Pigeon and French Broad 9
| River: | Pigeon |
| Skill: | Novice+/Intermediate |
| Trip Date: | 06/25/2011 |
This weekend of two trips was somewhat the opposite of the prior trip report that I had posted about the Nolichucky (and was published in the newsletter). I think that it being the last weekend before WOR had something to do with it. The trips were smaller, the paddlers were from within an hour of Asheville, everyone had been on the river's several times before, and there was no carnage.
PIGEON GORGE – The cast of characters (and there were some characters in the cast) Joe, Melanie, Guy, Clayton, and myself – the nominal trip organizer. Every person on the trip had multiple runs on the "Pig" so things were sort of on autopilot. The only ringer was that the power station was generating at full power on all 3 turbines and there was some inflow from Big Creek and Hurricane Creek. The flow was ~2300 cfs rather than the typical summer release of 1300. I think that I was the only one of the group to have run the higher flows in recent times.
The lines don't change much (with the exception of Double Reactionary), the current is a little faster, the waves and holes a little bigger. A couple play spots were washed out, a couple new ones appeared – probably a net gain. At Double Reactionary a couple of new lines open up that are too low at 1300. We used them. Trip time was probably a little shorter than usual and for some reason there were not as many rafts as usual on a Saturday.
French Broad 9
This started out as an Upper Green trip but democracy ruled and we wound up on FB9. The cast Wendy, Tom, & myself, joined by a group from Linkup who were largely inexperienced on FB9. If I had been carnage deprived from the previous day on the Pig, I would have been satiated by the FB9 trip. FB9 is fairly mellow and forgiving at 1250 cfs and we only went to Stackhouse. The swims were non-dramatic. I took a few photos and will try to attach a couple.
Wendy Arthur had a good time testing out her new Blackfly Ion. There is a photo attached.
At the takeout we spotted some birds in a tree overhanging the river. I'm not an ornithologist, so some of you will have to help me out on the identification.
– Lee