Kibler Valley, Virginia
June 9, 2008 - 10,500kw
Man do I get excited over the first good Kibler run of the year. I'll give this one a big "woo hoo hoo!"
As we drove past the Danube takeout we saw the 2:00
SRVCC
folks loading up. It looked like they were in a hurry, so I was hoping a second
run was in the works for them. As we crossed the second bridge, I saw the 4:00
crowd making their way down river. Too far down river for me to catch. The
put-in was empty except for one solo kayaker surfing. I hopped in the water as
fast as I could get geared up, like I thought they were going to run out of
water. Not long after I started surfing at the hydro station I saw Steve and
Dale pull up. I decided to paddle down to the first bridge and play there while
I waited on them to set shuttle.
I probably let the current below Public Enemy #2 recirculate me about fifty
times and each time I tried to imitate Covey in that spot doing
this. 47 of them didn't really accomplish much, except for maybe roll
practice, but the three that worked sent the bow up, up and over, sending me
backwards into and under the water. That was super, super fun. Grant and
Amaya bombed through while I was running my circles. Once Steve, Dale and
another kayaker whose name I didn't catch got there, I paddled on with them.
Not far below basketball, Joanne and Kristy zipped by. We caught up to them
again at the rapid at the cabin. That one was hard to get into today though.
It was my first run down Kibler in the fun when they were releasing and man oh
man was it a blast. As many times as I've ran Kibler, you'd think there
wouldn't be any new spots to play in, but they seemed to be all over the place
today. I had just an awesome time. I got to see Steve do some really nice
surfing and it's always cool watching Dale handle his big boats in those tight
Kibler spots. I only paddled as far as 7 stitches where Amy and the boys were
waiting. The boys' knees were knocking from being in the ice water. It was
nice to see so many of the SRVCC crowd out there, even if I only got to see most
in passing. I was thinking as I drove into the valley that the folks in
Claudville were probably thinking "don't those boat people have jobs?" If the
cafe had been open, it would have been a perfect evening. I had a big hamburger
on my mind as I drove out.