Third time's a charm

After finding out that this past weekend was a long weekend thanks to Chris Columbo, it was a no-brainer that the Gauley was the place to be. This is my third trip up there is Gauley season. The last two times involved at least one marathon trip down the Gauley, (Upper, Middle and Lower) 26.8 miles of great whitewater and beautiful scenery.
I met Billy at my bro's house in Harrisonburg Friday night. We had a nostalgic ride around town, realizing that we no longer knew the people hanging out on the front porches of the houses on Elizabeth Street and other well known and visited college dwellings.
We took off Saturday morning and decided to paddle the lower Gauley and play as much as possible. And play we did. We hit all the major playspots and found some new ones along the way. We spent almost 2 hours at diagonal ledges eventually having it to ourselves, which is a rare feat during Gauley season. It was getting dark by the time we took off the river. What a day, all that playboating is enough to wear you out.

Looking up the gorge on the lower Gauley

We had the best playspot on the river, Diagonal Ledges, to ourselves for a while

On Sunday morning we decided to go to Fayetteville and demo some new boats. It was cool paddling something different. I got the new Jackson Allstar and Billy picked up the Fun. I was a little loose in the boat to really enjoy it and it handled a bit differently than my Project 52. I went through a couple of rapids in a full vertical stern squirt. Good Times. The Gauley is a great river! What nice Gauley season weather.

Looking upstream at Pillow Rock rapid

Feeling very small at Pillow Rock