Wesley’s Wild World of Kayaking w/ the Jackson Action Wagon (J.A.W.)

Well, Well, Well…  Where do I start?  I had a busy, but seriously fun weekend to say the least.  I managed to get an 8.5 mile river run on the lower Watauga with a few friends and some newbies; ran the sound board at my church for a member’s wedding; and drove down to the NOC to spend the night with Andrew & Julie Bentley all on Saturday.  Whew…  Then to finish out the weekend on Sunday, I went to Wayner’s River of Life Ministry Service on the river @ 8:00 a.m.; hung out with Andrew, Julie and her family at the NOC the rest of the morning; and then made a run down the Nanty Gorge with Andrew and Julie that afternoon.  I finally started heading back home at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday Night and was never so happy to crawl into my bed to go to sleep…

To hit the highlights, Taylor & Don Samples, Aaron Bentley, Stuart & Josh Everett, and I enjoyed a nice long, mostly flat water trip down the mighty lower Watauga Saturday afternoon.  Taylor and Don wanted to get in one more river trip before Taylor had to start back to school this week.  Due to my time constraint of the wedding, the Watauga was our best option.  I contacted some of my paddling buddies to see if they wanted to tag along and it turned out this was a perfect option for Stuart.  His son, Josh, wanted to have one last big day with his dad before he had to go back to school too.  So Stuart borrowed a canoe from another local boater, so both he and josh could enjoy the river together.Aaron Bentley also signed on with our trip to help in case any of our newbies decided to take a swim in the brutally cold water of the lower Watauga (48 degrees year round).

The run went great and no carnage to report!  We all made it down B-Cliff rapid (class II) like a pro!  Most of the run was spent chatting and admiring the nice scenery of the valleys.  After the run Stuart, Josh, and I headed up to Ridgewood for some very tasty hickory smoked BBQ - http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=446 - http://www.knoxviews.com/node/1256 - Mmmm!!!  Then I had to rush home to get cleaned-up for the wedding.

After the wedding, I called Andrew and we made plans for me to come down to the cabin he was staying at above Lost Mine Campground.  By the time I arrived everyone from Andrew’s crew was worn out and heading to bed, so I did the same.

Sunday morning was a blessing!!!  I went to the River of Life Ministry Service and was filled with some good teaching from Wayner.  It was a great way to spend some time in Worship with other paddlers!  I spent the rest of the morning just hanging out with Andrew, Julie, and her family at the NOC facilities.

Later in the afternoon, after some tasty sandwiches and saying good bye to Julie’s family, Andrew, Julie and I fired up a run down the Nanty Gorge.  This was Julie’s second run of the gorge and she was a lot more prepared for this trip.  Andrew and I coached her down the rapids about catching eddys, pealing out, and ferrying.  She was on top of her game!  She even did a little surfing, which was awesome!!!

We got to Nanty Falls and it was game on!  Andrew lead the way to set up at the bottom in case Julie might have some trouble.  I stayed with her in the Truck Stop Eddy until Andrew got set up at the bottom after his successful line.  He gave the thumbs up and I pealed out with Julie as my wing-woman.  I lead her through the traditional line at the falls and she nailed it!  This was only her second attempt of running the falls and she did it with ease and room to spare.  Andrew and I were cheering like crazy for her!  She seemed to have a slight delayed reaction that she made it through, but then she was glowing pretty much the rest of the evening.

Another big highlight of the run was that Andrew got his first clean blunt playing in the hole below the NOC Wave.  He didn’t mean to do it on purpose, but we are counting it!  It was so ridiculously cool!!!  He did not even know what he did, but I knew immediately what he did as I was watching from the river left eddy.  But of course when something that great happens, no one ever has a camera to catch the super cool moment.

Although the weekend was quite tiring and hot, overall I had a lot of fun with some really great paddling friends in some cold river water!  Until next time… stay safe and I hope to see you on the river!