Well, that could have gone better
| River: | Eno |
| Skill: | Novice+ |
| Trip Date: | 09/19/2018 |
With the Eno dropping rapidly, I posted a trip to Facebook last night. By today I had six people (evolving to seven). Meeting up at West Point, we had one person running late. Late. With the schduled run already tight, what I should have done was abbreviate the trip by cutting off one of the (Pleasant Green/Cole Mill/Guess/Roxboro) sections to turn it into a shorter run. I didn't take into account that for most of my Eno runs, it's only with (at most) a couple of people. I also didn't factor in that the Eno was running at the bare minimum (about 2.7' USGS), further slowing our pace. I did at least plan ahead, and park the (take-out) cars in the ampitheatre parking lot.
By the time we reached Cole Mill, I knew it was going to be close. We reached the Roxboro takeout as dark settled in. The take-out to the ampitheatre was overwhelmed by debris, making the takeout treacherous and difficult. A few of us reached the cars ahead of the others, and began to plan for heading back up to Pleasant Green, where they lock the gates at 8:30 pm. But we were still missing two people. One of the drivers (with a car at Pleasant Green) volunteered to have his car locked in while he checked on our two lost sheep, as he lived nearby. We managed to get back up to Pleasant Green to acquire the other car, still (barely) before it locked at 8:30 pm. With explanation and apologies to the ranger we headed out. Follow-on messaging confirmed everything OK at the take-out.
I can now think of a number of ways we could have solved that better than we did, and better decisions along the way. In the end everything worked out, although causing a fair amount of inconvenience.
It was great to paddle with everyone. Apologies for the chaos.