2013 Year End Review.

2013 Year-End Kayaking Review

183 Days on the water, First descents:  Upper + Lower Big Creek, Middle Meadow, Tellico Ledges, Watauga, Wilson Creek Big Laurel, Potomac, New river gorge, New river dries, Great falls Catawba, West Fork Tuck.

Most Brutal Swim:  This is a easy one this year, there was only one to choose from.  On November 30th, the last day of 10K releases for the Lake Murray drawdown.  I was pinned in the rock jumble near fishermans rock on the Lower Saluda.  Causing an escalation in my already injured ribs.

Best Combat roll or save:  Junkyard, Nantahala Cascades - Myself, Tage and Josh Flynn were running the cascades at about 500cfs.  It was my second run and in all of the excitement of making it past the pin spot we had heard about, I forgot about the hole at the bottom.  After Several roll attempts and about 45 seconds of fighting, I was able to power my way out.

Favorite Rapid:  Last year I listed rapid transit as my favorite rapid, while it is still very high on my list.  This year I am going to list the rapid that has the largest impact and is the largest part of my life.  Mill Race Rapids right here in Columbia.  All the high water we had this year allowed me to hit every single line over and over again and really come to appreciate how great of a resource it is.  I have literally spent hours out there and run a different line each time.  I could write a entire blog about Mill Race adventures of 2013!(Hell I just might!) Without Mill Race, none of my adventures would have happened.



Favorite Trips of the Year.


Cheoah 2-16-13 - Paddled with Tage, John D, Cliff, Josh, Chris Hill, and Ben Peters to the Cheoah.  It was John and Tage's first descents.  As we were unloading the boats, it began to snow.  So then it began to really pour and before we knew it we were paddling in a driving snow storm.  By the time we got off the water several inches of snow had fallen.  The image of my favorite river covered with snow will stay with me forever!  To top it off, this was also the trip that John's boat got it's famous dent in the front!

Tallulah/Cheoah 4-6-13 - Myself and Tage left Columbia at 4:30 in the morning and picked up Josh at the 385/26 split.  We then headed up to the Tallulah and were the first ones down the steps.  In 2011, I remember how many butterflies I had on Tallulah for my first run.  My heart pounded a million miles a hour the entire run.  However, on this trip we just cruised on down.  I felt a huge sense of accomplishment that a run that used to be on such a high pedestal for me was just a routine trip now for me.  While it was my crowning achievement in 2011, it was just a early morning run we did before driving over to the Cheoah later that day.  A few hours later, we cruised on down the Cheoah as well.  I finally crawled into bed around midnight after one hell of a day trip!!.

Potomac/Meadow - 6-13,14 - Originally I planned a multi-day trip down the Potomac for this week.  However, flooding on the Potomac caused multiple changes of plans on this one.  We ended up starting the trip right below Great Falls at flood levels.  Just seeing the falls at water was very humbling. It is a very magical place.  We paddled though mather gorge with high granite walls of both side of the river makes you feel like you are somewhere exotic and not just outside our nations capital.  So much history was on the section of river we paddled.  After paddling 18 miles to Georgetown, then I rode my mountain bike back up the C&O canal trail to the truck for a 18 mile bike shuttle.  We then traveled to west Virginia and crashed with my buddy Russ and hoped to PFD New River Gorge.  However the water spiked to 9' and we didn't have anyone who had run it before.  So we decided to run the middle meadow with Russ and save the New for July, since our buddy Andy was throwing together a trip there and we'd rather PFD it with him.  Plus we'd have a chance to let these floods go on by and have a better level for a PFD then.  Little did we know...

New River Gorge - 7-6-13 - One of the main reasons, for us skipping the New in June was we expected to have lower water in July.  However, by the time this trip came around, it was even higher than the floods in June and was in the 13' range.  After getting assurance from Andy this trip was happening no matter how high it got(I was not heading to WV again and NOT running the New!!)  So Me and Meghann left Columbia at 2am and began that long trip to WV.  Our trip hit a small snag near the NC/VA border and we had a flat tire.  We quickly discovered that I did not have the correct tire iron for my Trailblazer and had to wait a few hours for AAA to come and help change the tire.  After this small mishap, we continued on and arrived in WV.  Once we arrived the levels showed 13.5 and the plans started coming together.  We ran the New River Dries in the AM.  A really fun run a step below the gorge IMO.  Then in the afternoon we loaded back up and went for a high water run of the Gorge.  Those were by far the biggest waves I have ever paddled on.  Great fun with a great bunch of guys!  Then later that night back at the camp site I crashed like a rock.  Although I was officially the party pooper, in the tent by 8:30 can't wait to go back and see the Gorge at a normal level.



Final Thoughts:  The year as a whole I think is a year the kayaking community will remember for years.  Here in Columbia, we pretty much had decent water all year long, and great water for much of the year as well.  All over the Southeast there was great water to be had.  I saw my skill level and comfort on the water continue to grow.  Hopefully the trend will continue into 2014!  SYOTR!