Although It appears that winter is falling onto us early this year, was still able to get out for a quick weekend paddling.
Friday dropped some rain around the reigon and although nothing really jumped up well Wilsons Creek raised up for some low water action. I met up with Bruce, Scott and Chase to get a quick day of creeking.
The gauge was low showing neg 6 but still as runable as my last trip. After making 3 laps a couple weeks ago I was feeling fired up to get back at it. I now have fallen in love with this river and feel good to lead runs too. Also had plenty chances to dial in my boof and it is feeling good to go (big thanks again to Wes).
I got in a total of 4 laps before it got dark. Below are pics from our first 2 laps
*Click on pics to enlarge*
Me pushing through the entrance
Me at the top of 10 foot
Chase Boofing it up
Rattling through the mank above 10 foot
Chase Sliding 10 foot
Bruce (Yellow Habitat) Qued up above boatbuster
I have to say it again. I love Wilsons Creek! I cant wait to get back…
Song for the day
“The good left undone”
By Rise Against
Pray for Rain and SYOTR!!!
November 18, 2008
It has taken me a full year of living in Asheville to finally get some reall creek action. No Creek boat last winter and no water the last few months had left me all but starved and aching to see what this creeking discipline was all about.
Firday was looking sparse as far as rain was concerned. The local forcast was looking rather bleak and when I went to bed fri night nothing was up. Regardless of this I still set an early alarm and drifted off to sleep. 0600 came about and like a child on Christmas I jumped onto boatingbeta to see what the Gauges had in to tell. Scanning down through all the red my heart sank. At the bottom of the page I noticed Wilsons Creek and the Watauga Gorge were in the Green! I called a buddy Taylor and told him to get in the car and get to Asheville… By 7 am text messages were flying and Wes told me he was going to Watauga.
Watauga Gorge was once one of the toughest ccreek runs considered boatible, as time passed by It is still highy respected for its continous steep nature with non-stop action similar in nature to the Cheoah. There are more rapids than I can remember but in essence The river gives you 1/2 mile of warm up boogie. Then it starts to stomp, back to back class 4 drops bring you to Haydro. Hydro is a solid class 5 rapid with an insanely retentive hole at the bottom that resembles a natural lowhead dam. Being this was my very first creek run and still having several miles of water ahead of me I opted to go high and dry on the left bank and set up boat safety below the rapid. Jen (Wes’s fiance) set up with a rope beside the hole.
Plenty of Boogie and class 4 drops brought us to my one of the best moves on the river. The crew call it airplane boof. You start center and make a hard left boof turning 90 deg through the move… very cool and nailing it makes you feel like a superstar 
Hitting the airplane boof
Dont remember where this was… anybody???
The climax of the river is a rapid named stateline. class 4 rapid above a 16ft waterfall, dont swim… Shallow drop off the left side. Hit it with hard left to right momentum nad a big left boof stroke… Awesome!. Im still buzzing over this one and I got beat down below it leading to a shameful swim… Next time. More boogie led us to the Wautage initiation, rewind. Tradition tells us that you have to run this approx 8-10 ft steep slide backwards for your first run. We all did even Wes who accidently went the wrong side and had to get out above a sieve and carry for a little bit.
Song for the day
“Anna Molly” by Incubus
Next day Wes called again. Wilsons although low was still boatable and we headed off to get in a few runs. Although not nearly as difficult a run. Wilsons is a must make river when the water is running.
Plenty of boogie water with some great class 4 rapids along the way. Mank above 10 foot, 10 foot falls, Boatbuster ( best boof on the river), Thunderhole, Bilboard (aka get a room after Jen boofed onto Wes), Tripple falls, Razor back. Im not sure if this order is correct and I might have missed some.
My first run was pretty shakey. including a pretty good broach /pin where I had to bail. Wes gave me a few creeking tips which opened up the doors to the creek world as far as Im can tell. Runs 2 and 3 went really well in spide of me getting pinned above 10foot. We hard charged getting some pretty good non-stop runs. Total about 750 vert feet in a short afternoon… All in all an amazing river. One of my new favourites.
Songs for the day
“Dont Stop” by Innerpartysystem
“Mice and Gods” by Clutch
Had luck been a little stronger I would have prefered run Wilsons then Watauga. After Sat I was not too sure if I was ready for another run down the Watauga. After Getting my chops together on Wilsons… I cant wait to get back on Watauga.
Big thanks to the sexy kayaking beasts crew… Showing me down these rivers has me totally hooked on SE Creeking!!!
Until next time…
Pray for rain and SYOTR
I was having a hard time embedding video sooooo here are the links to some good ol’ footy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FIHJ_f9f…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrXRQsO28…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FT8BFkXG…
October 27, 2008
Had the chance to make the second last release of the Cheoah for 2008. My personal first d. For those out there who have not had a chance to run the Cheoah, get out there and run it. The 9.5 mile stretch from Joannes store to teh lake is with few exceptions one long continious class 3-4 rapid. Be-Boping throught trees (there are lots of trees on this run), countless boofs, munchy holes and some more trees, all make up for what iis argueably one of the best whitewater runs in the south east. Best of all, the entire river is read and run. The lines down are whatever tickles your fancy. The final 2.5 miles from bear creek falls is where things really step up to solid class 4. the bottom of the river drops out and the pace is kicking. tossing in a schweet 13 footer for good measure. More steep water to follow all ending in a lake.
The bottom 2.5 (bear creek and below) was actually so inviting that 4 of us loaded up and fired it up a second time. Better lines for sure (especially in my case) and just as much fun we made our way through the lake at the take out.
All in all an amazing run. Non-stop action, great features, total unknown river run and everybody got off safe… what more could you ask for?
Total run approx 700 ft
last 2.5 miles approx 300 ft
Total approx 1000 vertical feet (my most in one day)
Song of the day:
Stretch Armstrong, “faces”
Peace, Love and PCN
Laddie
October 6, 2008
Well it has been a wild year since I last posted on here
lets see…
I quit my job and moved to Asheville!!! That is probably the best decision I have made in a while. My paddling has exploded as opposed to last year and Im finally getting over my irrational fear of kayaking. So much that I have returned to the New several times and actually find myself having fun as opposed to being gripped…
After a few runs down the gorge I started to push myself by runing more class4 water and built my confidence in a large way. This has now culminated with 2 descents of the Upper Gauley and feeling good about them. I really feel blessed to be back in this sport and to have met some fantastic kayakiing ambassadors who have taken me with them.
This weekend is the Cheoah release, then next week will be up at the Russel Fork, Providing all goes well I plan to be firing up Tallulah next month.
Once I get my own computer, Ill put up some puctures and really get this blog running
Until then…
Pray for rain and SYOTR
Laddie
September 30, 2008
Hello all you wandering net boaters.
Im Laddie…
I guess the quick info on me (at least boating related) is this:
I started kayaking when I was 12. I thought it would be fun but better than that it was a means to not have to play cricket! You see, at my school you had to partake in an after class sport. This usually was the seasonal game, Rugby, Cricket and so on… For thous of you out there who are not familiar with Cricket it is the big brother to baseball. Only much longer and overwhelmed with formality. Well if I went kayaking, I didnt have to play cricket. I quickly fell in love with the kayaking, so much that it was all I wanted to do. After moving to the states I was able to really step up my rivers.
Long story short goes:
Moved to Colorado then to West Virginia. Biggest water I have ever paddled there! Paddled the lower new at just shy of 9ft, ended up in Geryhound… Next week swam Keeneys (rafting issue not kayaking) and quit the river indusrty…went to school, became a paramedic.
This year I became totally burned out with work and missed paddling…it had been 7 yrs since I hit any whitewater. I bought a new boat and havent looked back… Although it has taken me some time to get back my confidence. I now feel like I am back at the technical river running skill I had before my hiatus…Playboating 
thats another story…Damn how things changed in the last 7 yrs.
Thats it for now…Drop me a line if you want to say “Hi”
September 7, 2007
The World Kayak initiative would like to announce the recent creation of a new blog Worldkayakblogs.com. This is a first post on this blog’s behalf.
September 7, 2007
