New River Gorge and Music.
| River: | New |
| Skill: | Intermediate+ |
| Trip Date: | 06/04/2011 |
New River Gorge and Music.
Participants :-
Paul scrutton
Jon Godwin
Morgan Randell
Luke Osborne
Having failed gauges 101 class, and having had to cancell the Tuckaseegee West Fork trip, I decided to plan a New River Gorge Trip. We had four paddlers sign up, the same people that were interested in the prior trip.
Driving up to camp, we noticed a new Sheetz gas station had taken the place of the old Western Pancake House, a former neon lit landmark for boaters entering the New River Gorge.
At what used to be called Mountain laurel campground, we noticed that other things had changed somewhat. Rivers Rafting Company moved into and ran the old Mountain laurel campground. It used to be managed by Shannon, who worked for Shad, famous for his lounge at the Rivers Campground.
The rafting companies have undergone considerable consolidation and they have migrated to a more central area. This has left the campground somewhat vacated. A new pony pen had been built. Ron, the new friendly campground host, has visions of adding a go-cart track to the front of the facility, and having camping and pony tours from it.
Following breakfast at the Cathedral Cafe, we paddled the New River Gorge on Saturday, and ran into a ladies trip from the Triangle; Elizabeth, Jade, Julie, Dottie.
Morgan was a first time Gorge paddler, and had a good time on the river. He was eager to test play-spots, and try new creative lines on the river. The river was running at 2.5 feet approx, so the rapids weren't timid.
Sat evening, we checked out a band playing at Whitewater Express pub, across busy Route 19 from the campground. "Pop songs on valium" was a phrase thrown around to describe them. We then ventured back to the campground and listened to music at the shelter. Friends of the campground host meet up on a Saturday night, and play songs in a circle. The mix is mellow rock, pop, and traditional. The music was very good, three acoustic guitars, one electric bass. Shad, the businessman who used to be involved with the rafting location and Shad's Lounge, came by and sang with the musicians. We chatted about the changes in the park, and the area.
On Sunday, Luke left early, and the 3 of us, set shuttle with the ladies trip. We paddled down the river together. Some way down the river, I managed to get stuck near the base of a boof drop on the right side of the river. It took a while to get out, but I did finally succeed. Morgan had the grace to remain in the eddy above affording himself a good birds eye view of my helmet moving around while he waited for his turn to run the boof. Towards the end of the river, we saw three wild turkeys flap their way across from river right to the river left bank.