Upper Gauley by Raymond Williams
| River: | Gauley |
| Skill: | Advanced |
| Trip Date: | 10/11/2004 |
There’s something about Lisa, the Upper Gauley and rain.
Last year when Lisa Birskovich agreed to run the Upper Gauley trip, there was so much water that the Corp of Engineers was releasing water 24 hours at huge levels. The levels were too high for first timers, so the trip was moved to the Meadow on Saturday and the Top Gauley and Cherry on Sunday.
A year later, it’s time for the CCC Gauley trip, and the COE is releasing water 24 hours at high levels. To complicate matters, there are plenty of local rivers and creeks running, including Overflow Creek at Section IV. People are emailing and calling back and forth, trying to predict levels, wondering if the drive to West Virginia will be worth it.
“Should I pass on a guaranteed creek run and drive 5 hours only to find the Gauley at 5,000 CFS?” is the question for some.
At some point, over 20 different people were signed up for the trip. However, six eventually made the trip besides our trip leader: John Zadrozny, Raymond Williams, Chris Hale, Milton Wicker, Stuart Samuels, and our one virgin, Jeff Matonis. All in kayaks except for Chris in his Spanish Fly (OC-1).
Battle Run campground seemed deserted because so many boaters stayed home to take advantage of local water. Still, we enjoyed a couple of hours of conversation on Friday as people arrived. Dave Gunther stopped by briefly. When invited to sit, he said he was tired after a day of boating, and “I don’t feel like listening to paddling stories, and I don’t feel like telling any, so I’m going to bed.” Anyone who is still running the Gauley and making hand rolls at age 75 is entitled to say goodnight that way.
Saturday morning Lisa called the always helpful Billy Gray for river levels. The Gauley release was 2400 CFS, and the Meadow was expected to be around 750- 800 CFS by launch time, giving us a level 300-400 CFS over the typical fall release.
After Lisa explained the levels and other pertinent information, everyone decided to run.
The day started well. The sun was out, temperature in the 70’s, and the river was uncrowded. The lines at the surfing waves were short, and several in the group took advantage of this. We experienced the Gauley that most people only see during unscheduled week day releases.
Thanks to Lisa’s clear descriptions and even better demonstrations, everyone was running clean lines, with a few small exceptions. We scouted Pillow, where we encountered a group of attractive women with an elaborate lunch spread on the rocks. However, Lisa failed to notice this, so after a quick scout and successful runs, we continued downstream to eat our bagels and Clif Bars with our predominantly male group.
Below the Meadow, the water was more squirrelly with the extra CFS coming in. At the 4th drop of Lost Paddle, we had our first and only swim of the day. It was quick and Jeff basically self-rescued; in fact half of the group wasn’t aware of it until the end of the day.
On to Iron Ring, where we scouted and everyone had a good line. At Sweets Falls, several ran the classic line and the rest tried the creek line on river right. Below the falls, a raft guide was tossing barbeque ribs wrapped in foil to kayakers. As we went after the ribs, we looked like ducks in a pond frantically swimming up to the kids tossing bread crumbs.
That night, we went to bed early, tired from a fun, but intense day on the river. On Sunday morning, Lisa called Ed and Suzanna Edens. Ed had left for church, but Suzanna kindly provided water levels before going to church herself. We decided to try the New River Dries, which was a first run for three in the group. Although it was a little low, we still found some good surfing. Chris Hale offered to race through the last part backwards, but no one took up the challenge.
At the takeout, we discovered that the campground charges $3 a person to carry across the property to the public parking area. Next time, we’ll know to take out above or below the campground.
What is it about CCC Gauley trips? In the past two years, on four days of official CCC Upper Gauley trips, I’ve paddled the Upper G one time. However, I’ve added three first time runs, had a blast, and enjoyed good company on the river.