Lessons learned on the Little

Over the past year and a half I have spent time kayaking the little. But, my lessons started a few years ago when I started canoeing whitewater with a flatwater 15ft canoe. The Little taught me that day that if I want to paddle whitewater I needed the right gear. I pinned and folded that boat at least twice paddling it down the little. As I moved to running the easier sections of the river I learned little lessons about water levels and when the gauge says it's too low...that means it is too low. Once I started running the rougher stuff... Meanies, sinks, elbow etc... I had a few key lessons. First, don't forget your skirt. On a nice spring day last spring I drove the 1.5hrs to the little just to see that I had left my skirt high and dry at home. I promptly turned around a drove home... lesson learned. Today I learned another lesson at the little. I paddled with my friend Dave and he didn't feel like running the meanies or the sinks today so I decided I was going to fire it up with Dave setting safety. The first drop of the meanies went well. I was endered alittle, but nothing bad. Second drop was a different story. Normally I ferry across and boof the little rock in the center and miss the pourover while landing in the eddy. Today the water was alittle low and instead of boofing the rock I hit it and stopped. This flushed me into the pourover sideways where I proceed to get a nice surf. Finally I flipped and when I rolled up I had flushed out, but I was freezing. That is when the Little taught me another valuable lesson. ZIP UP YOUR DRY SUIT! I ran the sinks with out major issues but did have to role up at the bottom. Dave got a few pictures of this and I will post them when he sends them over. Over all the little seems to always save a few key lessons for me each time I visit...This one was a chilly one to learn.

Epic Fail Boof Line

Getting a nice hole ride... you can see my drysuit unzipped!

Mid-Day Lower Big Creek run...High Water

Thursday I took a few hours out of the middle of my day and went to run Big Creek in the National Park. Jesse and I had planned to run Upper Big Creek which has a rating of IV-IV+ with the possible V thrown in. I have ran the upper many times before at medium to medium low flows. It is a great, continuous steep run with lots of 6-8ft drops.

When we arrived at Big Creek campground the creek was really pumping. we walked up the upper and decided it was more than we were wanting...well I decided that. I have been off the water for 8weeks and it was too high for a welcome back run...or any run for a mere mortal for that fact.

We put on the lower and should have known something was wrong when Jesse got stuck in a small overflow at the put-in waiting on me to get it. He was getting a quick trashing on something that shouldn't even be an issue. Lower Big creek is 2-2.5 miles of constant whitewater. usually a solid class IV it had a few strong class IV+ in there this day.

After paddling down for a bit and getting shoved around like were weren't even paddling I dropped into a hole too close to a rock in the river center. It decided I needed to get more acquainted with it and it pulled me back in for a ride. Jesse got a great show of my beat down which was a few minutes of getting power flipped and very low braces to try and get out. After rolling up for maybe the 4th or 5th time I starting wondering when this icy cold keeper hole was going to let me go. Finally after another power flip it flushed me into the eddy and I rolled up with an ice cream headache from the cold ride.

Later down the creek we started to question the level. The creek was bigger than I had ever been on it and we both agreed we were getting shoved around a lot more than usual. A few rocks later I got flipped and took the hardest hit to my helmet I have ever taken. It actually cracked the yellow poly coat in a few places. You can see the Kevlar fibers now in my helmet. I would like at this point to say how great the Shred Ready TDUB helmet is. The impact just barely gave me a headache and the impact really didn't hurt. Thumbs up for that helmet and design. Had I not been wearing a helmet I would not be writing this.

Finally we made it down to the bridge with the gauge on it and saw it was between 3.8 and 3.9ft. Boatingbeta.com says that 2.0 is low optimal and 3.5 is high optimal and 4.5 becomes deadly to mere mortals. At almost 4ft we were pushing those limits. It set a new benchmark for me as a strong paddler and reminded me that 8wks off is never a good idea.

I will post pics of the helmet later, but I got none of the river that day.

Ocoee, Biscuit and Kids...

Spent today out with Jesse and Jacob...AND the kids on the Ocoee. Our babysitter had a family emergency so they needed to come see what Dad did for fun. We really don't have pictures from this trip but we do have some video. The kids were great and the playboating was fun. I am finally starting to get my new Liquid Logic Biscuit 55 dialed in. I was struggling to roll it and now I am rolling fine. I can't wait to get back out and paddle it again.

Jesse and Jacob talking trash

Jesse showing off in his new biscuit

Jacob getting it done in Hell Hole!

Me Doing what looks like a front loop attempt...really I was just tucking up for a roll!

Tellico Laps...

Friday we were able to get out and run the Tellico. It was a little low but very fun. My wife used her new camera and other photography gizmo's to shoot some wonderful shots of Jesse and I. The matching eskimos are scary, but not on purpose. Guess great minds think alike.

Jesse Boofing

Me Running Baby Falls...15ft

Check out those sexy matching Creekboats...um I mean...

I thought the water shedding the deck looked awesome

First Post

This is the Blog for BOLD Outdoor Adventures. Keep up with what we do next by checking back in!