Southeast Swimfest
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SwmmrGreg
- Class I
- Posts: 187
- Joined: Sat Oct 02, 2004 5:54 pm
- Location: Chesapeake, Va-Greg Boudreau
Southeast Swimfest
I'll get this thread started but expect others to fill in further details. So I'll begin w/my simple statement of...... I swam. After a 3 day weekend of beautiful temps, great water levels, and one PFD, I succumbed to my innate need to float through a rapid alongside my kayak. Friday started the adventure with a first time run for me on the Watauga. Dare I say awesome? Stateline rapid is quite the gut checker. Saturday was designated Cheoah day and included a bonus meat lap. A bit spicy on this trip due to some extra natural flow bumping it up. Sunday found us on the Tellico at a decent(read minimal) but dropping level. We fired up lap one a little after ten(did I mention daytime temps were in the 70's the whole trip?). Lap two went off a bit after twelve and after navigating past about 40 boaters poking their way down we neared Jared's Knee and that's when the POO fest began. My personal contribution was blowing one of the last boofs in Jared's Knee and then practicing my self rescue technique. Self rescued was required due to the fact that everyone else in our 4 man group was indisposed with issues of their own. Upon collection of myself and gear I then carried back upriver about 100 yards to begin extraction of someone else's pinned boat. Upon reuniting said boat and it's owner and corraling the group together we finished up our stellar long weekend with tasty apple turnovers and ice cream.
Have you swam with your kayak lately?
First, let me begin with a HUGE shout out to Jdub for scheduling and organizing possibly the best spring Southeast creek fest that one could hope for! Good water on quality runs, beautiful 75+ degree weather, good bros to hang out with and plenty of entertainment. And another to Dennis Huntley for the PRO guidance on the Watauga and Cheoah.
The trip started about 4am Friday morning when I left my house to meet up with my shuttle pilot SwmmrGreg. After cramming all my gear into his truck, we hit the road headed for the prearranged meet up with Jdub, DaveK, and Dennis Huntley at the Watauga around noon. This was my first run on Watauga and all I can say is what a beautiful run and gorge. Four very memorable rapids stick out – A$$kicker, Hydro, Heavy Water and Stateline – all real good stuff. I backendered the bottom hole of Hydro, ran the bottom half of Heavy Water reverse boofing but dry-headed, and landed left on the boil at Stateline resulting in a quick roll to end my dry hair day. A word of caution though, there’s plenty of stuff in there to wreck your day, so best to have the skillz to pay the billz and a good lead down to make sure you reach the takeout.
We cruised over to camp at the Cheoah takeout Friday evening and 3/4ths of us took advantage of the spectacular weather and slept under the stars. Jdub, fearing the return of the rhinoceros beetles opted to set up his tent and was rewarded instead by a dog marking his tent!
Saturday morning, we all slept in awaiting the gracious release of dam water into the [s]trees[/s] streambed of the Cheoah. Again, the four of us met up with Dennis Huntley for the first lap of the day. The river already had a little flow in it before the release and we ended up with around 1240 cfs for the day. Another PFD for me, I enjoyed the upper ledgey section and the section where it picks up before Bear Creek Falls down through Yard Sale. At Bear Creek, DaveK and I ran the center main drop and tagged a little rock in the LZ while Jdub and SwmmrGreg ran the right side smear to boof line. All was well and I had dry hair up until just before Yard Sale where I clipped a little boo-boo rock and had to pop a quick roll. Yard Sale went smooth thanks to pre-Bear Creek coaching by DaveK
and I was feeling good. So good that when Dennis and I were separated from the rest of our group by another group, we opted to surf and spin a nice little wave-hole above the last, unnamed *insignificant* rapid before the lake. Once the other folks had cleared the last little rapid, Dennis and I peeled out and headed down for the chute of water cutting between the two mid-stream boulders toward the top of the rapid. Feeling saucy, I opted for a little smear action of the left boulder but the river has a way of humbling cocky boaters, so I flipped upon landing. I rolled up (#1) facing upstream and looked over my right shoulder just as backed into a hole side ways and off edge, so I got dunked again. I rolled again (#2) just as I dropped into another hole, flipping again. I flushed and rolled another time (#3), banged a boo-boo rock and ended up on a failing brace, so I opted to tuck and roll again. In the course of setting up for the next roll, I took a substantial shot to the right chin bar and temple area of my full face, but still rolled up (#4) just in time to back into the deceptively sticky hole on river right just above the flat water of the lake. This time, the hole got the best of my oxygen depleted body and I failed to roll… AND SWAM… the hole held me under for a little while but finally let me go once the boat filled and flushed. And so, in the least graceful manner known to man, I rejoined my group below and they so generously [s]forced[/s] helped me to do a deep water re-entry after draining my boat. Exhausted, I opted out of the second meat lap and offered my services as a shuttle bunny. [More to be added following additional trip reports]
We threw down on the requisite ice cream while enroute to the Tellico KOA Kampground that Jdub had lined up for us. We set up camp and had a bro-down with a side of jalepeno, cheddar burgers, free orange Fanta and Sue’s brownies.
Sunday morning we headed over to Tellico Ledges and beat most of the crowds for the first lap. The last of my triple header weekend of PFD’s was a boofalicious playground again with superb weather, great features and spectacular scenery. The first lap wasn’t a dry hair lap for me, with rolls after landing middle ledge and below knife rock in Jared’s knee. Everybody had good lines and lots of fun on the first lap. We hustled back up to fire up lap #2. I managed to really air out the 8’ boof on the left at middle ledge, immediately increasing the confidence level. We passed several groups on the way down to Baby and ran it with no stops. I got a little too right on the slide at Diaper Wiper and ended up running a short portion backwards before turning downstream again and catching the right hand eddy below just in time to corral a loose boat while two others went to retrieve a paddle. After draining the boat, we pendulumed it back to river right and the boater was reunited with his gear and we carried on. Marveling at the glorious weekend, we stopped for a group shot with Bald River Falls as our backdrop before hitting Jared’s knee for the second time. The first part of Jared’s knee went smooth and I cleaned the boof off of the flake near knife rock that had flipped me on run #1. As I sat in an eddy, I saw a boat come through the rapid unmanned. After ensuring the safety of the owner, the remaining members of the party corralled and partially (mistake #1) drained it. I tethered it and attempted to ferry it to the owner (mistake #2) and failed. As the boat attempted to drag me into the next feature, I released my safety harness and freed myself from the boat. The boat pinned in the next feature and I eddied out to get ready to rope and unpin it when I saw another boat come through the drop. Seeing that boater was safe, I ferried out and threw the paddle into a river left eddy and proceeded to chase the boat through the Knee. As I pushed this boat to shore, I saw Greg’s boat come through the knee unoccupied with him swimming PRO style behind it for an unassisted self-rescue. I ran back upstream to assist in the unpinning of the first boat, but Greg jumped right into action before I made it all the way up. And since I didn’t swim on Sunday, I didn’t get one of the last three brownies as a consolation prize, but my prize was even sweeter
Again, THANKS to the Dennis Huntley, Jdub, DaveK and SwmmrGreg for an incedible weekend that will be hard to beat. Can't wait for the next adventure!
The trip started about 4am Friday morning when I left my house to meet up with my shuttle pilot SwmmrGreg. After cramming all my gear into his truck, we hit the road headed for the prearranged meet up with Jdub, DaveK, and Dennis Huntley at the Watauga around noon. This was my first run on Watauga and all I can say is what a beautiful run and gorge. Four very memorable rapids stick out – A$$kicker, Hydro, Heavy Water and Stateline – all real good stuff. I backendered the bottom hole of Hydro, ran the bottom half of Heavy Water reverse boofing but dry-headed, and landed left on the boil at Stateline resulting in a quick roll to end my dry hair day. A word of caution though, there’s plenty of stuff in there to wreck your day, so best to have the skillz to pay the billz and a good lead down to make sure you reach the takeout.
We cruised over to camp at the Cheoah takeout Friday evening and 3/4ths of us took advantage of the spectacular weather and slept under the stars. Jdub, fearing the return of the rhinoceros beetles opted to set up his tent and was rewarded instead by a dog marking his tent!
Saturday morning, we all slept in awaiting the gracious release of dam water into the [s]trees[/s] streambed of the Cheoah. Again, the four of us met up with Dennis Huntley for the first lap of the day. The river already had a little flow in it before the release and we ended up with around 1240 cfs for the day. Another PFD for me, I enjoyed the upper ledgey section and the section where it picks up before Bear Creek Falls down through Yard Sale. At Bear Creek, DaveK and I ran the center main drop and tagged a little rock in the LZ while Jdub and SwmmrGreg ran the right side smear to boof line. All was well and I had dry hair up until just before Yard Sale where I clipped a little boo-boo rock and had to pop a quick roll. Yard Sale went smooth thanks to pre-Bear Creek coaching by DaveK
and I was feeling good. So good that when Dennis and I were separated from the rest of our group by another group, we opted to surf and spin a nice little wave-hole above the last, unnamed *insignificant* rapid before the lake. Once the other folks had cleared the last little rapid, Dennis and I peeled out and headed down for the chute of water cutting between the two mid-stream boulders toward the top of the rapid. Feeling saucy, I opted for a little smear action of the left boulder but the river has a way of humbling cocky boaters, so I flipped upon landing. I rolled up (#1) facing upstream and looked over my right shoulder just as backed into a hole side ways and off edge, so I got dunked again. I rolled again (#2) just as I dropped into another hole, flipping again. I flushed and rolled another time (#3), banged a boo-boo rock and ended up on a failing brace, so I opted to tuck and roll again. In the course of setting up for the next roll, I took a substantial shot to the right chin bar and temple area of my full face, but still rolled up (#4) just in time to back into the deceptively sticky hole on river right just above the flat water of the lake. This time, the hole got the best of my oxygen depleted body and I failed to roll… AND SWAM… the hole held me under for a little while but finally let me go once the boat filled and flushed. And so, in the least graceful manner known to man, I rejoined my group below and they so generously [s]forced[/s] helped me to do a deep water re-entry after draining my boat. Exhausted, I opted out of the second meat lap and offered my services as a shuttle bunny. [More to be added following additional trip reports]We threw down on the requisite ice cream while enroute to the Tellico KOA Kampground that Jdub had lined up for us. We set up camp and had a bro-down with a side of jalepeno, cheddar burgers, free orange Fanta and Sue’s brownies.
Sunday morning we headed over to Tellico Ledges and beat most of the crowds for the first lap. The last of my triple header weekend of PFD’s was a boofalicious playground again with superb weather, great features and spectacular scenery. The first lap wasn’t a dry hair lap for me, with rolls after landing middle ledge and below knife rock in Jared’s knee. Everybody had good lines and lots of fun on the first lap. We hustled back up to fire up lap #2. I managed to really air out the 8’ boof on the left at middle ledge, immediately increasing the confidence level. We passed several groups on the way down to Baby and ran it with no stops. I got a little too right on the slide at Diaper Wiper and ended up running a short portion backwards before turning downstream again and catching the right hand eddy below just in time to corral a loose boat while two others went to retrieve a paddle. After draining the boat, we pendulumed it back to river right and the boater was reunited with his gear and we carried on. Marveling at the glorious weekend, we stopped for a group shot with Bald River Falls as our backdrop before hitting Jared’s knee for the second time. The first part of Jared’s knee went smooth and I cleaned the boof off of the flake near knife rock that had flipped me on run #1. As I sat in an eddy, I saw a boat come through the rapid unmanned. After ensuring the safety of the owner, the remaining members of the party corralled and partially (mistake #1) drained it. I tethered it and attempted to ferry it to the owner (mistake #2) and failed. As the boat attempted to drag me into the next feature, I released my safety harness and freed myself from the boat. The boat pinned in the next feature and I eddied out to get ready to rope and unpin it when I saw another boat come through the drop. Seeing that boater was safe, I ferried out and threw the paddle into a river left eddy and proceeded to chase the boat through the Knee. As I pushed this boat to shore, I saw Greg’s boat come through the knee unoccupied with him swimming PRO style behind it for an unassisted self-rescue. I ran back upstream to assist in the unpinning of the first boat, but Greg jumped right into action before I made it all the way up. And since I didn’t swim on Sunday, I didn’t get one of the last three brownies as a consolation prize, but my prize was even sweeter
Again, THANKS to the Dennis Huntley, Jdub, DaveK and SwmmrGreg for an incedible weekend that will be hard to beat. Can't wait for the next adventure!
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- 2011-03-21_12-04-48_153.jpg (23.87 KiB) Viewed 2967 times
Generally, I think that if I have the opportunity to paddle, and I've got something else to do or I feel like I shouldn't go for some reason, then I force myself to go and I always have a great time. So, I guess when in doubt -- Go, Paddle. -- Tommy Hilleke
SE creeking
I will first start out in the words of Greg, I SWAM and SWAM and SWAM somemore. Needless to say this was not my finest hour of paddling. But as the trip leader I felt an overwhelming need to make sure everybody in the group new exactly what not to do, and I didn't think it was good enough to tell them so I had to show them. I want go into great detail but on stateline falls on the Watauga you have 4 doors to choose from and door 2 is the right one. I went through door 1 lets just say UGLY!!!!!!!!! Anyways it looks like my buddy Brandon gave the play by play, so I'll just say what a great wekend. Thanks to all my buds that ran with me, and a special thanks to Mr. Dennis Huntley for showing us down Watauga. Can't wait to head this up again next year.
John
John
Thanks.
Exhausted!
Exhausted!
Ain't it like most people, I'm no diffferent, we love to talk on things we don't know about - The Avett Brothers
freeheeled friends
friends getting high
water temp
freeheeled friends
friends getting high
water temp
BUMP!jmorr014 wrote:The crowds want to hear about KessmanN's day..... Sorry I wasn't there to pass out any more Tellico T-Rescues. I know little Davey swears by them.....
3 out of 4 of us have anted up.... Just sayin'...
Generally, I think that if I have the opportunity to paddle, and I've got something else to do or I feel like I shouldn't go for some reason, then I force myself to go and I always have a great time. So, I guess when in doubt -- Go, Paddle. -- Tommy Hilleke
So it’s the last rapid of the last lap of the last day and I still don’t feel as though I’ve really fired it up this trip. My complete and swimless run of the Watauga on Friday was good but shaded a bit with three rolls. 
My decision to sit out the second meat lap on the Cheoah Saturday in favor of a brownie lap by the lake was wise but non-plussing.
Sunday morning, I felt pretty good going through Jared’s Knee (last rapid on the Tellico) the first lap – hitting an optional boof mid way through that is sometimes a hiccup so I decide I’m going to earn my end-of-trip-apple-turnover-with-ice-cream-and-whipped-cream-sundae (not to be confused with my mid-trip-raspberry-and-whipped-cream-sundae) by firing up the big girl bonus boof in the same spot on the second lap.
The move was to come down the channel and go off the right side of this knife edge rock.
I went off the left side.
I’m not sure if I dented my bow and then flipped or flipped and then dented my bow but I do know that when I came out of my boat, the circus came to town (see above). All I can sey is that it was a good thing Brandon was there to save the three of us.:evil:
As if all of this wasn’t enough, to cap this episode I really shorted (like bad) a rope throw to John in front of about a half dozen people coming down.:evil:
I was crying in my ice cream at the end of the day. To give an idea of how far I felt I slumped when the wheels came off, I’ve attached the following:
My decision to sit out the second meat lap on the Cheoah Saturday in favor of a brownie lap by the lake was wise but non-plussing.Sunday morning, I felt pretty good going through Jared’s Knee (last rapid on the Tellico) the first lap – hitting an optional boof mid way through that is sometimes a hiccup so I decide I’m going to earn my end-of-trip-apple-turnover-with-ice-cream-and-whipped-cream-sundae (not to be confused with my mid-trip-raspberry-and-whipped-cream-sundae) by firing up the big girl bonus boof in the same spot on the second lap.
The move was to come down the channel and go off the right side of this knife edge rock.
I went off the left side.
I’m not sure if I dented my bow and then flipped or flipped and then dented my bow but I do know that when I came out of my boat, the circus came to town (see above). All I can sey is that it was a good thing Brandon was there to save the three of us.
:evil: As if all of this wasn’t enough, to cap this episode I really shorted (like bad) a rope throw to John in front of about a half dozen people coming down.
:evil: I was crying in my ice cream at the end of the day. To give an idea of how far I felt I slumped when the wheels came off, I’ve attached the following:
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- After.jpg (99.83 KiB) Viewed 2685 times
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- Before.jpg (88.6 KiB) Viewed 2685 times