Nanty
| River: | Nantahala |
| Skill: | Novice+ |
| Trip Date: | 07/23/2011 |
When you post a Nanty trip and receive one response, you might think you'll have the river to yourself. Or ,maybe no one likes you, I learned this weekend that nothing could be further from the truth. Jen Fahey and I loaded up Friday evening and made the trek up to Turkey Creek. The campground was as busy as I can recall seeing it. The next morning as I was looking for fellow CCC'er Pete Peterson, I saw plates from a variety of mid-western states which was surprsing to me. Didn't realize people came from so far away outside of W.O.R. The NOC was packed all weekend. Much more so than the earlier Holiday week.
We found Pete, and proceeded to run the river from Patton's down. The cool water was nice after a sweltering week in Raleighwood. I got the chance to fully imerse myself in it at whirlpool. I was sitting in the eddy, not quite paying close enough attention when a "self guided" raft, self guided itself right over top of me. I tried to get some seperation and roll up, but the raft seemed to be glued to me. So, that is the story of my first time swimming on the Nantahala. Not quite how I would have guessed it would go down. I gathered up my gear and shattered ego, and we all had a nice uneventful paddle for the rest of the day.
Beers followed at Slow Joe's as we set plans for day two. We met up with a couple of new boaters from Birmingham, AL and also a new to Raleigh boater named Julia. By the time shuttle was set, our group had grown by three and now included groups from TN also. Another nice day on the Nanty with smiles all around. I can't think of a better way to beat the heat.
Randy Welch