The only thing better than seeing my kids’ smiling faces after a fun run on a river is seeing the faces of over 30 kids and 40 moms and dads after a day on the river making new friends and sharing days outside in the fresh air and cool river water. That is what Families Paddle Too! is all about – it is to encourage the enthusiasm and joy of our next generation of whitewater paddlers.
May 19, 2012 – Upper Meadow
When I posted this trip back in April, I was hopeful that there would be water in West Virginia on the weekend of the trip. On the Monday before the trip, West Virginia got a pretty good rain, but as the week wore on, many of the West Virginia creeks started dropping out. First the Back Fork of the Elk dropped below minimum, followed by the Cranberry. I was starting to worry. But by Thursday, it looked like the Meadow would hold, so we headed to West Virginia on Friday afternoon.
I had four people signed up for a nice calm weekened on the Ocoee: Martha, Jeff, myself, and Fred (who is more a force of nature on the Ocoee than anything else).
Jeff had run the Ocoee on multiple ocassions, so Martha was the only one on her PFD.
Saturday turned out to be a great blue sky day… weather forcasts may have kept the weary away as the river was not busy. I found a new way to kill time at the put in by running laps of the entrance rapid and walking up the steel steps back to the ramp (posting video to CCC's fb page). I had a fun solo run Saturday; I stopped at Broken Nose and ran a few laps there too.
Participants:
Saturday on the Ocoee – Woody O'brian, Jon Godwin, Fast Fred Ruddock, John Z
Sunday on the Nantahala – Julie and Barry Schmidt, Jeffrey Hatcher, Woody O'brian, Jon Godwin, John Z
Perfect weather, both for paddling and camping. We got two runs on the Middle Ocoee on Saturday, the first (almost) to ourselves. On Sunday, we paddled the Nantahala, again with the river (mostly) to ourselves. Great weekend. Thanks to the fun crew.
French Broad Section 9 Trip Report. 4/8/2012. Submitted by Wayne Jones
On Sunday morning of the Easter Trip, I raised my hand to ask Rich about the logistics of paddling the French Broad River Section 9 on the way back to Raleigh. Despite appearances, I was quite sure of where the French Broad was. However, what I wasn’t too sure about was the current location of Wayne Jones. Another victim of GPS, I suppose. Paddlers started to gather around me uncertainly after I said I would lead a trip.
Rich Ruhlen and Joan Monnig send sincere thanks to all for making the CCC Easter Trip a success!
We had great weather with pleasant sunny days. You can’t beat rain on Thursday to fill the rivers for Friday/Saturday/Sunday paddling fun!
Trips were run on:
