River: Cheoah

Paddle Smoothly and Find a 10 Foot Stick or RETHROG Reprised

Initial caveat, I don't know how to rate this river at this water level per the CCC descriptions.  REALLY STRONG eddy catching skills are recommended.

Hopefully I'm operating the photo gizmo correctly and an image of four lovely sweaty athletic women in red canoes below a waterfall appears above.  It's tough for me to imagine a better start to a paddling trip. 

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.

Six paddlers met at O'Henry's put-in around 11 AM Saturday to take on the Cheoah. We had a good group – Chris Grindstaff, Eric Stuart, Matt Beauchamp, Jenis Grindstaff, Tim Tuttle, and myself. I had paddled with everyone except Tim before, and was really looking forward to a great day on a challenging river. This was to be Jenis's first time and my second down the Cheoah. The weather was great – sunny skies and warm temperatures.