Saturday, January 11, 2014

2013 review

the beginning of 2014 started with me breaking my collarbone playing indoor soccer.i should know better then to get that competitive,but i am not that smart.with this down time i can ramble on about a few of whitewater adventures i had this past year.which was one of the slowest years i have had on whitewater.Many factors are limiting my time on the water,,the main reason is last year we bought a new home,,well new home to us..a1870 farm house on 4 and half acres with more projects then i can count,also my kids are at a great age [ 6 and 2 ] they are so fun to be with,my desire to go away every weekend to West Virginia is not as great as it ones was,,i am looking[more] forward to sharing memories with my kids on rivers  then the next class V adventure,but if you were ever an aquaholic at one time like me,we still need to get out and scratch that itch.i have been getting out locally when the water levels are favorable to hold me over.one unique experience i had with my neighbor as copilot this spring was a first , last,and only D of a raft over the sheraton dam on the cuyahoga,,the dam got removed about 3 months after this decent  pic of below the dam
i only got out of ohio 4 times in 2013 for whitewater,, first was top yough race weekend were i packed 2 upperY and 5 topY in two days,,next was cheatfest weekend,only missed one fest in 15 years,always a great time,catching up with friends and usually great water levels,,this year levels were normal but 2012 levels provided us with the best two days anyone could ask for in the blackwater canyon,,i did two laps on the upperB to hendricks with big flow on lowerB,then two laps on northfork of the B sunday.
with alot of work around our new home and bike rides with the kids i did not get out of state again until my friend Jeff talked me into a well needed trip to NY,,labor day weekend in adirondacks is a guaranteed good time,,4 of us car pooled from Eire Pa 7 hours north to meet up with alot of other fellow paddler and friends..at soft maple campground,,one of the best camp site there is ,,,,the first river we did was the Black,,pfd for me,my favorite run of the weekend,manly because it was new to me,,,,nothing like a new river..the Black might not be as popular as the moose and other rivers in the area but it still has alot to offer ,,with it urban fell,,reminded me of my favorite local run


also we did the raquette and beaver river,,on my first run of the eagle section,i realized i am getting old as i pulled my stomach muscle when the water forced me back as i went through the main hole,,with me being stubborn and this section being as fun as it is,,i went one more time with pain,,,with this old man injury i was able to paddle on one side but not the other,,,,then we paddled back to camp after a pit stop at the rope swing,that i had to sit out this year 


even though i did not have the best of lines this weekend,,i had a great time with great friends.

the last weekend out for me was gauley fest....i started going to gauley fest before ever kayaking and i haven't missed one yet..back when me and friends went rafting commercially afew times a year,,we were on a upper gauly trip when the guide told us about some river festival[big party]so we checked it out and we were hooked. since then we have always had a group of friends party at the festival..3 of us from that original raft trip did not miss a fest until recently when John moved to Oregon with his wife that he met at gauley fest afew years ago,but that is a whole story on its own.

third year or so,i bought a used bucket bailing raft and have took many friends down the lower G,then about 5 years ago i  got a shredder with my friend Jason and we tested it out a week after getting it on the upper G,,
and been only using the shredder since then,,taking one friend at a time down the upper or lower G the weekend of G fest.
this year i thought it would be fun to take more then just two friends down,so i lined up 4 friends for sat and 4 other friends for sun...Friday quickly loaded gear after work for weekend ,,Saturday drove to swiss[the take out] to meet up with now 5 friends,,6 of us piled in my focus wagon to the put in.we all got dressed for the river and started to blow the raft up when i noticed the mouse size hole in the raft.
my crew seemed fine not be able to go down the river and just go back to the fest and drink,,2 of them,i think were relieved after me telling them stores of what happen the last time i took friends down the lower G above 5000 cfs,,,while we were driving to the put in..........we gave up and started to drive away,,when i saw my friend that i  just did a road trip to NY with,, Mike Bailey.i stopped to BS with Mike and told him i was going to take my friends down but i cant,my raft cant be riverside fixed,,he replied ,,just take mine,its down by the river,,me really with eyes open wide ,,mike,,, sure it will save my friends from carrying it up,,,,,timing could not work out any better,it was a gauley miracle,,,the knots in my friends stomach come back and we were on our way.
we had a clean ride except for not being able to get right after the big wave on lower mash,,i yelled,, dig ,,dig,,  ow shit ,high side,high side,,,,,and as we were stuck on the rocks, i saw a raft coming strait for us,,,i know the saying the captain is should go down with the ship,,,not this guy,,i jumped to the other raft,,never getting my face wet,,as i watch the raft flip,,we gathered our crew up with some help of our new friends from Tennessee as we floated the rest of the river trouble free

Sunday Mike hooked me and my other 4 friends up,as we floated down the new river gorge,,this was the first time i played raft guide on the NRG but wont be the last,,alot of fun for rafting ,tubing and swimming.3 of my friends walked back up fayette station and swam as i tubed the rapid.

in dec with snow melting and rain falling,my friend Jeff met up with me for the best day of kayaking anyone could have in ohio,we got tinkers creek at 1000cfs,the trib when tinkers was at 1600cfs and then did a first D on a near by micro that ended up being a fun class 3+ creek