Russell Fork, part DOS

Last weekend marked my third consecutive weekend of paddling class V water. While many people dislike and fear the Russell fork gorge, over the last two weeks I have found myself every comfortable running it. This last weekend I meet Alex and his dad for one last run before the release season stops. The trip started off with me driving the whole 9 hour drive by myself.

 Alex was in West Virginia so his dad went to pick him up for fall break and then headed over to meet me. The plan was to meet at breaks Interstate Park, which I rolled in around 1:30am. As I drove in I spooked a black bear about 50 yards from the campground. This was the first Black bear I have seen while on a kayaking trip. As I lay in my sleeping bag, all I could think was what a great start to a trip.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the lodge for breakfast. With the US wild water trials going on the releases were starting at 7am, which allowed us to get on the river at an early time. This was Alex’s first time down the gorge, and with no other boaters around it was just the two of us heading down. We scouted tower and triple drop before we ran into some other guys. Alex ran the hairy ferry, while I walked it (I’ve done it before and feel the risk, if you were to mess up, isn’t worth it). I ran fairly clean lines until triple drop where I went over the third drop backwards. After triple drop we meet up with Kevin and Scott, too other kayakers who helped us down the river.

Next was El Herando, I thought I had a good line but at the bottom of the drop I got flipped. While upside down I heard my shoulder pop, after missing my roll, I finally popped up. I’m not sure what happened but my shoulder really hurt, and there was a sharp pain. Being only half way down the gorge, I had to continue through the pain. Needless to say the rest of my run was not the greatest. Once at the take out I decided it would be best not to run another lap so Steve and I went to set up camp while Alex ran another lap.

The next morning I was in enormous pain while lying in my sleeping bag. I was about to tell Alex I wasn’t going to boat but I decided I didn’t drive 9hrs to hang out in the woods. My run on Sunday was amazing. I focused really hard on all my lines and ran the gorge the cleanest I have ran it yet. Overall a great trip, I didn’t take any video as I was focusing more on guiding Alex down. I did get a nice time lapse of the clouds over the gorge. Here is the video. Enjoy until the next adventure.

Russell Fork, Take 1

This last weekend I headed over to the Russell Fork River in Elkhorn Kentucky. This is one of my favorite runs from last year, and with it releasing water all October, it was sure to be a good time.

The Russell Fork gorge starts in Virginia and ends in Kentucky. It is the deepest gorge east of the Mississippi. Besides the beauty of the steep canyon walls and trees changing colors, the amount of drops in the gorge make it a boofing (landing flat off a waterfall) paradise. The trip started off with Curtis Elwood, Rebecca, Coby, and I. We rolled in late into the campground and in the morning were greeted by the professor, Freddie, Raymond and the SLU kayak club kids.

After a nice breakfast at the lodge we rolled out to set up shuttle for the upper. Once on the river and through the first rapid, we already had two SLU kids swimming. All I could think was “that did I get myself into!” Overall the upper was ok, but knowing the gorge was below made it seem really boring. Once at the take out, everyone got off the water except for Elwood, Raymond, Professor and I. We headed down and into the gorge.

The Gorge is a Class IV-V run with sieves and undercuts. Overall our group was good; the professor took a severe beating at tower. At one point it looked like things could have been very serious. There were a couple of swims by other people, I didn’t have any. My Saturday run was super clean, I was very happy but once again the box boof got me at the end. Sunday was a different story, being tired; my lines were not the cleanest.

The Russell fork is one heck of a river and I will be returning this coming up weekend for some more action. Here is a little video I made, I tried a new camera angle and it makes everything look flat and small, it’s not. Enjoy til next time.

Gauley 2011 Trip

Two weeks ago I received a phone call as I was heading down for a Saturday night cape run. On the other line was Rick letting me know that once again I had a spot on the Gauley overnight trip. WOW! Last year was a blast and this year was even better. 

The trip started off by leaving St. Louis Thursday night with The Upper Yough in our sights; there was a scheduled release for Friday. After driving til about 2am we called it a night, we still had another 3 hour drive in the morning. We left St. Louis with blue skies and warm weather and woke up to cloudy and cold. 

Slim getting his Boof on at National

As we pulled up to the take out, there were only a few cars, and the wind had picked up. It was going to be a cold day on the river, but a much better day then teaching back in the lou. Having never been on the Upper Yough, I found it to be a lot of fun. Once the rapids started they seem to continue throughout the whole river. This will be another river to hit up during the summer. 

Gauley Dam 3200Cfs

After paddling all day we headed to outback for a man’s meal and after a couple of drinks, head to the Gauley. It was now raining and cold; we were all tired and decided to get a hotel for the night, what a great choice. In the morning we meet up with Steve for breakfast, traded Dustin for  Alex and headed to the upper G. The overnight is a long process because we have to haul and pack the rafts at the put in, plus the shuttle takes a little over an hour to set. 

Overall the trip was great, more water than normal, at 3200Cfs. It did rain all Saturday and Saturday night but we made the best of it. We ate and drink like kings. 

Here is a little video of the trip, I had more footage but after Pure Screaming Hell on the lower I decided I didn’t like the camera anymore and dropped it in the river, and took a little swim(to clean my boat of course,lol). Needless to say GoPro’s do not float. The Russell fork is this coming this weekend, so stay tuned for some creekin’ footage. Enjoy til next time.

Gauley 2011 from Curtis Ahlers on Vimeo.