boofs
New team hydro crew member Matt West on the same boof
Frank freewheeling
Mac freewheeling with a very painful look on his face
Matt with a freewheel
Me in a boogie rapid (photo Andria)
Another great Boof/Freewheel Spot (photo Leland)
Here is a sequence shot of me running stateline:
(photo Matt)
Maybe it was just how many times I ran it this week, or all the Canadians and New Englanders that had traveled down, but I have just started to realize what a classic, awesome, underrated river the Watauga is.
It has super high quality class IV rapids the entire 5 miles down, with 2 really fun class V's. It has more fun boofs than any other river I have ever been on, there must be about 50. There are all sorts of alternative lines, slot moves, ferries, runnable sieves, and other cool moves in lots of the rapids. I discover new stuff every time I go out there. Its a beautiful canyon with lots of wildlife, I have seen a bear down by the river before. I feel really lucky to have this river so close that I can run it 6 times in a week and have even more fun every time I do it.
Frank throwing a ninja-death-boof-stroke-paddle-tuck on the last rapid
The wednesday before last was my first time back in a boat since I hurt my knee. I had the chance to go to the Green that day, but decided I shouldn't do the hike or do anything that remote. Instead me and Paul went to Eternity Hole to do some playboating. I felt really weird in the boat and was nervous because of my knee. I am glad I didn't go to the Green, I felt nervous surfing this small hole, those feelings do not belong on a creek. After a couple of cartwheels and spins and flipping over, I realized my knee was not going to be an issue at all in the boat and I loosened up. The only problem was I did not have a skull cap and got horrible brain freeze every time I flipped over, even though the air temp was in the 50's. Our session did not last too long but I snapped a few good pictures of Paul.
Paul plugging for a loop
Throwing down
Nice loop
We saw this Nascar rig on the way there!
It was good to be back in a boat (even though I only had not boated in like 3 weeks) and it gave me the confidence in my knee to go kayaking more.
Little update on my knee: I found out I tore my ACL, I have to get surgery in May. But I can kayak until then, as long as I am not doing any crazy portages or jumping off any rocks. So until May, I am trying to go kayaking as much as possible! After surgery, it will likely be a few months until I can boat full on again, but hopefully I can go do some real easy stuff without any hiking. Maybe the Ocoee by the end of the summer, that would be on the early side I think. I am bummed about missing out on summer, and guiding on the Chattooga, but I have a little something in the works for winter break next year if I can raise the money to do it, that will totally make up for missing out on summer here!
Winter in Boone is usually pretty frigid and this year was no exception. It was actually the snowiest winter on record, which made for some great backcountry and campus skiing, but not so great for boating. I don't mind boating in the cold, but for a large portion of the winter everything was just frozen over. I am going to focus on kayaking in this post and do a different one about skiing later.
I left off the last post at about Christmas break so thats where i'll pick up with this one. I went home to Georgia for break, so fortunately it was warmer and not frozen over like Boone so we got some good boating done.
First thing we got on was the Chauga Gorge, which parallels the Chattooga, near Long Creek, SC. It was pretty low water when we were there, but there were a few fun rapids, with the highlight definitely being "super socemdog" a rapid that resembles socemdog on the Chattooga. Well at this low level it wasn't really anything like it, but it was a rather epic boof. Pics for proof:
Mac Mcgee
Stomping it out
The next day, me, my brother, Paul Griffin, Jay Mahan, Greg Watson, and Robbie Gilson headed to Little River Canyon in Alabama. The Canyon is probably one of my favorite runs anywhere. It has awesome rapids and boofs in a really unique canyon, unlike many other places in the east. It also has a lot of scary undercuts and sieves, so you have to be on your A game.
Most of us went to the Suicide section, while my brother put on lower down for the upper 2 section, where we would meet him and keep going down. The suicide is the uppermost mile and a half of rapids with the hardest rapids, then the upper 2 is the next 2 miles that are slightly easier, with 2 solid class V's to its own name. It also has about the best mile of class IV boogie anywhere. We met up with a few other people at the put in and had a group of about 10 going down. There was one swim at Pinball, but other than that everyone had good lines, and the first timers had a really good time.
Everyone routing through above cable falls
Coming through Cable Falls (photo ben)
Paul on the paddle out
Me, Paul, Jay, Mac, and Robbie also got on Overflow Creek in Georgia. It was my first time, this was a run I had been trying to get on for a long time and never got the opportunity too. It lived up to every way I imagined it, its a really classic, quality run for sure. Marginal Monster was the highlight for sure for me, its probable one of my favorite rapids now, its a longer, technical rapids with some really good moves and boofs.
Unfortunately this is the only picture we got from the day while trying to get Jay's boat out the cave
After getting back up to Boone, there was not a whole lot of boating to be done, buy myself and Tyler Mayo tried to get out one day. We found the Watauga to have much too ice to be safe to boat.
Watauga put in
We decided to go try Wilson Creek, but on the way over there we stopped and looked at Trashcan Falls. It was frozen over solid and looked really cool.
At Wilson Creek, we found not too much ice, but low water. We put on and had a good, but slightly sketchy run. Ice undercuts were about, but we made it through.
Ice was thick in some spots, I portages this while Tyler tried to run it, below. He got pinned.
Tyler routing through the ice bridge, he got pinned but freed himself
The frozen over rapid
Trashcan Falls is a big multi-move, multi tiered drop on Laurel Creek, a tributary of the Watauga, right beside the put-in to section 3. I scouted in within the first week of being in school up here and had seen videos of a few people running it. I passed it up once due to really high water, but it finally came in at a good level one day, and Colin Hunt convinced me to go check it out with him. We both fired it up with good lines!
A few days later I went back to Trashcan with Will Stubblefield and he fired it up with a sweet line. Thankfully were out of the drought from the past few years, it was the first chance Will had got to run the falls.
In mid January I finally got a chance to get on the Raven Fork, near Cherokee, NC. I had been waiting to get on this creek for 6 months, ever since I got back from Colorado, I felt I was ready. Well everything finally came together, and after a night in Cullowhee, myself, Mac Mcgee, Colin Hunt, and Jay Mahan headed over there.
After leaving a note (because of the time) and some cash (because none of us were 21) we headed to the put in. On the hike in, I was really excited to finally get on this river. I had been psyching myself up ever since we decided to go there, and I was ready. I knew I had the skills to be there, I had waited for a long time.
On a side note, the Raven Fork probably has the coolest names for rapids anywhere. Think about it, Lord of the Rings, Headless Horseman, Wet Willy, Big Boy, Atomic Supercollider, Mike Tysons Punchout, Caveman, what other river has as many cool names as that??
Jay and Colin hiking in
After warming up on Lord of the Rings, we got to Anaconda and scouted. After a quick look, me and Mac got in our boats and ran it. Both of us had good lines, and once this rapid was out of the way, I was on, and super excited for the rest of the run. Jay and Colin also fired it up after seeing me and Mac.
Mac
Me
Jay
We found this perfectly round bowling ball sized rock while scouting.
Anaconda
Next was Headless Horseman, another really fun rapid that involves a boof over a hole and avoiding an undercut on the left.
Me
Me boofing over the hole
Colin entering headless horseman
Jay in Mortal Combat
When we got down to Wet Willy, Mac told us to follow him over this "kinda slide thing" and to just follow him and keep our elbows in. I knew what it was once I got to the lip, but I definitely clipped my elbow on the rock near the bottom and since I neglected to bring my elbow pads, ended up with a chipped elbow bone! Oh well.
We got down to Big Boy and scouted. It was a good Big Boy level, around 8 inches, but after 15 minutes of scouting I had to walk away. Its not going anywhere, i'll wait until I am more comfortable. Mac decided to fire it up though, and had a sweet line!
At the lip
Tucking up into the curtain
After portaging Big Boy, we put in to run Mike Tyson's Punchout. I flipped above the final drop when I hit the rock, but rolled up immediately and ran it backwards, but I got a good boof and actually planed out into the pool. Mac Jay and Colin followed with good lines.
Me in the ring with Mike Tyson
Caveman was an even better boof than it looks in the pictures, me and Mac blue angeled through it with good lines. I got out on the cave rock to take a few photos of Jay and Colin and ended up pulling them both out of the cave with Mac's help, one after the other! Its pretty easy to get sucked in there.
Colin at Caveman
After this and the mangler portage, there are a few more fun smaller rapids to the takeout, where we talked with Emmanuel for a while, and then headed back to Cullowhee. The Raven Fork lived up to my every expectation, its a beautiful gorge with some of the most amazing rapids ever. I felt like I was ready for it for sure, and I am glad I waited a while to get on it, it made it that much better to finally do.
After two boat abusive laps on the cascades the next day, we headed back to Boone.
Ravens Fork
A week or two after getting back to Boone, we got a good rainstorm on top of some snow and got on the Laurel Fork of the Doe again, this time a little lower than the last, but still a good level for everything. This time it was a much bigger group consisting of myself, Mac, Colin, Edgar Peck, Will Stubblefield, and Eli Smith. We put on in the snow, and it was really cold. All of the rapids in the gorge went well and everyone had good lines. We had to pull a tree out of Darwin's Hole, in order to make it runnable. If we couldn't have gotten it out we probably would have had to hike out, or do some kind of portage from hell with ropes and rappelling, because this is one of the only real-deal unportageable rapids in the southeast.
Getting the log out
Will coming out of the newly cleaned out rapid, and into the inner sanctum of the gorge
After bombing through the rest of the gorge, we arrived at Laurel Falls, which Mac first-descented on our last run. He and Eli scouted it for a long time while the rest of us decided to walk. Eli went first and had a great line, he styled it for the 2nd descent.
Eli on Laurel Falls
Mac was next and I missed the shot of him regrettably because he pitoned at the top and almost went over the handlebars onto his face! But he brought it back and landed about sideways in the pool, fortunately not flat though. He rolled up and was fine, but maybe a little shaken up. It would have made for an epic picture!!
That about wraps up winter, it was a good one and I got on some good runs I had been wanting to do even though a lot of NC was frozen over the majority of the time. Bring on the warmer weather!
