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.
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