Busted cars and lost paddles

Last Wednesday was one of those extremely eventful days that doesn't fully sink in until the day after, and not in a good way. A lot happened so I'll try to keep it short, here we go. Left the house at 5 am headed to Suck Creek, skunked. Drove over to the Tellico for a couple low water laps. However, on the way my paddle was in a cartop carrier that wasn't latched and fell out, but I didn't know it till I got there. Borrowed a paddle and headed back to retrace my steps and look for the paddle roadside. No dice. Bummed, got on the road home. 30 mins into the trip a semi truck in front of me stops in the road and begins backing up casue he missed a turn and doesn't see me behing him. I frantically tried to shift into reverse but I wasn't fast enough and BAM! This is the result.

The trucker was at fault and got a ticket. I was able to drive the remaining 2 1/2 hours home, slowly. The car is now totaled due to the rapairs costing more than than the car is worth. Ugh, what a day. On the bright side I've been wanting both a new paddle and more practical car for a while so now I have an excuse for both. Car shopping instead of Cheoah running Saturday led to the purchase of a 2003 Passat Wagon. Should be a great paddling/road trip vehicle and I like it so far. Dunno about a new paddle yet so for now I must use my old plastic/aluminum Prijon, better than nothing.

Enough of that, time for some paddling. Sunday evening/night we got a bunch of rain, so I had high hopes for a short run on Dick's in the morning before work. The gauge never updated but I decided to go anyways and meet up with my buddy Ryan. I arrived in the morning to a dissapointing level, but decided to put on anyway. I finally got my new camera and Pelican case, so an ELF run on Dick's led to some pretty cool photos. The first few shots are me on the top drop.

The next ones are Ryan on the falls

And a sequence of me on the falls

Even at low water Dick's Creek is a fun way to spend the morning before work and definitely beats sleeping in. Before we put on Dicks we were going to drive up and check out Blood Mountain Creek but the gate at the ranger station was locked. Hopefully it will be open next time, looks like there are some nice drops up there. Until next time, let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

-David