Belated GAF report from Boyd Ruppelt and Jackson Kayak's new Regional Team member Samantha Brunner

Every year Boyd and Sam make the trek over to NC for the Nantahala Outdoor Center’s Guest Appreciation Festival, affectionately called "GAF Fest" by Southeast kayakers and canoeist. This year was no different. We packed up Thursday night and took off early Friday morning to get and early start on the festivities. The week of rain & stormy weather leading up to the trip got our hopes up for the possibilty of something more entertaining over there than the Nantahala… But as we drove the Nashville the rain began to fizzle out and clear skies started to emerge. By the time we arrived in the Nantahala Gorge we found a barely even scrapable river bed in the cascades and a low flowing Nantahala River. Continuing our drive downstream we found what we really come to GAF for, lots of friendly faces and plenty of good times to be had by all! We decided to walk around and find all of our friends until shortly after dark where we were greeted by EJ, Dane, and Jonathan. After a short meeting with EJ, Samantha was ecstatic to find herself as the newest Jackson Kayak regional team member! From there we all walked around to check out the sales and to get some dinner (THANKS EJ!). 🙂

The next day was busy; lots of sales, lots of gear, and lots of people. We stopped at the Jackson Kayaks booth first to help sell boats for NOC, answer questions, and to see the friends this drought has had us missing so much! From there we were off to meet up with some more old friends for a quick trip down the Nantahala River. Searching for at least a taste of some steeper action a couple of us managed to get out and do the seal launch/big slide off the railroad tracks into the river, later followed by an informal boatercross race through Nantahala Falls. After a long, fun, almost crazy day of work and play, we decided it was time for some food and the classic NOC party and live bands.

Nearly partied out we all went back to our friend Anna’s campground where I had the the bright idea of spicing it all up with a good, old fashioned a firewalk… We all pitched in and got as much wood as we could afford and built a sweet fire and then all we could do is wait for it to burn down. Eventually it burt down and we had nearly used up all our wood so we spread the coles into a path and just built on it until it was a hot, glowing, firey path of fresh coals and embers. So with the camera ready, the coals hot, and the beer flowing (we were completely sober as always), there was nothing left to do but take our shoes and socks off and start walking! Our friend Evan went first since he didn’t want to wait any longer and it was his first time, and then Boyd went right after while the coals were nice and fresh. Shortly after, Samantha did it herself and picked up her camera again to take more pictures. We just kept walking on them and piling on fresh coals until we were out of wood. We literally lost count on how many times we did it and with no burns! It was the perfect ending to an already awesome day!

Sunday we got up and went back upstream to find something new to do. We were up for almost anything at that point and after some searching we found a manky little falls upstream of the cascades (not on whiteoak) where all the volume was channeled through one tough little slot before falling over a 8 ft drop. It wasn’t huge and pretty, but it’s pretty difficult to have a real good line on it and the puzzle kept us entertained for a while anyways. Unfortunately our "day jobs" wouldn’t let us off for the Green race but GAF this year was a good one for us regardless of the drought! We have some of the best friends we could ever ask for and it was awesome to get to see them all again! so until next time….

See you on the river!!!

Boyd & Samantha 🙂