Since KessmanN didn’t want to camp at the “zoo’ by the take out we drove around for an extra 2 hours until we finally ended up at the take out camping around 12:45. The next morning was breakfast and the Cheoah at around 1200cfs. The first lap went off without a hitch except of course for Eddie’s Micro to get not one, but THREE cracks in it. Then it was time for lap two. After some debate we decided to do the whole river again, instead of the meat run. We had a swimmer just before the falls that was a quick recovery. And then Eddie decided to get out there due to his boat getting to full too fast. So it was the four of us for the meat part. We all cleaned the falls and then KessmanN and Ethan ran the right side and Juggy and I ran the left, called the West Prong Line. After the harder drop I flipped on the easy and had to write a trip report!!! THAT”S RIGHT FANS, I SWAMED!!!!!
It was a triumphant one at that. After not being able to set up to roll, getting my paddle stuck, hitting crap, having my knees come, and running out of air I then had to walk, fall, swim , and float for like a few hundred yards to get to my boat. It really sucked and I now have tons of “I suck marks”! After getting my junk back and drained, thanks guys, we were off to the hardest and last rapid. But luckily I did have time to flip again and smash my face on a rock, but I did roll this time. Then it was back to camp for dinner and relaxing. For the record the “zoo” consisted of about 8-10 cars, there was not really anyone there.
Sunday morning after breakfast we checked out a local run that didn’t have enough water and headed to the Tellico. The level here was also around 1.7feet. We all had fun on the first two laps and Ethan and I declined to do a third, and ran shuttle. On the third lap one member of the three had a 95% swim after Diaper Wiper, but got a handy T-rescue for the save. Then it was back to the Cheoah camp for some Buz and Ned’s Real Barbecue*.
Monday morning had breakfast and breakdown of the camp all done by 9am, good job boys, even though Juggy didn’t think it would happen that early. We were going to drive four hours or so, kinda towards home, to hit the Watauga at lowish water. Then we made the biggest mistake of the weekend, we stopped at The NOC… dun, dun, dunnnn. That killed some time and before we knew it we had all the fixen's for an epic tale of paddling history. A late start, not perfect water level, broken boat, remote gorge, 3 out of 5 first times, and failing light. All we needed was some unexpected snow and it could have been perfect. But we all discussed it, and sorry to disappoint the fans, we decided to be responsible adults and not try to put on and beat the daylight. So we just drove home.
The end.
*Buz and Ned’s Real Barbeque is an official sponsor of the Corn Youth Alliance
