Here's an assortment of observations from my weekend:
There is value in meeting new people on the river. I went up there by myself (Martha was with me, of course, but she was not paddling), and had no idea whom I was going to paddle with. But I knew there would be other paddlers there during these annual fall releases, and as it turned out I paddled with a different group of nice, interesting people each day.
The initial introduction is the worst part of this process. I'm sort of a shy guy anyway, and walking up to a group of strangers and asking if I can tag along with them never fails to feel awkward. Some people are totally amenable ("Sure, man! The more the merrier!") while others are a little wary. The situation I hate most is being asked to recite a list of rivers I've run to prove my worthiness of inclusion.
But most of the time things work out just fine, and I think I get a lot of benefit from paddling with lots of different people and getting their insights on skills, techniques, methods of running a rapid, and so on. Planning a trip with a group of friends from your hometown provides more security as far as knowing what will happen throughout the weekend, but always paddling with the same people deprives a person of some great learning opportunities.
I don't recommend Battle Run Campground. Battle Run Campground is the Corps of Engineers facility on Summersville Lake near the dam and the upper Gauley putin. I had camped there on two or three previous visits to the Gauley, and considered it adequate, but I developed a dislike for the place on this trip. The bath house is sort of grungy, with hot water that was mostly, but not completely, hot. And no pets were allowed. In short, the Corps is happy to pour some concrete and lay in a little plumbing (that's what engineers are good at, after all), but it doesn't seem all that concerned about the quality of its guests' experiences.
If I return to the Gauley with Martha, we'll probably just stay in a motel. Martha's not a fan of camping in anything but dry, balmy weather. If I go by myself, I'll probably try to get into one of the campsites right next to the putin, which are more spartan than Battle Run, but free.
Central West Virginia is a beautiful but not particularly cosmopolitan area. My dining experience on past visits to the Gauley consisted mainly of fast food along the U.S. 19 bypass strip near Summersville. With my wife along this time, I hoped to find something nicer. We found a handful of nice restaurants in Fayetteville, as well as a rather good coffee shop in downtown Summersville (away from the bypass).
But finding good suppers was only part of our problem. While I was on the river each day, Martha needed something to do. And because it was raining much of the weekend, indoor activities were preferable. If we had been in New York City there would have been no problem at all, for art museums and funky boutique shops are just the thing for Martha. But in the greater Summersville-Fayetteville area such indoor culture is a little hard to come by. Martha spent the rainiest day holed up in the Nicholas County library, reading and using the Internet and staring out the window. We later found a cafe with wi-fi and a nice atmosphere, and she spent some time there.
When we finally got some nice sunny weather, she went down to Fayette Station, deep in the New River Gorge beneath the iconic bridge, and she enjoyed making some sketches down there. But the reality is that if you're not there for paddling or other rugged outdoor adventures, you run out of things to do fast in the wilds of West Virginia.
The upper Gauley has choices for a takeout. The first time I ran the upper Gauley, back in 1994, my group used the Panther Creek takeout, which involved carrying our boats up the most god-awful trail I have ever seen. My friends told me that taking out there saved us from paddling two miles of "flatwater" down to Woods Ferry, where one can drive a vehicle right down to the river. I remember thinking that I would rather paddle fifty miles of flatwater than carry my boat up an endless 50-degree incline.
By my next visit to the Gauley two or three years later, the American Whitewater Affiliation had negotiated access for paddlers to a road that reaches the river near the Panther Creek trail. During the busy weekends of the fall release season paddlers were required to park their cars up the mountain in the same parking area they had always used, but now they could pay a few bucks to throw their boats in the back of a Ryder truck and ride a shuttle van up to the parking area. This was much better than hiking that trail.
On this trip, the groups I hooked up with on Saturday and Sunday happened to be using the Woods Ferry takeout, so I would finally learn just how miserable this two miles of flatwater really was. What I found was that it isn't flatwater at all. The stretch consists of four or five sets of Class III rapids, a couple of which have very nice surfing waves. And the last rapid provides some excitement in the form of monster holes you must avoid. When I reached Woods Ferry, where the car was waiting a short walk from the river, I wondered why people have ever used the Panther Creek takeout, shuttle truck or no shuttle truck.
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All told, I had a great time reacquainting myself with my whitewater boat. I'd like to incorporate more of this sort of thing into my offseasons from racing.
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