Although 16 people signed up for this trip, only 12
showed up. Making the trip to Reliance, Tennessee, were Caroline and
John Abbey (kayaks), Jack Taylor (solo canoe), Kathy King (kayak),
Joe Tillman and Jason Rusk (tandem canoe), David Johnson (solo
canoe), Linda Delery (solo canoe), Rachel Gates (solo canoe), William
and Debbie Gatling (Discovery 158 canoe) and yours truly, solo
canoe.
The
trip down river was relatively uneventful, with all participants
having good runs. The Hiwassee is a great training river and many of
the participants took the opportunity to practice their strokes and
maneuvers. We had only one unintentional “swim” — Joe
and Jason flipped their new OC-2 at Thread The Needle as they peeled
out after working their way back up-river so they could run the rapid
a second time.
We
paddled up Big Lost Creek, just above Devil’s Shoals, and enjoyed
shade and cool, clear water. We found Big Lost Creek overrun with
Tennessee paddlers (I think it may have been a Chota trip) who were
stacking/lashing boats on top of boats (they must have been
engineers) to see who could have the most outlandish run of Devil’s
Shoals. I think the lead “boat” had two OC-1’s on bottom
and an OC-1 and two Kayaks on top. This particular contraption
floated through Devil’s Shoals with five boaters on board. We ran
Devil’s Shoals the conventional way and then most of us elected to
hike back up-river to float down Devil’s Shoals sans boats.
Thanks
to all the GCA paddlers who showed up to make this an enjoyable trip
down one of the better Class I-II rivers in our area. Also, thanks
to Rachel Gates for running lead and Jack Taylor for running sweep.
by Charles B.
Clark, Trip Coordinator
Saturday, July 12, 1997
