Upper Gauley
New River
Upper Gauley!

     Last weekend in September, well the previous weekend I was supposed to go out with Tom Scheuermann to Gauley Fest but a hurricane blew in, I went out to West Virginia to run the famous Gauley River. I ran the New River with my brother, too. So basically, I drove 20 hours for 3 days of paddling . . . but don't worry it was worth it.

     First day on the Upper G, I ran into Len (Darren's roommate from Frisco) and his girlfriend and the 3 of us hooked up with a group of open-boaters (canoes) and some kayakers who said they knew the lines. Well, they did and they didn't, and the open-boaters did a fair amount of swimming. First day, I was nervous, but the Upper G is a great fun run with lots of play and just enough technical Class IV-V stuff to keep it entertaining. Of note, Len running Sweet's Falls blind right into the biggest ass-spankin' hole you'd ever want to see, like Tunnel Falls (Gore) hole, but wider and not quite as rocky. He swamout but it was good for laughs, that's for sure. Liz and I had to run it blind after that, which kind of sucked, but thanks to the numerous people on the river banks pointing out the way, there was minimal carnage. Everything at Gauley gave you plenty of time to roll, and the water was high (4500 CFS) so everything was flushing and not too many rocks to hit your head on.

Kansas. Kansas sucks.	St. Louis. What a fun drive.
Put-in, upper Gualey, right below Summersville dam.	Good horizon lines.
Len and Liz in the first eddy.	Some of the people we paddled with.
General view, West Virginia is pretty. Too bad it's in West Virginia.	Insignifigance. First "Class V" rapid. Big water.
Top of some guys head right in one of the big holes.	View of the first couple of holes.
A shot down into the playwave in Insignifigance.	Guys getting back into the wave.
Pillow Rock, you can't even see Volkswagen rock, but it's pretty much right behind this guy, (WaveSport pro, Jimmy Blakeney, I think)	Pillow Rock, big water.
Images from Alex at Rapidshots.com, me getting up on pillow rock.	Getting flushed into toilet directly after that.
Good times!	Mayo, posing.
Steve getting rock, giving peace.	Movie of some of the guys we were with coming down.
Len, missing the splat. Liz, getting worked. Movie.	One of the canoes we were with negotiating Pillow Rock. Movie.
The hike out was long, steep, muddy and slippy. Last day, I ended up putting a serious gash in my leg.	But the scenery was spectacular.
We're still alive! Now we only have to hike a mile up.	Brent. Excited.
Seal launch into the New River. Before . . .	After.
The take-out. World's biggest single arch bridge.	Back to the Upper G. Sweet's Falls.
Falls Sequence. 1	2
Going. . . 3	Going . . . 4
Gone! 5	And back. 6
7	8
9	10
Close up. Threading the needle.	The hole that Len "surfed."
He was all the way river right, top of your screen. Bad place to be, I guess.