1st Gauley Weekend, September 6, 2013
I arrived in Summersville, WV on Wednesday and set up camp for the Club’s first 2013 Gauley trip. On
Thursday, of the 1st Gauley River release weekend I usually paddle the 1800 CFS release of the Upper
Gauley but had no Keelhaulers to paddle with this year. I went on a hike in the New River Gorge and
explored the abandoned coal mining towns of Nuttallburg on the north side of the Gorge and Kaymore
on the south side of the Gorge. It was a great day for a hike.
On Friday, John Kobak joined me at the campground and we reserved 2 more campsites for our 20
person group.. We then proceeded to Swiss to meet up with the Jim Hunt’s Lower Gauley Trip to set up
shuttle. If you have not paddled the Lower Gauley on Friday you should make a note that the club
meets at the big white church parking lot before you get to the normal NPS takeout. I made the faux
pas of inviting Doug Ackerman without telling Jim. Jim had gone to great lengths to plan a great day
and to plan the shuttles and I will be more considerate in the future. However when Doug offered to
haul 5 boats to the put-in, everybody was very happy. We had 11 paddlers in our group2 and everyone
had a great run. Jim Murtha, Pam, & Mark Poljak put in at the old Bucklick Branch so that they could
get in more surfing time at Diagonal Ledges. It was a personal first for Mike Nusebaum and Chuck
McDowell. John Kobak had a dramatic successful hole escape at Lower Mash when he announced that
he would run through the hole sideways but the hole had its way with him for a while. The weather was perfect and most of the paddlers wore shorty tops. There were several swims but overall it was a
wonderful day on the river.
Many of us went out to eat at La Carreta Mexican Restaurant in Summersville. The next morning
everyone decided to paddle the Lower Gauley again. Jen & Phil Raber were the trip leaders for the
Lower Gauley Saturday and Sunday runs. John Kobak was the trip organizer for the Upper Gauley but
could only get me and first timer Glen Wagner interested. It was a foggy morning so John decided that we should all do the Lower again on Saturday. We broke up into 3 groups. 6 did the play thing while the other groups of 7 & 8 paddlers stayed fairly close to each other and all had fun on the river.
On Saturday’s Lower Gauley trip everyone else had excellent runs but I learned to appreciate the rope that Cliff Wire keeps attached to the stern of his kayak at Lower Mash. We finished an hour sooner than Friday and most of us went out for Mexican food again.
On Sunday, John pooped out and turned the Upper trip over to Michael Duvall. There were 12 of us
that decided to do the Upper Gauley and 11 went again on the Lower Gauley led by Phil & Jen. We ran
the usual extremely efficient Keelhauler shuttle arranged by John Kobak and Phil Raber. The shuttles
use Woods Ferry as takeout for the Upper Gauley group and put in for the Lower Gauley group. These
efficient shuttles are one of the great reasons to belong to the Keelhauler Canoe Club. This would be another beautiful day but a little cooler. We even dropped off a car for Murtha who only wanted to go as far as Mason Branch (Panther Mnt.)
On the Upper Gauley we passed Pillow just before 11:30 AM and the photographers got some great
pictures. It would be Glen Wagner's personal first descent and to my knowledge was a dry hair run for him. On this day most people wore full dry tops but everyone felt that the water was warmer than
normal.
Paddlers for the weekend included John Kobak, Glen Wagner, Joe Marksz, Bill & Annelies Layton, Jim
Murtha, Michael Duvall, Cliff Wire, Bill Miller, Jim Hunt, Debbie Avallone, Dave Roush, Dennis
Swingley, Mark & Pam Poljak, Jen & Phil Raber, Jackie Blackwood, Bernie Dawson, Hans, Kempf, Chuck
McDowell, Brenda Benner, Mike Nusebaum & Doug Ackerman. Hats off to all of the organizers! See you
next weekend.
/hugh
Click a photo to view or click first photo to see a slide show.
