Contributed 04/17/2005 Responses: 2
Ran wilson Creek Gorge on Saturday April 17th. The level was just under 0 and the run was an excellent class III-IV ledge run. The people on the trip 3 from WCP. Myself, Kenny Eichler, and Harrison Metzger. If anyone is reading this please post more trips if you paddle, the activity of WCP has really declined.
Contributed 04/18/2005 Responses: 1
Harrison here. It was a pleasure to paddle with Nick and Kenny Saturday so I thought I would add some more about what a great day we had, and what a shame more paddlers didn't show up.
Nick and Kenny are Reynolds High students and this was their first creek run. Nick has been paddling four seasons and they have run lots of bigger rivers, frequently posting trips on WCP list serve and getting few responses. More about that later.
Knowing this is a prime time of year for Wilson Creek and the weather can turn dry at any time, I posted this trip as an opportunity to show newbies down Wilson. Met up with Nick and Kenny at noon at Earthfare. At first Kenny was skeptical that a 12-foot open boat would fit on his Ford Escorts roof racks along with his I-3 and Nick's EZ. However I assured him it would work and we were off to the river with a great big wind scoop up top.
Looking into my gaugology crystal ball, I prophecied a level of 1 inch under 0. I was happy to see upon our arrival at 2 p.m. that was just a hair below the zero. This BTW is a good first-time level, not too rocky, not at all pushy.
We met up with Mike Melear and his friends Mike and "Chronic." Chronic is the tiny play boat Little Big Mike paddles down Wilson, Watauga and other creeks and rivers. The sun was shining and there was only one other group on the creek.
Run number one was pretty uneventful. Except for in the eddy on the left below the first drop of Ten Foot Falls. I caught this eddy and was trying not to take up too much of it my Outrage when Nick flipped trying to get into it. He then executed a back deck hands roll with his stern in the eddy and his bow in the flow, just making it in. Below the drop, LBM said to me "guess we don't have to worry about these guys." No kidding.
They didn't want to bank scout any of the other major or minor rapids so we didn't. The two Miikes did lots of stern squirting to keep us entertained. Then we went for run #2.
On the first run, the two Mikes had thrown some ends in "Little Woodall," the hole about four drops below the put-in. On the second run we had carnage. Not sure exactly how these events unfolded. Correct me if I am wrong here, Nick, but I think you got stuck and fought your way out, then Kenny got stuck. At this point other Mike (not LBM)
inexplicably decided to paddle up into the hole to try to help Kenny get out. He ended up becoming a sort of downstream barrier to extrication as they both got stuck, side-surfing like a couple of mating ladybugs, for about three minutes. Finally Kenny had to bail and Mike got out of the hole.
Other Mike and I then chased Kenny's boat, but it was barely floating due to lack of airbags. I just about stopped it in the pool above the boulder clog just above Ten Foot, but it got loose and stopped halway down the rock jumble. I then used my canoe as a bridge to climb down tthe rocks in the center. Other Mike threw me a rope, which I atttached to the bow grab loop. I then threw the rope downtream to LBM who swung the boat into the eddy above Ten Foot.
The rest of the day was uneventful and fun. Nick and Kenny had very good runs. They both demonstrated calm under pressure and are good boaters on their way.
On the subject of WCP, the club seems to be gaining a reputation for inactivity. Chris Bell and I ran the Watauga the weekend before and we discussed some ways to get more boaters involved. We propose that the club eliminate all dues and open our online newsletter and list server to anyone in tthe Asheville area who wants to boat. Hopefully some other folks will step forward and start posting trips on the calendar and list serve. There are tons of boaters in this area and quite a few that would like to have more people to boat with. I am not just talking about advanced expert trips but all levels. If here is a contingent of people in the club paddling class I and II rivers they should use the calendar too.
Otherwise, maybe we should rename the club Western Carolina Non-paddlers, or Western Carolina Former Paddlers :O)
Contributed 04/18/2005 Responses: 0
Make that the eddy on the RIGHT below the first drop of Ten Foot Falls.
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