Toxaway River, 9-23-2009

Went to the Toxaway River on Wednesday. We got an early start which ended up being a good thing because there we had to scout everything due to the potential for new wood.

Put in slide


Will getting some of that put-in slide

Series of Adam running put-in slide

This is the bottom of the first part of the put-in slide. It goes on for another 100 yards or so and drops another 50 feet.

Below the put-in slide we encountered some new wood in the little flatwater section, easy hop out and back in. The warmup drop that lands on a shelf on the right was clean, as were the slides below that make up the "Cali" section. However, it was rompin' in there. If you ever get to the "easy, warmup, Cali section", and every hole looks like it could eat you alive, you know you're in for an exciting day. I believe the gauge said 2 inches, but speculation has begun on whether or not the gauge has changed.

Everyone hopped out at minigizer to have a look and it was a good thing because shit had changed. Minigizer is now officially mini-landbridge as you can see from the pic. A big landslide from river right deposited a giant boulder and some trees right on top of the river. It was crazy to see such change, it will never be the same. But, there's good news, just like landbridge, it's feasible to seal launch in off the rock and finish off the slide.

Looking downstream from mini-landbridge. I'm sure I wasn't alone in wanting to seal launch off that rock, but in the end, everyone decided it wasn't worth having to deal with the horrendous hole/whirlpool pocket at the bottom. Not to mention the pungee stick, which is still very much in play.

Here's a series of me running energizer, the next big rapid. Thanks to Will for taking these shots.

still going

and going. Energizer is one of my faves out there, right there with Landbridge and Wintergreen.
Below Energizer Indian Creek comes in on the left. I was happy to see it wasn't kicking in a ton of brown water, but it still added some extra flow.

The first 40 of 40/40.

The second 40. I cannot believe this thing has been fired up, low water or not.

We found another landslide on river left below Landbridge. Landbridge is clean but the small rapid directly after had wood from the landslide. We opted to keep carrying around Landbridge, but with a little less water I think it wouldn't be too stressful to eddy out in time. From there, we got to run Wintergreen, which was off the chain as usual.

Overrall, the Toxaway is a bunch of work. Yes, it's not Disneyland, not even close. If you go in, go prepared and with the right mindset and you'll have a blast. Enjoy those monster drops.

Will got a bunch of video but I only got this one clip of him running Energizer, backwards!

Be safe,

D

Big East Fork Baby!

Today, September 22, 2009, is the day I experienced the Big East Fork of the Pigeon river for the first time and I freakin' loved that shit. We had what seemed to be optimal flow, 2.5 on the gauge, and what turned out to be a beautiful sunny day.


The scene pretty much all day on the East Fork.


Brad Kee at the crux of a significant rapid early on.

Final drop of same rapid

Billy Murphy's doing it, too.
You can't really see in the picture, but all the water on river right crashes into the undercut rock on which I'm standing creating a nasty sieve. It was very ugly, but everybody smoothed this one.

The "baby gorilla" drop towards the end of the good stuff.
This rapid is a name taker, most everyone in our group was forced to take an underwater geology lesson here.

After "baby gorilla", the big stuff's over, but I thoroughly enjoyed the continuous paddle out. What a run! And what a badass place to be with a good group of friends. We took our time with a big group and I still found myself back in Asheville by 4:30.
Check out the short East Fork video below.



Later,
D