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

Most of our 2008 TVF Team (S.K.B. - Sexy Kayaking Beasts: Brian Pickett, Steve Moore, Scott ?, Stuart Everett (Paddling with us in spirit this day), Josh Dalton, and I) showed up at the Little River in the Smokies this past Saturday for some super fun creeking!  We also had some others join up with us: Jeff Weatherford (my brother-in-law), Natalie Pickett (Brian’s wife who was suppose to be on our TVF team, but had to withdrawal due to a shoulder injury sustained a couple of weekends ago), Matt Dalton (Josh’s brother and awesome kayaker!), and JD.  We had a blast, despite the cool weather and cold water!

I ran one lap from the Sinks to the Elbow with a dry hair day.  I ran the Meanies for my first time and came through clean on both drops.  I ran the “Toxaway Line” at the Sinks, which was a lot of fun.  My highlight was greasing the line at the Elbow and making it through the rapid upright for my first time.  I LOVE MY MEGA ROCKER!  Jeff shot a bunch of video us during this first lap.  I am hopefully going to get a copy of it from Josh and try to do a little production with the footage.

When we got to the bottom of our first lap I met up with another one of my paddling buddies Lou.  He is an inflatable Aire Paddler and has been wanting to paddle a section of the Little for a while.  I told him that Natalie and I were planning on taking Jeff down to the “Y” from the point we were at below the Elbow (Which is an easier 3 mile section of the river).  So we quickly set shuttle and the four of us began Jeff’s first real creeking experience in a kayak.  The only moving water experience Jeff has was at the USNWC.  So he was a little nervous starting out.  He swam twice during the run, but hit about 4-5 good combat rolls in other rapids.  He and I both agreed that the day was a huge success for him.  He was pumped all the way home from his first real run on the river!  I was very proud of him.  A big thanks to Natalie and Lou for helping me keep an eye on Jeff during our run!

When we got back to the Elbow from our run to the “Y”, Scott and Steve had decided that two laps were enough for them and they were going to start heading back home.  So we said our good byes to them.  The rest of the crew had already headed back up the road to the Sinks for lap #3.  I decided to just call it a day as well, so I would not hold up the rest of the crew.  I went back down to the “Y” to pick up Jeff and to load up our gear to start heading home.

On the way back out of the Smokies Jeff and I decided to stop and watch the remaining crew run the Elbow on their third and final lap.  So we hung out with Natalie to take some photos of the four wild men!  Below is a link to the photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12618&l=929bc&id=552848204

The day was a huge success on all accounts and everyone had a blast!  Jeff and I ended the day with a stop off in Salsarita’s for some tasty food and a stop in Bass Pro Shop to top the day off, before heading home.

Peace Out!