Falls of the Ohio

Jay and I finally checked out the falls last night. We ran what I assume to be rebar alley. The water was fast and scrapy on this day. There were a few little waves but nothing special for surfing. We slowly, as slowly as we could, made our way down the 400 yard stretch. It goes by very quickly. Next time we want to check out the lower site. Not too bad of a spot. We'll be back.

Full Moon A Risin' On The Beech Fork

Dam to Camp to Dam
20cfs

Beastie led Tim, Toby, Zach and I up and down the mighty Fork this past weekend. This was a send off trip for Zach, his last Kentucky wilderness trip. He shoves off to Hawaii soon. The water was low, so we couldn't make our planned route of 49 to 31e a reality. But quick on our feet we decided to go from the dam up and then back the next morning. This worked perfectly. Plenty of water held back from the dam.

I also found the perfect route through the dam to modify. We need to move 8 rocks to the side and build up a small ledge. It would be a great chute and ledge drop when water runs through it. A wench on a tree and a long cable could get the job done.

Nantahala

Jay, Sarah, Jennifer and I spent the weekend at the Nantahala. We made a raft trip down the river on Saturday and a kayak trip stopping short at the Pizza Shack. Beastie went with us again on the raft trip. Jay and I were able to patch up the raft very good and get it back in action for this trip. The second day Jay and I ran the falls a couple of times in the morning and then we hit the road driving through the very scenic highway 28, followed by the very curvy dragon's tail section of 128. Don't know if it was faster or not going that way, the highway is probably the best route. Everyone seemed to have a great time on the river and everyone is interested in doing it again. We stayed at Freeman's motel. Secluded little place, very basic. They lost power Saturday night after a storm hit the area. We also drove along the blue ridge parkway at night and stopped at an incredible place along there. Good trip, for sure.

Paddle Pick-Up

This Saturday was not so much a paddling adventure but was certainly an adventure. I never thought we would have pulled out so many tires and the amount of garbage that we did, but with 32 volunteers we certainly put the dent into the cleanup of the Beech Fork that we were hoping for, and more.



We ran 6 canoes from the fairgrounds to 31E and had 4 wheelers, a tractor and trailer shuttling garbage up the hill at the bridge. We estimate that we pulled out 125 tires and around 1 ton of trash from the river. Next year we might go from 49 bridge to the fairgrounds and do it in May to coincide with the National River Cleanup week.
Everyone put in a lot of hard work this day and the preplanning could not have been more perfectly executed. Also the cookout afterwards was a huge success.

Rockcastle Day Trip

300cfs

Jay and I got in a day trip to the Rockcastle. A great river day with lots of combat rolling for me, the has helped my confidance on the river I think. After jumping into a whole on Screaming Right last week and now getting worked a touch in the Narrows I feel better about my cobat rolling. I am calm under the water in rapids. The details: We left at 7:30am from Louisville and shoved off at 11:30am on the river. The shuttle setup and getting to the put-in is long. Stair steps was god, we walked around Beech Narrows which looked very grabby this day and then had a blast on the 6 drops of the lower narrows. The lake was at 717ft, this gave us 6 rapids in the Narrows, covering one small rapid that I know of, that was exposed last time at 711ft. So there really aren't a whole bunch of rapids for such a long shuttle, but the Rockcastle is beautiful and no one else goes down there. We got lost trying to get back out to Highway 80. The road signs and maps don't jive very well. When taking Squib-Ano road out take a left at the Adkins/Arthur crossing. I may be getting to a point where I would like some more excitement in my kayaking, but I still love the Rockcastle the best. I think the rating on AW.org needs to be class II-III(IV) Next time I go I hope to get pictures of all the rapids and update the website on AW.

Cumberland Below The Falls

1500cfs



Jay, Scott and I headed for Corbin, KY yesterday and ran the section of whitewater below the Falls of the Cumberland. It's a bout a 3 hours door to shove off after gearing up, checking in, walking down to shore from the parking lot. We set up a shuttle through Sheltowee Trace, it just sucks having to wait around after the trip for a ride back to our car and to waiting for the kayaks to come back to the outfitter. But the trip was well worth the visit. We had a great time, Jay sam Center Rock, Scott styled it. Scott swam Screaming Right, Jay styled it. I was flipping all over the place improving on my combat roll. I thought I had taken a bad line on Screaming right, but it turned out to be okay. We really should be running this stretch more often since it is so close to home. But it still falls short to the Rockcastle.

New River Trip: John's Last Paddle

Day 1
Prince to Thayer

Day 2
Thayer to Thurmond

4 ft
3260 cfs



Toby, Cory, Zack, Michael, Zach, John, Johnny and I went to the new river this past weekend. It was a great time on the river. Day one was much longer with lots more playing in the rapids. We had 3 canoes and 5 kayaks running in our group. There were lots of Outfitter duckies running this section. At our Thayer camp we invented our own rock throwing version of corn hole. Day 2 was short and sweet with Silo being the highlight. Cory had a little swim here, got to use my throw rope to pull the boat to shore before it fell over the next drop. I definitely would like to go back hit this again some time.

Back at White Cloud

level:
Fredricksburg: 300cfs-390cfs
White Cloud: 700cfs

Went to White Cloud with Jay and Beastie tonight after work and surfed the madness. The wave was actually decent at somewhere between 390cfs and 300cfs on the Fredericksburg guage. So if it is ever reading that low and you are itching for some water to get on, go on out. I was glad I did.

White Cloud Surf Spot

level:
Blue at Fredericksburg: 400cfs
Blue at White Cloud: 950cfs

Kevin Hisel and I went over to Indiana Saturday and surfed for a few hours on the Blue at White Cloud. It was a decent little wave to play on. Something different, pretty fun. Would be cool to have that option more often.

Elkhorn Creek Again

320cfs

Ran the Elkhorn after work with Jay and an intern at Jay's work Scott. It was Scott's first kayaking trip. The water level wasn't too bad, I expected worse. The surf wave was good. The weather was perfect. We put on about 5:45 and we're off at 8:00