Wed. night Elkmont to Metcalf Bottoms run on the Little River in the Smokies, Friday afternoon went over to Tellico and the Tellico River looked like certain death to our group so we wound up driving around looking for something reasonable and stumbled on a real gem called the North River. We made two laps on it but the watershed must be tiny because it fallen to the verge of unrunnable on our second lap. Another lap of Elkmont-Metcalf on Saturday afternoon with a big group that I got to practice some swiftwater rescue skills on, we were followed roadside by a reporter from the Knoxville News-Sentinel who will be doing a story on kayaking in the Smokies. I've had my A-game on for the last couple of weeks, I'm looking to step things up a little (not Clinton style, just a little bit) and I'm waiting for my game to go South. Somewhere, out there lurking, is my next good beatdown.
In case you haven't seen them elsewhere here's a few shots:
Little River (from Wed, water was @ 2 ft. higher on Sat.)
^^^ We had 3 swimmers at this spot Satruday afternoon.
North River (from the only spot on the run that we could actually get out of our boats)
North River beta http://www.americanwhitewater.org/conte ... l_id_2659_
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The messageboard is now in read-only mode and no new posts or topics can be created. We will leave the messageboard up for historical purposes, but you will not be able to make new posts or comment on existing ones.
We have started a Discord server and hope that you all will join us on there. Technology has changed over the years and maintaining the messageboard has become somewhat of a pain in the butt and Discord offers many features for users, the main one being a very polished mobile app.
We really hope you all will join us on Discord and think you will like the platform. Use the invite link below to join.
https://discord.gg/skisoutheast
Maybe my best week of kayaking ever...
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teledave
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Plans for 2015: To ski more than you
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teledave
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teledave;177648 wrote:
I've had my A-game on for the last couple of weeks, I'm looking to step things up a little. ....... Somewhere, out there lurking, is my next good beatdown.
And it might just be coming this afternoon.
Plans for 2015: To ski more than you
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teledave
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teledave wrote:I've had my A-game on for the last couple of weeks, I'm looking to step things up a little. ..... Somewhere, out there lurking, is my next good beatdown.
Don't you just love foreshadowing? I got my beatdown last night on the Little River. We ran the Sinks to the Elbow section of the Little (skipping the Sinks & the Elbow), which was a decent step up in difficulty from the other sections I have been running on a pretty regular basis lately. AW Little River Section 2 Page
About halfway through this section is a rapid called Silver Diner. Silver Diner is a triple drop. Here's a picture I ganked from AW.
[IMG]http://www.americanwhitewater.org/photo ... _cache=970[/IMG]
I ran the first drop (behind the boater in the pic) cleanly and was lining up for the second drop when I hit some hidden FU rock that flipped me. I got set up for a quick roll that wasn't quite quick enough. When I came up I tried to brace to stabilize myself but all I got was air, air bracing doesn't really work too well. So instead I just kept rolling over and went off the second drop headfirst and sideways into the hole. After a bit of upside down hole surfing (sometime during which the boater behind me ran over my upside down boat) I got set up and rolled right into the rock on river right just below the second drop. This immediately flipped me again and I got the pleasure of running the thrid drop upside down before finally rolling below the rapid. Surprisingly I came out of this ordeal pretty much unscathed, or so I thought.
After a few, "Are you okays?" and a swimmer retrieval we continued downstream. As we went through the next rapid I noticed an unusually large amount of water in my boat and felt cold water splashing on my legs at every little wave. That's when I looked down at my skirt and saw this:
Today, I'm a little sore in a few places. Well I'm off to Walmart to find something to repair my skirt with so I can go to Tellico tomorrow. I can't wait for some more rain so I can go back to the Little and run this section again. I'll remember where that rock is next time.
Plans for 2015: To ski more than you
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downhillNC
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Nice description of the upside down hole drops. Fun times were had. Sounds like you were pretty cool-headed throughout. Did swimming cross your mind, or were you determined to roll it out?
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teledave
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Well yeah, swimming out crossed my mind a lot. I just held out. I do remember consciously deciding to run the the last drop upside down. I couldn't get set up to roll and I knew that the drop was close so I remember thinking "Here it comes, tuck tight and hold on." Worked out fairly well, I've had lots worse beatdowns in lots easier water before.
Plans for 2015: To ski more than you
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IM4DHERD
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Did I see where you'd said somewhere you've only been doing this for three years? Certainly seem enthusiastic as a newb. I'm still in the pool trying to roll the Super EZ that I got from Gresham, although only been a time or three I suppose...Suppose it's like trying to teach yourself to drive...I need a lesson.