Yes, Fall is here, the summer of 2019 is gone. It was a good one. I am going to ramble a little bit and lay out some thoughts. Disclaimer: This rant will bore 99.9% of people, just skip onto the pics and you will have less chance being bored by my verbiage 😉
MTB: Through the summer of 2019, I have been lucky enough to ride some of my local favorites and even added a new favorite (Yancey). The trails I frequented over the long hot summer: Kitsuma, Head Quarters Mtn., Heartbreak Ridge, Upper Wilson Ridge & Schoolhouse Ridge, Snooks Nose, Raidercamp/Harper Creek, Spencer Branch/Fletcher/Trace Ridge, DuPont and even a Bent Creek ride (thanks Johnny Calhoun). I even managed some Lake James road bike rides. The rule of thumb for the summer was ride close to water so that I could cool down post ride in a clean and refreshing mountain creek – natural ice bath plus a few degrees but still plenty cold. The two coolest, cleanest, and refreshing creeks were Newberry Creek and the headwaters of Harper Creek in Kawana (fountains of youth). The most fun swimming due to depth and cannonball / diveability was Mill Creek upstream from the geyser, Wilson Creek, Linville River, and Gragg Prong. It was an awesome summer! We didn’t get much rain but I got in the water more than I ever have over a summer. I hope to carry that on next summer, etc.
Kayaking: Throughout most of the summer, natural flow paddling has been non-existent since June, but I did manage a late summer Ocoee trip Aug.31 & Sept.1 – I got a Soul-O on the Upper, Olympic and Middle sections Saturday then just the standard Middle Ocoee on Sunday. Late October it finally started raining enough to squeeze in some Wilson Creek runs at varying levels (from 7” down to 0), a Gragg Prong run and a Nolichuky River run. So far, the fall is starting out nicely. I am hoping for more rain, I can’t wait to get up to the Watagua again to paddle with T.O. Dave, Phil, Chris, Dalton bros, Simpson and Joe, and the rest of the regulars I see when I get up to the High Country. That is just a few, there are many more that I could name and plenty that I don’t know since I am not up there that often recently due to the low summertime flows.
I give a shout out to the regulars that I still manage to continue to paddle with when our schedules work out: Ash of course since we still get out as often as possible to bike, paddle or hike, Steven, James and his crew, and Jimmy is back on the scene, Wesley, and Corey. Early summer I even got a text out of the blue from Nikki and we did an afterwork Wilson run at 10 or 11”. I have to admit when I get out paddling the old familiar runs, I always miss my buddies like Terry, Andy, Phil, Chris, Bobby Bouche, Obie and Huggy: R.I.P. and so many more folks that I have had the pleasure of paddling with, sorry that I cant name them all.
As I get older and continue to paddle it is a scene that I would never have expected twenty five years ago in terms of meeting and paddling with strangers. This is one of the reasons I do so many Soul-O runs. Since the mid 90’s, I have usually paddled with a rotating crew and never really needed to branch out much. For over a decade I was chasing the water every weekend with whoever was part of the current crew roster. During the work week when it was wet enough, we were hitting up Wilson, Lower Upper, Doe or Watagua for as many after work runs as we could squeeze in (still try to do the after work runs just not at as high or low levels as I once was willing to run). Even back then I would go on the occasional solo trip up to The New River or the Ocoee and I even took one to the Upper Gauley but usually I would run into a familiar face to a paddle with, meet a new friend and paddle together or hitch a ride and run the river SoulO. The paddling community just wasn't that big and most people were willing to paddle together with the occasional exception. After I moved to Glen Alpine in 1998 and through the 2000’s, most people that I would run into at local runs like Wilson Creek or Watagua, were regulars. College kids would come and go but the regulars were often there. The Green was always a different story being a major stepping stone in terms of big drops, manageable difficulties and the ability to walk the Big 2. When I was going to the Green frequently, there were always a lot of crews that were "in it to win it" or one up man ship which is all good since it helps push the boundaries of the sport but not really a scene I want to be around much. Love to watch the videos of wave-wheeling big drops or whatever is the newest downriver freestyle move but no interest in being in the presence of that much testosterone.
Unfortunately, most of the old crew either quit paddling or moved away. A couple are still paddling but our schedules only line up occasionally. There is also the fact that I have become more selective of river levels and not wanting to paddle with people who tend to swim a lot. It can be kind of risky to paddle with people you don’t know. I have been on both ends of that, worried that the guy I met at the put in is in way over his head and going to have an accident with only me there to help him. Or the shoe is on the other foot and I approach one of the random masses of dudes who now venture out to Wilson nowadays and who may be nervous to paddle with me since they are not sure about my skill level and if I can keep up… Which is valid because I have a hard time not stopping to surf a sweet wave, especially if I am in my Mullet! Which is one more reason I do more SoulO runs at Wilson than meet up with some random dudes... One more reason valid to me, most people prefer to takeout at the normal take out and I hate to miss Screaming Right Turn.
Hopefully 2020 will be a better year for me to fit into some new or existing crews. I broke some new ground this past weekend paddling with a few new friends and hopefully I will be able to paddle with them more in the future.
Bottom line I plan to continue to get out there and do my thing like I have been all these years: If it is too dry to paddle I will continue to turn the cranks, if it is wet enough I will paddle and to fill the voids I will hike. That has been my plan for years and I think I will try to stick with it!
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| Gragg Prong |
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| Yancey Ridge |
