fall colors trip, balcony falls
| River: | James |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 10/13/2012 |
Sometimes tradition is a good thing, and I am quite a believer in tradition. Several years ago, while active in another club, we held a ‘fall colors’ run in October on the Balcony Falls section of the James River in Virginia. This year I decided to revive that scenario for CCC.
Several members of CCC and Coastals converged on the put-in for this section Saturday morning, Oct. 13 . Joan Monnig met up with me the night before at the Buena Vista municipal campground. The campground is not a bad one, all things considered, and under normal circumstances. But these were not normal circumstances. We were not told that the facility was hosting an all-night–repeat, ALL NIGHT—benefit softball tournament. Nothing quite compares to the experience of trying to sleep to the occasional ‘ping’ of aluminum bat meeting softball until dawn. Or the gentle glow of the light towers illuminating the field (and a quarter-mile perimeter in which the camping area was part of).
Things improved once we got to the river. I must confess I did not get all the names of the participants, so I apologize in advance for those I omit—I simply was not on top of my game (ping, ping, ping….). Among our participants were Ken Dubel and Alicia Jahsmann(Ken was crucial to helping organize this trip), Joan, myself, Camille Warren, Abi Riak, Eliot Mintzer, Edwin Talley, and Bill Poorboy (back from injury—welcome back, Bill!). Ken brought along an open-boater (Charlie?), and Bill also had a companion whose name I am spacing.
So let’s discuss the paddle. First of all, there wasn’t much color for the colors trip. Most of the trees were still showing green, but on the upside, the weather wasn’t bad at all. The level was low but manageable. It had been several years for me, so I had forgotten most of the features. In a nutshell, there’s about 1 or 2 miles of class ½ whitewater followed by a 2 mile stretch of flat. Some of the participants took advantage of that to work on some of the fundamentals on the way to the takeout.
At the end of the run, some of us had burgers at the Pink Cadillac restaurant near Natural Bridge. Lotta Elvis going on, but food was good.
Now, the old tradition was to combine this trip with the “Garlic Festival” held in Amherst Va. the same weekend. Two of our group held up that tradition, but as 1) I was not among them, and 2) the “Garlic Festival” is held at a vineyard (and so perhaps doesn’t focus entirely on garlic), I will leave that story to other people at another time.
Final analysis: a nice time on a low-impact river with lots of smiling faces at the end of the day.
Ron Miller