| River: | Nantahala |
| Skill: | Novice+ |
| Trip Date: | 08/04/2012 |
Written by:
elyselee, Posted: August 8, 2012
Participants: Elyse Lee, Pablo Destefanis, Joe Mount, Martha Mount, Eric Mount, Rich Ruhlen, Sara Ruhlen, Chuck ?, Liz Phelps.
My goals for the trip were minimal planning and maximum chillaxation time on the river and Turkey Creek campground. I'd only ever been down the Tuck gorge once and Nantahala at least a dozen times, but never seem to be able to remember any of the rapids, so luckily we had several seasoned boaters to lead the way.
Saturday morning, Pablo and I met the Mount's at the Tuck Gorge. Also, my friend Liz and her novice paddle buddy from Kentucky met up with us. There was a little confusion with trying to find each other; apparently there are at least three put-ins on the Tuck. Nevertheless, we all found each other eventually with some assistance from patchy cell phone service and put-in under the bridge to avoid unnecessary carnage at the Dillsboro dam even at 770 cfs. By the time we all convened, our group had somehow grown to 20+!
Pablo was the only novice from the CCC clan. He fussed at me about finding a less gear-intensive hobby closer to home. But by the time he got in the water and started paddling, all that had washed away. Joe and Martha were very calm and reassuring, and helped guide Pablo down. Towards the later half, Pablo was already picking his own lines, eddy hopping, ferrying, and learning to surf. After lunch, Liz and her 16+ buddies split off and it was just the four of us. We lost Liz at the takeout but hitchhiked back with another paddler and helped him set up shuttle.
Sunday, we stepped it up to the ever faithful Nantahala with the addition of Rich, Sarah, Chuck, and Eric. It was a cooler cloudy morning; a light misty veil hovered over the river making visibility no more than 50 yards. We put in at Ferebee's, again to avoid unnecessary carnage at Patton's Run. Sarah took the lead and helped Pablo through the first few rapids. By early afternoon, the fog had fully lifted although it remained cloudy. We stopped for lunch at surfer's and Martha took a crack surfing in the open canoe with Rich. Eric left us older folks to go play at the quarry and NOC wave. At one point Rich tried to convince me that it was the duty of the trip coordinator to carry river trash out – namely a heavy metal casting that looked like a helmet.
Rich, Sarah, and Joe took off with their boats at the sandy beach before lesser wesser. Chuck and Martha gracefully ran the bus stop line right to left. And Pablo and I aimed to run the meaty part of the falls. I'll spare all the details for Pablo's sake but in short, I ran my cleanest line (thanks to Rich's suggestion), Pablo got his first river tattoo on the shin, and I had to go unpin his boat (with help but don't tell Pablo). Pablo's note to self – was to remember to carabiner his dry bag to the boat next time.
We said our goodbyes just before the afternoon thunderstorm downpour. I could sense Martha partly wished she was still on the river paddling in the rain. A good time was had by all.
The only thing I would have changed about the weekend was shower more often. Apparently, there is a very healthy chigger and poison ivy population at the Turkey Creek campground or somewhere along the Nanty.
