It seems that at every CCC event there is always some incident, good or bad, which provokes campfire conversation and laughter. The CCC 2004 Easter Weekend was no exception. As paddlers, there is a new quote that we should all exercise before putting on the river: “Ask questions, assume nothing”. I’m told credit for this goes to Ron Tolley, after a 6 hour trip on the French Broad from Barnard to Stackhouse. It’s a quote, after learning, which I failed to exercise myself before getting on the Nolichucky with 20 paddlers. Never again, it is now my golden rule.

Who: Robert Martin (TL), Jack Shuler, Diane Owens, Ted Jean and Gary Lambert from Florida, Canadian Jack, New York Jim, Buffalo Don, Up State Chris/Rich; Jay Trayler, Pat Glazier, Robert Weddle, and last, but not least, Nate Gulbreth and Todd Corey, with whom I've not gotten to paddle for 2 Obed seasons in a row.

When: March 21-25, 2004

Where: Well, that's a good question …

Dates: April 3 and 4
Location: Wilson's Creek
Levels:

I awoke to the Weather Channel showing a large green blob over the entire eastern Tennessee area. This alone was enough to get my adrenaline up, but I also saw that the Little River in the Smokies was at 350 cfs and rising fast!

I immediately started calling people who knew that when the creeks rise you go paddling, not to work. By 8:00 AM. I had a group: Dave Fox In his Micro 230, Chip Turpin in his still somewhat new Esquif Zoom and me in my Esquif Nitro.

The second installment of the 2004 East Coast surf kayak tour was held at Myrtle Beach.

I arrived on Friday mid-afternoon, and after getting directions to the competition site, met up with about 5 kayakers. We had a good three hour session in about 4 foot swells. No current drift, conditions were excellent.

In order to maximize my time in the water this weekend, I decided to enter three classes – HP (high performance), Open (waveski), and K1 (aka rodeo boating).

WOW! We had a huge turn out for Week of Rivers 2004. I don't have the exact count from the campground yet, but we are all in agreement that considerably more folks attended this year. The staked off areas of the field filled quickly and spilled over into other areas of the open field.