Webster Springs Shuttle Report

[Max K]

I'm proud to say that Dad set a new personal shuttle record today!

Middle Meadow
11 Kayaks on Top, 1 under the bed (inside), for a total of 12
14 Humans and me on the inside!

You should have seen it Sandy, all those humans looked like sardines!

I would really like to thank Ann for helping me shuttle the MangoVan and
taking me for a few walks. I really enjoyed the company!

[Wallace]

Awesome weekend! Gromit and I scored two PFDs and I finally got her back on Goshen. As usual, I made her look good! The whole ride home we talked about the people we met and the runs we made for the first time, and what a cool combination that is. You never know exactly how things are gonna turn out, but you can be pretty sure you're gonna like it.

[Paddle Daddy]

Thanks to everyone for making me feel at home and esp for the coffee and food set-ups (I was woefully unprepared in the culinary department). Had a great time, 2 new PFD's, stayed in my boat in Middle Meadow thanks to Brandon (though I won't claim my hair was dry - actually, it was "rapid #1 rinse, roll, repeat rapid #2 ..." for the first half of the Miracle Mile). I can't wait until next year - though I will wish for a little more water, a lot more experience in my creekboat, and will definitely invest in the industrial-strength earplugs before sharing a room with Brandon and Jim again.

PS is anyone else freaked out by that typing black lab? he has a bigger vocabulary than I do ...

[David]

Yes indeed it was an awesome weekend. Thanks to Peter for suggesting US 250. A stunning ride west Friday afternoon. Great weather and great company continued, and thanks to Ann & Shaggy and Ken and Alicia and any unnamed contributors who provided such delicacies as baked salmon, mango chicken, steak fingers, blueberry pie, and brownies.

And of course thanks to Dave Kessman, who patiently instructs, cajoles, and encourages his followers. And that is just to get them to the river.

Saturday I got three young kayakers on the way up the skill ladder to help an old canoeist realize his dream, to run six miles of class 1 and flatwater. That would be on the Crupperneck section of the Top Gauley - it ends in Summerville Lake in summertime. We took out at Persinger Creek where a West Virginia ATV enthusiast graciously refreshed the kayak crew with cold beers while I went about the boat loading business. Earlier, at the top of this access road (described as looking sketchy on the AW site) a kind lady not only told me we were on the right road when setting shuttle but graciously restrained her German Shepherd from attacking me.

The flatwater was just the half of it. The run started with four miles of steady class 2 followed by a couple of nice threes and one the book calls a 4- which reminded me of Devil's Kitchen. Then it was - mostly flat. A few waves, some wildlife, clear blue sky, and the best beaches I have seen west of the Blue Ridge, surpassing in size and frequency even those of the Chattooga.

Sunday we all went to the Middle Meadow. 680 cfs there is my kind of stream - eddy-hopping on down knowing that Ken and Alicia were picking the good lines, something I depended on West Virginians to show me on previous runs. I recall asking about the famous undercuts on my first trip. "Yes they are there but they are easily avoidable." Actually the entire river is littered with enormous house-sized rectangular boulders and many of the undercuts, while "easily avoidable," are in the middle of the river. Another blue sky day, warmer with less wind. The Middle Meadow is a beautiful river, class 3 (this number goes up with more water) for the first half and easing up to mostly class 2 or 2+ for the last couple of miles. It is five miles to the bridge and then a ten-mile hike up to US 19.

Another cool thing about West Virginia is that they have a software program that obligates young lady cashiers to make old men prove they are over twenty when they are buying beer.

[Peter L]

Great weekend means a fabulous group of people, incredible food and good paddling.
My thanks to David for doing all the driving.
Many thanks to Dave k, Shaggy and Segal for leading us first timers down the Upper Meadow. One roll, one swim and some blown lines was my intro to creeking left me with several bruises.
Saturday night cook out was fantastic, many many tanks to all the chefs (you may want to consider entering Top Chef???)
Sunday's trip on the Middle Meadow made me think a lot about paddling in the future. I felt fine a the put in, paddling down the Miracle Mile I had one swim and one roll. From this point there was just four in our group Ken, Alica, David and myself. Continuing on down I very quickly became tired and my paddling became very sloppy, another roll, another swim. After that second swim I thought I was OK, but upon starting to paddle I realized that I had hurt my back. Ken went into immediate action and had Alica paddling probing indicating to Ken which was the easiest way down the rapids. Ken then took that route with me following close behind and David following in case something happen. Paddling is not good when every stoke hurts, but due we made the last mile or so without any further incidents. Thanks also go out to the people who carried my boat up to the road.
Conclusions: Currently I do not paddle enough or exercise enough to be able to paddle two days in a row. Paddling when you are tired can and does lead you into trouble (injury, etc.), this puts a burden whole group. My apologies to the group for the burden I created this last weekend and I will be working at improving my fitness first and hopefully my paddling skills.
Final word, after two days on muscle relaxants and some gentle back stretches I am feeling improved, but it will be a couple of weeks before I am back in a boat.

Peter L

[David]

No apologies needed Peter. You were great company. I have been known to take a swim or two, or three, myself. It was something to see the Bambam-TLQA team leap into action though. I did like the old Bob Dylan song, "I jumped right in line and said hope that I'm not late."

I enjoyed some Alpine travelogues while driving or riding. Peter and his paddling buds would hop on the channel ferry from England and take their kayaks up to the Alps. One June adventure was 17 miles of continuous class 3 glacial snowmelt on the Inn River running from Switzerland to Austria. And when Shawn was not busy straightening out affairs in the Balkans, he was bicycling in the Italian Alps.

[slo2rol]

Despite not having the abundance of water that we had last year, Webster Springs 2010 was another great trip. Thanks to Dave KessmanN for organizing it, Patrick for letting me snore in his room(s), and to everyone that came out and made Webster the great gathering that it is.

Dave K, John W and I started the weekend early on Friday to capitalize on Thursday night's rain. I rolled out of my driveway at 4am, picked up Dave at 6:30 and met up with John at 8am outside of Lexington. After a quick check of the gauges, we were on our way up to the Upper Meadow. After setting the super shuttle, we dropped in and hauled down stopping twice to scout. At the takeout, we looked at the gauges and decided to catch the middle Cranberry rather than another lap on the U. Meadow since it likely wouldn't be runnable the rest of the weekend. Though the Cranberry was low, it was still good fun requiring good boat handling. A couple of rapids above S-Turn we passed through a group experiencing a bit of a pooh show with 3 or 4 swimmers in the water. S-turn at low water required a few technical moves to avoid the sieve at the entrance and to dodge some shallow boo-boo rocks after the left turn. After the scout, Dave fired it up and I ran it second while John shot video. While John was getting in his boat, the group we had passed earlier arrived to scout. Expecting him to lace it up as usual, John fired it in and gave em a good show. Afterwards, we headed to Camp Caesar where Dave provided the best post-boating meal I've ever had - Thanks!!!

Saturday, we headed over to the Upper Meadow (@ 760cfs) with a fair number of folks, so we elected to break into two groups. John W and I took Shannon, Jacob, Jim, John and Lex with us for a blitz run while the rest hung back in the second group with Dave K. Jim flailed around a bit below the Weir, but recovered in style. John and I scored the mother load of cheesecake bites at the DQ off of Rt 19.

On Sunday, the original plan had us heading for the New River Dries, but an audible at Camp Caesar shifted the party over to the Middle Meadow which was running fairly low at 650cfs. About half of the folks set shuttle to take out at the water station below the Miracle Mile while the rest of us planned to run down to the Rt 19 bridge. We had a ton of folks for this run and elected to break into 4 groups which became 3 groups when our group merged with the folks only doing the Miracle Mile. Our group of 8 moved along pretty slow with Dave's group nipping at our heals through the upper section. Patrick got some on-the-job training after getting upside down in some shallow water and losing his paddle. He hung in the boat, even after it broached partially upside down until I could hit him with a bow rescue. I pulled his paddle off a rock upstream and we got underway again. After dropping the five guys off at the water plant, Shaggy, John W and I headed off downstream at a good pace to make sure we wouldn't bunch up with the next group and were greeted with some nice rapids and plenty of good undercuts to make the navigation exciting. The section below the water plant provided some good boating even at the lower flow and I'm glad we went. The hike out wasn't that bad, even the second time carrying Ken's boat part of the way. The most amusing part was watching Sejal's departure from the hike out trail Dehydration is a terrible thing!!! We finished off a great weekend with some great pizza at Pies-n-Pints before heading home.

Thanks to Dave K and John W for making Friday happen! And thanks to everyone else for the great food and camaraderie! Can't wait 'til next year.

[gromit]

I too had a great weekend. Finally got back on Goshen for a low water run - but that was fine by me. Guy called it Devil's kitchenette! Saturday after the usual dithering, I was set to paddle the top Gauley, but Kessmann talked me right out of that and said I had to paddle the upper Meadow. Off we went, with white knuckle grip and a tight you know what. Once I relaxed a little I had a great run. A fun river. Middle Meadow miracle mile on Sunday was good too. Spectacular boulders and scenery.
Big thanks to Kessmann, Mangles, Shaggy and Ann, Ken and Alicia and Brandon for the river guiding, shuttles and salmon! Good to meet other folks too
Rufus and Jack said they had a good time too. But are quite tired and needed to sleep on the bed all day Monday.
Roll on Cheat Fest.

[bambam]

I was in on the two laps at Goshen on Friday as well. Good fun. While making Liz look good at Corner, Dave looked like he was taking a beating but thankfully he wasn't.

Saturday for me was a small rendezvous with a couple of MCC folks. We headed to the Cranberry but the Internet gauge wasn't agreeing with what was actually there so we started heading for the upper Meadow, noted we were driving right past the Cherry. Hmmm. Never run it. Let's go. The river itself is pretty as long as you don't look past the edges. It's roadside almost all the way and so is trashed. Get past that, though, and add a little more water, and it's a perfect run for folks looking to move up to the Cranberry. Class II / III creeking all the way.

Saturday dinner was great, special kudos for the Canada's (ooh, breakfast too!). Christina-cake was missed though. (Sorry you two couldn't make it.)

Sunday's trip on the Middle Meadow ... My apologies to the group for the burden I created this last weekend and I will be working at improving my fitness first and hopefully my paddling skills ...
Peter L

No apologies necessary and glad you are feeling better.

Peter was clearly having an "off" day. After his second swim it was obvious he was fatigued so I had him rest while I dumped his boat. I did have a moment of "Holy cow, I hope he can paddle out because we are actually quite remote here."

Safety sidenote: Guilty as charged (by me), I did not bother to look at maps to know how the heck to get out of there by land if need be. I've become complacent on that one and will try to improve.

In an effort to smooth out the river for Peter I asked Alicia to run probe. That way, I could watch her, smooth out the sudden moves, and have Peter run a few boat lengths behind me. I asked David to run sweep. It worked out fine.

... The hike out wasn't that bad, even the second time carrying Ken's boat part of the way ...

To be clear, while I do indeed appreciate the help I note this old geezer met you half way, walking back down Hernia Hill to carry up a second boat (chuckle).

==================================

All good stuff. Thanks of course to Dave K for organizing.

Ken Dubel

[Alicia]

It was nice to have a spring weekend out of town, & that even w/ lower water than desired, we still had options. Great food Sat nite, & great fun tailgating w/ folks. Glad to hear you're on the mend, Peter. Also, my thanks to Ken for taking charge when needed, so as to avoid more problems. I couldn't even have paddled the Middle Meadow if he didn't graciously carry my big ol' canoe up the hill.

Dave K. sure can coordinate a trip, can't he?

[David]

Good point Bambam about checking the map before a river trip so you know where the roads are. In the case of the Middle Meadow there is an abandoned railroad bed river left that goes all the way down below the US 19 bridge and to the Gauley. Hopefully someday the New River Gorge National River and Gauley National Recreation Area will fund a fixup that will make a first-class biking and hiking trail here. The ATVers are in no rush for that to happen, though.

Few of us will ever paddle the Lower Meadow, one of the hardest and most dangerous whitewater rivers in the Southeast. But it is a fascinating hike. Go downstream from the US 19 bridge and there is a rough road/trail river right. The first rapid is a four foot ledge that surfs the flow left to an unseen drain. Farther down is Hell's Gate - a lot of gradient in strange geology with no clear lines. Another access is near the "Confluence" resort property, river left. A washed out road goes down to the old rail bed. That is a ways above the river still so you can cling to the trees and see the undercuts that often harbor smaller stones and logs. You pass the ruins of a stone ferry house and the anchors for a crossing that goes back to the mid-19th century. At the Gauley/Meadow confluence there is an excellent beach fronting on a wide and long pool.

The Confluence is open as a B & B or for events like weddings & family reunions. The month after my Lower Meadow hike there New River Group Sierra Club had a Trail Angel picnic at Wind Rock on the Appalachian Trail west of Blacksburg. The Confluence maintenance man, a former AT throughhiker, had come down for the weekend to his closest AT access to camp. He did not mind that I had been hiking around the Confluence. He did not mind our hamburgers either.

[slo2rol]

... The hike out wasn't that bad, even the second time carrying Ken's boat part of the way ...

To be clear, while I do indeed appreciate the help I note this old geezer met you half way, walking back down Hernia Hill to carry up a second boat (chuckle).

True. I shortened the story too much!!! I had gone back down to see if Peter needed any help walking out while John went for his boat. Since Peter responded that he didn't need assistance, I continued on down knowing that you had carried Alicia's canoe out and would have to make a second trip for your boat. Since I was there, I thought I'd just bring it back with me until we met on the trail. No old geezer implications intended!

[Dave K]

I just wanted to thank everyone who came out and helped make this trip a succes. Everyone did a great job of being on time and organized. I want to especially thank everyone who helped lead on the river. We did a much better job this year of splitting up in to small, manageable groups that kept everyone a lot safer then in years past.

A quick word about the Middle Meadow - at the 650-700 cfs level we had on Sunday, the rapids were all Class III with maybe one or two low Class IV's but there was an undercut rock in play for almost every one of them. A swim could have been way bad. Be careful if you decide to make this run.

I had a big time and am looking forward to Cheat Fest.

[fatdoug]

I got in Friday evening late, and truly enjoyed sitting and catching up with everyone for a little while...it was good to be seen.

Saturday had guy, swimmergreg, capt. caveman, and myself deciding to catch the Arden section of the Tygart. Thanks to some handy beta from Ken and Kessssman, it was a mostly good day. No swims, and we only had to walk the main drop of the waterfall (forgot the name). Guy got a little boo-boo during the portage, and then sustained another injury on the last drop (strained a muscle in his arm while pulling his roll out of his ass - but DID NOT SWIM).

So swimmergreg, capt. caveman, and myself decided to run the NRG on Sunday while guy played the role of shuttle bunny. It was running somewhere between 7.5 and 8 feet on the bridge guage.
At that level, it's kinda big. Most of the normal lines were washed out, but big wave trains (8 foot standing waves...) open up pretty much down the middle of each major rapid. Holes get big and scary at that level as well. We luckily had no swims (a swim anywhere would have been less than desirable), but did have a few combat rolls. Since we had the luxury of a shuttle bunny for the first run, greg and I decided to catch a ride back up to the top and have a second run. That's right, two laps on the gorge in one day. The lines, holes, waves on the second run were noticably differnt than the first, and we could see where the water had dropped by about 6 inches (yes, it's true. 6 inches really does make a difference ) Since we still had some daylight and two vehicles, greg and I headed over to the middle meadow and ran from just above the miracle mile to the bridge. With only the borrowed guide book from Ken to go on, we probed the mile, had a fun, relaxing run with only one bobble due to inattentiveness (as noted in earlier posts about this run, inattentiveness in and around undercut rocks is not a good idea). The hike out was a royal pain in the ass. and I know about royalty and ass pain.

We camped at the ACE camp at the NRG takeout Sunday and hit the NRG again on Monday before heading back to reality. Monday had the gorge at 4.8 feet, and the lines were mostly intact at that level. Ender wave was really fun at that level, as was the wave at the top of lower Kaymor. Greg styled the run, while I got munched by the hole center-right in middle keany (which was washed out the day before). I also had an 80% swim while surfing at kaymor, but in the end, I found myself upright and still in my boat. whew. Other than that, not much to report.

Ate lunch with greg before heading back to work...

[Dave K]

More here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27340091@N08/4536632438/

Brandon's boof at the Weir on the Upper Meadow paled in comparason to Grommit's though. Thanks again, Liz, for showing us all the perfect line there!