Nice trip reports Kev. Keep them coming for those of us stuck in
offices, they help me waste a good portion of the day day-dreaming
about the river...

Ross


-- In whitewaterriverboarding@yahoogroups.com, "Kevin" <bigkevnc@h...>
wrote:
> This was my first trip to West Virginia and I am definitely going
> back. I got there too late on a friday to catch anyone going on the
> New River Gorge, but Fayette Station rapid looked awesome at the
> takeout. The New is on my list for this spring. I did the Lower
> Gauley the next morning after meeting Liz (Gingerwatergirl) for some
> advice of the lines through the rapids and fun at the karoke bar.
> If you can do the put-in for the lower at the buck-lick branch and
> come in above Koontz's Flume, then do it. I had to hike in from the
> Middle Gauley Campground and pay the campground owner to drive my
> car down to the takeout at Swiss since I didn't think my car could
> make it over one stream going to the put-in. The owner of the
> campground has his own marked trial to the river, but it is killer.
> Imagine hiking your board and gear down into a gorge with sandles on
> for a 1/4 mile and you get the picture. The river was cranking bout
> 5,500 cfs that day as the meadow river was adding some flow where it
> runs into the upper gauley. Starting at the end of the middle
> Gauley gave me a good warm up to Koontz's Flume. Don't go right
> here as there is an undercut. Canyone Doors is best scouted from
> the right bank. Upper and Lower Mash are on the left afterwards,
> and are big fun wave trains with holes. Diagional Ledges was
> supposed to give me trouble with all their pour-overs, but other
> than going slightly sideways over one of them and by body being off
> of the board for a second of two, no problem unless I missed the
> worst of it. A lot of good wave trains afterwards and then comes
> Pure Screaming Hell, then last big rapid on the Gauley. Watch out
> for the hole on the right as it has a sieve that could suck you down
> and keep you. There is a hole in the middle of the river along the
> left of the line between the holes and if you can skirt this one or
> slightly hit the edge of it, you will stay out of the bad one. I
> was tired by the time I got to this one and didn't get lined up good
> at the beginning, so I basically had to point towards the left shore
> and kick like crazy and use my arms to to stay left. I missed the
> waves of this one because I was going over the sideways instead of
> straight on. Take a breather before this one, so you will be fresh
> and can get your line earlier. The river is rated class IV with
> Pure Screaming Hell getting close to a V. The only bad thing about
> this run is very long pools between the rapids and total flatwater
> after the last rapid for about 2 to 3 miles. It was the most
> technical water I've done as far as having lines you had to hit and
> avoiding undercuts, so I hope it is good preparation for the Upper
> Gauley this year. If I find out that the New Rivers is just as good
> prep. for the Upper G, then I'll let you know after I've done them
> both, so you won't have to deal with the long swim through flat
> water.