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I'm pretty sure this is NOT the recommended method of shoulder reduction in 2009
Where to begin on Thurmond Bridge Rapid? It marks the beginning of the Lower New River up until late June or early July. For most people, it’s not that big a deal. Unless you are me. In a kayak. With little experience. One memory stands head and shoulder above the rest. That’s right, one shoulder. Mine. I decided to learn to kayak during my first year white water raft guiding for Wildwater on the New River in West Virginia.
I got a killer deal on a boat and spray skirt and I was off. Never let anyone tell you that all you need is a roll and you can kayak. Kayaking fundamentals go a long way toward ensuring having fun in your hard boat more than anything else. Also, it helps to keep as many variables in your favor as possible.
But, lacking much in the way of fundamentals, I forged ahead Thanksgiving day, 1991. That marked my first (and last) paddling expedition outside the regular rafting season. I had so much gear on, I failed to stretch and I definitely did not want to roll. All you hair boaters out there, stop snickering. Mom dropped my brother, Christopher, and I off, we loaded up and headed out to Thurmond Bridge Rapid to warm up before we headed down the Lower New River. I wound up dropping into the wave there. I can’t remember the exact level, but it was up from the 1500 cfs I paddled the Lower New that summer. Because I did not want to roll, I leaned way downstream into the wave, which wasn’t all that big. I continued to lean downstream and continued to brace, putting tremendous stress on my shoulder joint until it gave way.
I floated downstream upside down in my boat. I was angry. And I did not realize I dislocated my shoulder. I wet-exited from my kayak and swam to shore. I went to put weight on my shoulder as I climbed up on the rocks and felt a fair amount of pain. I told Christopher that my shoulder really hurt. He asked if I dislocated it. I said that I didn’t know.
Waiting two-and-a-half hours in the waiting room for treatment confirmed that I did dislocate my shoulder. Good times. Looking back, if I had been more confident in my abilities and more comfortable paddling in cold weather gear, I doubt I would have injured myself that way. It wouldn’t be the last time I learned that lesson, but I’ve managed to do that kind of thing less frequently as I’ve aged and mellowed.
Except for that incident with the nail gun, anyway.
My motto: If you don’t blow it up to make it float. I’m not paddling it. I’ll stick to rafting and punching big holes, giggling over roller coaster waves and being able to climb back in should I fall out!
Hamlet Piers upstream of Prince, West Virginia
During my first year as a river guide on the New River in West Virginia I spent a ton of time on the Upper New River. Silo Rapids is the finale rapid on the Upper New between Prince and Thurmond. The Class III features some sweet rollercoaster waves that seem to go on forever at some levels.
Like many first year guides before me, I honed my people and water reading skills on that mild, but fun stretch of West Virginia whitewater. I hung out with cool families who sought to take a family vacation, but didn’t want the amusement park crowds.
At Wildwater, we offer duckies (inflatable kayaks) to guests on the Upper New for a custom experience with loads of autonomy for even the greenest paddlers. Because of this, one guide usually plays the role of ducky shepherd.
In late summer, 1991, the Trip Leader, Steve, asked me to be the ducky shepherd. It had been a long, hot summer. Low water and injuries to staff meant more work for fewer people. We all could have used a little R&R, but we showed up each morning, put on our guide faces and went to work. And it was fun.
We floated the length of Thayer pool. Steve was crispy from managing the river staff that year and had entertained kids and parents on his boat all day while I paddled around in my ducky, living the life of Reilly. As we approached Silo, Steve asked (really, pleaded is a better word) to trade with me so he could paddle Silo.
Being a 21-year-old punk, I said no. I paddled Silo and enjoyed it. Steve floated by afterward, his misery plain. 1991 marked my first season at Wildwater and Steve’s last. Given the chance to make that choice again, I would hand over my ducky to Steve in a heartbeat. That day sticks with me and I think about it from time to time. Sometimes at opportune times when I can apply the lesson, but mostly out of the blue, for no particular reason.
A Happy Rafter Takes on the Upper New in Her Ducky.
This is a series that will be featured on the Wildwater Rafting Blog until I run out of rapids. I’ve got memories associated with West Virginia whitewater rafting from just about every rapid on the New River and Gauley River that I think will help provide a little flavor for those who haven’t been whitewater rafting in West Virginia before or for those who want a little help remembering their experiences. I’ll start upstream on the New River and work downstream.
My first real memory of Ledges is from 1989. My mom and I were down visiting my brother, Christopher, who was in his first year at Wildwater Expeditions. We managed to get on an Upper New River trip thanks to Jon Dragan’s generosity.
We relaxed in our duckies for much of the trip until we came to Ledges, the first siginificant whitewater of the day. I felt pretty good and charged headlong into the downstream V. Unfortunately, I had no clue about boat angle and waves and I hit a curler broadside and slowly turned over into the river. I eventually cleaned up my gear, climbed back and paddled to shore, where Bill Handy (now owner of Appalachian BackCountry Expeditions) and Tony Tingler set up lunch.
During lunch, I wanted another shot at running Ledges. Bill was kind enough to humor me and I ran it again. This time I made it through upright. I felt pretty good. It’s amazing how a minor achievement like that made me feel.
I think back on that often when other folks join Wildwater to whitewater raft the New River for the first time and it helps me to empathize and enjoy their experience with them.
Drop a line and let me know what West Virginia white water rafting stories that made your day.
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!
Big Fat Hits on the Spring New River, WV
Today is the first day of spring. It looks like spring outside, but it sure doesn’t feel like spring. It doesn’t matter, though, because we are getting prepared for our first Lower New River trip next week. I remember my first Spring New River rafting trip. Not so much the details, but the feel, the cool April air, and my total lack of understanding of white water rafting. In reality it was a blur. I remember lots of water, lots of laughing and lots of anxiety about figuring out how the water works and whether I would make the cut. Only through repeated rafting of the New River Gorge did I get a feel for the nuance of the river, the hidden features (in water and on the rocky shores).
Now the New River in Spring is an old friend. There is a surprising level of comfort rafting the Lower New. Nothing makes me giggle so much as climbing the face of a wave in the Middle Keeneys or Fayette Station to plow through the foamy top. Sitting in the back of the boat provides an extra little sumpin’ for the ride. I’m smiling as I type this.
If you’ve got any Spring rafting stories, feel free to tell it here. If you want experience one of the best West Virginia white water rafting adventures, you have got to check out the Lower New River in Spring. The lagniappe in all this is that you get way more bang for your buck in April and May. Do it. You know you want to.
This past weekend I went for a couple of trail runs in the New River Gorge. Every time I find myself on the New River trails, I’m blown away that this amazing place is right in my backyard in Fayetteville, WV. I can leave my house, head two blocks to the Fayetteville Town Park and hit the Fayetteville trail head, which connects with the network of biking and hiking trails in the gorge.
The Fayetteville Trail as it heads out of the Wolf Creek drainage.
On those moments when I’m sucking wind and take the time to look around instead of watching for roots and rocks on the trail, I take in the smells, the sounds, and, of course, the sights. Sunday was particularly enjoyable. a skim of snow had fallen that morning. The snow was wet and sticky and clung to the hardwoods, the pines and the rhododendrons. The trails were wet, but not snow-covered. The moist ground dampened ambient sounds and provided a silent cushion on which to run. I felt like I was seeing these trails for the first time and did my best to be in the moment, even when my lungs were on fire, my hands tingling. It’s pretty cool that each run can be an whole new adventure.
My old boss and business partner, Chris Dragan, used to preach to the guides at Wildwater that we should treat every trip down the New River or the Gauley River as if it was the first time. The goal was to keep the excitement at a peak so that our guests would feed off that energy and enjoy the river as much us we our first time white water rafting.
I know of all the things I do here at Wildwater, raft guiding is still my favorite. By far. Nothing beats getting in the raft, interacting with excited rafters, paddling world class whitewater, seeing the smiles and hearing the squeals of delight. And that’s just from me. I still can’t believe I live here in New River country.
There is no greater sense of satisfaction than watching someone in my raft totally immersed in the moment, smiling and content. If you have any stories about your first time rafting — the time you thought, “yeah, this is for me” — send them my way. I’d love to hear them.
Ask Me About My Low Frustration Tolerance
This just in…I use steroids in 1998 so that I could finish my master’s thesis in Anthropology in time to graduate in May 1999. Times were tough, there was no regulation, everyone was doing it. The professors were doing it, so I didn’t really gain any competitive advantage. I was just trying to keep up.
Okay, that didn’t really happen, but I don’t think it’s too far fetched to think that plenty of people in our everyday lives would look for an edge to be get ahead. I guess I’m most frustrated of dealing with the fallout from everyone else trying to get an edge. Have you read or heard the news these days? If not, you must be working on your cave art. Great googly moogly.
Here are a few tidbits you may have missed if you were putting the finishing touches on your bison.
So Alex Rodriguez, of the New York Yankees, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in 2004 when he was with the Texas Rangers. ARod has admitted to using steroids for 3 years. If he thought he had it rough with fans since he left Seattle to sign baseball’s richest contract in 2001, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
As a Yankees fan (take it easy!), I follow Yankee news through three blogs: Bronx Banter, River Avenue Blues, and ShysterBall. The opinions floating around the blogosphere run the gamut from disdain to disappointment to anger to self righteousness to apathy. On MLB Homeplate on XM Radio there is a constant stream of calls from listeners who have a host of different feelings and, therefore, opinions on the matter. At the end of the day, this news sucks the pleasure out of root, root, rooting for the home team. Do you think curling players are doping? Maybe I’ll root for them. Never mind.
Alex Rodriguez in action with the New York Yankees.
Flip on CNN or check out the NY Times and you’re likely to hear something about the bailout plan. And it won’t be good. I’m not going to pretend to understand all that goes into the plan, but I do know that $2.5 Trillion is a boatload of dough and that I’m not likely to enjoy any of it. It’s tough not to be cynical at this point. It’s tough to be surprised.
So what recourse is there? Not too much in the way of direct, monetary relief for me and you. Perhaps the best course is the age-old favorite – Escapism. I usually go for reading a book, catching a movie, or getting outside. Playing with my 3-year-old daughter is a good one, too.
Donny is Out of his Element, while...
John Muir is in His Element
I’ll bet John Muir could’ve kicked ARod’s butt. I’m just sayin’ is all.
Going the John Muir route is always effective because you truly separate from everyday troubles, breath in fresh air and smell good earthy smells. The New River is a nice place to escape as well. I can think of nothing more Zen than paddling through a rapid like the Keeneys or Fayette Station. My total concentration is on the water, the position of the boat and speed of the boat. I get to be truly in the moment. I can’t look ahead beyond the end of the rapid because a slip in concentration can have interesting consequences that I’ll spend the rest of the run trying to correct or implementing plan B.
For the purposes of soul rejuvenation and escapism, I think whitewater rafting or boating on the New River does it for me. There’s a pace about it that is a perfect combination of in-the-moment, visceral experiences and reflective, meditative interludes. Just perfect.
New River Panorama
New River Gorge West Virginia from the Rim
It is common for people who experience the awesome, thundering springtime whitewater rapids of the New River in West Virginia to assume that we get our flows from snow melt. While this may be partially true in the late winter and early spring, by the time the whitewater rafting season is in full effect (say, Memorial day and on), we are receiving our water strictly via rainfall.
The phenomenon of receiving water via snow melt throughout a rafting season is not uncommon in the western United States, where the Rocky Mountains, the Cascades and the Sierras majestically tower with snow covered peaks year round. If there is exceptional snowfall, the rafting outfitters in those areas usually enjoy higher water and extended seasons. Here in New River and Gauley River country, our season could be year round except for cold temperatures that start rolling in around the beginning of November.
During periods of the year, it is not unusual to experience heavy rainfall. We usually see a heap of precipitation in the Spring and heavy thunderstorms in the summer. In late summer and fall, when the tropical storm/hurricane season begins, it is not unusual for one or more of those storms to come inland, either from the Eastern Seaboard or the Gulf Coast and dump in the New River watershed. When this happens, we keep our eye on gauges to see how quickly the water is rising and what we can expect for whitewater rafting trips.
If the rain is localized, it is not uncommon for the rivers on which we raft to rise quickly in a few hours due to the steep topography. While most people refer to the area near the New River Gorge as mountains, the formation is considered a dissected plateau (Check out the photo in this Wiki to see the formation). Also, if you look closely at the image at the beginning of this post, you’ll see the tops of the land form are a relatively uniform height.
The water that turns into churning whitewater as it tumbles through the New River Gorge comes from the south. The New River travels through a variety of physiological settings on its way to the New River Gorge, with the entire basin encompassing almost 7,000 square miles.
“The New River has its origins in northwestern North Carolina, near the towns of Boone and Blowing Rock. By the time it merges with the Gauley River in West Virginia near Charleston to form the Kanawha, it has flowed north through parts of North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.”
Friends of the New River website.
If you were to look at the New River on a map, the first peculiarity you will notice is that it flows northward as well as westward into the interior of the US. In addition, the New River starts on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains, cuts through the range in Virginia and West Virginia, and empties into the Mississippi River drainage via the Kanawha and the Ohio rivers.
New River in Viginia as it cuts through the Appalachian Mountains.
When looking at this area on a grand, macroscopic level, it is fascinating the forces and variables that lined up to create this unique river. Sometimes, when I am driving over the New River Gorge Bridge, I peek over the side and marvel at the view. I also think how lucky I am to see this site everyday and live in the vicinity of such a spiritual place.
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”
Norman Maclean from A River Runs Through It.
The New River as it Runs Through Virginia
Exploding Haystack at Fayette Station Rapid, New River West Virginia
Throughout the course of any day we are deluged with all kinds of situations requiring decision making and causing stress. In my opinion, it’s not necessarily the situation that directly causes the stress, but our ability (or inability) to deal with that situation. I know that when things seem bleak or overwhelming, it is usually because I am having difficulty taking a step back and looking at the situation objectively.
When I was in high school I remember being introduced to the concept of cosmic irony in English class as it referred to the “disparity between human desires and the harsh realities of the outside world (or the whims of the gods)”. The image at the beginning of this post shows the New River near Fayetteville, West Virginia at a very high flow. Looking at the rushing water, feeling and hearing the power of the water (45,000 cubic feet per second!) is a nice reminder that when all is said and done, the river will still be cutting its course through the Appalachian Mountains, making its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The significance of my problems is minimal at best. Unless I just give up (not possible), time will pass and I will make it through okay. This quote kind of sums it all up:
“The significance of man is that he is
that part of the universe that asks the
question, What is the significance of
Man? He alone can stand apart imaginatively
and, regarding himself and the universe
in their eternal aspects, pronounce a
judgement: The significance of man is
that he is insignificant and is aware
of it.”-Carl Lotus Becker,
Progress and Power, 1935
So if you’ve managed to keep reading this far you may be asking, “what’s your point?” And well you should be. The point is this, if you can maintain some semblance of perspective in your daily life, it can help you keep a more even keel (or paddle, if you want to keep it rafting-oriented) as you negotiate the pools and rapids of your life. If you occasionally feel like you are getting sucked down into the vortex, take some deep breaths and a step back.
Fayette Station New River West Virginia take out @ 15'
Let me leave you with this exquisite photo from National Geographic.
New River West Virginia at Dawn from National Geographic
Wildwater - A West Virginia Whitewater Rafting Company
With 2009 already underway and steaming toward West Virginia’s whitewater rafting season, I am working on developing and implementing our marketing plan. This includes everything from web content, web design and printed materials such as catalog and rack cards. The main challenge here is to make sure all the pieces reflect one voice and offer consistent information such as adventure availability and pricing. The goal is to keep our customers’ interest in our product and make it easy for them to get the information they need.
The challenge for a small company like Wildwater Expeditions is that this is pretty well a linear process because it’s me and 515 Creative, who develops the look of our printed pieces and the look and guts of our website. However, at the end of the day I am still the one who has to provide content, edits, pictures. I write the newsletters and emails. I have the pleasure of developing content for our catalog, website and other ancillary pieces. In many ways it’s a load of fun, but the struggles begin when I try to come up with fresh ways of delivering our message. Usually the first try winds up sounding pretty much like marketing speak: “The Upper Gauley, it’s fast, it’s big, it’s…” boring.
I want to create something that is conversational and conveys my excitement about being on the Gauley River or hiking on the rim of the New River Gorge. Somehow, I can picture it in my head, but can’t always get the words down on the laptop. Video and pictures certainly help, as do testimonials from people who’ve enjoyed the experience and are still pumped up. Video testimonials are probably even better. In my mind, the challenge is to integrate all these marketing media (print, web, daily interaction via phone and in person) to tell the story.
As I try my best to keep up with the explosion of tools at my disposal, I always get the feeling that I’m missing the boat somewhere. This is much like the times I’ve missed (or more correctly, fell out of) the boat while rafting a rapid like Insignificant on the Upper Gauley. First, when you fall out, the waters are churning and very confusing and with the underlying thread of, “I need to get back in the boat!” running through your head. Second, the raft heads down the river with or without you. I can’t say I enjoy the feeling.
At this point you have a couple of choices. You can float passively and hope good things happen or you can take actions that incrementally improve your situation. After all is said and done, I choose the latter and do the best I can to be more effective. That is my goal for Wildwater’s marketing efforts. I can only do so much so I need to choose wisely and focus my energies. It gets tough to focus when I’m all jacked up on coffee, but I’ll be doing the best I can in 2009 to work towards this goal. Hopefully that means a focused, easy to use piece for our guests to use when they are making decisions about their whitewater rafting vacation.
