Weekend on the Tuck
| River: | Tuckaseegee |
| Skill: | Novice |
| Trip Date: | 06/01/2013 |
The Weekend on the Tuck was intended for inexperienced paddlers to improve their skills on a novice level river. My dad, Barry Schmidt, put out the trip and didn't hear from any paddlers wanting to join us, so we set out for Bryson City anyway and set up camp at Smoky Mtn Meadows on Friday. The two of us drove to Gatlinburg and hiked the rather strenuous Ramsey Cascades trail, and after the hike, my dad started getting some phone calls from paddlers. Turns out he had listed the incorrect e-mail address on the CCC site, making it impossible for paddlers to contact him through e-mail. Luckily, his phone number was listed correctly, but being that the error was discovered last minute and we weren't in very good cell phone range made it very hard to set up communication with those wanting to join us. We apologize for this error, and definitely want to share this story with everyone so that you can learn from his mistake–ALWAYS check your contact information when listing a trip!
Nevertheless, we heard some of the paddlers set out to kayak anyway, and we ended up making a roll-practicing day of our trip. The two of us headed to the lake to practice our rolls, and feeling good, we headed to the Tuck Gorge to take our rolls into the current. All in all, it was a great day since both of us hit all of our current rolls, and I'm happy to report that these were my first current rolls ever!
Being pretty tired from endless rolling and the hike the previous day, we broke down camp on Sunday and decided to head home. Again, please know that communication errors can happen at any time, so check your contact information on trips and make sure that you call you trip coordinator if you haven't heard back from a sent e-mail. We're very sorry for any paddlers that had wished to join us and weren't able to.
Julie Schmidt