Sally was my tandem partner in the stern of the Reflection, and boy, did she ever impress. She was such a natural at it, we were making eddy turns and ferries before the first set of ledges. It was a super fun day with no unintended swimming! Daniel Boone led the trip for TSRA, primarily so that folks who'd gone through the paddling clinic could get practice.
John and I went down to the Hiwassee to help out in TSRA's Canoe and Kayak School. I was put with Rob Welch to teach solo canoing, and I think we were the only class for solo canoe. We had five people in class the first day, and only three the second day. Besides Rob and I, there were two other seasoned paddlers in our group for extra safety. As usual it was a young, petite woman (Lindsay) who was the standout student, working on understanding the water and finessing the paddle rather than trying to power and muscle through everything. She reminds me a lot of myself at that age... :)
Here we are "rafted up" for a companionable float through the waves of Devil's Shoals:
This was Saturday of the TSRA Whitewater Rendezvous weekend. Friday John paddled White's Creek (Rhea County) at 1.5 feet, in the rain; I opted for working on my boat and catching up with a book beside the fire in the Wigwam.
Saturday the rain was supposed to stop and the skies clear; instead we looked at a cool and damp day – the high temperature was no more than in the low 50's. From the previous two days of rain the level was high, peaking at about 5,000 cfs on the Emory at Oakdale gage.
Our group had seventeen paddlers, led by Trent with assistance from Bob and Jean, Robert, and Gene. Also on the trip were Chuck (who wrote this trip report), Gretchen, another Melissa, Patricia, Lauren, and Deborah. The river was swollen, but not out of its banks. Often the current did run through trees; eddies were dynamic; and the flat water often had swirls and whirlpools. The most stable current was in the rapids. There were no beaches for getting in and out of boats easily.
Trent led us down the first two rapids; all in the group had clean lines. On the third rapid the fun started; from there until the last quarter mile of the five mile run, we had a swim at nearly every rapid! At an unnamed rapid that required a right to left move, we had a swim just above a stand of trees that was flooded. The swimmer made it to shore but the boat traveled into the stand where it broached on a tree. A rescuer went after the boat and lost his boat to a tree, too. All were safe, but it took some time to free both boats.
As we headed downstream, one of our group who'd had more than one swim was getting dangerously cold. We all stopped at the next river right eddy and got her to shore. We changed her into dry clothes (with three shirts and a polartec fleece cap from my drybag) and built a small fire with heat tabs. I'd left my usual hypothermia kit at home, but Jean gave her some handwarmers to put inside her (my) shirt and I gave her an energy gel packet. With the fire David also made a pot of soup and was able to stop the advance of hypothermia. She was not, however, able to effectively paddle so David borrowed my paddle and he and Trent rafted up with her for the rest of the run. I paddled the rest of the river with my spare, an old aluminum rafting paddle with a loose T-grip. Must remember to take a different spare paddle from now on.
Keys on the Boat
Soon we were at the rapid with the dangerous undercut rock on the river right channel. We were able to work to the left, and most of us ran the river left channel, completely missing the rock. Bob caught a mid-stream eddy on the left channel and was helping to direct traffic. As I paddled past Bob I noticed that he had lost his paddle; how, I still don't know. He set out to retrieve his paddle, literally hand paddling. Thanks to others in the group, his paddle was both recovered and restored to him.
Thankfully Bob did not flip. Bob had mentioned earlier that he misplaced his keys; he thought that they were on his truck. The keys were on his kayak for two thirds of the run, sitting behind the rear of his cockpit. The way he'd parked, if he'd lost his keys there were some other vehicles that might have been trapped behind his.
Hypothermia strikes again
As we continued to paddle to the Jett Bridge, another member of our group succumbed to the early stages of hypothermia. She decided that she could not paddle and had to hike out (wearing the other balaclava from my drybag, which was now approximately empty). At that point we were at about the 4.5 mile mark, with half a mile to the take-out. The plan was that she would walk out with her husband; we would leave their boats and paddles on the river left bank.
Down to Jett Bridge
The fifteen of us headed downstream and paddled well through the last set of rapids, including the rapid through the large rocks. Soon we were within sight of the Jett Bridge; there was a collective sigh of relief -- we made it to the take-out before dark!
As soon as we hit land, Trent and Patricia changed into dry clothes and prepared to hike back to our comrades. They brought with them first aid gear and dry clothes and food; Patricia is an EMT. Trent and Patricia set off on the foot trail that works upstream to the large rocks; from there they would hike along the bank until they intercepted the couple walking downstream. Evidently the couple had veered from the river; we worried more and more as twilight came on and no one returned. Eventually, with the benefit of whistles, the four met. Just before 6PM (with about 20 minutes of daylight left) the four walked out of the woods. All were safe and (with the hiking) warm.
While I was living through all this drama, John was paddling Crab Orchard Creek. I'd opted for the easier Clear Creek run because I wasn't sure I had the stamina for a long day in the cold on Crab Orchard; John was back at camp an hour before me. You just never know.
For John's birthday we went to Asheville for the weekend. Chip begged us to take him hiking in Pisgah, so we started on Cat Gap trail from the fish hatchery. This is a trail I started a few times when I was young, but never finished. This time we went all the way up to John Rock, one of the best lookout places ever!
Highs were in the upper 50s, flow was at 400/2500 cfs (Lilly/Oakdale gages) which compares to 800/3000 cfs when we did this run last year. So why did it seem pushier this time? Something wore me out, but maybe it was more the wind than the water. I was so tired and hungry that I had to stop the trip for a bite and a little rest before entering Widowmaker rapid. I was on my last half-calorie of energy and it felt like I just couldn't pull off one more turn or ferry if I had to! The group we were paddling with this time (David and Chris from last year, plus Larry, another Dave, and several others) didn't play at any of the usual spots, which is typically my chance to bail water, drink water, eat... I was killing myself to stay up with them. John was astounded that he was missing all the surfing fun just to stay in the group, but I was too nervous to just let them go and finish with only the two of us. I was amazed that none of the supermen EVER needed to hydrate or pee, nor did they seem aware of an open canoeist's need to bail, they just kept going without looking back to see whether someone was left behind. Bejeezers! Finally I had to just lay into it with my whistle to get them to eddy out. One Cliff bar later I was fine, but I guess this proves that I don't have the stamina to solo BSF--at least, not with the rush-to-finish kind of crowd.
The hike was pretty short, from Sawmill trailhead on Slave Falls trail to Jake's place. Hikers were Walter, Bill, Russ, Chris, Cheryl, John, Chip and me. It was a great trip for my first winter backpack, and my first time out with my new pack. Everybody says to wear the weight on the pointy tops of my hips but the problem with that is, they're pointy and there's weight on them. So my only "ouches" from the trip are bruised hip points, but I guess that ain't too bad. It's just that it's difficult to sleep on the ground on my bruised hips, and impossible to sleep on my back. It would have been a really long night without my mp3 player.
John and I had to run this one by ourselves, but it was fun anyway. 350 cfs at Lilly. Didn't have to wait in line to play anywhere. The first people we saw were at the take-out, one wanting a shuttle to Nemo. Bob O. had shuttled us from the ranger station, so we were happy to pay it forward. It turned out that he was a TSRA member and knows Eric. Poor Eric. He was all packed up to paddle today, got up at OhMyGodThirty in the morning, and then remembered he had to go to work.
Ellen, Chip and I joined the Second Saturday Striders on a short House Mountain outing.
John, Chip and I joined the Harvey Broome Group of the Sierra Club on an outing to the Rock Creek Section of the Cumberland Trail. It's photochronicled by Ron on his Picasa page and on Will Skelton's Picasa page. I could have used a little something extra in my boots this time, since I didn't have enough weight in my pack to make my feet flatten out so much? or swell? I don't know, but they were jiggling on my foot more and I was wearing the same socks as before. Must remember to look at different insoles.
