Misty New River Gorge Morning

Misty New River Gorge Morning

That’s right. I was dancing in the sun – hopefully nobody saw me (for their sake). I’ve been slack and I’m not ashamed.  There’s been so much going on in New River country from river doings to marketing to Meet & Greet Weekend 2009.  It’s been a whirlwind. I have to say the highlight for me was Meet & Greet.  A whole bunch of folks piled in the 1977 Bluebird deluxe motor coach and headed to the river for two days of New River whitewater rafting!

The  first day we rafted from the old Wildwater basecamp in Thurmond to Fayette Station.  The level was a beefy 5 feet on the Fayette Station Gauge (about 11,000 cfs on the Thurmond Gauge).  The ministry of disinformation was in full effect that AM when we were told it was more like 6 feet.  It made for a grab bag of rafting surprises! All told, the waves were big, the whitewater plentiful and the grins huge.

Saturday night we grilled out and threw down some tunes. Bobby Ahlers and Bodie worked the deck like the whitewater minstrels they are.  Bobby’s buddy Chris stopped in for some pickin’ and grinnin’ as well. We played on the deck until about midnight. Last I heard, Bobby and Chris were headed to Bodies to keep on keepin’ on. Becker won the award for farthest travel as he and Shannon flew in from Colorado to join us!

Day two we saw the level climb to NINE FEET on the Fayette Station Gauge. It was like running two separate rivers in two days.  You gotta love the New! We put in at Cunard to make for a quick trip so those visiting for the weekend could get back home in reasonable time on Sunday.

We met some new folks who are looking to train this year at Wildwater and we saw lots of faces from our professional river staff.  We look forward to working with the new staff as they learn what it takes to be a Wildwater Guide.  A lot of people think guiding is just getting a boat down the river. When Bodie works with new staff, he makes sure they know that there’s way much more to it than that. The skills our staff learn while training at Wildwater will serve our staff well as they take on other challenges outside of guiding. I don’t mind tooting our horn a bit when I say that Wildwater Guides are a cut above the rest. Our guests notice too!