Nantahala Late Start Trip and the tale of a duckie.
| River: | Nantahala |
| Skill: | Novice |
| Trip Date: | 07/08/2021 |
Trip participants:
Vince Davis, Rob, Tino, Angela Wiseman, Paul Scrutton
I offered up an afternoon Nantahala trip on Thursday as I really needed to do some laundry in the morning. Surprisingly other people decided to join in the afternoon fun.
We got through Patton’s run and noticed that there were two cold rafters sitting at the concrete pad. One was shivering. I inquired to see what was going on, and they asked if a guide was coming along any time soon. They said that their ‘raft’ (actually a duckie) had long gone down the river. We explained that they weren’t too far back to get hold of an outfitter who might be launching at the public launchpad or upstream further to get to the commercial putin. They declined a ride on the back of our boats.
We carried on our trip. A few miles down the river, right about where the fancy houses started (which used to the old campground) we took the left most bend. At the first house we spotted the missing NOC duckie on the side of the house property and the house occupants said they were waiting for someone to show up and claim it. I explained where they were last seen and suggested if they had some time on their hands, they might take the duckie back to the occupants. One of the house owner left to try to find them.
We continued on down. Lots of eddy, and ferrying practice was being done, and some surfing.
A few miles later, we saw a raft come through towing the aforementioned (empty) duckie.
We all ran the falls.