Participants – Ron Chase, Ryan Galway – Shredder, Kenney Decoster OC-1, Craig Mckinnon OC-1, Mason Galway C-1, Sean Green K-1, Tony Lepore K-1, Chris Blauert K-1, Robert Allen K-1, Blil Blauvelt K-1. This was the crew for the big run on the Lower Gauley. We started the day by using the Hills to Hills Shuttle Service run by Adina Joy. Adina did a great job taking care of all of our needs at a reasonable price. We had such a great experience with her that we decided to use her all 4 days we were in the Fayetteville area, and she even kept an eye out for us Saturday night so we didn’t get ticketed or towed downtown. The Lower Gauley was an exhilarating experience. We put in at a couple of rapids above the usual put in giving us a few rapids on the Middle Gauley which gave us a warm up. Soon after we got into the meat of things and had a swim at Backender rapid. Things continued along quite a while after that without incident. We got into a groove and everybody was doing well until we had another swim at Upper Mash. This one was on the longer side and we actually saw this rapid dump two different shredder teams that were not in our group. After getting our swimmer to the eddy on the right at the bottom while catching his breath and shaking his head in disappointment his only response was, “I got mashed.” After collecting everyone we continued on to one final scary swim at the bottom of Pure Screaming Hell. Every one made it through in good shape and slept well that night.
Following the Gauley events Bill and Bob headed home and Mason found a group at the campground to take on the Upper Gauley with. The rest of us headed off to the New for a lower water run at -1 ft. The last time I was here the level was 2 ft and things were significantly bigger! This -1 ft made things more technical and less pushy than our excitement of the day before. The New River Gorge is managed by the National Park Service and preserves a beautiful stretch of river with giant boulders and towering walls reaching over 1000 ft up on each side. The warm water and sunny weather made for a great day and we almost finished without incident if it weren’t for a rapid near the end called Miller’s Folly. At this point everyone was having a dry hair day and people began to try some nontraditional lines through some of the rapids. A kayak entered Miller’s Folly on the right side and narrowly avoided being pushed up against an undercut on the right. The canoe following was not so lucky and got plastered against the rock and the boat got pinned under the undercut rock. We were unable to free the boat due to the dangerous spot it was in so the canoeist was forced to hitch a ride out on the shredder. Following the takeout we headed to the visitor center to report the lost boat. As we pulled into the parking lot we received a call from a ranger who told us someone had retrieved the boat.
Following this run Tony, Chris and Sean headed home and Mason joined up for the retrieval run the next day. All went well. The boat had a rather large dent in it but other than that the rest of the gear was all accounted for. After that run Ron bid us farewell.
The 4 of us returned for one more run on the New. Mason scared us all with a daredevil slide down the put in stairs but made it without incident and the rest of the day was nothing but warm water and great views as we made our day down river.
After the New we drove northeast to the town of Ohiopyle PA. We enjoyed two great days of boating on the lower Yough. Mason ran the falls the first day and Bill Blauvelt joined back up with us for the day on Thursday. We had some great surfing on swimmers and the waves below. Bill challenged us all with some interesting creek lines and we even had one inconsequential swim at dimple rock rapid.
Friday we drove further north and east for the final run of the trip on the Lehigh. Jake Bordeau met up with us and Kenny bid us farewell. We suffered through the first rain of the trip on Friday and Saturday but the group was all smiles with high sloshy water and warm temps. All in all it was an amazing trip with great family and friends in a beautiful outdoor setting. I am forever grateful to this club for making times like this possible. Many thanks to all of the participants for joining me on this adventure.