What a weekend! I packed all my gear, with the intentions of mountain biking, kayaking and caving all in one weekend. I was extremely excited to learn to mountain bike and explore a cave. I left on Thursday afternoon and headed for Spartanburg to meet up with Chris.

After some minor car troubles, I arrived at Chris’ house. I met the pack of dogs, we loaded up the mountain bikes and dogs in her truck and headed for the trail head. On the way, Chris gave me some basics of leaning, gearing etc., and, when we arrived at the trail we headed off!

Mountain biking is way more fun than I ever thought it would be. I love the feeling of flying through the trails, hopping over rocks, roots and whizzing past trees. We rode about 9 miles, and I was certainly winded by the end of the ride.

The following morning we headed out to meet up with John W, Jim M and Mark R to hit the Watauga. The level was around 2.5 feet which was on the low side of perfect. The weather was beautiful- upwards of 60 degrees with clear blue skies. I borrowed Chris’ pink Burn and we took some shots at Stateline Falls.

John dropping over Stateline.

Chris sticking the line.

Me in the Burn at the lip.

After our run, we headed back to Chris’ place. We hung out, played with the dogs, watched some Modern Family and got pumped for the Green the following day.

We met Scott and Casey at the Fishtop at 10am and headed up to the put-in. When we got to the top, I noticed a small crack in the bottom of my boat, but didn’t think much of it. By the time we reached the takeout the crack had exceeded 2ft and was under my seat. I was taking on water. Casey fired up Gorilla for his first time and had a great line.

Casey running Gorilla for his first time. Photo by Scott

We took off, and I realized that my boat was done for the weekend. We headed off to an undisclosed location to explore a cave. I have to say that this is one of the coolest experiences of my entire life. The cave was quite large with HUGE boulders and rocks. Chris and I walked around in pitch black with only the light of our headlamps. There were bats whizzing over our heads and pyrite (fools gold) covered many of the walls. We turned our headlamps off to experience the darkness which was awesome. There were numerous places to climb up and down and some very tight crawls.

After the cave, we headed back with plans to hit the Green again. The following morning, I was tossing around the idea of heading back to Charlotte since I didn’t have a boat and was quite sore already from my weekend. Chris and Casey peer pressured me into taking Milton’s Nomad. It was chilly and overcast, but we still managed to take some shots at Frankenstein.

Me at the boof in Frankenstein.

Casey at Frakenstein.

It was an awesome weekend! I can’t wait to do it all again!

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!

The pumps are on!

John G teaching guide school.

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!

Scale shot of pumps and tower.

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.

Jim and Donovan getting ready to tighten up some bolts in Pump 3's vault.

Pump 6's impeller. It looks just as it should. For reference, the impeller's diameter is roughly 4.5 feet.

Donovan up on a ledge checking the bolts.

Rubber Ducky's anyone? We found hundreds of rubber ducks caught in the conveyor belt.

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!

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 almost completely clean upper 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).

Big pump in the lower pond.

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.

Justin breaking and shoveling ice.

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

Josh pumping out a pool on the instructional channel.

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?

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.

The boats through my icy sunroof.

Typical 321 scene.

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 chaos of the snow. One of the back roads on the way to the putin.

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.

A tree down across the road.

What can I say? It's a Jeep. This was the scene from Hickory to the putin. Trees everywhere.

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.

Very happy to be here!

John and I ready to get in the water.

Beautiful scenery.

Some roadside carnage.

John grabbing some style points.

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.

I headed up after work to meet up with John for some boating at Wilson. After some signature biscuts, a cut lock and front door we forgot to close, we headed out to hit the river. We decided we’d take our time, do one long run and try and take some pictures at some of the drops. We got some good ones.

John at the rail slide.

Having fun!

Getting air at Maytag.

John at the rail slide having a good time!

After a great day on the river, we cooked some soup and “cous cous” at the takeout and grabbed some Wendy’s on the way home. A beautiful day on the river!

Sean, Steve and I decided that a good old fashion hike was in order. I thought it would be a cool idea to show them Wilson Creek and hike into North Harper Creek to check out the falls.

We left their place around 10am and headed up toward Lenoir. We realized that it was going to be a perfect day for a hike, despite Steve’s sneaking suspiscion that we were in for bad weather.

Driving toward Wilson Creek.

Steve fiddled with his iPhone on the trip up, giving us up-to-date minute by minute updates on humidity, cloud cover, temperature, heat index, chances of perciptation and an assortment of other weather related things.

We arrived at Wilson Creek. I pointed out a few of my favorite rapids, we watched some people run them and then we headed toward the trail head.

On the way to the trailhead we came across some dog sledders. This was one of the highlights of my trip.

Dog Sledders!!

We pulled into the parking lot for the trailhead and departed on our trip for Harper Falls. I’m not going to lie. The thought that my source telling me about these falls was pranking me DID come into mind.

Cool ice that sticks out of the ground.

Steve already falling behind.

Sean walking on the trail.

A cool rock wall we climbed up.

After we got a little more than half way we found a cool island in the middle of Harper Creek. We found a fire pit and decided to make some cous cous there. Steve wandered off while Sean and I began cooking on my new home made stove.

Sean and I cooking cous cous on my stove. Steve had wandered off.

The water boiled in about five minutes!! (Two cups of water)

The finished Cous Cous.

Stomachs full, we headed off to the falls. The trail got a little steeper and slicker, but nothing unmanageable. Finally, we arrived at the falls. I wanted to see them up close so we climbed down through thick forrest to reach the side of the river.

First site of the waterfall!

The first drop.

The second drop. (40ish ft) and the third slide in the distance.

Ice

Wider view of the drop. (Third drop not pictured)

The verdict: this drop is clean, runnable and next time we get a decent amount of rain, you can bet John and I will be there running it. We had an awesome hike and we are planning our next hike. My thoughts: hike into the Green Narrows to show Sean and Steve Gorilla.

Two-thirds of the US were getting some kind of precipitation. What else was I going to do? Work?

I woke up for work in the morning to look outside and see pouring rain. My boat and gear were already in the car so I headed off to work. The forecast looked promising- rain until 11 or 12 and then beautiful blue skies and high temps. I left work and headed right towards Hickory to meet up with John W. On my way Sam F called me to meet up. “Head toward Wilson- I’m not sure what we’re paddling but it’ll be good.” With the Watauga at 2,000 CFS and rising 250 CFS/hr we knew it’d be a good day.

I arrived at John’s place with the scent of beautifully baked home-made biscuits in his house. We eat, check some gauges, get some lunch ready to go and set off toward Wilson- still with no clue of what we were paddling.

We headed toward Wilson, stopping by the gauge quickly to check the level- 1.5 feet. John was pulling for North Harper Creek, because of a drop that he had hiked into and seen. I was pulling for Gragg Prong, simply because I had run that before and knew it’d be awesome. We catch up with Sam at 11:30 and throw the boats on my car.

We left it up to Sam to decide where to go – Gragg or Harper. Both John and I stated our cases and Sam chose Gragg. Sweet. We set shuttle and after a minor mishap (John’s boat somehow fell of the car and almost down a cliff into a creek.) It still baffles me how the boat made it ALL the way up to Wilson without so much as moving. No damage to the boat or the car and then we were off on our way to the put in.

We arrived at the putin, dressed, put my camera in the drybag and head down. The whole start of the run is seemingly always scratchy and no different on this one. It did quickly become clear though that there was a little more water than the last time I ran it.

The first drop of note is absolutely beautiful. I do not know the name of any of the rapids except Drag Strip, but the pictures will have to do. The river constricts into just a few feet wide. You have a boof where you stop dead, turn right 90 degrees move all the way to the other side of the current and go off a 20ish foot slide.

John on the first part of the first drop.

Sam on the second part of the first drop.

Me on the first part of the first drop.

John going deep!

After this drop, the river picks up speed, gradient and flow. The next drop is very sketchy and I will be walking it next time. The river constricts into practically less than a boat width wide and slams against a rock. We all ran this, and we all got bumped against the rock. It’s not a difficult move and it’s not overly painful, but, it’s not very much fun.

The next drop is a really cool steep slide. It starts off with a 5 foot boof at the top. You have a small pool of slow moving water and you drive HARD right to avoid a piton/pin rock at the bottom.

Boof into a slide!

John boofing into a slide.

After some more boogie water and sweet slides we were at Drag Strip. Both John and Sam were impressed and surprised with how steep this drop actually is. Sam went first while I took some photos. He took a line more left of where I run it, but he absolutely cleaned it. I went next while John took pics and then John went. We all had great clean lines and hung out at the bottom for bit admiring the size of the drop.

Sam getting ready to fire it up.

Sam running the top of Drag Strip

Me at the first part of Drag Strip.

Me dropping in.

John taking one last look.

If you look closely you can see John. Good scale shot.

John dropping in with style.

John dropping in with style.

John making the moves.

John, kayaks are not supposed to fly.

Welcome to Drag Strip.

After some scrappy boogie water, we were at the takeout. It was getting late so we passed on a run of Wilson, which had dropped considerably from the 1.5 feet that it was at in the morning. John made us soup in his tough to light Jet Boil and we headed home.

Lighting the Jet Boil.

My weekend started on Thursday with a run down Wilson Creek with Angela. We left at around 10, and did two runs. For our second run we ran into Doug and Isaiah. Both runs were a blast. The level was around +3 inches.

On Friday I went to the Watauga with Jim M, Russ L, Dave L and Kira T. The level was about 400CFS and this run is hands down one of my favorite creeks to date. This is a playground for paddlers. There are at least two big boofs at every rapid! The rapids are big without being paralyzingly scary. There is a lot of boogie water interspersed with some sweet class 4/5 rapids.

Cabin, the first rapid that has a name, is a nice little boogie water drop and is followed quickly by Bump and Grind followed by Shit Kicker. Those rapids really fly by and the first time we got out of our boat to take a look was at Hydro. Jim went first to show us how it’s done and nailed the line. Basically, you drive up on a big flat rock in the middle to catch an eddy behind it. You do this to avoid a pretty nasty eddy line that feeds into a sieve. Once in the eddy you head to the right and scoot down the corner of a pretty nasty hole. It’s a fun move! After two more rapids minor rapids, you’ve got Edge of the World.

This rapid is sweet. It felt like it goes on forever, plus it’s called Edge of the world. It’s a series of slots, ferries and some sweet boofs. Russ went for the around the world move… I’ll do that… next time. At 400CFS the hole is pretty bad and unforgiving.

Blow Job is next and it’s a tight little slot on the left. It’s a cool move. The hole at the bottom was very big but easily avoidable. Heavy Water, Knuckles and some boogie water were all a blast, and we all aced them. Next up, Stateline.

Stateline is kind of a blur. I caught the eddy on the top river right side and I was the last one to go over. I’m not really sure what happened but there was some confusion on where to go. I hit the slot with my bow pointing to the right, and took a big left boof stroke. I landed, and it felt good, but faster than I can react, I was suddenly upside down. I rolled up and caught the eddy. We found a lost paddle and Jim paddled out with it. According to Kira, I over boofed, landed sideways in the curl and that’s where I flipped.

Jim and Russ insisted I run Boof Falls backwards, which I did with a little hesitation, but it was totally a fun ride. Rewind I also ran the boof line, backwards, just because of a slight miss-communication with Jim. The takeout came too soon.

Next time, I’m going to try to get some good photos!

But for now:

Here's a photo of Vaugh nailing Stateline. Not sure who took it.