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6/27 arrived @ campground
6/28 paddled both upper and lower Ocoee in one day. Never mind this was the first day & my paddling “legs” weren’t under me yet. Never mind I brought only the Slasher (which last year I said I wouldn’t bring to WOR again). Yes I rolled some, but who knows how many swims I had. Beat up I still had fun. But, if I bring the Slasher only to big water again, someone please just shoot me. Ocoee was running noticeably higher than I remember during past runs. Really quite awesome.
6/29 paddled French Broad including Kayaker’s Ledge & Frank Bell. Christy Long had an awesome roll in Frank Bell but flipped at the bottom and swam because a well meaning “rescuer” got In the way of her roll. This river also seemed higher than I remember from past trips. Really nice.
6/30 Section III of Chattooga. Again bigger water than I remember from past. Christy again had a great roll at top of Bull Sluice but was off line going over the first drop & flipped. She unfortunately had a face to rock confrontation with decapitation rock. Fortunately no teeth were lost/broken and she paddled the next day despite pain & worry. I was following Christy, horrified when she flipped, exultant when she rolled, horrified on her second flip, forgot about Christy when I flipped, swung out for roll, it didn’t feel right so I tucked in and ran the drops hugging the bottom of my boat rolling up at the bottom. Again, don’t paddle boats you can’t handle on big water.
7/1 I missed a trip to the upper green by getting up too late. Damn!! Marilyn not concerned as she doesn’t like paddling in the rain (this was Bill’s day. Thank you Bill)
7//2 Set out to paddle the lower Green. It was in the trees (dangerous for most of us) and seemed to be just a fast flush down the river w/ most if not all fun spots washed out. Out caravan was spotted by a TV van that followed looking for a story. Susan Eda gave them an interview giving them river safety pointers and why we decided not to paddle.
Went to Ashville to an AWSOME outdoor store, biggest in S.W. NC. Also went to the race course on the French Broad in Ashville. No gates were up. The Broad was really cooking!! Ate at Barleys, a place with lots of real beer on tap and lots more in bottles. They make very good calzonnes.
7/3 set out to paddle Raven Fork. It had all ready dropped. Paddled Oconoluftee (sp?). It was scrappy at the top but became a challenging technical run w/ no consequences and all had a good time.
7/4 The TELLICO!! No need to say more except that it was at a higher level than I’d seen it before. Thanks Bill! Loonng drive back to camp. Got to sleep at 1:00AM next day.
7/5 Wayne Dickert of NOC spent AM with open boaters and PM with kayakers on the Nantahala. I paddled an Esquiff “Zoom”. I found this boat very slooww and hard to control despite outfitting by Mikey, which is the best outfitting I’ve seen short of customed to one person outfitting. Marilyn really liked Esquiff “Prodigy”. It was very light and fast yet still maneuverable. We will watch to see how well this light boat wears.
7/6 Paddled on the Nantahala again and demoed a GTX outfitted as a C-1. I did not like this boat. It is pretty slow and very hard to roll. Made two practice rolls but actually swam once. I think this is because of the one size fits all outfitting that had my knees sliding all over. Marilyn demoed an Outrage and found it to be a heavy tub.
We then spent time w/family who were having a reunion in the area.
During this time I saw someone turning flips in Nantahala Fall in a Liquid Logic boat outfitted as a C-1. I tried to follow him down the river and talk to him: What model? How did he like it? What did he weigh? How was it on the Ocoee (running the rapids. I could see it would be great playing in them). I want to convert a playboat but don’t want to buy something I can’t run rivers with without getting constantly trashed. I had my fill of that on Saturday!! I’m wondering about the difference between the Space Cadet, Pop, Session and Session+. The volume of these boats looks about right for my weight. If any one knows anyone weighing 165-170 who has converted one of these boats, I’d like to talk to them. I’ve been told charging into an eddy in a Session + can be quite an “arresting” experience.
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