High Water Green and a FullOn Weekend

I started the weekend with my friend Matt on the Lower Rocky Broad. When we got to the river, we ran into my friend Corey and his buddy and the four of us paddled together. The river was really fun, a first time for all of us except Corey who had run it once before.

The rapids we a little on the mankier side and there was a bit of banging around, but we all made it down the river safely. Corey took some pictures, but I haven't been able to get them from him, so I'll post them whenever they become available.

After the Rocky Broad, Matt wanted to head to Linville to see old friends, so he dropped me off at the put in for the Green where I met up with my friend Jonathon and his friend Clayton. We put on the river with about 30 minutes of daylight and found the level to be very high. Normally when we run the Green in the summer, the gauge reads around 5.5 inches or 7 inches in the winter. On Friday, the gauge read 18 inches, or 250%.

We bombed down to Gorilla, we all three of us portaged in the interest of time. Gorilla looked insane at that level and I really wish we had more time to scout and set safety so we could run it, we'll get it next time.

After Gorilla, the slides all went pretty quick and the Nutcracker-Groove Tube-Sunshine combo was awesome (also my first time running Sunshine!).

By the time we got to Col. Dick's, it was pitch black out and we had to run the rest of the river in the dark. Hammer Factor is really scary at 250%, especially in the dark. I wish we could have at least scouted that one...

We didn't take any photos on the Green because it was waaaay too dark, but I'm looking forward to getting in there again with good light and high water to showcase some of the 200% lines.

When we arrived at the takeout, I jogged down to Wilderness Cove campground where I rendezvoused with some other friends who gave us a shuttle ride. I stayed with those guys at Wilderness Cove that night and we did some bouldering over in Rumbling Bald on Saturday.

It was really fun to explore the east side of the park at Rumbling Bald and analyze all the different problems out there. Here's some pictures of me in the boys playing on the rocks:

My First Green River Race and Video

There's not really any experience quite like boofing over Gorilla with 1000 people watching. This was my first time racing the Narrows and it was one of the most action packed moments of my life. It was so much fun to get out there and race alongside all of the biggest names in kayaking.

Racers meeting - Photo by Jakob Kafer

Preparing for the race was really difficult. I wasn't very confident about my lines and I didn't have very much experience with running some of the rapids without stopping to set up or catch my breath.

I think the best part of the race was getting over the mental hump of running Gorilla. I ran the drop for the first time in August and had a terrifying experience when I flipped in the notch and barely got it back upright before going off the launch pad.

While training for the race, I mentally forced myself to get over it and build my confidence with my line. Before race week, I had only run it four times. During race week, I ran it another 9 times (4 of which were the day before the race). It wasn't until the day before the race that I felt confident about charging into that thing direct after sprinting the top half of the race course.

Deep Concentration just above The Notch - Photo by Matt Porter

When race day finally came around, I watched all the best kayakers in the world take off and spring through the first few rapids. When my time came, I just tried to tell myself to focus and concentrate.

When I heard the announcer say 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - GO! my adrenaline pumped and I pulled as hard as I could all the way to the finish line. I fumbled around in Frankenstein and ran some unconventional lines through Go Left and Die and Zwick's Backender, but everthing else went pretty smoothly.

A few people hiked in to watch - Photo by Jakob Kafer

When I got to Gorilla I dropped in with 1000 people standing on the shore cheering me on and it made me feel really good. I caught the notch eddy (by accident) and peeled out for a good line through the flume. A second later I was dropping into the next set of slides and a few seconds after that I hit the finish line.

Ahh yes, the monkey - Photo by Matt Porter

After the race I hiked back up and found my friends that had hiked and paddled in to watch the race. It really meant a lot to me that all my best friends were able to be in the gorge with me that day.

I ran Gorilla a couple more times after the race and did my first ever "notch gun" (run the notch, eddy out, shotgun a beer, run gorilla) and that got me really stoked. On my third run of Gorilla, I went for a long ride in the hole at Scream Machine but somehow after a minute or so I was able to rally out of that thing.

I paddled out mostly by myself and met up with Matt and Bo towards the end of the river. When we arrived at the takeout I felt as if I had just conquered the world. It was a really good feeling and now I can't stop thinking about doing it again next year!

Check out this video Matt made during the week leading up to the race:

Green Race 2009 from Matt Porter on Vimeo.

Officer Bonads - nice stache

The Squirl

The People that taught me to paddle

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I guess it's starting to become a popular event?

Southern Fried Overflow

It was Thursday night. Matt and I were sitting at my house watching Golden Eye and we were about to head to the bar downtown. Before we left, I checked the rainfall data and noticed a huge spike in water levels. We didn’t go downtown. We started planning and organizing. At 2:30am, we left Columbia with the greatest of intentions and pointed west towards Brevard NC.

We arrived at Headwaters Outfitters at 6:00am and slept for about two hours in the car. We woke up at 8:30 and drove up the valley to the West Fork of the French Broad.

The West Fork was a lot of fun. There's 3 sizeable slides and a couple other easier rapids. It was our first time and we didn't have a guide, so it was pretty fun to do the ol read and run. We took some video, and I might upload it on here later if Matt ever gets around to editing it.

We arrived at the takeout around 11am and rallied down to Georgia to run Overflow Creek. This is one of the most classic creeks in the SouthEast. I like to compare it to the Green River Narrows, on crack. The foliage was amazing and had us all completely jaded from time to time.

Luckily we had a decent guide who had run it a couple times, but his descriptions of the lines were sparse at best. We made it down in one piece, and I'm so glad we were finally able to get on this Southern Fried Classic.

Dropping into Singley's Falls

Matt, running Hemlock Falls (I think) - this was a sketchy drop with several sideways and backwards descents. Luckily we got through it safely.

Matt and I at the Put-In

Some sweet little mini gorge that I dropped into blind. Such great scenery.

Overflow was run for the first time by a guy named Alan Singley, and he did it by himself. I think that man deserves a beer for that undertaking. Oh yeah, he did it about 30 years ago, before the invention of the modern creek boat. Thank you Mr. Singley.

It's been raining quite a bit here in the SouthEast. With the Green River Narrows Race quickly approaching, it's difficult to stay focused on dialing those lines in. I'm finally feeling more confident about my line over Gorilla and I'm getting really excited to go out and race this coming Saturday. Meet me at the Monkey!

(all photos by Rob Siegel)