5 AWESOME days in Almost Heaven:WV!

By Stephen Wright

After 2 fun weeks back in Rock Island, I was ready for another road trip. Rock Island’s only been running early morning or after dark, so it hasn’t been ideal for me–I like to sleep, and enjoyed paddling with the lights, but it isn’t the same as daylight. I’d been watching the weather forecasts and river gauges for the Fayetteville area online and saw something incredible: big rain AND warm weather on the way. Temperatures were predicted to be above 60 degrees all week! So I called-up Dane and EJ and told them the good news, which lead to a 5-day road trip of fantastic rivers. EJ wasn’t sure that he could get away, but Kristine made him–she’s so smart! He later said that he was very glad that his wife made him come and play with us 🙂

We drove the 7 hours on Sunday up to Fayetteville, WV. The hard rain hit just after we arrived, and we awoke Monday to check around and Mill Creek was running! We had a large crew and lower water levels for this mission, but it was the perfect "welcome to WV" run. With the exception of Eric Chance probing the sieve in the top falls on our second run, good lines were had by all. Enjoy the photos of EJ, Dane, and John (who used to assemble boats at the JK plant) on Mill Creek Falls and Headless Horseman rapids. No photos of me, but I really did run the creek! We ran 2 laps with Bryan Kirk, and a few other boaters. We then booked it to Songer Rafting center for 30 holes of Disc Golf. What a first day!

Tuesday was a different kind of whitewater adventure as Dane, EJ, John, and I headed up to the Summersville Dam for a high-water Gauley marathon run. 12,000 CFS & 26 miles took 4 1/2 hours and left us exhausted. The Upper held HUGE rapids: Insignificant has some a few epic surf waves at the top and a big, nasty pourover at the bottom right. Pillow jacks up, but Volkeswagen kicks-up a huge kicking wave hole. Lost Paddle seems washed-out until you get to the 3rd drop and then the Gauley becomes the Zambezi for a half-mile! Iron Ring has 2 giant wave holes in a row, but Sweet’s gets the adrenaline pumping like no other with a HUGE curler that feeds into a terrifying hole…the meat run is amazing–I didn’t let anyone scout anything, which made it more exciting for all of us. The Middle Gauley had a few increible waves, and the Lower rocked for playboating. Hell’s Gate gets HUGE, but you don’t see the scaryness until the bottom, where you want to be middle left. All in all, I must have thrown 30 macho moves, 50 kickflips, 50 wavewheels, as well as plenty of fun wave and hole moves (the best hole is @ the top right of Conestoga on the Upper. I was PSYCHED to hit a Mcnasty, Phonix, and Tricky Wu back to back :)). Everyone became downriver freestyling ninjas all day. We all ate at Pies and Pints, then slept like rocks that night.

EJ had to leave early Wednesday morning to go and be a business man, but he left Dane with me for more WV river action. We joined Bryan Kirk, Brian Jennings, Kelsey Thompson, and Robert Pearson for another play day on the Lower Gauley. The water had dropped a bit to around 10,000 cfs, but there was still plenty to do. Thursday gave us the Meadow River at a perfect 1,000 CFS in the pouring rain. BK, Jeremy Laucks, Pete, Brad, Dane, and I rode the rise to around 1,200 cfs by the time we took-off and walked the mile back to the vehicles. The Meadow is more of a river than a creek, but with steep rapids and lots of nasty rocks. Highlights of the Meadow for me were enjoying being pushed around (Finally feeling like the Punk is on the small side for me), boofing on Jeremy when he got surfed in a pourover in the first mile, and watching Dane rock his lines.

Friday started like most of our other mornings: at the Cathedral Cafe for a sweet breakfast. The special was blueberry crescant roll French Toast! 3 cups of coffee later, we’re all heading for the gem of Fayetteville creeking: MANN’S CREEK!!! We arrived to find a good flow of around 3 inches. I had only run Mann’s once before this past spring, but remembered that it was non-stop action for 5 or 6 miles. We had 8 paddlers, and only BK and BJ knew the lines well enough to lead. We split into 2 groups. Dane, Kelsey, and I followed Brian Jennings down just behind the first group, which consisted of 2 Ashevillians, Jeremy, and kayaking hero Brian Kirk. Mann’s was awesome! So many steep rapids that it’s hard to remember almost any of them, but I remember running the river right line down "10 foot pole" (which I had missed last time and ran a sketchy slot on the left), and enjoying the first 10 foot falls just below the put-in.
Dane decided that Mann’s is his new favorite creek.

It’s likely that Dane (14 years old now) is the youngest person ever to run any of the big 3 creeks we ran this week-Mill, Lower Meadow, and Mann’s. He aced all his lines, only walked 2 rapids on the Meadow (Coming Home & Double Undercut-because we made him) and Off Ramp on Mann’s! Dane’s become an very skilled creeker, who’s constantly smiling and even got 4 math lessons done on our trip!

Now I’m back in Rock Island, working afternoons at the JK plant, and looking forward to a Christmas with the family in Richmond, and New Year’s with the Jacksons and my girlfriend. What a great December!!!!

Live from Rock Island, TN,
Stephen Wright