Coastals

I'm not going to ask for the year in review from everyone, but I do want to hear what your favorite trip of the year was, and why.

For me, there were several that rose to the top, but my favorite was my PFD of Indian Pools on the Maury on Sunday, August 5th. The Maury was up and dropping, and Ginny convinced me to join her at the Indian Pools put in to wait for the big posse to come down from Goshen. I was a bit nervous, but with Ken as my coach for the day, I knew I was in good hands. It was a beautiful day, and I thought the flow was perfect for my purposes. I was able to shake the nerves off and enjoy putting my boat where Ken told me to.

A great river day of nice water levels and the fellowship of good people.

What was your best trip this year?

-B

That was one of my most memorable trips this year - for 2 reasons - got to watch you have fun on that section, and I swam cuz i did exactly what Ken said NOT to do - don't just glide through the bottom of Brillo cuz the current will push you right into that innocuous looking rock at the bottom. Yep. very true. but I love my sitontop - got right back on in midstream.

My other memorable trip was another swim on another trip with Ken - on Balcony in April at 2,000 cfs. I finally swam Balcony - the wind, which was gusting ferociously that day, blew me too far right. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. That day I learned that neoprene pants under a dry suit can feel really nice.

Well, when Ginny swims, it is memorable, but I wasn't going to tell any tales!

Boat failure on Martha's 7 Islands James River OCT July 28.

Jim Farrell brought David and Lee Davenport from Norfolk. That's flatwater country. They brought a tandem rec boat which was faded and stored under a tree for years (read brittle). The water level was above 2400 cfs allowing rare use of the right channel. Early entry to the channel, they hit rocks in a rapid and punched a hole in the bottom big enough to put your fist through. No duct tape could fix that. The boat was abandoned on an island and tied to a tree. It was reported to the James River Association River Keeper. Status unknown.

There are three channels in 7 Islands. There are no roads on river right and the railroad is on river left with the islands in between. Ted and Caroline were the only OC-2 in the group. Everyone else was K-1 with one paddle boarder. Now what?

One option would have been for David and Lee wear their pfd's and float through the 7 Islands with the group until they could exit to the river left bank. Here they could walk the Railroad tracks up river to Shores and a road. Too risky.

"Musical boats' option was tried first. Caroline gave up her tandem bow seat to David, Lee sat in the center and Ted paddled the stern. And Caroline...............rode on the rear of the paddle board with someone else doing the work. The upright paddle boarder never lost his balance and credited that to his new co-pilot. Sorry I don't remember his name. This routine lasted for 5 of the 6 miles to New Canton. We got everyone off the river safely.

Ted and Caroline's trip in an OC-2 was our most memorable one of the year but not a favorite.

Flashback, we did a successful temporary fix to a fist-sized hole in a canoe in March of 2015 using Gorilla Tape on the North River gorge!

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My most memorable trip of the year was Bill Hamill's four-day trip to the Tellico in Tennessee. I paddled Whitetop Laurel Creek, the middle Tellico twice, and the upper Tellico Ledges section. That's a heckuva weekend by any measure but especially sweet as Whitetop Laurel was a PFD for me and I hadn't run the Ledges section in ages.

Cheers,

Ken Dubel

In addition to the Whitetop Laurel & Tellico trip Ken mentioned, I'd have to add an April trip on the Kitzmiller section of the North Branch of the Potomac (upstream of Bloomington). It had been over a decade since we'd done it. Long, challenging & super fun. Much of the time, you feel like you're looking downhill! After numerous horizon lines, I remember with relief when all I could see was Class II ahead! At one point, we thought we had done the hardest rapid, Maytag, & that it wasn't that big of a deal. But we were wrong - that had been "False Maytag" & pretty soon we were unknowingly bombing into the real Class IV rapid! Fortunately, all made it.

Actually this is a most memorable year. Due to an old age affliction I had to change from from K-1 to OC-1.