It was a beautiful day today at the whitewater center. We started up the pumps for the first time this year without a hitch. Guide school started and appeared to have a really good turn out. The conveyor belt is still under construction, but when it does start it should be better than ever. The rocks we removed from the confluence of the instructional channel and the wilderness channel seemed to have removed the awkward currents we have. Biscuits and Gravy has a pretty cool wave, but I think that will change when the water gets higher. The drop at the bridge is still under construction!

Here are some shots of the beautiful weather!

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Dwight N and I got to run the Green River Dries. Although it was a little lower than we had prefered, we still had a blast. Here is Dwight’s write up on the event!

This morning I woke up a 5am and got on the road to meet James Capozzi at Belmont. James would get two PFDs today and one saved for myself too. Little did I know how GREAT today was going to be when I peeled my sleep deprieved body from my bed this morning. Nervous I wasn’t but but I never sleep before I run something new. I lie awake in a half-sleep fashion while wondering if I packed all my gear and wondering how the new run is going to be.

After I meet up with James we headed to the Green Dries which niether of us had run before. Our main intent was to run the Dries through the Upper Green and through the Narrows and take out at Fishtop. We actually made it up to the I-26 connection area sooner than thought so I took James on a detour to see the N. Pacolet. This amy seem vaugely familar because I did the same thing by myself two weeks ago and I have been fixated on this rarely run SE Gem of boofs and mank filled river. James and I hiked down and conclued that it was STEEP, MANKY and totally worth removing the wood when it dries out this summer to clean it out.

Now to the main purpose of us getting up at the awful time of 5am. Not 10 minutes from the N. Pacolet is the “put in” for the Dries. We pulled up on to the old section of bridge that still remains crossing next to the newer bridge near POt Sholes Road (The Upper Green Put IN). After we pulled up we ran down the bridge to check out the rapids we would soon be running. James was Super excited and I have to say that I was too. We had both talked about how we had wanted to run this section for so long and that we were lucky to have the water spilling over the dam to do so. Well, we suited up and headed off across the bridge to follow the pipeline to the dam at Lake Summit. This was great becaue we could pick down into the gorge and get a glimpse of some of the visible rapids below. When we got to the dam we were awestruck at the water pouring over and all the tress covered in ice and snow with a brillant rainbow strecting across the mist from the base of the dam. Unfortunately James didn’t bring a camera and I’m to poor to own camera-boats first I say, I’ve never tried to paddle a camera but I don’t think it would work.

All the rocks had a sheen of ice on them as we made our way down the cliff side. By the time we got down to the base it was 8am and cold. We put in and run some Cheoah-ish class II and III until we get to the first Horizon line. We were now at the slides that we had seen from the bridge above when we had first arrived. James got out on river left and signaled “ALL CLEAR”. I paddled out and “VROOM” I went (My kayak actually doesn’t go VROOM but I like to think it does ). Nice big slide into a pool and then another slide. We continue on down and James takes the lead down the next drop. It looked a little shallow so I went left which seemed a little more padded- A little FYI- the bottom pool after the rapid past the bridge has rebar sticking out of the water. BE CAREFUL if you run this because of the bridge rubble and the trash that locals huck over the bridge- ie. shopping carts. We continue down through class II rapids running through tickets. We are pretty much hugging our boats to not get slapped by branches-Bring a SAW!
We portaged a class III+ that had a river wide strainer and then continued down through 4 slot drops and boogie on RL and then a blind drop on RL which I got out and scouted. This rapid was fun and like a baby Hammer Factor on the Narrows. With a little matinence and alot of rain this run could be a staple. Well at the next Big horizon James got out and stated that it was a “Walker”. It was a class V pin spot on RL and a nice Class IV boof in a short pool with a sucking sive on RR and a dried up boof in the center. With about 3 more inches the drop would feed directly into the cent boof with out the sieve being in too much play.

From here on it was some nice class II and III boogie until we saw the horizon line and the Power House. I know knew that we were at the place that we had wanted to be. We scouted from RR and looked at the most perfect bedrock flume into a 15ft ish water fall into a shallow pool which required a spot on boof. James asked who wanted to go first and I told him that I wanted to Fire it UP! I put in and peeld out into the current down the flume and BOOYAH I was airborne like Michael Jordan during his prime(Minus the tongue hanging out). This is why I paddle-pure fun! I landed at the bottom with a little jolt but nothing bad. It’s super fast and definitely hang time. I sat at the bottom and watched as James peeled out from the eddy with only his paddle blades visible as he turned into the flume. That boy must have wings because he flew out off that drop like he was from West Asheville. I wish I had the camera because the sun was shining on the waterfall and all you saw was James flying through a ton of mist around 15 ft in the air. I love this drop

We both agreed that that was one of the most stellar boofs around here and then we continued down through the Upper Green. This was James first time down so I made sure he knew ALL the lines but he did great! It’s been a long time since I have paddle the Upper and I love how beautiful it is. Most of the downed trees were washed out of the way and we just cruised on down and gazed at all the snow melt waterfalls feeding into the river. It’s the frst time that I had seen these falls run and it was definitely a good rest in between the Dries and Narrows. James commented on how alone it seemed that we were on the river as we hadn’t seen any other boater all morning on or off the river. He did keep asking if we were going to be able to getr shuttle back to his car at the dries , we I assured him that we would Plan B was to stash our boats and start walking. Thank goodness that plan B wasn’t necessitated.

We paddled through to the put in for the Narrows. Here we were and no one else around for the next hour. We dug out some turkey and cheese sandwichs and some power bars from James dry bag. Delicious and well needed at this point because I was famished. The wind was wipping up a breeze and we search for some sun shining into the gorge to get warm. I opened some hand warmers and we waited from 11am until a little after 12pm for people to show up. Everyone showed up while we were waiting for our crew; Shane, John Grace, Spencer Cooke and tons others that I have watched so many times on my kayak videos.

Finally Christine showed up after showing so people down the upper and then Rob Siegel, Wes Y, and Doug B. showed up. Our crew was set and we were off. All was good until Frankenstein when I ran into the river left eddy above the main drop and then ferried over to the boof. I ended up running it to the right into the eddy above the undercut which in the process my Jefe Backband ripped clean from the bolts! I ferried out past the angeled undercut and into the RL eddy above the next Faedr boof. Wes waited for me as I tried to fix my back band to no avail. Well, I said to myself” looks like your running the gnar with out a backband”. Not my favorite way to start the Narrows. Well I continued on locking my hips as tight as possible and focusing on keeping a forward position. We made of way down to Zwicks where we got out to set safety. Here I borrowed Wes’ knife which had a sharp tip and whittled away at the plastic back band while James ran Zwicks. After much effort I finally made a hole big enough to fit a bolt through and rig the back band back together. (I was in the scouts and watched a lot of MacGyver) I was now back in business and felt better again since my boat was fixed. I put in and ferried across in front of the first drop above Chief and walked to Gorilla. One of the crew with Shane and Spencer and pinned in the same sneak at Chiefs that happened two weeks earlier. Unfortunately the boat will be there for awhile despite all their efforts and someone did some hiking out. We sat and watched as Trent and Dothers went down through Gorilla. It was really cool to watch in person. After that I seal launced in and nailed the boof at Scream Machine and down through Nies Pieces for my 1st role of the day. I had too since I rolled there my first time down and I’ve thought of maiking it an unofficial tradition. You know-to coll off and such since your sweating bullets from zooming down the slides. I had really good lines at Powerslide and Rapitransit again. I didn’t forget my YAHOOO at the bottom. I walked Groove Tube and Sunshine again as Wes and James fired up Groove Tube. I should have ran it but I made cheap excuses for myself. All went great until my second role again at Hammer Factor. At least this time I made it 3/4 ths the way down the rock shelf before the beat-down disappering act. I tried one role and sucked down some water as the air flowed into my lungs. I spit the water that I had swalloed out while under water and nailed my 2nd attempt. After my good deeep breath I released it cursing the rapid that hates me. I will clean it and we shall be friends instead of torrent lovers one day. I WILL BE BACK

Well we continued on down to Fishtop realizing that the run was now over. We wanted more but had to be realistic, our day was over. We put on at 8am and took off a little after 3pm. We had just run what was the original Green run become the Power diverted water from the dam to the start of the upper. We had formed new friendships we the river and with each other. We ran the Dries to Fishtop and loved every second of it! If you havn’t done it-DO IT! It’s beautiful, liberating, inspring, and just a Great time!

We didn’t get any pictures, but we both had a great time!

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I thought I’d start this post with a really neat shot of our Subaru parked in front of our pumps. All the water has been drained down to roughly two inches inside the pump vaults. We inspected the pumps and found them to be in excellent condition. The impellers are not out of whack, and besides tightening a few bolts, not much needed to happen in the pump vaults.

We are mostly on schedule with the cleaning and inspections. We began filling the ponds again with well water and we expect to turn the city water on soon. Any questions? Feel free to ask!

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The US National Whitewater Center has been draining the water in order to do general maintenence on the pumps, clean up some of the algae and inspect the concrete in the channels. As of today, at about 5PM there is a foot of water in the bottom pond.

We first drained the water from the channels and spread the remaining water in the upper pond out as much as we can in order to facilitate evaporation. Once most of the water was gone, we began sweeping and removing the algae and mud that was on the bottom pond.

The next step was to put a large 6 inch Diesel pump in the lower pond to pump out the water that our drain can’t remove. We estimate this pump to remove about 400 GPM (Gallons Per Minute).

Next, while the bottom pond is draining, the water that pooled up in the channels needed to be removed. The issue here is most of that water is frozen with about 2 inches of ice. Worse yet, it stays in the shade nearly all day. We were able to break up a lot of the ice and get the pump intake hoses under it. The ice broke and melted slowly, but there is still a lot.

The goal is to remove the small ponds of water in the channels and keep pushing the water downstream.

In just a few days we’ll be able to drive into the lower pond and hopefully start cleaning it soon. We still have a lot of work to do on the Wilderness Channel side and have not started on the Competition Channel yet. We are making rapid progress though!

We have a running pool on how many Ballards will be pulled out once the water is drained. How many do you think? My vote is 8. What else do you think we’ll find?

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Tags: cleaning, draining, US National Whitewater Center

Here at Channel 9 they were forecasting blizzard conditions. I had the day off and I wasn’t about to sit around. With Tommy back from school and John up in Hickory, we figured Wilson Creek was a perfect run for a snowy day. In my neighborhood it just rained and sleeted- no snow. Tommy got to my place and we headed up 321 toward John’s. There was a car wreck every few miles and while the roads were icy, I drove all the way up in 2WD taking my time. It took us a little over an hour to get to John’s.

Hickory was a nightmare. No plowed roads, people walking, cars stuck off the road. Tommy and I meandered our way through the carnage, arriving at John’s to you guessed it- home made biscuits.

We ate, packed up and headed up toward Wilson. Carnage from other vehicles were all over the place. We saw everything from stuck 18 wheelers to Mustangs that won’t be moving until the snow melts.

The most alarming thing was the downed trees. They were everywhere once we got off the “main” roads. Many of them had been sort of cut with a chainsaw, but we touched up a lot of them with our own saws.

We arrived at the put in, happy and very excited to get on the water. Jenna would be our shuttle and photographer for the day.

We all had great lines all day, and made it to the takeout, nice and warm. We made a unanimous decision to take a different route home- toward Morganton. The roads were much better and actually taken care of.

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