MWA 2012 SE Beginner/ Intermediate Trip

My two daughters Paige and Desiree are coming on the Southeast trip with me.

If possible, I need to borrow a boat, skirt and paddle for Paige (may be interested in buying) She's 5'6" - 140-150.

Still trying to figure out my boat transportation, but I'm probably just going to take my canoe trailer which with a few mods may be able to haul quite a few kayaks. Anyone have any advice on the optimum bar spacing that works for most whitewater boats?

I'm taking my crew cab pick up and have room for 1 or 2 more riders if anyone wants to share gas.

I have a Freeride 57 or Karnali M you could borrow for the weekend if you wanted. Let me know if you'd like to borrow one of them.

-Raymond

Check and waiver are in the mail.

My Dad and I will be getting in to Turkey Creek campground sometime friday evening. We'll have all the waivers and whatnot with us, too. Looks like they turn the water off at 5 pm. Raymond, how much longer does the surf wave usually run (if any longer)? I'm just trying to decide if an evening surf session warrants leaving super early friday morning.

Thanks,

Rory

Here is the schedule for the Nanty

Nantahala Schedule from Duke

The water is at the falls for 2 hours and 15 minutes after the cutoff and the wave lasts about 5 minutes longer

Bunks etc assigned on first post. SYOTR

Garrett, are we doing diner at Relia's again this trip? If so what night Saturday or Sunday?

Thanks Will

Relia's sounds good, but I'd be up for Pizza By the River (PBR) one night, also. (Friday or Saturday? ) A bunch of people went to PBR during GAF a couple of years ago and said it was a good time.

I don't think I'm interested in Pizza By the River after all. I'm surprised it's still in business.


Relia's and River's End sound good.

Thanks for the "heads up", Raymond.

Wow. I had every intention of eating at PBR while we were there this weekend. Yikes

I won't be able to make the trip, Garrett feel free to give away my bunk.

Sarah

I haven't officially organized anything for diner at this point, I hadn't heard that news before, but we did go to PBR at both GAF and this trip last year. We may try and meet up at Relia's and just have everyone order whatever. I'll look around to see if I can find some good eatin especially for days on the road.

Garrett, couple questions on the rivers. When you say upper Pigeon, do you mean the gorge? What section are you calling the lower? Do you plan to split the group on the Pigeon? The gorge may be a little much for raw beginners. I assume that Clear Creek is off the table for Monday?

For the pigeon, I was referring to walters power plant to the bridge at Hartford with four class III+ and a few class II, or the section below the bridge, though I hear Maytag can be rough at this level. I checked the flow schedule and it doesn't sound like the Pigeon will be running Sunday or Monday.

Clear does look to be too low, unless a big rainstorm hits. I am still quite open to suggestions and will be checking the flows each morning.

Garrett, what you're calling the upper is the gorge. I think that sounds like a fine plan given the available flows. It will involve some driving but we're mobile. I've done it at higher pre-season flows. It was a tick easier than the Ocoee with a continuous feel. Extra caution should be exercised at Lost Guide. Just want people considering it to be aware of what to expect.

Garrett,

Thanks for organizing a fantastic, successful Memorial Day trip, perhaps the MWA's largest ever! I'm sure I speak for everybody when I say it is volunteers like yourself that make the MWA, thank you. Personally, I appreciate all the time and effort you put in to make it easy for me to join the trip without too much planning on my part. Great job on organizing everybody and getting each of us to the right put in every day. I'm glad to hear everybody stayed safe this year, even if there were a few nerve wracking swims. Again, great job, hope to join you again next Memorial Day for another 4 days of great paddling,

SYOTR,
Jonathan

Jonathan-- Maro told me the news and I got to congratulate her but never got to tell you--Congrats on the engagement! Thought I was witnessing an especially tender moment on the middle of the NOC walk bridge from the Rivers edge cafe, and by golly, I was! Wish you guys all the best!

What a fun weekend! Garrett, thanks for leading the Memorial Day trip. It was great to see so many MWA boaters in the SE! Looking down the river on Sunday on the French Broad I think there were about 50 of us...pretty awesome.

It was great to boat the Pigeon for the first time, a really fun fast run! I only wish we had more days to cover more rivers.

Looking forward to next year already.

SYOTR,
Maro

ps, thanks Paula, we are very excited!

Thanks to Garrett and all those who helped out leading, or organizing on this trip. Things went fairly smoothly. I understand I went under a raft on the Ocoee without a swim, so I think that is sort of a milestone in my kayaking.

Thanks and best wishes to Jonathan and Maro!

Big thanks to Garrett for organizing the trip. He did a good job picking rivers! Everyone I rode with had a great weekend.

Here are my thoughts on the rivers:

The Nanty seems to have been improved in a few places since I was out there two years ago. It was fun as usual.

It was my first time on the Pigeon. It was running at 1500 CFS and was good, kinda pushy, kinda fast, hole dodging fun. That narrow rapid (Double Reactionary?) was a blast. I remember skirting the left side of a hole, then paddling hard to go right of another hole, then landing a small boof. Big fun. I think we had around 21 boaters in our group. Thanks to Chuck and Gordon for leading us down. [Note: The "Smokehouse" near the take-out is NOT a barbeque restaurant. ]

It was my first time on the French Broad also, and it was beautiful with wide rapids. It was running at around 1550 CFS and reminded me a little of the Saint, but much wider. It has a good surf wave toward the end of the run. I just briefly got on it, but Bilbo and several others were tearing it up there. As Maro mentioned, there was close to 50 boats on the river. [Note: Avoid Highway 209, AKA “The Rattlesnake Highway” on the way to the put-in. No one in our car got carsick, but it was close! ]

Paddling the Ocoee on Memorial Day was as much about dodging rafts as it was about getting down the river. Very crowded, but fun. I got to see JohnT do a pirouette in one of the early rapids. His Mamba was vertical and I’m pretty sure he came completely out of the water! The MWA’ers were split up into smaller groups this day. I was in a group of eight boaters and even that was too big to stay together sometimes because of the raft traffic. Other times, though, we were running into each other in eddies and knocking each other off waves. Lots of fun.

Four rivers in four days was the most I’ve ever paddled in one stretch. Can’t wait to do it again.

Thanks again for putting on a great trip!

And congratulations to Jonathon and Maro!

Once again thanks Garrett for organizing a great trip. This was our first trip with the club, and we will be doing it again!
Paige started the 1st hour on the Nantahala being "scared as h*ll" to "riding the bull" on the front of a raft on the last half of the Ocoee on Memorial Day.

Thanks Chris Kelly for taking us on the Chattooga which was both the girls' highlight of the trip and for everyone else who helped us make it through the weekend and let us borrow boats (Raymond, Paula, Garrett).

I'll post up some pics from our cheap cameras on my facebook page.

Thanks everyone for coming out on this trip, it was by far the biggest group on any of the trips I've come on. I really want to thank everyone who helped me out with giving advice on what rivers to run and helping get all of the newbies down the river safely, and especially Chris Kelly for leading a group to Chatooga and Chuck and Gordon for volunteering to lead the rest of us down the Pigeon.

Congrats to those newer boaters that got their first combat roll on the trip. I'm glad we had a really fun trip with no injuries this year.
I'm sure I'll have more details to put up in the official report in the next newsletter.

-Garrett B