French Broad Section 9
| River: | French Broad |
| Skill: | Novice+/Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 10/14/2012 |
Sunday's trip was, once again, democracy in action. The vote was predictable; on Sundays people want to be on the road home earlier. French Broad 9 is closer, short shuttle, and a moderately short paddle (4.1 miles).
The crew of ten was more typical than Saturday's experience and skill heavy group. Most of this crew had under 10 years of paddling experience and we even had a first-timer on FB9. Strangely, I was the only one on both Saturday's and Sunday's trip. Predictably we had more swims than Saturday's trip – and a couple timely rolls. FB9 has a lot of good play spots so there was also a good bit of playing. We had the same great weather – sunny with mild (60's) temperatures; pretty good foliage and the requisite great blue herons.
We didn't have the river to ourselves as there were several other groups on the river. One group was filming, they had a lot of gear and were stationary as we passed. Another group was an all women class; they were stopped re-uniting a boat & boater as we passed. A third group consisted of open canoes. It wasn't anything like a Saturday on the Ocoee or Nanty; we were usually alone. It was a pretty relaxed trip and we were off the river and on our way home by ~ 3pm (apparently like it should be on a Sunday).
– Lee Thonus