Gauley & Cranberry Rivers, September 21, 2013

On Friday I was within 20 minutes of the Swiss, WV Park Service takeout and was stopped to look at the huge water flow going over the Kanawha Falls at Glen Ferris when I received a call from John Kobak that the Gauley was running 8,000 cfs at Belva. (The ordinary release is 2,800 cfs. The Corps of Engineers had been releasing 5,000cfs all Thursday and Thursday nights and the Meadow was releasing 3,000 cfs. The Meadow would go up to 5,000cfs before it got down to 3,000cfs on Sunday). I told him I was meeting Bill Miller and our trip leader for the weekend Cliff Wire and would be soon putting on the Lower Gauley. He gave me a rundown of how the rapids were at such high levels and when I got to Swiss we decided to put on the river and "see what happens." John was right. It would be a completely different river today. The chocolate-colored water formed huge waves, boils, whirlpools, and some holes to be avoided. We put on at Wood's Ferry and found Ender Wave to be huge and a much longer wave train than normal. We were worried about Backender but it was mostly washed out with just a giant wave train you could see all the way down. The last giant wave was absent to our relief. At Koontz Flume we could see none of our landmarks on the right so we all elected to stay left. Five Boat Hole was a one boat hole today. I had heard over the years that the second part of the wave train of Canyon Doors became a terminal hole at very high water so we eddied out left in the first wave train and angled left. Lower Mash was just a large wave train that went over the mid-river rock but Diagonal Ledges was a complex minefield of holes with no easy route through. We all picked our way through the holes on different lines. At Heaven Help Us we saw rafts in front of us going left and avoiding the Pearly Gates so we followed on the left line and avoided the clearly unrunable Gates. Stairstep was spectacular but fun. The long wave train above Roostertail was connected to it by huge haystack waves like I have never seen before. The entire long wave train contained many large waves that were followed more closely than usual by other equally huge waves making it hard to square up to the waves quickly enough. A large group of kayaks, canoes, and rafts had collected at the top of Pure Screaming Hell wanting someone to go first. Of course it was your fearless Keelhaulers that led the way. Purgatory hole which is the mid-river hole above Hell Hole and Devil's Hole was a wall of brown water breaking back on itself but didn't stop us. We did see many others who weren't so lucky. The fast water made for a very fast paddle out to Swiss. We all agreed that we would love to do this run any time we could get this much water. What would Saturday hold? We were hoping for a Gauley marathon. We went to Gauley Fest and found that this was the first time any of the 3 of us had been there any day besides Saturday.
On Saturday morning we awoke at Battle Run Campground and many Keelhaulers had come in during the night. There was a lot of talk about what to run but with the Meadow putting in 4,000 cfs most didn't want to hazard the Upper Gauley. We had 14 club members on our 5,000 cfs run of the Lower Gauley and the river was considerably harder at this relatively lower level. The temperature was in the low 70's and there was a light mist much of the days. Everyone had on full dry tops. The water temperature has been warmer than normal all Gauley season. The last wave hole in Backender was back in play but everyone negotiated this successfully. Most of us ran the left line at Koontz Flume but some did the right line. Lower Mash was terrible with a huge narrow wave hole at the bottom that was flipping people and holding some. I started down with everyone behind me when I noticed a boat stuck in the wave hole so I went into the eddy on the left and suddenly this undesirable eddy had enough club members for a monthly meeting. Believe me, there are eddies you don't want to be in and this was one of them. Most of us managed the ferry from hell across behind the wave hole but there was one swim with a long stay in a hole that had me worried. I was by this time in an eddy on river right with many Park Service rangers who were bandaging several people and had been there a long time directing hurt people up the mountain to a 4-wheeler trail where people were being taken out. The Park Service actually brought down rafts to take the abandoned boats out later in the day. Unlike on Friday, I knew at this point I would not like to run the Lower at this level again. The Pearly Gates were again unrunable and kayaks and rafts took the left line at the end. We watched the current women's raft racing world champions try to run the Gates and the boat flipped end over end multiple times. The rest of the run was just fast with normal lines being the correct ones, including Pure Screaming Hell. Again we had a fast paddle out and enjoyed the efficient shuttle Cliff had arranged with Bill Miller's assistance. Most of us spent some time at a rainy muddy Gauley Fest and camped in the rain.
On Sunday Morning there would be eleven of us wanting to paddle something but with a lot of trepidation. Jim Murtha suggested we could do a low water Middle Cranberry run although you could tell he wanted to surf the Lower Gauley. He did agree to lead us and the whole group went except Glen, April, and Brent who had already left. When we got to the Cranberry there were several cars and we ran across Jeff Macklin and Charlie Walbridge. The temperature was in the low 60's and finally the sky was mostly sunny. This was a run I wouldn't miss for the world. I did feel sorry for those who had to do this creek run in tiny playboats though. We had one close call with a log in the river but Jim Murtha, Jeff Cramer, & Annelies Layton did an efficient rescue. The S-Turn rapid was as memorable as I had been told & was followed by one technical boof turn toward the bottom. When we got off the river there were about 25 cars parked near the takeout and more below the bridge. Seems like lots of paddlers headed to the fruit bowl area to paddle today. We talked about how every so many years on a rainy weekend the Gauley isn't the best run and it is nice to have a creek boat along since we are in some of the best creeking country. I remember a Sunday Upper Meadow run that was just as memorable with the Keelhaulers but less fun for those with only play boats.
Jackie and Bernie were staying to paddle on Monday so I helped them find someone with whom to paddle. I renewed the campsite for them and headed home to South Carolina. I called John Kobak about our weekend and he looked up the levels and said we paddled the Cranberry about 3.7ft with 3.5ft being about as low as you would want to go there. He also felt we could have paddled the Upper Gauley more easily than we had imagined at these levels and that it might have been the very best level for a marathon run. They were only releasing about 1100cfs and the Meadow River was down to 3000 cfs. John said the Upper Gauley is a good run at that level and is no harder than 2800 cfs, in fact Iron Ring gets easier. Paddlers for the weekend include Cliff Wire, Bill Miller, Casey Brown, Bernie Dawson, Steve Smith, Glen Wagner, April Hollis, Brent Hendren, Joe Marksz, Bill Layton, Annelies Layton, Michael Duvall, Jackie Blackwood, Jeff Cramer, and me. Gauley weekends with the Keelhaulers are the very best! /hugh

    All photos are public domain.
Barrow Family homepage