Hot Springs

John Mathews moved to Hawaii a long time ago it seems now. He doesn't get to see much whitewater there, except the break of the Pacific Ocean waves. We really feel sorry for him … we really do. So much that a bunch of new school Bardstown Boaters and old school Nelson Co. Whitewater Association (NCWA) members got together with John and his goggles for some runs on the French Broad and Pigeon Rivers.

We camped at Hot Springs in North Carolina, a town at the intersection of the French Broad River and the Appalachian Trail. On Friday we kayaked, canoed and rafted our way down the low-water French Broad at ~700cfs. It was a tight run for even the kayak, so I'm not real sure how the raft made it down. Darkness came in quick as we neared the takeout at Stackhouse — then the rain came in even quicker as we picked up vehicles and got the gear back to camp. Oh, Ryan swam this one. I think he was trying to open a beer and slipped out.

On Saturday the old-timers ran the French Broad with just a little less water and in their open canoes. Buck, Johnny and David E. aced it in the chase-boating category. David set his canoe in motion down river, minus himself, while the others chased it and he enjoyed a leisurely swim. All in true NCWA fashion.

On the other side of the mountains the rest of group ran the last release of the year on the "Dirty Bird," the Pigeon River. We had some rafts, a Duckie and a Shredder. Everyone enjoyed the run and we had a lot of fun even with the barrage of commercial rafting traffic.

We were especially grateful for Sarah's awesome photographs from the bank. She only missed one great photo opportunity of my wife Jennifer and myself showing everyone how it is done at "Lost Guide." I really wish you could have seen it, it was amazing, but there are no pictures, so it's hard to describe, so I won't.

On Sunday John and his goggles wanted even more whitewater action, so he took them to the Ocoee for another rafting trip. I'm sure they had fun there too.

For more pictures of the weekend click here.

John Thomas' Pigeon Trip

The whole Thomas Group, Uncle Pat, Tim, Bo and Spalding were at the the Cosby Campground in Tennessee this weekend to paddle the Dirty Bird (Pigeon River). The trip was to honor John and his soon to be married self.

We all rolled in on Friday to camp and paddle on Saturday. We made two runs down the class III Pigeon on release day with one kayaker, raft, duckie and a Shredder.

The Pigeon was very busy with commercial rafters and it was mayhem at the put-in both times. Traffic was heavy on the river most of the time, but still not as bad as the Ocoee.

Jay cooked up a real nice meal for everyone back at camp after a very fun day on the water.

Pigeon & Ocoee

Josh and I shoved off today for our "Week of Rivers". But since the south east is so dry it's going to look more like a "Week of Ocoee". We did run the Pigeon earlier and that was fun. Now we are in Sevierville with a busted water pump and an overheated Jeep. It's all good though because we stopped at Advanced Auto and they called in a mechanic for us. 4th of July and all he's going to hook us up. Price sounds pretty reasonable too. So far so good. Ocoee tomorrow...

Later in the evening...

It's late and the jeep is not fixed. We are now parked at a sit and sleep furniture and matress superstore overlooking the car dealership. Fireworkks are going off all around Pigeon Forge and the Sevierville area. We are waiting for morning so we can get this water pump fixed. Our mechanic at Autozone couldn't get the fan disassembled so now we are going with plan B. Hopefully we can get this fixed quickly in the morning and get down to the Ocoee to meet up with the others.

Josh is cooking dinner behind the car and I am getting ready to sleep in the passenger seat. Kayaking is always an adventure. Even off of the river.

Day 02 & 03

On Thursday after a very long wait on getting the jeep fixed, this after sleeping behind a furniture store, we finallly made it to the Ocoee. The water was about to be shut off so with just 30 minutes of release left we hurried and shoved off.

We met John and Chris at the put in and booked it down. The water holds for about an hour after they shut it off so we made it down with no problems.

We camped at Thunder Rock. Good times were by all.

Right now I am relaxing at Hell Hole after day 03. Josh and John are making their second lap and I am eating and surfing. More good times were had today.

Day 04

Today some more Vikings rolled in while some others headed off to the Cheoah. We stayed at the Ocoee for another run on the middle section.

I was a little off today with my rolling, having a close call at Broken Nose. I rolled in the entrance and barely caught the last eddy before the right side. Then just below that I flipped again on Slice and Dice. I did manage to roll up without hitting the rocks like I did on day 02, but it took too many roll attempts. It all boiled down to the fact that after 3 days of straight paddeling I was dog tired. I manned up for the rest of the run with no problems, but I played much less to save my energy.

4 days of paddling has been great. I'll probably take it easy tomorrow the last day.

Pigeon

1200cfs
Release Level

John and I ran the Pigeon along with 13 others of the Viking Canoe Club. It was a good run that I felt was challenging while still being pretty tame. I started off the day flipping at the first rapid then attempting my roll 6 times before getting it. I wasn't going to swim on the first rapid as an introduction to all the Vikings. I combat rolled a few other times as well and in all had a great run. Got some surfing done as well. I do need to learn some new rolls and hopefully some roll sessions will be available to me soon. On the hardest rapid, Lost Guide, I had a roll that really saved me. After hitting a small slot you have to paddle hard river left to avoid some rocks. I flipped after the slot, but quickly rolled back up and had just enough time to paddle river left. There were two swimmers about as I did this. No one else saw it, but I am proud of that moment. We skipped out on the French Broad because the level was low.