NC/TN road trip June 25-29

[STRAKER]

My buddy Keith and I had a great paddling road trip a few weeks ago. We headed out from Charlottesville on a Thursday night and arrived late to the nolichucky gorge campground. The next day we met up with Bill Hamill and his crew and got a great low water run on the nolichucky it was about 425cfs. Still very runnable at this level but lots more eddy hopping and much more technical then I remembered from my last trip on this river which was about 900cfs. At the 425 level it remanded me a lot of Goshen in the 500-600cfs level. Late afternoon run with the sun setting behind the mountains was beautiful plus it's always cool when the take out is your campsite. Next day Saturday Keith and I headed to the Pigeon. We had a great run on that stretch. That's always a fun river friendly III-III+ with some bigger water push. We decided to spend that night in Asheville (I feel like one party night in that city is a very important part of any paddling down there). Great food, beer, music and scene. Highly recommended. Sunday was the final paddling day for us and we laced up a low water run on the French broad. Not as much flavor as I remembered at the 900 level I much prefer it over 1200 but it was still fun and a very scenic gorge. Monday was the return trip home and can't wait to get back to the smokies next time. Chris Straker