Conditions Not to be Boating In
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 10:24 am
Rain for two days straight and rising gauges in the mountains. Seems like a good day to head west right? Maybe everyone knew something I didn't because the only person willing to come was Carrie.
As we're driving up conditions start to look pretty questionable and the gauges are still on the rise. Once we passed Charlottesville there was rain/snow/wind with a coupe inches on the ground (presumably from the night before).
When we got to Goshen my semi-professional technical water analysis was pretty brown and moderately stout. There was a small group putting in at the post office but we were headed further up stream. We stopped in at Alicia's house to check in on the aftermath of the post-cleanup cookout to find out it was canceled. We chatted and checked some gauges before heading down to assess the scene at the Indian Pool steps.
When we got there we found some local lappers taking off and headed back up. We were still a little concerned about the water level so we decided to assist with a shuttle and car-scout on the way up. Everything looked pretty straight forward except some meat in the kitchen. When we got to the put-in Megan (Charlottesville) and Nick (Vesuvius) showed up. Nick rushed to put on with the lappers but Megan wasn't totally convinced. We decided to set shuttle for the bottom section. Once that was done and we were dressed we met up with the lappers at Indian Pool and shuttled back to the meat put-in. The level turned out to be about 1900 CFS on the Rockbridge gauge which resulted in some interesting alternate lines opening up.
At undercut we ran the ledges on the left and were able to boof the normally dry rock on the second ledge. Roadside was pretty washed out with a nice wavetrain at the bottom. Bikini row gave me some pucker factor when I clipped my bow on a rock which sent me into a medium size hole sideways. I was able to work out without any rodeo moves to find myself dropping into another larger hole with 0 momentum. Nice. fortunately I had better boat angle and was able to punch this one. I did feel some suction so it was a narrow escape.
This is where the EXTREME wind started to pick up. It was bowing spray off the waves, blowing me into and out of eddies, blowing my paddle around, and literally blew Carrie over! This is the first time I have ever experienced wind that adds a level of difficulty. Due to the wind, water level, temperature, and less than clean line in the previous rapid I decided to walk kitchen. The school bus boof was in full effect at this level. Corner was a straight shot avoiding the boof (now pour-over munchy hole) and heading left on the run out. Corner, however, had some of the strongest winds. With the spray blowing off the waves and holes I was paddling almost totally blind.
The bottom section was pretty uneventful. The ledges waves looked like a wider version of swimmers on the LY at 4'. Once we passed Indian Pool the wind died down significantly. In the end I had fun but not so nice I wanted to do it twice. No carnage except the layer of skin pressure-washed off my face.
As we're driving up conditions start to look pretty questionable and the gauges are still on the rise. Once we passed Charlottesville there was rain/snow/wind with a coupe inches on the ground (presumably from the night before).
When we got to Goshen my semi-professional technical water analysis was pretty brown and moderately stout. There was a small group putting in at the post office but we were headed further up stream. We stopped in at Alicia's house to check in on the aftermath of the post-cleanup cookout to find out it was canceled. We chatted and checked some gauges before heading down to assess the scene at the Indian Pool steps.
When we got there we found some local lappers taking off and headed back up. We were still a little concerned about the water level so we decided to assist with a shuttle and car-scout on the way up. Everything looked pretty straight forward except some meat in the kitchen. When we got to the put-in Megan (Charlottesville) and Nick (Vesuvius) showed up. Nick rushed to put on with the lappers but Megan wasn't totally convinced. We decided to set shuttle for the bottom section. Once that was done and we were dressed we met up with the lappers at Indian Pool and shuttled back to the meat put-in. The level turned out to be about 1900 CFS on the Rockbridge gauge which resulted in some interesting alternate lines opening up.
At undercut we ran the ledges on the left and were able to boof the normally dry rock on the second ledge. Roadside was pretty washed out with a nice wavetrain at the bottom. Bikini row gave me some pucker factor when I clipped my bow on a rock which sent me into a medium size hole sideways. I was able to work out without any rodeo moves to find myself dropping into another larger hole with 0 momentum. Nice. fortunately I had better boat angle and was able to punch this one. I did feel some suction so it was a narrow escape.
This is where the EXTREME wind started to pick up. It was bowing spray off the waves, blowing me into and out of eddies, blowing my paddle around, and literally blew Carrie over! This is the first time I have ever experienced wind that adds a level of difficulty. Due to the wind, water level, temperature, and less than clean line in the previous rapid I decided to walk kitchen. The school bus boof was in full effect at this level. Corner was a straight shot avoiding the boof (now pour-over munchy hole) and heading left on the run out. Corner, however, had some of the strongest winds. With the spray blowing off the waves and holes I was paddling almost totally blind.
The bottom section was pretty uneventful. The ledges waves looked like a wider version of swimmers on the LY at 4'. Once we passed Indian Pool the wind died down significantly. In the end I had fun but not so nice I wanted to do it twice. No carnage except the layer of skin pressure-washed off my face.