Early Dec on the Green!

Well its a long time passed, but on my home from FL for the winter break, I met up with some friends for my 8th trip down the mighty Green River Narrows. I was without a creekboat, so my friend (thanks B) brought me a Nomad 8.1 for the day. Let me tell you I had my heart set on a Jefe, but after paddling the Nomad, I'm not really sure anymore. The boat is really fast, and handled the low water green (6-7 inches that day) really well. I used to paddle a M Burn, and every time I hit a rock all hell broke lose. Well thats a little melodramatic, but it did not handle the rocks well. The only thing that I didn't particularly like was the way it handled holes. In the video, you will see what happens when I hit the top hole at Zwicks (I get pushed hard left and have to try to recover) and when I hit the hole at the bottom of the first part Nices' Pieces (I get pushed hard right into the big rock). Most of this should be attributed to my lack of skills. But still, the bow seemed to get pushed around really easily by holes. But none the less I loved the boat.
I wanted to do something a little different with the video I took. First off, all of the headcam videos you see of me over in the right hand column are taken with a Go Pro Hero III Digital Camera. These things are AWESOME for the price (You do need to add a 2 gig SD card tho). I just strap it right to my FNA full facemask. Anyways, the video is split into 2 parts. Part one runs from Frankenstein to above Go Left and Die. The second part runs from Go Left to below Rapid Transit. Unfortunately that was all the battery life I had that day (MY FAULT NOT THE CAMERAS). We left the video pretty much unedited. The reason we did this is because I remember before I ever paddled the green, watching all the video of all the big rapids, I really did not get a feel for the pace of the river. I really did not know what to expect. This video shows the pace of the river really well, so all of you have never paddled it can really get a good idea of what it is like. All the small rapids between Frank and Transit are included, and because nobody in our crew ran Gorilla, it is excluded. Sucks that the quality is so low. The original quality is actually quite high, which is why I love the camera so much. Many thanks to Dave for editing.

Peace
Toby

By the way, the videos are in the column on the right. Top video is Part 2, Second to top is Part 1

Scouting Nancy Town Creek

Lately I've been looking around the American Whitewater website for some local creeks that I haven't been to yet (of which there are many) to go check out and do a little scouting. I found a section of Nancy Town Creek that flows out of Lake Russell. I have been to Lake Russell plenty of times with the family for day picnics and such, but never payed much attention to the creek that feeds it. According to AW there is a very steep section of this creek a little over a mile downstream of the lake, but no pictures anywhere. I found this spot on Google Earth and in the satellite photos you can see some big white spots along the creek. So after a little planning my dad and I decided to hike around the lake and down the stream to see what was there. The hike itself was interesting as once you get below the lake there are no trails. We eventually made it, and found a VERY steep section of the creek about 1/4 mile long just below and old dam. Here are some pictures of what we found.

The old, seemingly abandoned dam that marks the beginning of the steepness.

This is the top of the first big slide, it looks like one small drop but its really a huge slide that continues another 80 feet or so downstream

This is the slide from the bottom, I'd say it drops a total of about 60ft

This is the horizon line for the second drop

The second drop, about 35ft and unrunnable

The first slide looks good to go with some log removal and more water. After these drops there is one more clean 8 footer that I could see then it flattens out a bit. The run continues for probably another mile or two before you get to the takout road, but we didn't get to see the rest of it. I'm sure there are some more decent rapids, but nothing like this first part. As far as I can tell this has never been run before, but if anyone knows different let me know. It would take a LOT of rain for it to go also, relatively small watershed I think. Anyways, it's on the "to do" list along with many others.

Till next time

-David

Snow in the Southeast!

I woke up this morning to snow falling outside and all over NE Georgia. I hadn't paddled in a while so I was really hoping to get on the water this weekend. There wasn't much accumulation outside yet but I didn't want to drive any kind of long distance for fear of worsening road conditions. I decided to head down the road to the super low Lake Lanier for a short paddle, I'll make it to a river next time. Anyways, I strapped down the Corsica and drove to the lake. I also took the camera with me and got some pictures.

You can see how low the lake really is, with some docks out of the water

I got some pretty interesting looks from people when I was putting on and taking off. They probably thought I was a little crazy to go paddling in the snow. Today was also my first chance to use my new pogies. I'm pretty sure anyone who's used pogies knows how toasty they keep your hands, mine were sweating the whole time I was on the water. I kept dipping them in the lake to keep cool. Anyways, I got my paddling fix for today, but I need to get on a river soon.

'Till next time,

-David

Cold Water Fun at Scudders Falls

Well my vacation from school was over, and it was time for me to make the drive from NY back down to FL. I decided to stop and visit a paddling friend in eastern PA for a session at Scudders. I first paddled at Scudders about 3-4 years ago when i was first learning how to paddle. The day I bought my first boat was a cold October day and my friends took me there to give it a go. I swam 7 times that day in the frigid waters. Since then, I have been back on a regular basis, each time looking a little more like a competent boater. But something very fortunate has happened there. Some local paddlers spent a great deal of time working on the feature there, and it really paid off. Jan 5th was the second time I paddled there with the new feature. The first time was at a level of about 22,000 cfs which made for a great wave for blunting and spinning (and if your good enough then all those other moves). On Jan 5th the level was a little lower (18,000 or so...). Ice Chunks were floating down the river. You could hear and feel them banging on the bottom of the boat. Everyone was very conservative, but I did find it in me to try a loop or two. Ill let the video speak for it self. The link to the video is in the "Video" column on the right.

Peace
Toby