Murphy's Law definitely presided over MurPHEST. We may have to change the name next year.
We arrived Thursday night at camp and the rain came. Camp was great with two of our old friends from New York (Mike and Billy) and 4 of their other friends (Pedro, Rope, Phil, and Duncan) that joined them this year.
Jason contacted me Wednesday regarding this trip. As luck would have it I had not commercial trips to work. Jed also joined us at the put-in. Jed showed Jason several cool new lines as we ran the river. It took nearly two hours or more to reach Goforth as we worked the river. The second half was run more directly. It was a fun day for all.
We had some rains the week before the trip so the flows in the high country area were good. We decided to run the class I-II section of the Watauga River. I had been wanted to run this section of river for several years and never had any luck catching it at a good level. We had 8 on the trip. We had 3 tandum canoes – Keith and Theresa Raker, Chris Campbell and Taylor, John and Jamie. Melinda was in an OC1 and Diane was in a Kayak. The level was a fluffy 650 cfs. The 8 of us ended up running about 4 miles upstream of 321.
Most of my trips go so smoothly that they are boring to read about. If you're on the trip, this is usually a good thing. We had a sunny day with blue skies and 1240 cfs on the Embreeville gauge. The group started out with 6 (Liz, Wes, Mort, Gary, Peter and myself) but grew to 9 by the time we were paddling with the additions of Robert, Gretchen, and Suzanne.
Initially planned as a Saturday trip to the Pony Pasture on the James, water levels and other commitments shifted the trip to Sunday. The James was in too high for a novice trip so after checking regional gages the group decided on the middle Haw as a fallback.
The river levels, water temps, and weather all came together perfectly for a nice, relaxed day. In addition to the usual scenery we saw lots of wildlife, including bald eagles, ospreys, herons, and the odd snake basking riverside.
Today the level was similar to a low summer release. Tom and Florrie joined me for a lap down the lower green. It was fun but scrappy. Play hole is really playful at this level and worth some park and play.
The river level is slowly dropping. Unless the power house is repaired or there is more ran next week might be iffy.
We had abigger group of five today with some novice boaters. The weather was almost hot and the river was refreshing. There were only a few swims and alsmost everyone tried something new.
Tuesday, May 9th was a great day to be on the water. The level was just over a typical 100%. No novices showed up but David, Merriddee, and I had fun catchin eddies, surfing waves and making attainments. Looking forward to the next two days as well.
Saturday was wet cool and cloudy but Joe Marincel showed up for some more Ocoee fun. We ran two laps before we were cold and hungry but river traffic was fun and we worked several of the fun challenge moves along the way. Sunday was much more sunny but a little cool. River traffic picked up a bit and the Kellogg Show infested all the play sopts etc as they paddled down the river; they cause many of us to laugh and smile. Those kids surfed everything on the rive including Double Suck.
Raft and kayak traffic were even lower than expected. Joe Marincel met me early at the take-out Saturday morning. We ran two laps together. Joe got soe great combat rolls in Table Saw. I ran a third lap solo in the afternoon and tested the depth of Hell's Half Mile; it is still very shallow but my helmet still works quite well. Saturday night at my outpost the kids got a little noisy but I still got up early Sunday to eat and go kayak. The kids wrecked their raft at Grumpy's with a hit so hard the trainer nearly got ejected.
