So, it seems that this time every week is update on what has happened since the last blog post. I don't know if I can call it completely a weekend update, since boating ended last Sunday, and then started again on Tuesday of this week with a Dawn Patrol run of Fike Run with Chris Heim and Christian Figeroa-Tyler. I finally was able to use my GoPro HD for myself, and I shot a little video breakdown in 2x of all of the rapids. Fikes is quickly becoming my favorite run in the area. Relaxing, no consequences, and lots of fun. Unless you run the Room of Doom incorrectly, then it isn't so much fun.
So that was Tuesday, but like the precedent I set when I started the blog that I would break it down day by day, so here it goes.
Thursday, February 24th
Calls from Brenton Petrillo of River Left Productions and John Quigley about crashing at my place come in, and I oblige. John and Brian Bridgewater drive up from Virginia Tech/Marshall to our Thursday night pool session, and Brenton comes in late Thursday night to crash with high hopes for the morning. The pool session was a blast, as we were messing around and having a great time doing stupid things in the pool. The plan of the boys was to wake up, at 5am and meet a few people from all over to fire up High Ridge Run. A toast was made at 11:11 with stouts for stouts, and we chilled for a bit before heading to bed.
Friday, February 25th
Brian, John, and Brenton wake up at 5am on a few hours of sleep to only have their start time pushed back. Everyone ends up waking up at 6:40 and heading out at 7:00 to meet their crew in the Canaan. I stayed awake watching gauges as I was amped as well for an awesome weekend. I later headed to my seminar class, already loaded up to head out and boat afterwards. Chris Heim met me at noon and we headed to Fikes to meet some friends. On the way, we picked up my good friend Clark and got ready to fire up Fikes with Matt Bernstein and Jeff Blood, who had missed out on running HRR and boated Roaring Creek in the morning. FYI: Roaring has lots of wood. Fikes was running at a foot and half, and it was a great ride. At the put in, we ran into Christian, Ernie, and Paula. Ernie, coming off a broken wrist this past fall stomped his first creek run of the year. After the quick run down Fikes, we headed over for a higher than normal water run on Muddy Creek. We spent some time debating whether or not to run Daugherty Run instead of Muddy, but with the water level and wood situation in the creek, and not to mention Jesse Wilson joined us and the group kept getting bigger, so Muddy was the run to hit. Plus it was getting late and Daugherty would have run the risk of losing daylight.
Like I've said before, Muddy is a great run, despite the AMD. This day, we also had to worry about the ever present trees on the run. Like the previous runs on Muddy, there was a few tree dodging spot. The trickiest of the spots on usual flows was pretty sketchy and slowed the group up, however I decided to probe a line through the strainer. I made it through alright, with a hard low brace and breaking a 2" thick branch at the same time, Chris and Jeff followed and we took off towards the takeout. I also finally nailed the boof on the run that I was hoping to hit, and finally had enough water to make it feasible. The rest of the group boogied down behind us after they got hung up by the tree and met us at the takeout. We all loaded up and headed on our way.
The crew at the bottom of Muddy Falls slide
Chris, Matt, and I met Liz at Ledo Pizza for a delicious dinner and some relaxing. Chris had plans of the North Fork of the Blackwater with Blood in the morning, and Matt and I were still game planning what was going to happen. All the while, my friend John Rossini drove down from the Lehigh area to have a West Virginia adventure. John made it in around 9ish, and we hung out for a bit, watching so kayak porn, and then went to sleep as we had a busy day ahead of us. Also, the HRR crew hadn't contacted us that they had made it off the river, and we couldn't get anyone to respond. Turns out, they hit Otter Creek, it flashed, and they had an epic day that didn't finish until 11pm. We're all glad they made it out ok, as we were all quite worried they would be spending the night in the wilderness.
Saturday, February 26th
We rallied to groups together to meet at Fikes at 9am to start our day. Matt, Katie, and Clark ran together, and I took John and Laura down with my group as to not junk up the eddies. John was my guinea pig on Fikes, as I wanted to see if I knew it well enough to take people down it and lead. The level was down from the day before to about 8" on the painted gauge, not a bad level, but after running it was more water the day before some of the moves ended up drying out. We ran two laps on Fikes, loaded up the River Princess with all of the boats and headed up to hit Meadow Run. Everyone had great lines, and we ran two laps on it at 1'. I'm still learning the ins and outs of that river, but I do know now that at 7 foot falls, you can't go too far left. It's been a mental thing that I think too far left you'll dry out, but now I know. We didn't scout any of it, and I'm sure John was quite surprised his first lap down when we said go through the left hump, keep going left, and boof at the bottom when we ran Cascade. What a great run! Matt fired up the Slide once, and had a pretty good line. I finally had the chance to to meet someone I have been wanting to for a while, fellow Mountaineer boater, Matt Pascal. After changing, we headed to Falls City Pub for some Post Boating Refreshments and some pub burgers. We chilled for a while, then headed back to my place for some sleep. Got a call from Chris late that night that his group did not get on the NF Blackwater, but instead fired up the epic Otter Creek and had a great time.
John and Katie hiking into Fike Run:
John taking the easy way down to the put in:
John running one of the slides on Fikes:
Laura running the slide as well:
Matt on the Cascades:
Reverse boof!
Laura on the Cascades:
And firing up the boof
John entering the Cascade:
Getting ready....
...and BOOF! John sticking the landing on Cascades.
John somewhere in the foam at 7 Foot Falls:
Sunday, February 27th
Long days of paddling, like Friday and Saturday can really start to wear on you. For the record, I have paddled 12 days in February with a total of 20 runs down different creeks. Compare that to June, July, and August of 2010 where I only got in 13 days of boating in total. We could have pushed ourselves for a lot more today, but when checking the gauges, the creeks had dropped too low and the rivers, specifically the Top Yough and Lower Big Sandy were still running too high for our comfort. We decided that the Middle Fork would be the best bet, although it was running at 4.3' and higher than Laura and I had ever done it. I dubbed today's trip the "Mental" Fork since I swam twice on the Middle Fork my only other time down it, and then swam again in the Tygart Gorge on our way to the takeout at a lower level.
Personally, I feel that the whole Tygart river system is overlooked by a lot of out of towners. Most people, in my opinion know about the New, Cheat, and Gauley rivers, but not as much about the Tygart. The Middle Fork is a tributary of the Tygart that dumps into the bottom half of the Tygart Gorge section. This gave us a great wrap-up to John's WV Adventure. Start off with 3 miles of nice pool drop rapids followed by 4 miles of big water, as the rain had the Gorge going pretty good. Clean lines and 60 degrees made a great wrap up for the trip. I got over my mental fear of the Middle Fork, and we had a blast.
Chris Loves to Boof the first rapid on the Middle Fork
So does Laura:
John does too!
The slot on S-Turn that Chris fired up: (Center-left rock pile)
John and Laura scouting S-Turn:
A beefy hole in Shoulder Snapper
A very happy, tired John after the 3/4 mile hike out from the Tygart Gorge:
Just for your entertainment, here's a nice shot of Moats Falls on Arden
So that about wraps it up. here's a little video. Didn't shoot much this weekend, but did have the chance for some footage.
Weekend Recap (Sorry it's not in HD, I used that up on Vimeo. I'll be getting Vimeo PLUS soon so more and longer HD videos for y'all!)
SYOTR,
Radley
"You can't go too far left" at 7-foot could be interpreted in several ways. If you mean that one ought not go too far to the left, I agree.
ReplyDeleteAt high levels, it's tempting to shoot far left to keep yourself from the stickiest part of the hole, but I assure you that going too far left is no good. It entails lots of rock smacking, and then you just bounce into the hole you're trying to avoid.
I don't know how you guys ran it, but from my experiences, 7-foot is typically run from river right, with a right hand turn just before the boof. Next time, try the river left line. It lines you up so you don't need to turn, your boof timing is easier and more dramatic, and going too far left is pretty much out of the realm of possibility. Just hug the far river left rocks, and be ready for a few f-u rocks just before you get to the falls.
Your photo underneath the caption "Getting ready" is worthy of a frame. The Black Bear in Morgantown used to have a local photo contest; if they still do it, you should enter this shot.
Thanks for the info Matt! If I find out the info for the Black Bear photo contest, I'll be sure to enter it.
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