It all started out early Saturday morning to meet Kessman in Buena Vista for a few runs on Irish Creek. Two others were joining us for the day, Al and Joe. We did two runs or laps as some people call them. The river was out of the banks on the first run and dropped almost a foot by the second one. The water was really fast and eddies were few are far between. After the second run Dave and I loaded his truck and went to the Waffle House. After dinner we parked my car and rolled out to meet up with the Juggernaut (Justin) and others at Lynn?s place in WV. THANKS LYNN!!
Sunday morning was a big breakfast and organizing a bunch of people. We decided to run the Lower Gauley since the level was around 3600 cfs. And we ended up putting in about half way in the Middle G, right at the waters edge, due to fancy big truck driving by Don! I think we had like 9 people and 8 boats. And pretty much broke into two smaller groups. My group was me, Kessman, Justin, Steve, and Roy. Those two were each in Spanish Fly?s and got a lot of people?s attention. We played our way down the river and in a few spots there seemed to be a noticeable difference with the higher water. After the run and some help shuttling we made it back to the house for dinner and drinks!
Monday morning came a round and everyone overslept. We were going to try and run the Upper Gauley, even though it was around 3500cfs, and then drive to make a run on Goshen Pass, but that just wasn?t in the cards. After a big breakfast and getting all packed up we had help with shuttle and had all the cars at the bottom. This time it was just four of us, since Steve?s cold was coming back strong and he decided to not paddle and get a jump on driving back to Canada. Justin and Roy were pretty much leading since they have run it more than Dave and I. After getting through the first few rapids and one of the bigger ones, Insignificant, I hit the eddy at Iron Curtain a little too high. I got pulled back into the kinda pour over and got worked.
That?s were it happened, I SWAM!!!
Now fans just so you don?t think I suck that much here is what AW has to say about it:?Iron Curtain: This rapid is named for the iron oxide stains that have formed on the sandstone wall along river right. This one is probably more devious than dangerous, but in the event of a long swim, watch for the house-sized undercut, Sperm Whale Rock, way down in the run out. Why would someone swim? Hit the bottom left eddy line wrong and you?ll find out. It?s a mean one.?
After being helped collecting my gear and what was left of my dignity
I mounted back up and had a good rest of the day. I only screwed up two more times one in Pillow and the other in Iron Ring. This was my second time on the UG and I have yet to run those two rapids clean. Maybe next year!
