Avocations

Rafting

Well I survived the weekend. It was very adventerous...

We started out by asking someone at the outfitters store where we might find a good hiking trail. We had a few hours to kill before rappeling. Little did we know that the person we were talking to was an avid hiking nut and wouldn't even consider anything below expert level as hiking. The trail was supposed to make a circuit but after about an hour of trudging up slopes, over boulders, and through ravines there was still no sign of any form of civilization. We felt it would be better to continue moving forward rather than heading back as we knew how hard it be to go that way. 

We were sweating and out of breath and just getting ready to give ourselves a rest when we came across a colorful local we affectionately refer to as Robert E Lee. We asked him if we were going in the right direction and how far it would be. I couldn't understand much of what he said but it seemed to me that he wasn't aware the Civil war was over and that the South had lost. I wasn't about to tell him. He did voulenteer to show us the way back and even walked with us. Along the way he demonstrated for us his vast library of self made animal sounds. I didn't know a turkey call sounded like a madman wailing from the depths of hell but I guess I'm just a city boy. After a while we parted company after he waved vaguely towards some path that we should eventually stumble across.

We did miraculously make it back to the outfitters just in time to go rappeling. We must have made a good impression on them comming stumbling out of the woods covered from head to toe with sweat, bumps, bruises, scratches, and rashes from a variety of strains of poisonouis plants. The guide(Marcus) decided to bring a couple friends, Jeff and Jen, along and thought instead of going to the usual rappeling spot he would take us somewhere really cool. 

We went to a place called beauty mountain to rappel off an outcropping of rock called the Rams Head. The bridge over the river gorge is said to be as tall as the Washington Monument with the Statue of Liberty standing on top. We were much higher than that. To get to the Rams Head we needed to hike a good way through the wilderness. We did some rock climbing along the way. I can tell you its one thing to climb up a 30 foot cliff face and another thing to get to the top of that cliff and look down to the bottom of the gorge more than 800 feet below. The sense of vastness one experiences there is indescribable. I was kicking myself for not bringing a camera. 

Rappeling off the Rams Head was possibly the most frightening experience of my life. You have to first rappel down a short slope until you are standing on the edge of the precipice. Looking down between your feet all you can see is the tops of the trees some 150 feet below. You have to pull an interesting manuver to rappel the Rams Head. You need to lean yourself back by giving up slack in the rope until your feet are above your head. This is so you won't swing into the outcropping and get a face full of stone. Wow, what a view! There was nothing but dense forest below us so we had to rappel through the trees. This was made more challenging when the sun went down over the ridge and it got to be pitch black below the trees.

It was dark when we decided to leave. It was a very dangerous and challenging journey. We found our way through the forest by the light of a cell phone. One time when asked how I was doing I answered "It beats the heck out of watching TV!" which was answered with a loud round of hillbilly cheers. One thing I can say about these West Virginia natives is they are crazy and have no fear. Leaping over crevaces and skirting vast drops while traversing blindly through the dark woods seem to have no effect on them whatsoever. Except that Jen was sad that we were breaking so many branches on the trees and bushes as we stumbled along. Bad humans, its just not fair. Bushes have no way to defend themselves except with prickers and poison and of course their good friends the bugs but otherwise they are completely defenseless.

When we finally made it back to camp it was raining. We ate and were very tired but we felt we just had to visit the Red Dog Saloon, just to be neighborly. We didn't want to be rude afterall. Apparently they don't play much foosball in WV as we beat everybody in sight and controlled the table, just to be neighborly. Ivan (The Hurricane) was blowing in that night and it was starting to rain hard. We went to sleep realizing we would need to be up way before dawn to head out on our river trip. I woke up sometime in the middle of the night only to put my feet into water as I got up to use the outhouse. The tent was flooding and the water proofing was givin out as leaks were forming in several places in the ceiling. The rest of the night was just a gradual progression of wettness. We were actually too tired to do anything about it and just resigned ourselves to being wet. Getting up that following moring was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. I was wet and cold and very tired. Somehow we made it to the outfitters and managed to get our wet suits, paddles, helmet, lifevest and get on the bus.

The Gauley river is a dam release river. The trip starts right at the base of the dam and it towers over you. The water comes out of that dam with tremendous force and is very cold. We had a crew that was all big guys but fairly inexperienced. They had been down the New River before but not the Gauley. They did a great job of getting the river guide convinced to take the hard way down. We had people swimming all day. Actually you don't swim in that river. Its more like flapping your arms like crazy trying to keep your head above water as you carreen down the rapids. 

The first time I fell out was on a big drop. We fell vertical about ten or twelve feet and the grommet holding the raft support I was using to brace myself broke. The river guide was hurled into me and I was catapulted out of the raft. When I came up I realized I was being drawn rapidly up the river back towards the rapid. Its what they call a recycling rapid. When a large volume of water pours straight down it causes a downward current that draws upper waters back and creates sort of a vertical whirlpool. They say you should just curl up into a ball when that happens. That way the current will push you all the way to the bottom and you can use your feet to launch yourself to the surface. In that way you can breath until rescuers arrive. I was determined not to let that happen and started swimming furiously. The back current was so strong it sucked my river shoes right of my feet. I was not making any forward progress but when I looked back I saw another raft coming down the rapid and managed to grab onto it. It pulled be out of the recycling current only then I was on the down river side of the raft and the current was holding my body under it. I was getting hammered between the raft and the rocks below. Someone on the raft managed to grab my life vest but couldn't pull me back in. They were still trying to get throught the rapids themselves. Finaly another person was able to help pull me aboard. We got close to the other raft and I dove from one to the other. Miraculously my shoes had floated down river and were retreaved by my fellow rafters. 

I was ready for anything after surviving that, or so I thought. That was until I fell in again on the very next rapid. Finally we made our down to Sweets Falls. Sweets Falls is a sixteen foot vertical drop. The river narrows there and the water pressure is tremendous. A typical wimpy rafting crew would have just run the tounge. That is a place where the force of water creates sort of a large water slide and you can just go whoosh right through. Our crew was too stupid for that. We took the direct drop head on. Bodies crashed everywhere. Smash, boom, bam, ouch, my helmet crashed directly into someone elses and I was suddenly very greatful I was wearing it. Normaly after the falls you would all back paddle as a team to avoid getting swept into what they call the box. That is three boulders, each the size of a house, that the main force of the river flows between. It creates a bubbling churning cauldron of extremely agitated water. Since nobody on our raft had their paddle or was even in their seat we were sucked right into it. The raft flipped over instantly. Not an easy feat since the raft weighs about 800 pounds. I found myself under the raft and knew I didn't want to stay there. I pushed myself downward and was instrantly swept away by the current. When I came up I noticed the raft had also come free and was heading straight towards me still upside down. I managed to grab onto it. As I did so I saw the river guide climbing on top of it. He immedeately pointed down river to the approaching rapids and told me I'd better swim NOW for another raft that was passing nearby. I managed to make it to that raft but before I started swimming I looked back and noticed there were still at least three or four rafters clinging to a rock in the box. I was lucky. 

Then we stopped for lunch. We had been on the river for about four hours at this point. The rest of the trip went a lot like the first part except that Ivan started acting up again and we got more rain.

After about eight hours on the river we finally came ashore at our pickup and enjoyed a couple beers. We all piled onto a bus. You could have heard a pin drop. Half the rafters fell dead asleep where they sat. They were the lucky ones. I think the bus drive back was the most frightening part of the whole trip. Just immage looking out your bus window and only being able to see the rocks 100 feet below as you seem to be flying impossibly fast, bouncing around like crazy, down narrow dirt roads.