A good weekend in West Virginia

Nan and I headed up to WV for the weekend to paddle with Chuck, Nancy, Don, Karol, Robbie and Jeff. Adding a new one to the 'life list' we started on Saturday with the Dry Fork of the Cheat near Hendricks, WV. It was a great class III with lots of playspots, holes and surfing waves. Stage was about 4'. There were some marvy ledges near the bottom that allowed for a beefy side and a little more tame spin side. The sky was blue and sunny and it was really warm outside. Water temp was just on the bearable side without pogies.

Sunday saw us on what looked like a low-flow day on the middle Gauley. Flow was about 1,000 cfs as we put on but it quickly became obvious that a release started that morning. By the time we hit Woods Ferry, there was plenty of water padding the rapids. I played (an unwitting) probe at Woods Ferry and later at Chainsaw and demonstrated the lines NOT to tkae, plunging right into the big hole in the former and over the chainsaw in the latter, spinning down in a squirt the whole way. Backender was really beefy by the time we arrived at the takeout and after a long scout of both the sneak to left (wasn't really contemplating this, but wanted to see it with everyone else anyway) and river-right scout of the drop, I tried following the line that Jeff had so smoothly accomplished. I didn't make it far enough right and after bouncing over some big waves, ate a little bit of the hole and rolled quickly up in the pool.

We made it home about 9:30P and sacked out after a long day. It's tome to start buckling down and studying for the kayak instructor's course next weekend. Photos of the weekend.

Feeling Soggy

Well, I guess I'm getting my wish: Paddling until I get my fill. It just occurred to me that I've paddled 5 days out of the last 7 and today I think I'm going to take a break from it. I started doing a little more landscaping yesterday and will continue a little more today, at least until the rain comes. The Grays and Brabecs may be padding WV this weekend and if they do, Nan and I might tag along.

I'm still having a tough time getting a fixed schedule of wake/sleep going (not that I'm trying really hard). Some nights I'll bed down 10-11 and some nights 12-1. II certainly don't seem to have any trouble sleeping until 9AM, regardless. Eventually I'll have to get over the latter, but for the moment, it surely ain't bad.

Been another CCC week

We had a good day of flow on the Haw last Thurs. (~6.5') so I ran some new folks down the middle at 1:00 and followed up with a second group on the lower at 5:00. Off the river at 7:30.

Friday was the first day I was able to get out in the yard and do some things so I bought some herbs and mulch and got to work cleaning up some fallow beds and cleaned on of the 4 ponds.

Saturday was the annual Neuse River Cleanup. Had to get up at 6:00 AM for an 8:00AM start and boy, was it ytough to fit back into that mold. Michael C and I paddled canoes from Poole Road to the next bridge and filled both boats with about 15 bags of trash.

Sunday I committed to safety boat for the CCC Swiftwater Rescue course...again at 8:00 AM.....WAHHHHH! The river started out about paddlers' zero (~4.5'USGS) and the weather was ominous. By the time of our first break, heavy rains had begun to swell the river. By lunch it was visibly rising fast. By 2:00, they had to call water portions of the course becuase the flow and wood coming downstream made it just to dangerous to hold the course. They moved onto land for scenarios and Tiffany M and I were excused from our safety boat duties to run the lower. The bridge gauge was reading 5 feet when we left and after a beefy run with lots of big holes and waves, the bridge gauge read 6'. The Haw rose to about 13' USGS overnight.

Had a little slower day today going to the dump, to Lowe's and the grocery store and listening to the wind blow and blow and blow. Lost power for a little this AM so I sat down with a book at home for the first time in retirement and enjoyed a quiet moment.

The Easter Week

It was a busy week getting things ready for the CCC Easter meeting in Gatlinburg. All week long the weather forecast degraded and day by day, I'd start packing more and more clothes. I longingly looked forward to the arrival of my new drytop from REI since my drysuit is in England being repaired. I wasn't looking forward to facing a 20 degree weekend with an old leaky drytop and splash pants. The new drytop arrived and of course it was the wrong size. REI wouldn't and then couldn't get me an exchange of size and I was left without.

We had a fun mid-week kickoff to regular poker nights with 'the boys' on Wednesday night including Mike, Bill and Steve. We pigged out on wings and pizza and let the first night go by with freebee chips so we could get a feel for cash flow. It took about 3 hours for us to exhaust our $20 of play-money, with Bill the big winner. Nancy wisely made alternative arrangements for the evening.

Nan and I head to Gatlinburg on Thurs. by ourselves after several folks bailed on the weekend and riding up with us. There were about a dozen folks there Thurs. night and about 20 by Fri. night. Friday dawned without any appreciable natural flow except eastward on the FB and Noli and westward far out on the plateau. We paddled the lower Pigeon in cold but sunny weather on Fri. with newcomers Clint and Greg while the rest of the group paddled the Pigeon Gorge. Fri. night and all the way through Sat., the snow never ceased. We were greeted with a half inch of white and heavy winds Saturday morning. It took all the intestinal fortitude possible for me to join the group of 10 for the French Broad on Sat. It was cold but fun and rewarding.

We decided to head home Sunday after a short hike with Mark and Dana in the Cosby section of GSM NP. I took it easy for the next two days, catching up on paperwork and cleaning/warming up from the trip. Finally found a Kokatat drytop at NOC after striking out at ERA and GOPC. It's on its way and should be here in plenty of time for the instructor course at the end of the month. Once less item to fret about.

Playing Hookey

In the wayback machine today...back to the first day of summer during school years. Admittedly, I had a little more of a plan of what was up for the day than I did back during high school, but it still had that feeling...freedom. The freedom to anything you want to do...and so...I took the trash and recycling to the dump.

Just so happens that the closest (arguably) dump is right beside Crabtree Lake park. Also just so happens that I had my boat, lounge chair, good book, and picnic lunch (sort of...BBQ sandwich and sweeeeeeeeet tea) in the truck as well. That got me through mid-day OK.

Also figured I'd help Nancy out with her yard project so I stopped at the hardware store and got her some landscaping timbers and gravel. That's helping, right?

Settled in at home about the time Nan was breaking for work and heading out for yard work, so I cooked her a nice shrimp scampi dinner and then set about to mop up some CCC business. I wrote a letter of support to Sen. Snow (for CCC) for his bill to limit liability of indiv's /orgs for coordinating/leading paddling trips. Good timing on this. There's a lot of paranoia going through paddling clubs about this liability (though not necessarily founded in many facts).

The biological clock still isn't working right yet. I still find myself suddenly up until 1:00AM and sleeping till 9:00. ? I guess the body stages its only little freedom revolution when it can...but we'll have to work on normalizing that a little.

Catchup Day

After the previous hectic week I needed to catch up with some biz today and spent most of the day in the 'office' and in front of the computer. Finished taxes, announced the results of the CCC budget vote and got to work ordering new CCC equipment. Nan took care of her todo list as well today, working in the yard. This mix of tasks may help us each find our own times and spaces and keep us from sitting on top of each other all the time.

Decompression

Day one was a day of decompression. Bob Brueckner posted an impromptu middle Haw River cleanup on the CCClist to make up for the day that had been washed out two weeks ago. I decided that a good day on the river doing something worthwhile was a good way to begin my new journey. We had a beautiful day and while we started out with only Bob and I planning to clean, in standard CCC style, we had seven other CCC boaters join in and wound up with a dozen bags of trash and numerous other large articles: enough that we had to empty the canoes twice. After 7 hours on the river, I came home whupped.