Lower Green, nope – Nolichucky, nope – Tuck! …or a first time coordinators tale – Robyn VanderGalien
| River: | Tuckaseegee |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 07/17/2004 |
After an apprehensive 2 months I finally decided to see why only the “chosen few” coordinated river trips. So let me start this with a few tips on coordinating.
- ALWAYS, always, always get a means of contact. Even if that means that you have a dozen people calling you before you leave. DON’t plan on meeting anyone at the put-in without a means of previous contact. That means NOT JUST cell phones. Most put-ins don’t have signal……
- Find out where everyone is coming from. This will give you an approximate time for an alternate meeting place.
- Always have more than one back up river. Even if you are going to paddle the ever running Nantahala. Remember….. it is NOT guaranteed to be “ever running”.
The planned trip to the Lower Green was a bit confusing as I coaxed (that means I asked) Steve Lott into actually leading. All was going well until I got an email from Steve with the subject line reading “the trip is getting bigger”. Panic started to set in.
After monitoring the river all week I found it to be encouraging that it ran 1 day out of 5. Anticipating that surely they were not generating during the week just so they could do a major release on Saturday for us recreational paddlers (not to mention the income generated by the tubers). Imagine my surprise when I called only to hear “Tuxedo Hydro station will be shut down”. Panic officially set in!
Luckily Steve was available (Steve to the rescue once again). We checked the river level of the back up river…..NOT ENOUGH WATER. Panic is now all consuming!
We met at Exit 44 – attempting to get the Asheville group, the Eastern NC group, and one from the Charlotte area, in one place – and decided to do the good ole reliable Tuck with the Nanty as yet another possible back-up. I believe Steve’ words were “we can always go over to the Nanty”. My heart was resuming it’s normal beat and blood pressure was coming down. Then we encountered rain! What else could go wrong?
We got to the put-in and our luck seemed to turn around. Bob Moses got our message in Bryson City and he was there. We launched with 13 boats. I might have thought that had something to do with our run of luck but kept concentrating on the fact that we had 14 paddlers since one was a tandem canoe (thanks Alex and Jim.) Then we lost one kayaker so I concentrated on the 12 boats 🙂
We had a first swim, ever. Steve was attempting to work with a new member (hope the check has been received by now) on ferrying and the wrong side of the boat was presented. Oops….
Josh and Steve entertained us with stern squirts, pirouettes, and the ease of rolling (which I doubt I’ll ever grasp) and we knew we had truly made our international guest from Italy, Gianluca, feel welcome when while splashing and playing around he grabbed the back of Steve’s boat and turned him upside down. The only regret was we didn’t think about having Josh or Bob paddle on top of Steve’s boat to keep him from rolling up 🙂
What else could go wrong? Halfway down the river we noticed a HUGH flotilla of rafts and duckies behind us. Many eddies were caught to give the rafts the right of way. We learned that the Nantahala dam was broke and trips were diverted to the good ole Tuck.
But that gave Alex companions to jump off a large rock with, and Josh was talked into (all we had to do was ask) launching off said rock. And, of course with all the rafters he had a HUGH audience. Now they know kayakers really ARE crazy!
Despite everything I had a GREAT time, I hope everyone did. I think that because of the obstacles we overcame it was a sweeter paddle. Not even the torrential downpour at the takeout dampened my (it seemed like our) spirits, and we were off to Guyabitoes in Waynesville. I apologized many times for the confusion and disorganized trip leader (me) only to be greatly reassured when someone said, after only 2 setbacks, “I’m just glad you did it…. at least I had a trip to go on”. I wonder at the end if he still felt that way.
Side notes: Enormous THANKS to Mike Swanson, Jim Lederer, Inflatable Bob (sorry Bob……forgot your last name), Jim & Alex, Van Lew, GianLuca, Josh Parker, Lesia Justice, Howe Largarde, Bob Moses, and the last 2 paddlers who’s names I forgot and was unable to get due to the torrential rain at the end. Y’alls sense of humor and flexibility made this a good experience. And to Steve Lott, everyone’s hero, not only on this trip but on SO MANY! Sorry Steve, you are going to be in demand so much more now!
Hats off to Josh, who made it from Shelby to exit 44 in record time without getting a speeding ticket (the Green was SO much closer 🙂
Some closing tips:
- ALWAYS make sure your boat is tied down tightly, even in the pouring down rain, and with the offer of help by someone who seems to know more than you. A boat was lost on the trip home but luckily did not hit any other cars and seems to be still paddle able.
- NEVER ask what else can go wrong!
Coordinate a trip! IT’S A BLAST! Most paddlers do have a sense of humor and “go with the flow”. Also you will probably find most everybody will feel they are “….just glad you did it…. at least I had a trip to go on”