ELF Run Cheoah
| River: | Cheoah |
| Skill: | Novice+/Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 07/05/2011 |
ELF Run Cheoah
As promised at our first tent meeting for Week of Rivers the Cheoah ELF run took place on Tuesday, July 5th with a group of 20 paddlers. Luckily for us first timers there was a small group of those who had "elfed" before. Mark gathered the group and explained that this would be an introduction to creeking adventure and we had to be ready to execute and put our boats into exact spots on the river. After spending the usual time trying to organize cars and people to get them to the river we arrived at the put in.
After setting shuttle, which was surprisingly fast, Mark gathered us for our river instructions. He designated a small crew of captains to help us down the river. We could quickly recognize them by their red, white and blue pinwheels! As we put on the river I did a practice roll in a spot behind a rock and got my head stuck on the bottom and true to form I came out of the boat. I'm sure all were thinking this was going to be a long day with her on the trip! However, with my panic attack over I felt that I had gotten my swim out of the way and was more relaxed. So, the group quickly sorted themselves into a long string of boats and we headed off down between the rocks looking for where the water was going. Mark would set his captains at the optimum eddies to give us directions on how to make the next turn and eddy. It was great to get an instruction and be able to blindly maneuver yourself down between the rocks going to a spot ahead that you could not see or sometimes you could actually see a helmet or paddle waving from the spot you wanted to get your boat. The first portion of the river enabled us to meet up together in the bigger eddies and discuss how we were progressing in our creeking skills as a group
After the first 15 minutes or so Mark stopped us and we learned that the warm up was over and we had to step up and begin our true creeking experience which was to keep ourselves moving in and out eddies and keep a flawless continuum of boats moving down the river. This required that we all keep eye contact with the boater in front and behind us to let them know where the line was and what eddy to catch. We were doing pretty well with the fantastic help of the captains but we did have a few mishaps; much to Mark's chagrin. It becomes difficult to keep eddy hopping when a boater in front of you gets stuck on a rock! Of course there is no one else to see what is happening from down or up the river. So, that leaves the person stuck and the person behind them to figure things out! Then there is also the critical time when Mark points to spots he wants us to be and then we don't go there! I did ask how I could fix this and Mark kindly pointed out that I needed to scan the river for lines and directions instead of just watching for rocks in front of my boat! So learning to do these two things helped tremendously with last part of the river.
As we proceeded to the last few drops we actually were able to find our own way through and enjoy our newly learned creeking skills. The dam and lake are beautiful at the end and one of us (Bob) actually enjoyed the nice cool roll to honor the river spirits!
It was a spectacular day. The river offers gorgeous water, waterfalls, great drops, twists and turns. It was challenging but made extremely safe by our expert leader and captains. We did have a few swims, almost a lost paddle; recovered by a little back tracking and one paddler that decided to wait till next year and watch us from the road.
Thanks Mark for leading the trip; thanks also to Bobbi, Christian, Charles, John and other captains. Hopefully we'll all be back next year!
Judith Akins