SRVCC Short Week of Rivers
Bryson City, Nc
June 26-29, 2009 Deep Creek Tubing Center and Campground
First off, thanks to Bob and Lang for locating and securing such a nice
location. I have only positive things to say about our campsite and the folks
that run it. They were pleasant and went out of their way to show that they
were willing to accommodate our needs. Second, thanks to everyone that
prepared food on Friday and Saturday. It looked more like a Southern Baptist
Homecoming than it did a paddling club's cookout. I was really happy to be able
to share this trip with my family and to be able to meet and camp with so many
of my friends and their families. Super trip all the way around. The
daily trips down Deep Creek on tubes turned out to be a big highlight from the
weekend. There were football games, volleyball, woofleball, boomerangs,
ice cream, a trip to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, s'mores, jiffy pop, cookouts,
and more.
Pigeon River
Walter's Hydro-Plant to Harford, TN
June 27, 2009
Great shuttle from Bryson City to Walter's Hydro-Station with Bob, Amy and Joe.
I would title the conversation " The History of Caveman Nookie and the Zen of
Bottle-Rockets"
The Pigeon was awesome. It was my first time. Loved the
waves, lots of rafts though, so as soon as you started to surf, you had to clear
back out. Fun run though and bigger than I anticipated. My biggest action was
at Lost Guide. I heard someone say "Stay right, then go left, miss the hole."
Simple enough. If you knew where the hole was. I decided it would be a good
time to just jump in and probe something, so I paddled off toward it. No hole
that I could see though, so I eddied out on river right to look a little
closer. I watched as Bev, Joanne, Cindy and a few others came by, then filed in
behind them. I thought I could see where that hole would be and it looked like
everyone was too far to the right to me, so I paddled hard to get further left.
Sometimes you see a hole coming and know that it's too late to do anything about
it, so you just have to commit. Sometimes you know where it is and you just
don't make the moves needed to miss it. Then every once in awhile, you don't
see that bad boy until you're dropping straight down into it. That was me in
Lost Guide. Turns out, a lot further right would have been a good thing. I had
my boat angled right to left when I dropped in and after seeing the curl, I knew
that any angle was a bad thing. I thought I might be there for awhile. I
flipped as soon as I hit it and rather than roll right back up, I tried to take
a moment to get ready for what I anticipated would be a pretty big ride. But
when I did roll up, I was way downstream. Glad she wasn't a keeper. I
immediately went into the bottom hole, but faired better. Charlie's boat came
by about that time, so Shane and I took off to bulldoze it to shore.
At Double Reactionary, I took out to take photos and was just super impressed
with every single person in our club that paddled through. Great lines all the
way around. David went first, then Bob, Charlie was last. Everyone was super
smooth and I quickly switched from video to photos since there wouldnt' be any
carnage. Mike stalled out at the bottom just long enough for Joanne to catch up
to him and she pulled out a really nice deep brace to stay upright and skirt the
bottom hole. It's a pain sometimes to get out of the boat, but I'm usually glad
that I got a chance to sit back and play spectator at least once.
Nantahala
June 28, 2009
Pics from Nantahala Falls and of me surfing the NOC wave are courtesy of
Jacob C. (thanks Jacob!)
I stopped by the Nantahala Outdoor Center while in Bryson City
during the SRVCC Weekend of Rivers for a little park-and-play fun from the falls
to the NOC wave. Loved, loved, loved the NOC wave that day. Ran the
falls, rolled at the bottom, then went back into it to surf briefly.
Messed around below the falls with some stern squirts and stuff while waiting
for a group of SRVCC paddlers to come through. Eventually went downstream
with Amy and the boys ,who were watching from shore, for lunch at River's End
Restaurant where I watched our friends finish their runs down on the river
below. Capped off the trip with a little shopping at the outfitters,
forgot to use my CCC discount. Lost Ben twice while shopping because I
kept getting distracted by all the gear. This was my first time visiting
both the river and the center and I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon.
