Each June chicago whitewater offers a final beginner’s trip to Wisconsin as a sort of finale. As the years have gone by i’ve taken on a larger role and am helping now instead of being the one needing the help. Since most of my friends are the instructors or are also aiding over the weekend, we normally try to go up a day early and do some paddling for ourselves.

Section IV – a gusty day!

This year we drove up early Friday morning to paddle Section IV of the Wolf.  We got there early to set up our tents and we almost had a replay of Astrid’s tent rolling across the field (June 2005?) – luckily we kept a good hold on them, but that might have been an indication of the wind for the day!  Tents prepared we were off to the river.

We had our usual suspects joining us…. Diana, Kris, Bob, Jack, Mel, Cody, Greg, and Susan. Steve was supposed to join us but he pulled his “meningitis” card to get out of getting the thong (and that’s another story). We happened upon Dennis Clark and Randy Dana at the takeout who also ended up joining us to go down the river. We should have known the day would be entertaining when after putting all of our boats, gear and ourselves in the back of the truck for the shuttle and we ended up sitting there for over 5 minutes… at some point we realize we don’t have a driver and we’re not leaving. Finally Susan decided to go check on it, which was a good thing because they were waiting on us to come get them. Oops, thanks Susan!

We finally get on the river and start enjoying a beautiful day – sunny and 70 with an occasional gust of wind. We had a nice paddle up to Sullivan’s Falls  – mostly just fighting the wind gusts but enjoying the beautiful views. We played a long time with many of us running the falls multiple times and enjoying the surf waves at the bottom of the cascade. Diana started the idea of running it backwards, and I have to admit it was really fun!  Nothing like getting to the edge of a fall and turning around to enjoy the thrill of not knowing when you will be landing – even if it is a cushy pillow of froth

We continued our way down the river enjoying Upper and lower Duck’s Nest. Dave’s wave at lower Duck’s nest was very popular, with just about everyone getting good surfs. It took a while for me to get in and i had a few quick surfs. On my last attempt i totally missed it but Cody let me jump back on right away… and that was my best ride of the day – which was very cool. We had our obligatory swimmer here but it was all good (nothing like getting your 1 swim of the year out of the way right?!)

We continued on to lunch rock (i’m not entirely sure if this is actually a rapid or not). But either way we got out to rest a bit and enjoy a snack. I dug out the “good” camera, leaving my dry bags on my boat, and wandered off into the woods. Partially to use my gizmo and relieve myself but also because i’d seem some pretty flowers that i wanted to try to get some pictures of.  I am fairly certain they were Trillium and ended up getting a few shots that i liked even tho i didn’t have my macro with me.

I came back to the group and got an idea about taking a photo that i’d been wanting to try for some time – the circle of heads with blue sky. I didn’t have my big flash and probably should have shot in manual mode but hey i was playing right?!  (sorry di for cutting your head off in this one- but i liked the blue sky- next time i’ll get it right!)

So as I’m taking this picture a gust of wind blows – and this was one big gust i swear!  It happened very quickly but i know both of my dry bags flew into the river and possibly some other stuff. Mostly i remember Randy doing this quick running jump and dive into the river to save one of them. It was quite impressive actually – it wasn’t super deep and I’m surprised he didn’t hurt himself. Everyone helped collect my things (as it seems i’m the only one who didn’t stash their loose items darn it!  Note to self- when distracted by flowers make sure to tuck away all items!) and i started trying to dry my now wet dry bags to put my camera back into. After a few minutes i look at someone – i think Cody- and say “My car fob was in that dry bag”. He looks at me and laughs at my joke. Except then i tell him its not a joke. And people start asking if i have any other car keys – which i did so we weren’t totally screwed thankfully. But those fobs aren’t cheap so i was kind of hoping to keep the ones i had. So Cody wanders back into the water and within a few seconds finds it in 2 feet of water.  The real test would be later back at the car!

Kris offers to shuttle my camera for me in his dry drybag along with his keys and i tell him he better not do anything really crazy or else he’ll be in be in big trouble for hurting my camera!  He even trusted me later to hold that drybag with both of our keys within so i could get some good pics of him at Big Smokey (yes that’s him going down backwards and sideways).  I’m not sure if it was his, bob’s or cody’s ideas to try to hit that rooster tail… but thanks to them i dont think i’m nearly as scared of it anymore – as long as i’m right side up

The energizer bunnies ran it multiple times while the rest of us enjoyed the show (taking pics, video or just watching over and over again). We finally decide we’re done for the day and head back to the cars. It is then that i remember that i get to test my fob to see if it will work. I walk up and try the unlock button – it worked! I jumped up and down in joy, yay!!  Next test I get in to see if it will start- and it does! More joy! I don’t plan on testing that again but man that’s good to know!  We finish the night with a pizza dinner and an early bedtime – a few of us were tired from the 4:30 wake up time….

A chilly beginner’s weekend

Saturday morning we wake up to clouds and wind and much lower temperature. The high was supposed to be in the low 60s and i think they had that right.   We all met up in the morning to determine where everyone was going. We had 2 beginner groups – 1 going on section 3 of the wolf with Diana and another going on the Red with Pat. A few social groups took off in different directions – some to the Peshtigo, others to Wausau, and a few more also went on section 3.

It sounds like there may be a writeup from the beginner’s so i’ll just say that our group on section 3 had a good day and give a few highlights.

We were a little cold as the day went on probably due to the rain that eventually kicked in, but that didn’t stop us from doing a little surfing and picking our lines down the rapids.  We saw what we think was a Golden Eagle not far from the putin.  We were picking our way down boy scout when i realized we had a boat over at the big eddy near the elevator. We got beth up safely but somehow her paddle went missing. A few folks saw it nearby but then it disappeared never to be seen again that day. Luckily Dave had his hand paddles so we were able to continue down the river, but we’re still hoping that it pops up and gets returned to her.  We had a few more uneventful swims at Hansons and Gilmore’s and everyone seemed to enjoy getting on a harder river and working their skills.

Most everyone met back up at the campground for the group dinner and cwa meeting. With all the rain and chilly temps most were huddled near a campfire or around the still warm grill, or possibly using Urzula’s rum and tea to stay warm   A few of us retired early to our dry tents while some party folk stayed up until the wee hours.

Sunday morning I awoke to a bright tent and no sound of rain… i thought excellent, a warmer sunny day!! Ha! nope, i got out of the tent and it was drizzling and still pretty darn cold. I got that feeling that i probably wouldn’t be paddling that day (i’m not quite as addicted as some people) but didn’t feel too bad as i was going to try to get some pics of the students in some rapids.

So after some mass confusion and lack of communication we finally determine that we need to get some of the students to the putin of section 3 (all instructors that were running it had left and few of the ones left knew where it was). So our group that was going to gilmore’s offered to help by running a car shuttle for them (you’re welcome!) and we finally make it to Gilmore’s by around 11… its a whopping 56 degrees and i feel fairly confident i made the right decision to play photographer!  I think they all had fun surfing at the top wave. I got some great pics, but some of my favorites were of Sarah and Diana – they had the best faces!

I hope everyone else had a great weekend despite the cold and rain – i know i did!  Wish a few folks could have joined us, but as always – there’s always next year!

Full galleries of images from the weekend can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/heidi.haas

Next up: Bela’s Emergency Landing experience coming back from Memphis

so it’s become tradition to head out east for memorial day. Typically for me (heidi) this means that i have to decide if i want to paddle with the chicago whitewater crew or do i join up with the old NIU climbing crew? Most years i let bela make my decision for me – its just easier that way   This year Bela had a ton of stuff to do at home (pics will be shown as well) so he opted to stay back – which meant that my main activity for the weekend would be paddling with a side trip in to visit WV and my climbing buds. Totally worth the 2 hour trek…

So my adventure began Friday morning at 3:30 AM, not so bright and sunshiney but that meant we’d get on the road at good time- no traffic and plenty of time to sneak in a paddle on the way. Kris was my only driving buddy due to some last minute changes (poor steve got meningitis and couldn’t join us- we were very bummed about this- but luckily he’s on the road to recovery). So after some waiting past his planned arrival time, we decide to give him a call- lucky boy was getting some extra sleep! So we got on the road a little later than planned but it all worked out as Mel’s vehicle (complete with a sleeping Cody) also took the long way around in Indiana (why is it we always get off route in Indiana??) and we were able to get our full caravan set without too much extra time.  I just had a thought- Jack was in Mel’s vehicle with Haley the magical GPS unit- hmm now i’m wondering why they got off track!

The ride out was pretty uneventful and we decided to paddle upper section of Slippery Rock Creek and we were able to meet up with Greg, Susan, Randy and Theresa to make a nice big group heading down the river. Levels were a little low but it was a beautiful day – finally no drytop! We had fun surfing and playing in just about anything we could find

We still had a bit to drive so after a yummy dinner we were off driving again deeper into PA to find our B&B and a good night’s rest. We stayed in a different B&B this year, we love the old one but it does have a train that tends to go by in the wee hours of the morning RIGHT next to us and the screeching can get annoying if you aren’t already passed out or aren’t using ear plugs. So we thought this year we’d enjoy the lack of train sound effects… I think di and I jinxed us because as we were just going to sleep we made the comment about getting good uninterupted sleep, what do we hear just an hour later?? a train of course, actually i think 2! tho at least these didn’t screech and weren’t nearly as close… PA has a ton of trains!

Most of us woke well rested and ready for a fun day of paddling. I opted to go to Seneca Rocks, WV to go climbing while the rest of the folks went to the Lower Yough. They met up with a huge group – Jack & Tina, Mike & George, and i’m sure i’m missing a few… sounded like a great day on the river for them.  Lots of playing at swimmers and no major epics.

I drove on down to Seneca and met up with the group at the campsite – lucky for me they had gotten in late and were sleeping in so i didn’t have to find my own way up to the climbing areas. They were suprised to see me at 9am but it actually wasn’t that bad considering the 3am wakeup from the day before- it felt like sleeping in to me too   So i forgot to put my request in about doing the closer, lower climbs on the day i’m there, so we hike up to the top of the ridge. They hiked, i plodded… with Netty and Neely just staying in site to keep tempting me to keep going. too out of shape but it’s all good- i blame it on the midwest hehe.

So i’m not even sure what climbs we set up- Andy set up a nice TR for us gals who wanted to take it easy, Karen led another right next to it. Joe, Scott and Karen ended up doing a cool multi-pitch that took them to the top of the fin- again i dont know which one but it was near the old ladies route.  We had fun taking pics of each other and just hanging out til the sun came over the ridge. This is where i was stupid and didn’t put back on my other shirt… i got a lovely burn on my back where i forgot to put on sunscreen…

I hiked back with Netty and we decided to play in the river – we hung out below the bridge just watching the strange river critters and mating froggies and cooling down a bit after the hot hike down. We decided then that we’d definitly drive next year- that hike back up is brutal after a long day in the hot sun.  i contemplated just staying in town so i wouldn’t have to hike back up to the campsites, but the rest of the group was up there so i sucked it up.  We ended up taking a nice little nap (more like girlie gab session) in the shade on our sleeping pads. Both Netty and i decided taht we wanted to be Neely as she looked like a model – even after a hot sweaty hike! (that andy is a lucky guy!)  we enjoyed a quiet afternoon waiting for the multi pitch team to return to do dinner by drinking wine and margaritas.

of course by this point i think i realized that i had a form of heat exhaustion or maybe my body didn’t appreciate getting burned so badly and decided to have its revenge… i went with netty to take a cool shower, now i only wanted cool, not freezing! no heat what so ever, but it did feel cool on my back for the 1/2 second i could stand to stand in it   thanks again to netty or helping me during my time of unpleasantness!  I ended up taking some advil and setting up our “bug hut” – our new mesh tent. fly-schmy. of course i was debating on that fly situation when i heard we might get storms but i was so comfy in my little hut that i just made a back up plan-  get in anyone’s tent if it starts raining.. i had lots of offers -it was quite nice. we taunted joe by saying i’d get in theirs but luckily i didn’t even have to decide as it was a lovely night with no rain (at least for us!). so we just hung out by the fire, eating pizza and passing out fairly early as everyone had a wonderfully long climby day

In the morning i had to head back, as i needed my day on the Lower too. On my way back i got sidetracked by pretty things- which tends to happen but i made myself stop for the good ones I scared the crap out of 2-3 deer who apparantly couldn’t jump over a wire fence so they tried to squeeze themselves through it – they finally did it but i have no idea how… the holes were like 8″ square. I also stopped for a cool looking barn with fog and then again at the top of a major hill/mountain for some wind turbines.. on just the other side i saw one of the most pretty views that i’d seen in a very long time. the hills were totally covered in big fluffy white clouds but with some of the tops just peeking out. it was hard to get a cool shot as they were kind of blocked by trees but i think it was still worth the stop

Back with time to spare, we packed up for the Lower while Kris packed up to take on the Upper!  We were all a bit anxious for him as it’s a bit harder than most of the rivers we’ve paddled but he looked super solid the day before so decided to go for it   I’m sure he’ll have his own write up but it sounded pretty cool (and he made it back alive, in 1 piece, with randy’s boat and my car all in perfect condition). The rest of us had a great day on the lower. Lori, Randy and Thersa joined us for the Loop. We were very proud of Theresa for making it through Entrance. We also decided that Randy will never lead her down Cucumber again- we’ve decided that Diana has that pleasure next year – no hero routes!

Speaking of hero routes, i think we’ve created a monster- or maybe cody has rubbed off on Bob – he’s a machine taking every hero route possible. We’re very proud of our Conant creations   the rest of us continued on and had a nice day surfing, playing, and just enjoying the river. I even attempted to get into Swimmers – just once it took too much energy to get up the stupid eddy! maybe next year i’ll get in more than once I was pretty happy with the day- i made my 1 goal- catch the eddy at river’s end next to snaggle tooth. i am pretty sure it was the first time!  As usual a great day on the river with good friends.

We got dinner and wandered through town for a bit before retiring for the night (and finally meeting the B&B owners). We all tried a beer Bob had brought – a belgian cherry ale.. i didn’t make the face! so that’s 2 now that i can drink…

Monday we got our usual yummy breakfast at the sisters cafe and decided to run the Loop one last time before we headed back. Jack and I opted out and decided to hike down to Cucumber to take pics. I saw a copperhead snake (we think) – i almost stepped on it! Luckily a couple warned me before i did, they ended up being from Chicago and actually an old CWA member- one of the originals! I absolutely love the small paddling world and chatted with him for some time before our group showed up. I took a ton of pics and jack and i ended up hiking back up to the falls to explore. by the time we had shuttled all the cars to the takeout our group was already walking up, so we were on the road home in very little time.

The drive back was also pretty uneventful – luckily we didn’t run out of gas this time!! Yay! actually we got super awesome mileage and didn’t really need to fill up on each stop – we’ll take those 2-4 gallon “top off” stops! nothing like spending a total of $90 in gas for the whole weekend (and that included both side trips for me and Kris!)

Now I forgot to mention what bela was up to the whole weekend. for some reason he can’t get anything done while i’m home (haha i wonder why!) so he ended up cleaning out our garage (much needed) and the office – putting in a new desk. he even got all the networking stuff setup correctly

after his days of cleaning and organizing he was enjoying some down time on the couch when all of a sudden he hears a “whap!” against the window. he looks out and sees a suicidal bird just lying on the ground, not really moving. he went out with some gloves to take a closer look and it seemed to be still alive. so he picked it up and it seemed to grasp his finger. so he took it to the front of the house and put it on a branch of our evergreen tree where it again grasped the limb and seemed to be able to stand up now on its own. he ran to get the camera and took a few pics as he petted it. he went to grab something again and this time on his way out when the door shut the birdie flew off. it was ok! which was good because he’d been considering what it would take to nurse it back to health hehe. we’re such animal suckers….

so we both had great long weekends, hope everyone else did too!  Full galleries can be seen of Seneca and Yough.

Larry and Christina were able to join us for our last day of paddling on the Ocoee. We’d heard a few horror stories about a certain rapid on this river so a few of us were a bit anxious but Larry, Christina and Pat knew the river very well and were really great about leading us down and giving us all the scoop on each rapid. Most of us put on just below Grumpies but there were plenty of more rapids to come. Our biggest problem was having to wait for all the rafts and there seemed to be a thousand. Each rapid had big bouncy water with a few fun moves to make while making our way down… Diana had a few run ins with a squirt boat and raft but being the rolling master she is was able to roll over the squirt boater and get out from underneath the raft with little effort.

Throughout the day we had a few rolls here or there (nothing like going through the biggest waves of the day backwards!) We took our time and played a bit where we could sneak in but mostly we just had fun going down the many rapids. Near the end of the river we came up on Hellhole, a steep surfing wave. We were impressed when bob hopped in and got in a great surf

i think everyone had a great day and really enjoyed this river. The scenery was beautiful, we had great people leading us through tricky rapids and all of us felt this might have been the best river we’d ever run… we’ll most definitely be back!!! We ended the night with a yummy mexican dinner in a nearby town whcih included the quickest visit to Georgia ever (Bob had never been). Finishing the night with our usual drive home and trek up to the cabin and quickly going to bed due to the late hour.

Our last morning in NC was a bit more mellow as we had a long drive ahead of us. We scouted out a park and play spot just outside of Sylva where we encountered some really pretty butterflies along the tuck river. We decided not to paddle so we could get home at a somewhat decent hour. The drive home went pretty quickly by playing whitewater jeopardy and passing the honest ball around the car

A Big thanks go out to all who came along – there’s really nothing like a great weekend of great whitewater paddling with a super group of people! Here’s hoping i can get down there again…

So the morning shed light on just how wonderful the cabin was (despite that evil driveway). The sun shone in on us and we were able to fully appreciate the lovely waterfall in the front yard and front porch overlooking it and the valley (pics in the previous post). We weren’t able to stick around to enjoy it for long as we had to get on the river!

Our river for the day was the French Broad. Many of us hadn’t paddled it before so it was going to be a fun day, especially with the much warmer water and the toasty day. The river is located about an hour and half north and east of Sylva but still in and around the Smoky Mountains. Every area we go to is more of the same, wonderfully green mountains (really very large hills) with very fun windy roads where i try to make folks sick with my driving haha. The putin is located in the small town of Hot Springs which also happens to be right by the AT (the nanty is also right off the AT) so we’ve been seeing a lot of through hikers which is kind of cool thinking about what they are attempting (and reminding me of Weeks).

(pat and his PB & DB which i was converted to after trying although i even added honey- PBHDP- mmm pickles!)
Our paddle was full of playspots for surfing and the usual stern squirts and bow stall fun. We ended up with a bit of a quandry as we got to what we thought was the half way point at 4pm. We’d been on the water for a few hours and we started to wonder just how much further we had to go. We asked a raft guide bus driver and he said we had 4-5 miles yet, which was suprising to us and made a few folks nervous. We decided to keep paddling and just push hard to make sure we were defintely off the river before sunset. We did hit a bit of a flat patch but since we were paddling so fast it went fairly quickly. All the rapids seemed fairly straight forward alhtough we did sneak the last one (a class IV). We made it to the takeout at about 6:00 so we really had nothing to worry about it!

Larry B had to take off for home to get back to his family, and we all were getting hungry so we decided to head to a cute restaurant we’d seen on the way to the river. I was driving up the windy mountain roads when all of a sudden i felt a strong stinging pain in my back, and i assumed i was stung by something. After making sure i didn’t drive us off the road, i had Diana and Steve check my back and put on Benadryl to the sting point as i tried not to kill us – as i was still driving during this whole process. After 10 minutes (of some more stinging) we arrive at GRITS (Girls Raised In The South) where we’d planned on having dinner. As I got out of my car i found the culprit to my pain – a wasp was crawling around my seat (still alive). I let him go – i didn’t hold it against him seeing as i how i probably sat back on him in the first place. The restaurant was supposed to close at 8 and we were lucky enough that they stayed open to serve us, so we got to enjoy some good southern cooking including yummy sweet tea, okra and friend green tomatoes! After a food coma induced drive back to Sylva, we put in our nightly hike up the driveway. Due to the late hour, most of us passed out within minutes for another good nights rest.

So we ended up leaving for the trip on thursday night and made some good time. We were lucky enough to have an offer for an overnight stop in Kentucky so at 2am we rolled into Pat’s in-laws and passed out for 4 hours. After a groggy wake up call, we drove on for a few more hours. We got to North Carolina and the Nantahala river – our destination for the day, only an hour or so after we told our friends we’d be there (sorry Larrys!).

After all that driving we were definitely ready to get moving and get on the river. We were about to be woken up pretty quickly – the Nantahala is dam released and the water comes from the bottom of the dam so its COLD (about 45 degrees). Our group enjoyed a nice easy paddle, enjoying the views and playing wherever possible while rolling as little as possible due to the chilly water. For many of us this was the first real river we’d paddled in long time, and for Bob this was the first non beginner trip besides his visits to East Race, so it was a great warm up for most of the group.

The hardest rapid (Nantahala Falls) was at the very end and it provided some good opportunities to practice our rolls. Some of us (ok me – see picture to see where NOT to go haha) missed the line and I decided this was a great time to practice hitting lines so i ran it 2 more times, I finally hit the line i wanted on the last run. That rapid ended the run so we enjoyed a wonderful meal at the NOC restaurant River’s End (try the sherpa meals they are great!) which has a wonderful view of the river.

We said goodbye to Larry S and headed off to find the cabin we’d be staying in the next 3 nights just outside Sylva, NC. We wind our way up a mountain road following the directions we were given to find our cabin. I was a little worried about the creek crossing, but that ended up being the easy part about getting to the cabin. I was in the lead (aka guinea pig) and it didn’t bode well when my first attempt at getting up the mountain road failed miserably. We reread the instructions and made sure we got a good run at the hill (imagine at least 8% grade with all pea gravel and a drop on one side with a creek just a foot off the road). Once again my trusty prius proved it always thinks it knows best. My problem was that my car could tell i was losing traction and would cut my engine power (to presumably gain traction again) but that meant we lost all momentum and ability to get up the mountain driveway. After many failed attempts (and me completely losing it) we finally decided to let Larry B and Pat attempt to get up the drive. Their vehicles apparently don’t think they know best and allowed them to make it up the hill. We ended up loading up larry’s element to get all of our stuff to the cabin. I admittedly broke down during this whole process and was mad at my car and the stupid driveway so it took me a while to calm down but eventually all was well… we all were so tired that we all went to bed fairly quickly.

The first picture is looking down at my prius from the cabin driveway and the second is of the cabin itself.

it was a great workout walking up and down each day! You can also see the creek we had to drive over in the background.

The rest of the pics are of the wonderful waterfall that was basically in our front yard.