Nolichucky Weekend
| River: | Nolichucky |
| Skill: | Intermediate+ |
| Trip Date: | 06/21/2013 |
Mother Nature spoiled us this weekend, delivering perfect water levels, weather, and even a pretty spectacular nightlight for a pre-WOR trip to the Nolichucky.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hit the road this weekend, with WOR looming, but after being lazy and spoiled by two straight weekends of local paddling, it didn’t take more than one glance at the Nolichucky gauge on Wednesday to realize it was time to rally the troops and head out to Erwin. Over the past two years or so, it seems my only chances to run the Nolichucky have been at pretty low levels on WOR trips. So I was excited to see it at more normal flows this time.
Within minutes of posting the trip, the prospects for the weekend improved substantially, as a few of us decided to go out a day early and paddle Friday as well. So I drove out Thursday to the campground and met Kevin Longin and Kathy Cusick, their niece Taylor, and nephew Kyle. Kevin and Kathy were taking the kids, who were visiting from Washington, on their first whitewater trip in their four-person raft. We were joined in the morning by Daniel Richardson, who would be making his second descent of the river. And after a leisurely morning of breakfast in camp, we headed up and over the mountain to the put-in to kick off the weekend of whitewater fun.
The river was running about 1640 cfs when we got to the put in. Since I was the only one who was really familiar with the lines, we stopped to scout all of the big rapids. Daniel aced the river with a dry-hair run, and Kevin and Kathy gave Taylor and Kyle a great introduction to whitewater with a clean run as well. We were even amazed that we found the most perfect, bump-free ride down through Rockgarden, even for the raft. The weather was just about perfect – low 80’s, no humidity, and mostly sunny, though clouds did threaten rain a few times. When we got off the river, the temperatures were pleasantly cool with a nice breeze, which made for great sleeping weather.
Saturday brought some more folks to the party, as Dana Lapple, Don and Karol Gray, and Jim Cyrek joined the six of us from Friday’s group to hit the river again, which had only dropped to 1500 cfs overnight. Once again, the weather was perfect (this time, with nary a cloud in the sky) and we had a pretty drama-free run. There were a few interesting lines here and there – the Grays both styled On the Rocks backwards, with Karol running through a new slot and Don washing up against the rock between the two right-hand exits before choosing door number one. Daniel, who had walked the top drop at Quarter Mile on Friday, decided to run it this time. He did a great job running the main line, but then didn’t get far left or right fast enough and ended up washing up on a rock just to the left of Hungry Jack. He was able to work himself free without incident, so there was no harm done, though he certainly did get my heart racing a bit when I saw him heading that way. Karol also tried out the upside down line at Roostertail, which used to be my preferred line on that rapid almost every time. But we remained carnage-free and cruised on down the rest of the river enjoying the perfect day.
On Sunday, everyone else had scattered so only Dana and I were left to play, with a level of 1370 cfs. After the most expensive shuttle ever (Dana and I each paid the $20 to our driver without telling each other that we had done so…oops!), we put on the river about 11:00. With just the two of us, we cruised down the river, had a blast, and were back at our cars at 2:00, which was pretty quick for a Nolichucky run.
A few other notable moments / inside jokes from this weekend included:
-Realizing that you can have pizza delivered to your campsite
-The awesomeness that is the Supermoon. It was spectacular at the campground Saturday night. I woke up at 3am and seriously considered getting in my boat to paddle around a little.
-Witnessing our camping neighbors provide us with an excellent reminder why you should really make sure you have a key to the vehicle parked at the takeout
-Seeing Elvis’s daddy at a local restaurant
-Identifying a new species of bug that crawled out of the sink drain in the women’s bathroom
I sure hope that this weekend is just a preview of things to come at this year’s WOR. The paddling was excellent, the company top-notch, and…did I mention the weather was perfect? Thanks to all who came out – we’ll do it again real soon!