Gauley Season 2012

The raft guide lines up the raft through the froth shouting "dig! dig! dig! all forward!" as we paddle like the dickens directly at large rock in front of us, named Pillow Rock, for its effect of creating a pillow of white water.  My heart pounds in my chest, certain we are going to flip off the face of this rock and directly into the Class V waters beneath us.  We emerge, victorious, see below:

This was our second Gauley season, having caught the fever last year on Bridge Day.  For those unfamiliar, Bridge Day is the one day a year that authorities allow BASE jumping from the New River Gorge Bridge.  If you time it right, you can book a Bridge Day Special with New and Gauley River Adventures www.gauley.com and you will end a four hour New River whitewater rafting trip by watching people jump from the bridge and parachute down in 30 second intervals.  Quite a site indeed. Because Bridge Day takes place mid-October, we opted this year for a warmer trip and settled on going in September with some of our friends from Charlotte.  We also opted for a Lower Gauley/Upper Gauley reverse trip in lieu of New River/Gauley combo.  This means that Saturday you raft the tamer Lower Gauley to warm up for Sunday morning, when you tackle the five Class V rapids of the Upper not to mention the numerous Class IV's.

We lucked out with the weather for the first time in a while - four days of gorgeous, crisp fall afternoons could not have gone better.  We took full advantage of the car camping experience and packed everything but the kitchen sink.  The first night we made Low Country Boil when we came off the river.  Here are instructions if you have the good sense to recreate this meal at your campsite (it's easy!)

Low Country Boil aka the easiest and best camping meal you can make

In a Dutch Oven, fill about 1/4 way up with water and a liberal amount of Old Bay seasoning

Add and boil red potatoes in water for 20 minutes

Add ears of corn cut in half and continue to boil for another 10 minutes

(If you enjoy Adouille sausage you can add it in here with the corn, only needs to warm up)

Add frozen peel and eat shrimp and more Old Bay, and keep a close eye - usually 3 or 4 minutes will do for the shrimp

Pour the contents out on some newspaper on the picnic table at the site.  Enjoy.

Our good friend Jen Hill managed to swim a Class V on the Lower that Saturday, Lower Mash, and it scared the bejesus out of all of us.  This was followed shortly after by my failed attempt to 'ride the bull' whereby you sit on the front tube of the raft and cling to a greased up rope while rafting through a huge wave train.  This ended in hysterics as I flopped all over the front of the boat like a fish trying to get free.  I think I peed a little because I was laughing so hard.

Sunday morning we rose before the dawn to make a 6:30am departure for Sommersville Dam.  I was up at 5:45 percolating coffee for our weary group (Saturday night had been a late one for a few of us).  We made it through the safety orientation, with Jen's face growing increasingly wan as the guide covered what to do when you fall in.  "This is not a float down the river with your feet up and hope to get rescued river," he said.  "If you fall in, you are going to have to swim for your life back to the raft." "The Upper Gauley is not for everyone" he continued "and if you have doubts about whether or not you can handle this, you need to let us know now.  Because once we get down there we can't get you out until the end of the trip. There is no where to evacuate you."

The anticipation building, we waddled in our wetsuits and boarded the raft.  The next three hours were full of screaming, laughter and adrenaline as we crushed unscathed through Insig, Pillow Rock, Lost Paddle and Iron Ring.  We had just had a successful run down Sweets Falls when our guide decided we would in fact attempt the harrowing Box Canyon - site of most of the carnage videos you see on youtube.  Here is one such video:

Fortunately, we emerged unscathed!  It was only Julie's Juicer at the very end that got one of our crew in the water - I watched as Aaron went heels up off the left side of the raft.  And I laughed.

Sunday night was a comedown from the adrenaline induced craze of the day.  We regretfully left on Monday which happened to be Race Day and there is allegedly a pretty epic party the night after the race.  We dined at the delicious new burrito place next to the campground at New and Gauley River Adventures, and highly recommend you do as well.   All in all, fantastic guides - thanks Tony and Mark!  and a lot of fun.