Springtime on the Haw
| River: | Haw |
| Skill: | Novice |
| Trip Date: | 04/13/2013 |
Back in the depths of winter when I posted a novice trip to the CCC calendar, who knew what might be running on April 13, 2013? It rained a little on the day before the trip, so we were lucky to have the Haw at a couple of inches above zero on the paddler's gauge. There were some last minute emails the night before the trip, and it was decided that since the trip was posted as a novice trip, the 14 of us would meet at the Hwy. 64 access on Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning, Jen Fahey, Cat Thrash, Russ Scheve, Jenny Wiley, Camille Warren, Megan Mallard, Walter DeHaven, Abi Riak, Julie Schmidt, Barry Schmidt, Wendy Krause, Amy Fox, Spencer Muse and I all gathered at the Hwy 64 access. After some discussion, it was decided that nearly everyone wanted to run both the Middle and Lower Haw. So, we moved most of the cars to the Lower Haw take out and then headed up the Old Bynum Mill put in on the Middle Haw.
It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine, just enough water, good company and lots of pollen blowing on the spring breeze. Everyone had clean runs through all of the Middle Haw rapids, including Thunderfalls and S-turn. There was some surfing and some eddy catching and some ferrying. Spirits were high as we floated down to the Middle Haw take out.
By this point everyone on the trip was feeling pretty good, and everyone decided to run the Lower Haw too. It was a good level for first timers with enough water but no push. This was good, since we had three Lower Haw first timers in the group. The first challenge was Lunchstop Rapid. At this level, some extra rocks come into play in the normal line, but everyone made it through fine. We stopped on river left for lunch. Jen shared her recent experience of going the Men's NCAA Final Four Basketball games. According to Jen, we should all add this experience to our bucket lists. Being a lover of college basketball, I'm in agreement.
After lunch, the next challenge was Ocean Boulevard Rapid. Russ pointed out that at this water level, it was more like Bay Side Boulevard. Everyone had a clean run, and we all eddied out above Entrance Rapid to Gabriel's. While Russ, Spencer and Cat did some side surfing and 360s in the center hole, the rest of us ran down the right of center line.
Next up was Gabriel's Bend. We started in the center and then worked our way left until we were all in the river left eddy at the bottom of the rapid. All of the first timers were smiling and wishing that carrying back up to the top for another run didn't seem like so much work.
We headed through the Maze next and then paddled through the remaining smaller rapids down to the Robeson Creek take out. Everyone had a chance to try out the new floating take out dock that fellow CCC members helped install last year. If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely go check it out. It's a big improvement over the old, muddy take out.
Many thanks to everyone who came out for the novice Haw trip. I think that everyone had fun, and it was a great way to spend a spring day.