Canoe day

Though we were hoping that the recent rains would've given us some more persistent good flow, the Cape Fear dropped more quickly than we anticipated. To make the best of it, Nan and I hopped into the canoe and took it down Lillington to Erwin to see if we still had the right stuff to paddle some easy (~Class II) in the canoe. It was a really pretty day but you could start to feel a nip in the air and the water. We took on a little water over a couple of the large drops but did pretty well for a flat-water canoe. There were a couple of spots we could bow surf, side surf, and even practice a 'jet ferry' or two.

Fun day. It was nice to have Nan out with me on Monday, the rare weekday paddle.

Houston....We've had rainfall

What a year it's been for rain....or actually the lack thereof. After almost forgetting where the Haw River was, we finally had a day-and-a-half long drenching rain that brought the rivers up. Other commitments kept us from hitting the absolute prime part of the bubble, but we did get in a great day on the 27th and ran the middle Haw. It was like the good old days (when we had more normal global weather patterns). I hope the winter shows similar promise.

I had committed to teaching a land-based portion of a river-kayak course the morning of prime flows but at least we got in this little respite.

Another commitment I had made; one that took the whole day Sunday, was to man a CCC and ACA table at the grand opening of the new Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary (I turned down 3 other trips on the Haw that morning to do it...what a martyr). We're hoping that TAC sees the light and interest of the paddling community in having another indoor facility for roll practice and training and will open the facility to these types of events for the public. Our presence at the opening was well recieved and I had a lot of folks there ask if we would have rolling sessions there. I guess that all depends on the public's expressed demand for such. We'll see. It is a nice looking facility.

Downtime

OK, so it wasn't the busiest or most productive weekend I've ever had, but I did get some stuff done around the house. I began the process of burning the DVDs of thePaddler for the CCC and got about 25 of them done. I made the yard look a little crazy by starting to till in some of the accumulated shredded paper (mostly old CCC bank records) I'd been storing in the garage for that very purpose. This afternoon I got tired of staring at that bag of semolina flour from the mill in Virgina we visited and decided to make some pasta. Though it ain't pretty, I bet it will be good with some sauce for dinner tonight.

Russell Fork

We enjoyed a long weekend on our annual trip to the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy. This run is formed by the drawdown release of Flannagan Reservoir to the Pound River and ultimately the Russell Fork on October weekends. This stretch is within Breaks Interstate Park between Breaks, VA and Elkhorn City, KY. We had a group of about 16 on Saturday and about 10 on Sunday. Nancy and I stayed over until Tuesday and hiked much of the perimeter of the park on Monday. The leaves weren't quite at peak as yet and probably won't get as spectacular as last year due to the drought. It was still pretty though. Day-time temps were quite comfortable for paddling in drytops with night temps in the high 30's. The Russell Fork only had about 25 CFS of natural flow. The Pound releases were just over 800 CFS.

ACA Instructor Update

Though it's only required every four years and I was certified this year, I decided to participate in the ACA Dixie Division's Kayak Instructor Update last weekend at NOC. I wanted to get more exposure to teaching methods including those of other instructor-participants. It was a good weekend with 5 hours on the Nantahala on Saturday (from Surfers down through the falls) and half a day on the lake at Tsali on Sunday.

New job

I had previously decided not to run for CCC president for 2008 (though I look forward to continuing service as Past President) and take a while off from the job to work on my own kayaking skills as well as my kayaking instruction, but I was approached by a friend who is a current member of the board of directors of the American Canoe Association (ACA) about joining that national board as an appointee to fill a recent vacancy as well as running for that vacancy when its normal term ends this year. After talking with ACA president Kirk Havens, I decided it was an honor and privilege to be given the chance to participate and decided to say yes. A vote by the ACA board on Sept. 25 confirmed that appointment. I'm looking forward to utilizing my water quality background to participate in ACA conservation and stewardship efforts and my CCC background to help ACA work with paddling clubs to the benefit of both.

Family Weekend

We went north to Virginia for the weekend to see Nancy's folks. Saturday was spent with a side-trip to Buffalo Springs Herb Farm and Wade's Mill in Raphine Va. We took a hike after retail therapy along a small nature trail at the site. Fall is definitely in the air up there.

I'm sitting here this morning enjoying a bowl of water mill-ground yellow grits from Wade's Mill.