James River, Balcony Falls – Bob Morris
| River: | James |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 06/12/2004 |
The Group:
K-1: Marilyn Agney, Larry Ausley, Bob Bruckner, Dan Cox, Nancy Guthrie, Katie Livengood, Jeff Plueger, Dan Reed, Edwin Talley, Bob Morris, Joe Slater; OC-1: John Lea, Donna Spoon; OC-2: Rich Ruhlen & Sarah Ruhlen
I was very concerned about 4 to 5 days before the trip because the level was at 6 ft. This is too much for a novice trip, and was wondering if I needed to cancel or have to decide who would be OK to go. I was glad to see the level coast down to a nice 4ft level which is OK for novices though a bit pushy as indicated by the number of rolls and swims.
We started out by losing Bob Bruckner somewhere around Lynchburg on the trip up to the river, but he got to the put-in before we did. Of course, we did stop at the take-out to set the shuttle before continuing to the put-in. I wasn’t worried about Bob, since he knew the way.
No one swam in the confluence rapid, so I was feeling good about that — though we had one roll in the eddy above the drop. [Editor’s note: Eddies claimed many victims that day, or rather, claimed the same victim many times.]
Below Balcony Falls I had the chance to try out my boat hauling safety line — hadn’t done that in years. Do not see many of these anymore. I remember some rescue clinic years ago that recommended this idea.
We talked to some campers just down stream of BF and they were telling us that last weekend they were camped in the same spot, but the river was at 7 ft. They watched a lot of boaters swim by. They mentioned that a lot of swimmers looked at them as if they should help, but they were not about to do a rescue at that level.
At 4 ft most people cannot surf Balcony Falls, and you surely will not do any elevator moves on the Falls. Past trips for this time of year have been more like 2 ft level which I like better for a large group and with boaters I do not know. Water temp was very nice at about 72.
Overall we did have a few swims. Donna scared me a bit by sinking her OC-1 and getting stuck in a hole while side-surfing. I was wondering how we were going to solve this one. I was glad when John came to the rescue and easily extracted the boat.
We stopped at jumping-rock for a while to watch some tubers, but no one was inclined to join them. I like to jump in hot weather, but it was on the cloudy/cool side today. I thought for sure that Marilyn would want to do a seal-launch off the big rock, but no…
I did realize that I should have asked for a volunteer to run sweep after a while — 13 other boats are too much to keep up with.
The wind was good to us on the lake paddle to the take-out. It wasn’t downstream, but at least there were no white-caps.
Joe Slater won the prize for the longest K-1 anyone had seen for a while.
The shuttle back to the put-in was interesting. Edwin Talley’s car was loaded to overflow. Two people in the front passenger seat meant for one. Four in the back seat that was meant for three; and two or three more in the tail gate area. We also took two extra drivers not in our group. We really should have had a photo of this. Edwin went very slowly — I think we had a good line of cars behind us after a while.
Finally we lost Larry and Nancy on the way to the restaurant in Madison Heights — unfortunately La Carreta is hidden behind a KFC, so if you don’t know it’s there you’ll never see it. I guess I am going to have to review the principles of shuttles & convoys next time – i.e., that you should not lose the car behind you in a convoy.
Thanks to all in the group. You made my job as trip coordinator enjoyable.
River Info: USGS gauge at Buchanan, VA.
Glenn Rose of JRBCL reports canoeing-zero equal to Buchanan gauge minus 2 ft. The Buchanan gauge is very nearly equal to the old wooden gauge on river left downstream about 0.5 mile from the confluence rapid. Today it was very close to 4 ft.If you want more general info on the James and nearby rivers see www.canoevirginia.com/. Click on Information for river levels. This web page is run by Glenn Rose who has been running a canoe livery along the Maury R. for many years.