Green River Dries to Fishtop – 03.06.10

March 6, 2010 | Category: Kayaking, Trip Reports

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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