Jay Davis has accepted the job of Cruisemaster. Cruisemaster is the person that is responsible for putting together our trip list. This sounds easy, but it takes paitence and determination to make it come together.
Shirley Tharp has done a great job as Cruisemaster keeping the trip list full and her efforts are appreciated.
Gather up a few friends and volunteer to coordinate a GCA trip. Trips of all skill levels needed. Email your trip information to the Cruisemaster at gca_trip@yahoo.com
Adam and I decided to run the Nanty and French Broad for our spring trip since he was recovering from his perforated eardrum and felt that dry hair day runs should be our goal. French Broad had been running just a little higher than when I first did it last summer at 1100 cfs so I felt we were in for a pretty mild weekend. Then it rained. A LOT....on the Thursday before our trip....mostly in Western NC just were we were headed.
I had been looking for shuttle partners for this trip, but things just hadn't panned out yet by Friday morning so we were just going to head to the put in after some breakfast and hope to meet up with a group. Just as we pulled up to the bathhouse at Hot Springs Campground, a guy in a big truck rolls up and says "hey are you guys looking for shuttle?" I guess news travels fast in small towns! He asks if we would like to run Big Laurel Creek. This had been on my radar for quite some time and I knew it would be running with all the rain so before I could even look at Adam or consider his poor ear situation I said YES.
This was to be my very first creek. I was pumped up and decided that I was putting all fear aside! Things had been going well with combat rolls, catching eddies, great runs on the Nanty....I felt ready. The run started out with some pretty smooth, but swift moving water. Rocks began to appear here and there and the river began its twisty descent. Soon we ran into Anna Levesque who appeared to be giving a lesson. I was so distracted by the sight of her that I flipped on something insignificant. As I set up to roll all I could think is that I had better nail this after all the guidance she has given me lately! Thankfully I was successful. We chatted for a moment and left her to her student. We styled a few class II rapids for about a mile and then came upon a horizon line with lots of boats pulled over to the side where I saw that dude from the "Shit Kayakers Say" video who seemed to be leading a group of younger boaters down the creek. Obviously this was the place to be! We got out to scout Stairstep Rapid which was a series of 3 drops with some big gnarly looking water at the bottom. I was pretty hesitant about it, but after watching our new buddy Darren run it I was going for it. He made it look so easy, twirling his paddle around as he skated across the hairy water at the bottom. So I got myself ready, made my approach with my usual sideways style of scouting while paddling, throwing in a couple of backstrokes just to give myself an extra moment before pounding forward and down the drops. Before I knew it I was down and still upright! I turned to look back amazed that I had run something so insane looking. Even better, Adam had videoed it!
More fun water and then came Suddy Hole. Darren told us people made a bigger deal out of this one that it was and after whipping down a diagonal slide I had to agree. This rapid was nothing but fun as we let out woo hoos all the way down. Next was the Narrows section. Anything called Narrows messes with my head. Must make eddies, tight turns, etc...so many ways to mess it up. I guess it was about 3/4 of the way down I flipped on some rock and tried 4 times to roll before pulling my skirt. This was a pretty intense swim with high rock walls on either side and no place to recover for a bit. Eventually after swimming through a few holes, getting pulled under water and navigating some crazy current I got off to the side and Adam and Darren helped me get back in my boat. Normally I would feel disappointed in myself, but as I sat there catching my breath I looked around at the beautiful day and couldn't help but giggle. This was so freaking amazing!
We ran the rest of the narrows and several other rapids that reminded me of the wall shots down in Costa Rica. I felt like a hot shot as I leaned into the rock walls and flushed out with the current. As there is a trail beside the creek hikers could easily watch and we got some applause after one particular rapid. I can't find a name for it, but I think we took the hero line which must've looked impressive. I was seriously pumped, proud of myself and for once did not feel ashamed about it!
We then converged with the French Broad which was big, wide and brown. I was not aware it was still at 4000 cfs or maybe I would've thought twice about running the two biggies - Kayaker's Ledge and Frank Bells. Plus I thought Darren would know the sneaks, but he's too much of a badass to bother with those assuring us we had the skills to handle the big ones. We got out to scout Kayakers Ledge. This looked nothing like the photos I had seen. It was more of a river wide pour over at this level with another hairy looking drop below, but with a nice tongue on the far right. The top hole there didn't look like exactly like a low head dam and I was just so high on adrenaline I made an attack plan. Even Adam knew this was one to walk away from as he started his portage down the far right. My plan was to ride this tiny tongue on the left side and pop into the eddy there, then ferry across the hole outflow to that nice green water on the right side avoiding the nasty looking bottom hole all together. Unlike the A Team, my plan did not come together. As I started down the left side I was pushed just a tiny bit right, my stern landing within sucking distance from the hole. It greedily sucked me back in flipping me diagonally back. I was upside down with so much going on that setting up took all my strength. After one failed attempt I was out and swimming. Fortunately the current pushed me to the right towards the green water so the ride down wasn't incredibly scary. I figured my boat and paddle were probably gone forever though. After about a quarter mile, Darren got my waterlogged boat to the right side and I walked down an island across the river. Adam hooked up to my drained boat and ferried it across to me.
Somehow I still had tons of energy as we floated and paddled a bit of flatwater. We came upon Frank Bells as Darren gave us directions. Adam could not hear because of his ear plugs so I just told him to follow me because even after two swims I was somehow still a kayaking badass! I had no idea what to expect with this rapid. The water was huge and brown and dodging the holes was difficult since I couldn't see them coming. Somehow I avoided both the big ones, rode atop the biggest wave I have ever been on and rode it on out the bottom where some super squirrely water awaited. I turned to watch Adam who successfully avoided the holes and was looking sharp coming off the rapid. He had not heard the part about the nutso water and was taken off guard. He tried to roll 4-5 times, but that water was just not cooperating so he had to pull out. As we got he and his boat to shore, he was clearly distraught. So much for not getting water in that ear! And he was just mega pissed that his roll had not panned out. We took a break here and eventually Anna and her student floated on by all smiles. We got back in our boats to continue down. Adam was beat, worried about his ear and concerned about "the last big rapid that was coming up." He had no idea that we had just done a big water class IV Frank Bells and nothing but a few ripples remained between us and the take out. He simply could not hear us talking about it! I guess those ear plugs worked a little better than he thought since he hadn't heard anything we said at the approach. Instantly his anger about his roll lifted! For both of us this was the first class IV we had done and we had essentially styled it!
After a nice dinner, massage and fire we headed off to bed to what was the best sleep I've had in ages...in a tent even! We ran Barnard to Stackhouse the next day luckily running into some CCC'ers who helped us out big time with shuttle. The river was still running high and this was not the easy French Broad I remembered. 3000 cfs vs 1000 cfs....huge difference there! The wave train at Sandy Bottoms was amazing. Nothing but woo hoos all around. On our way back to Hot Springs we took a hike around Big Laurel Creek scouting a lower water Staircase and taking a few photos for the memories. Awesome Spring trip!
Had an absolutely awesome weekend on Roberts Easter Chucky annual GCA trip. Thanks to everyone who joined us. I believe fun was had by all. Mona, Robert and I carpooled to the Nolichucky Gorge Campground on Thursday night. Got rained on, some people got hail, and thanks to the platforms tents and Monas persistence and expertise was able to build us a fire out of wet wood. Joining us in camp were Jay Davis, and Jesse and Jill Hebden, Mike Mcdonough and Wes Dodson.
The Nolichucky was running about 2650 when we left home, but rain overnight brought it up to 6000 cfs by morning when we were joined by Cheryl and Rich Beverly. The Noli was way too high so Robert, Jay, the Hebdens, and Beverly's went a very high, fast and exciting run of the Lower Nolichucky, normally an easy class 2 but now a class 3 run. The rest of us went to Big Laurel. It was also high at +8 inches.
None had any recent experience here but were blessed to meet Becca Carter and Kimberly Grissop Ebenshade in the parking lot who were willing to lead us down. Nice thing about Big Laurel is that there is a trail beside the river almost all the way that makes scouting and portaging easy and quick. Every one had great runs with an extended scouting of Stair step rapid, where at first glance I said no way and immediately left to portage around it. After seeing another group run it and everyone in our group make it look easy, maybe I should have run it, but old saying---"its better to portage a rapid you wish you had run, than to run a rapid you wish you had portaged". When we got back to the campground, we were joined by Janet Chisholm, Booby Coombs and Susan Wantland.
Friday night brought very cold temps low 30"s. Saturday morning cold but beautiful sunny skies, and dropping but still too high level on the Nolichucky Gorge, so Mona, Mike, Wes, and Janet headed back to Big Laurel where they were joined by Amy Kinkennion. The level was +6 inches , great runs were had by all and most said the river was a little harder causing several swims. The rest of us, went on a adventure to find the Toe Gorge. Thanks to directions from Rich Ruhlen and map reading by Susanne we found it. A beautiful easy, relaxing class 2+ river. A first for all of us.
Saturday night brought Lee Belnap to our campsite. A good sleep and slightly warmer temps brought us to sunday morning. The Hebdens, Beverlys, and Jay packed up and headed for home, while Robert, Susanne, and Bobby went for another run on the Lower Noli. That left me, Janet, Amy, Wes, Mike, and Lee our last chance to get on the Nolichucky Gorge. The highest that any of us had ever run it, 2450 cfs. It was HUGE. Thanks to great lines from Lee and a lot of prayer by me, we all had a perfect run. In fact we ran the river with very little stopping and paddled the whole 9 miles in 3 hours!!
Robert did an amazing job, even though he never got to run the gorge, but he made sure everyone got to paddle something of there skill level, and a wonderful trip was had by all. Maybe you can join us next year :)
Kevin McInturff and I began our trip just below the 20-foot Dicks Creek Falls on 3-3-2012. It had rained 2 1/3 inches on the Chestatee gauge since late the previous night and three inches in the past three days. In my exploration trip 12/11/83 we had put in 2 miles upstream, but the USFS had the road along Dicks Creek above the Falls gated this day. See http://www.gapaddle.com/media/The_Eddy_Line-Archives/el198402.pdf for my 12/11/1983 exploration trip report on page 3 of that document. The Falls are about 40 yards downstream of the Waters Creek confluence. We were met at the put-in by a young kayaker, Mr. Taylor. Here is my photo of him running the double drop of the left side of the falls.
He ran the first 4 big ledges on Dicks Creek with Kevin and me and then ran them again over and over as we paddled the 4 miles to Turner's Corner. When we got back to our put-in at Dicks Creek Falls two and a half hours later, he was still running this quarter mile of the creek again and again. After the first half mile the action slows down a good deal till we pass under the bridge at Mt. Pisgah Church Road. Soon afterwards we encountered this 14' sliding drop at the site of the old Waters Creek Park:
Kevin ran the left side (river right) launching pad well in his Prelude OC-1 just after I took this picture, but spray on my lens spoiled my photo. That's an enormous log pinned in the left center of the falls.
After another mile of continuous class II and awesome scenery we reached the confluence of Frogtown Creek, where the Chestatee begins. The scenic highlight of the day was 40-foot Cannon Falls, about 40 yards upstream on Frogtown:
There was a group of kayakers running Frogtown and Dicks Creek just behind us, but we missed their run of Cannon Falls. American Whitewater magazine a year or two ago had a Dave Cohen picture of Matt Wallace running this falls, which is almost verticle and has a deep landing pool.
After we took in the beauty of Cannon Falls, we paddled the first mile of the Chestatee River to Turner's Corner, the junction of US Hwys.19 and 129, 13 miles north northeast of Dahlonega, GA. It was very scenic and had a lot of action. We had a great trip. Roger Nott, GCA Exploration Chairman
Well, my facial paralysis started improving, and I felt like I could close my eye well enough to get in the water, and the spring was returning to my step as it was to the weather. So, Billy Etheridge and I drove up to the West Cobb Friday night roll practice. It was great to see so many friends there again. First couple of rolls felt mildly awkward, but it came back fast, and all of my no set up rolls were coming off smoothly. My offside is still very rusty. With the wood paddle, I just about had a combat worthy roll on both sides, but with the smaller paddle and the health problems the offside has taken a back seat for a while. A little bit of that chlorinated water was still getting in my eye, but not too badly. It was great to see Tyler Southern rolling like a mad man, doing all kinds of fancy kayaker tricks with his paddle and what not. Tyler still hadn't had a combat roll, and I told him that I was sure he would on his next trip. Sure enough, he went up to Eternity Hole the next day and got his first combat roll, way to go man! I'm sure pretty soon you'll be paddling rivers that are too hard for me! Jesse Hebden was patiently helping some newcomers learn to roll, what a nice fellow. Thanks to Adam and Francheska for organizing. Billy also had a great roll practice. Lots of not set up rolls, and hit a roll on his second try.
We headed up to the Cartecay Saturday morning. A bunch of folks from Nashville had camped at Woody's and a few of them joined up with us, including Brandon Hammer, who I'd paddled with several times on the Ocoee over the Summer. Billy Crush, Michael,Tom, and others had joined up with us. It was a fun casual day down the river, for the most part. We had a couple of swimmers at S Turn, a couple of folks from Nashville who were in unfamiliar boats. Michael had a great roll while surfing at Sexton's, not a fun place to roll as shallow as it is. I surfed at Whirlpool a fair bit and had two combat rolls, which I felt good about. Good enough for Ocoee Lite in one week! Billy Crush was pulling off some nice enders at Stegall Mills, I got in that hole and it made me stay there till I was huffing and puffing a little bit. Of course, Not Sit On Top Tom had to also swim Stegall Mills intentionally. He's the only guy I know who's swam Hell Hole on purpose....... Then we spend time heave ho'n that gigantic log that was so dangerously placed. A fun day, a nice happy go lucky group of people and good weather.
It was a dark and stormy night. No, wait, wrong story. Sorry, let's try this again. It was a bright and sunny morning when we set off on the Manatee Paddle. Brannen coordinated the Friday paddle of the Chassahowitzka and I was excited to join him since I'd never paddled there before. We met at 10:30am at Chassahowitzka park boat ramp parking area and prepared to launch. It was Diana's first trip on the Manatee Paddle and she was anxious to see her first manatee in the wild. It didn't take long as there was a nice size manatee drifting at the put in just out from the boat ramp. We also saw what we thought was a small shark, which was later confirmed by people on shore.
The Chassahowitzka area has served as a roost for local vultures for decades so we got an up close look through new eyes at an animal most of us only get to see nibbling on roadkill as we zip by in our cars. They're really pretty cool birds but just a note--do not paddle directly under the trees in which they sit. We spent the majority of Friday paddling around, exploring springs and creeks. We paddled up one creek to the head of a springs where the water was so shallow you had to walk the last hundred yards or so to get to the springs itself, but it was without doubt a worthy walk. In one alcove we also encountered a family of manatees: two large adults and a calf, the largest of the two, whom Marlayna and Jaime affectionately dubbed "Fred" was pushing an orange around in the water trying to get a grip on it. We watched him struggle with the citrus, pushing it against our boats trying to get a bite, for about fifteen minutes or so until finally I used my river knife to cut the fruit in half and drop it back in the water. "Fred" immediately seized on the orange sucking in a whole half and gumming out the fruit before spitting out the peel much to everyone's delight.
The next day was Saturday and at 10:30am our group began to congregate at Pete's Pier to launch our boats at Crystal River and continue our adventure. The sky was blue and the water was clear as we set off to find the manatees. They did not disappoint as dozens of the gentle giants converged at the mouth of a small creek fed by the Three Sisters Springs. As we paddled past the manatees and snorkelers to explore the springs some of the more social creatures bumped our kayaks and even nibbled at the beard of a nearby tourist in a snorkel mask. The springs themselves were full of fish and warm, crystal clear water. There were also several manatees resting within the springs area. Pat, Annie and Eric decided to throw caution to the wind and swim with the manatees. With a water temperature considerably higher than the air temp, it seemed to be much easier getting into the water than it was to get out.
Having seen lots of manatees and paddled our way up and around the Crystal River area we paddled back to the boat ramp, loaded up and headed to our various camps for the evening. Jaime, Marlayna, Jennifer, Brannen and Cathy opted to utilize the afternoon to explore the nearby Homosasa Springs (Sorry I couldn't remember where we launched from last year. I remembered once Brannen told me the next day, McCray's). They had an enjoyable paddle and saw a few manatees, lots of birds and an island of monkeys!
The next morning was Sunday and we met again bright and early at the Weeki Wachee Springs park for more paddling fun. After setting the shuttle we were on our way down this exceptional stretch of river. Making our way through the slalom-like turns of the Weeki Wachee we got to enjoy, once again, the warm and beautiful blue spring waters. We met up with a smaller manatee who seemed to almost be playing tag with us as we passed him by. We later saw him drift past us as we enjoyed lunch on the shore and eventually we caught up with him again before reaching what is known as "The Blue Hole" where several manatees and a couple fishermen were hanging out, enjoying the day. The manatees of the Blue Hole were very friendly; demanding that all who approached pay attention to them. Jim even got sprayed by manatee mist as they surfaced for air right beside him. We had been told along the way that there was a "fish hospital" where dozens of manatees were lazing about including several pregnant cows and a few others that were under medical observation for injuries from boat propellers, but we missed this area presumably because it lay somewhere down the righthand fork of the river while we followed a leftward course.
Monday morning we all broke camp and started out for home. On the way, Pat, Annie, Jim, Katy, Brannen, Erica and I decided to make the most of the day with one last excursion before heading back to Georgia. We met at 9:30am at Itchetucknee Springs with high hopes for critter-spotting since in years past we've seen lots of otters, raccoons and even a herd of baby wild pigs with their parents on the banks of this lazy and pristine river. A local outfitter took care of the shuttle for us and we set off. The river was, of course, gorgeous and once again we had fantastic weather. We could not have asked for better the entire weekend. We saw a plethora of turtles as we meandered downstream. We even saw several very large red-headed woodpeckers and bunches of water birds, but the otters and piggies eluded us this time.
At the take out everyone packed up the gear, said their goodbyes, wished we could have stayed longer and set out for home. It was an excellent trip with a fantastic turnout. Everyone seemed to have a very nice time and we all got to see some of the best that Florida has to offer. I worried that this trip might be biting off a bit more than I could chew, but all in all I think it went pretty well for this first-time coordinator. Thanks so much to everyone who came on the trip and to those who gave me advice, tips and pointers that helped make this event happen! I look forward to paddling again with everyone very soon and can't wait to see what kinds of critters we encounter on the MLK Weekend Manatee Paddle in years to come!
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