Standing on the shores of the huge McCoy rapid and looking at the thundering swells of this gigantic Ottawa River from my little Kingpin Icon, I felt so ready. Ready to conquer, ready to continue where I left off last year.
The rivers of southern Chile have now replaced those of Costa Rica and a few closer to home, like the Chattooga and New River Gorge, in my affections. I splurged and spent a major portion of my carefully saved dollars on an NOC trip to Patagonia in February, and had the best paddling vacation yet. I'll try not to gush too much, but here are some of the details and highlights.
Eno River Trip ReportNovember 11, 2009. As the remnants of tropical storm Ida worked their way across the state, it was clear that something was going to be flowing in the Triangle. However, there did seem to be a whole lot of rain coming down pretty consistently since yesterday afternoon, and I had some concern about too much of a good thing. So, my approach was to be pretty conservative. Upper Nantahala 2009Just let anyone who's thinking about running the Upper Nanty at 800cfs know… it's a blast! We ran it two weeks ago and had an awesome time. Cheoah 2010Six paddlers met at O'Henry's put-in around 11 AM Saturday to take on the Cheoah. We had a good group – Chris Grindstaff, Eric Stuart, Matt Beauchamp, Jenis Grindstaff, Tim Tuttle, and myself. I had paddled with everyone except Tim before, and was really looking forward to a great day on a challenging river. This was to be Jenis's first time and my second down the Cheoah. The weather was great – sunny skies and warm temperatures. |
