River: Chattooga

Beautiful day on Section 3.5 of Chattooga

We had a large group of 19 boaters show up for the trip which included 1 inflatable kayak, 15 hard shell kayaks and 1 c1.  The weather was beautiful, mid 70’s with a blue sky. 

We played our way down to Bull Sluice. After scouting, a few decided to walk it and the rest decided to run it.  We had a few run the double drop which one or two ran it not by choice.

We postponed the trip from its scheduled date because of cold weather.  The following week was forecast to be warmer and sunny, so, why not?

During the week, the predicted temperature kept declining, and heavy rains on Wednesday sent the level of the Chattooga near 4 feet.  By saturday the level was 2.44, and the forecast was low 40s in the morning dropping into the 30s by afternoon, with 30% chance of rain then snow later in the afternoon.

This was the 13th iteration of a trip that began in January 2000.  That year the forecast early in the week was fantastic, but it deteriorated to the point that we were ready to cancel the trip the day before it was scheduled.  When 14 people said they wanted to go,  off we went.  By the end of the day, we had icicles hanging from our helmets, and had to brave slick, icy roads to get home. The Hypothermia Challenge was born!