Thanks to Coastals for NRR

[novapaddler]

I just want to give a shout out to all the folks from Coastals that I met this weekend on the New River and especially to the folks who were kind enough to lead groups down on Saturday and Sunday that included me. That would be Ken and Alicia and on Sunday, Dave and Liz, aka Wallace and Grommit. I also want to say "great paddling with you" to Matt and Chris from Charlottesville, and Tom and Patrick from Richmond. If any of you feel like coming to northern VA to paddle the Potomac, just let me know. I'm good to take you down the Mather Gorge up 3.8 or so and that's a perfect level to play in the chutes. Little Falls is good at around 3 but I wouldn't make the trip just for that run, its too short. I'll join Coastals and hope to SYOR.

P.S. Please send me your emails if any of you see this to dfnssr@gmail.com

[Alicia]

Glad you had fun, Dave. It's always fun to see the river through the eyes of a first timer. And we had quite a few who stepped up & hopefully had a good time.

We were treated to higher water levels each day - too bad so many skipped boating in the rain on Monday, when it came up to 1" (above zero!).

[Barb]

Trip reports are supposed to be done by those who swim - I DEFINITELY earned the honor of posting the trip report! I set out to canoe the NRG on Saturday. I amazed everyone, including myself, by getting thru the first part of the NRG, including Middle & Lower Keeney, in a canoe without a swim . This was definitely all due to Alicia's wonderful guidance. Then the Gods decided that I needed to be humbled - and I swam bunches (alright, five times! ). But thanks to the great group we had with us (and their rescue skills), my swims were all very uneventful, I got to practice deep water reentry twice, and hiking the boulders once. You'd think I'd be discouraged, but it's just made me want it even more. I had a wonderful day, even tho....

The whole weekend was great. Yes, most of us wimped out on Monday when the forcast was for rain and more rain. But Saturday and Sunday were beautiful. The campground was great, as always, meeting old and new friends from CCC (Carolina Canoe Club) and Monocacy as well as our Coastals friends.

Thanks to Ed Evangelidi for leading trips on the Upper New sections on both Saturday and Sunday. The Sunday trip on the Glade Creek to Grandview section was beautiful - nice fun rapids, always flowing water.

Thanks once again to Ken for coordinating the trip, and taking a bunch of paddlers for raft rides down the Gorge. The smiles on their faces while rafting said it all!

[bambam]

Thanks for shouting out Dave, glad you had a good time.

I ended up pushing rubber all three days which suits me fine. Big fun. We had three different rivers on three different days all in the same spot! Minus 1.9 feet Saturday was a more technical challenge particularly at Lower Keeney. Still big and pushy but with rocks showing. Minus about 0.8 feet was a little easier on Sunday. On Monday I think we put on at around zero and took off at plus one foot -- great level! Big water, wider lines.

Thanks to all who came out.

Cheers,

Ken

[STRAKER]

Thanks to everyone at the NNR this past weekend. I finaly got my PFD on the NRG. I feel great about it and I cant wait to get back up there. Special thanks to Ken, Alicia, Dave,and Liz for showing me the lines and to all the new (and some I just had not seen in a while) faces that where on the river with us Saturday. My only regret was only being there for Saturdays paddle and not getting to share in the higher water fun on Sun/Mon. I did have a great run down the gorge and very very confident on all the rapids but alas an error was made. I decided to be bold and be the lead kayaker down Undercut Rock Rapid. A first timer leading on the NRG made the river gods mad and decided to humble me with a swim. Thankfuly it was very uneventful swim and quite refreshing. Thanks to the shedder couple (sorry I forgot your names) for grabbing my boat for me. It was a great trip and I cant wait to go back and get my revenge. Chris