This past Saturday and Sunday were my first trip down the upper Gauley. Sunday we did the Marathon, upper, middle and lower Gauley...26.8 miles of great whitewater and beautiful scenery. A year ago I was scared to death trying getting myself psyched to run the lower Gauley. A few months before that I was swimming out of my boat at the class 2/3 Maryland Chute play waves a few miles from my house. My life as a paddler has been an interesting one. I always liked the water until I almost drown on the lower Gauley when I was 14 years old. Then I was scared of any type of water for a year or so. After my dad got rid of the motor boat he agreed to buy my brother and I kayaks when I was 16 or 17. He signed us up for some rolling classes, but I never really figured it out enough to take it to the river. This began my first 5 years of paddling. Mainly just easy stuff with the family where flipping wasn't really an issue. But whenever I did flip, I was swimming. So this continued for quite a while, as I was spending most of my outdoor time climbing. In college I started hanging out with a few guys, Billy and Jeremy, who were starting to do a lot of kayaking. My interest in the sport started to grow again now that I had friends inviting me to head outside with them. The only problem was that I still couldn't roll my boat 75% of the time. This is when I took on the title of "the little swimmer." This reflected my less than graceful style through most any rapid I got flipped on. This went on for a while, but it was hard to get psyched about kayaking when I was so bad at it. My interest and future in kayaking was waning.
Seven months after moving to Bethesda, MD, I discovered a true diamond in the rough...the mighty Potomac. Once again I was going to give kayaking another try. This time, would be different, this time I told myself from the get go, "This is it, I either need to make this happen, or sell my gear and stick to climbing and other outdoor pursuits." Having such a wealth of paddling literally minutes from my house and job has turned out to be a Godsend. After I met a few people to go paddling with I was hooked. Not long after, my good friend Billy from college moved here and I had someone who I could always count on being into going paddling.
Moonlit profile of Seneca Rocks
Last fall was a constant battle between going climbing or kayaking. I got into leading traditional routes and really enjoyed that. I really wanted to climb as much as I could. At the same time I was really enjoying kayaking. I continued both through last fall and winter. After I dislocated my heel in an ugly trad fall at Looking Glass in North Carolina, I have pretty much been concentrating on kayaking. More to come soon, but that should get you up to speed.
A few minutes before the fall...
