Memorial Day Elk River Gorge

Here in the good ole’ U.S. of A. Memorial Day is the unofficial kickoff of summer on a long weekend for many. It is also a time to reflect on those brave men and women U.S. military personnel who gave their life in service to preserve the freedoms and liberty we all should hold dearly in our hearts.

I was reminded of this great sacrifice and gift driving past our local Veterans Administration graveyard decorated with American Flags on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in Johnson City, TN. This was right after we had finished celebrating my nephew’s, Ryan Jay Weatherford, high school graduation ceremony with the family. My nephew has decided to join the Marines for his next steps in life and seeing those decorated graves gave me a moment of reflection of all the families that have had to endure lose for this country.

We also have been have blessed with many good rain showers here lately in the southeast and that gets the rivers running well in these free lands we cherish. I rallied with some good local boating buddies on Memorial Day to find the Elk River Gorge, NC/TN at a nice medium-low level. We were treated with a beautiful sunny day on the class IV-V whitewater expedition style run. Tyler has been wanting to give this run a go for a while now for his first time and the stars aligned perfectly to make it happen on a day we were all off work together to enjoy.

Kayaking always has a special way to bring things in my life full circle to me with the people I meet along the way, the places we visit together to paddle and the experiences we have along the way. I had one of those full circle moments in a thought of clarity while portaging Twisting Falls during the run. This is sketchy task at best on a cliffside over a class VI rapid, however in that moment working together as a team of 4 to safely get around the precipice and back down into the chasm to finish our adventure; I thought about that VA cemetery again and how beautifully it was decorated for the warriors that worked together to preserve our freedom.

We had a most excellent day on the Elk in many ways and Tyler preserved some of those great memories in this video he captured along the way:
https://youtu.be/VkS5IpsGR40?si=WjRq9q4e8QtfsGas