Well it was that time of the year again where thousands of kayakers come to what is known as the largest white water festival in North America and leave with a bad hangover and a whole lot of regrets. You've probably guessed by now, I'm talking about Gauley Fest. The weekend started when I met Jason and T.J. on Thursday in Harrisburg where we traveled to West Virginia all night in high hopes of paddling the next day. With plenty of sleep (maybe four or five hours) we put on the Upper Gauley at low water manouvering through the crowds and making it down in one piece. Later that evening we met up with Hippie Dan and his friends to celebrate his bachelor party. Hippie you are the man. Can't really remember how Friday night ended but I do remember ending up with a woman's dry top and loss of memory Saturday morning.
Here is T.J. showing the crowd how it's done at Pillow Rock.
Saturday morning started out with us meeting up with my fellow R.L.P paddlers Art, Kevin, and Steve to get ready to rip it up on the Upper Gauley again (this time with more water). The morning started out pretty good we helped run safety for Hippie Dan and his group of rafters down the main rapids and still had a chance to throw down in Hungry Mother.
Here is Dan's raft which is about to get swallowed by a monster hole.
I had gotten separated from the rest of the group after pillow rock but still managed to make it down the river just fine. The take out was probably the hardest part of the day with hiking about half a mile uphill not to mention with your boat on your back. I met the rest of the group at the takeout where we recounted some of the day's eventson the water. Saturday night ended the weekend when the next morning Jason and T.J. were too hungover to paddle we decided to head back to PA to recover from the weekend.
Here is Jason doing the technical creek line at Iron Ring.
Another Gauley Fest had come and past and again and R.L.P had conquered it.
