Has anyone just switched up where they are going? We headed down to the Rockcastle river in South Kentucky but when we got south of Lexington we just veered left and headed to the new whitewater park.
Sorry for the grammatical errors this was wrote at 530 in the morning right after i got home.
While I was sitting in my dorm room just thinking of rivers to run while I had Good Friday off Denny kept popping into my head and saying, \"Rockcastle its the best!\" So I checked the level and saw if it was steady and will be able to be reliable enough to paddle. After a quick check on AW I found that it was indeed steady and was a great choice for a boating trip. So I called up the king of the Rockcastle and asked some questions on if it was safe to run and whats the levels that are good. After I got all my information I posted the trip. Two minutes later Paul and Adam Rich emailed me back and confirmed that they wanted to go. Right after the Thursday night paddle Jason Null and James Happe emailed me and told me they were a go as well. So I had my paddlers now I just needed to wait till Thursday to go.
After getting a \"Coughing fit\" in my Environmental Biology class I was on the highway 64 heading towards home. We all met at Paul's place of work, Nuvo Audio, around 500 we left and were headed down with all intentions of going to hit up the Rockcastle and stay at bee rock camp ground. At about 513 we got a call from James asking if the trip was still on. Unfortunately, he must have missed our emails and he hadn't left home yet. So he decided he would not rather drive the 5 hours down the Rockcastle alone and stayed home. For that I am sorry for the lack of communication. Anyway, we got to about just south of Lexington and I said to Paul, \"If I was a smart man i would have made this to go to the new whitewater park.
He said,\" Oh yea i really wanted to go on that.\" so I asked him, \"Well why don't we go? He was game so we called up our counterparts in the car behind us and they had to make a quick conference call to the wives and then they said they were a go! So we pulled a U turn and went back and got onto 64 to head to North Carolina.
The trip there was riddled with Rest Room stops and Gas stops mostly just to keep us awake. We arrived at the Statesville KOA at 2 00 am and set up camp. Paul with his tent and heater, while Jason and Adam just chose to keep each other company in one tent (really just a cost effective move) while I opted to sleep in the car. Jason and Adam got up around 730 am and had a nice breakfast while Paul and I decided we needed our beauty sleep. Around 830 the car was rocking around I woke up with a startle and thought EARTHQUAKE!! Turned out Jason and adam got bored and tryed to flip me over.
We left for the Whitewater park around 1030 and got there around 1130. Go with these directions and don't call them they will get you lost. Go 77s and then go 85s then go 485 (future) N then first exit then take a left on to that road around 6 miles look on the right side of the road for a red USNW sign and turn right. it is a gravelroad that dead ends into the park. Park as far away from the center as you can as the entrance for the boats is far from the center.
As soon as we got there we were as giddy as school girls. We walked the back channel (\"\"\"\"\"\"easy\" \"\"\"\"\" [solid class 3s] channel ) there were two options left and right. Right side was more action while the left there was more oppurtunaty to play. it went on for about 200 yds then ended in the M wave. DO NOT HIT THE EDDYS. after the run you got spit out into a pool and then paddled up to the conveyor belt. Excellent and really fun to ride down. The the compitition channel. I cannot describe how it looked. I can think of one word to decribe it. Intimidating. Of course there were slalom boaters just zipping right thought it left and right. Acting like the river was no big deal. Also bring gloves. it may be 90 degrees outside but you want to protect your hands from geting scratched to death.
So we finnaly gone over the river stopping by the boat house to check out the candy store. You can demo the boats but it does cost money. The next stop was the souviner shop. I can honesty say everything there is a bit expensive but they have you trapped if you are in need of gear. But they have need knick knacks and all kinds of patches and stickers and all kinds of goodies. Well we finnaly got dressed to go kayaking and headed down to the check in area. You have to fill out a wavier this is were the big decision comes. Do you want the hour and a half (15) or the Full day(25)? Trust me you want the full day. for the extra cost you get to chill on the river back and actully enjoy yourself and not kill your self trying to run it tons of times. We ran it 8 times and didnt feel cheated at all on the cost.
After some practice rolls and some streaching we bombed the right back channel. The waves DOUBLED in size. Trust me you will walk it and think non of the waves but once you are on the waves they seem tremendous in size. the first big wave I went down did a bit of a back ender and braced my way through. Lucky. Jason went next and did a backend and flipped Adam after him did a backender and flipped. Then Paul went down in his NOMAD and BACKENDER and FLIPPED. All rolled up and we kept going down after another seris of waves and holes we finnaly got to M WAVE. This is a beauty of a wave. about a 15 foot lead in into a BRICK wall of water. We all got through it alright and then its about 50 more feet of continous class 3 waves and holes and diagonal waves. It was just pure FUN. Then we rode the conveyor belt. Extremely fun but try to not ride in between rafts they tend to crunch you. We ran another time. We all had to roll. There was only a select (read lucky) few times that we didnt have to roll. Then we all decided to take a nice break for drinks and snacks. Paul adam and Jason all wanted to do 2 more runs of the back channel and then maybe hit the compitition channel. My \"teenager\" in me kicked in and proclaimed I would do it. So of course Jason had to run and get his camera to capture the carnage. After a few quick, I can do this. I screamed in to the run as fast as i could. I hit the rooster tail and got pushed river left and got corrected to run the big falls unfortunalty i didnt realize that rafts are SLOW, and get caught up in holes. So I hit the big class 4 drop with the raft right in front of me. The guy sitting on the back asked me, are you having fun? as i got crushed underneath the raft. I got lucky and they scooted off of me quite quickly and i could roll up. I succesfull run i thought. We then ran the back channel again a few times. ussually we would do 2 runs then a break. We met a Local who had ran the comp channel many a time and we asked him What boats do you own? well he paddled his super fun everywhere he said. Paul asked, Well what if its a class 4+ creek and you and the other people have never run it before. He said, Oh i would use my superfun and let someone else have my creek boat. While he said this, we were all wondering if he had ever heard of River Karma.
Well he offered to take us down the Comp channel and we all agreed that if there was anyone to take us down and be safe it would definately be this stranger we just met and had no idea if he was lyeing to us or not. But hey he was in a Jackson so obviously he has to know what he is doing right? Jason was beat from doing an extra run so he sat this one out. No need to get hurt. So it was, lets call him Mr. Bragg, then Adam then me then Paul. Well about half way down paul flys past me and I see Mr. Braggs boat upside down. I thought maybe he is just showing us how not to run the line and how to roll in a hard eddy. Nope, he swam and adam and I played sweep up While paul dragged him to shore. After we got that exhausting chore done he promised us all a round at Eddy's, a reastraunt and bar at the center, we must have just missed him, cause he left right before we got out of the water.
We ran a few more times, swims increaseing as the day got longer, and I had one more run left in me. Well, I got to the M wave will Paul trailing me (adam and Jason were playing up stream) I was Acelino Freitas, screaming, NO Mas NO Mas. I was dead tired and got WORKED in a hole that just kept recirculating me. All while this was going on Paul had no way of seeing me and came withena a boats tip of hitting me. The only thing that saved me from getting pancaked against the Cement floor was a sweet drawstroke by Paul. By the way thanks Paul for not pancakeing me!
Well, I was completely exhuasted and didnt want to swim so I turned in my bib before I would get hurt. So Paul, Adam and Jason all paddled the back channel one more time while I took pictures from the side.
Adam did run the comp channel one more time and had a nice ride on the big class for wave.
So We ALL had a great time and LONG drive but it was all worth it. Even though we got hit by some snow in West Virgina coming home.
Total miles, around 900
Boaters, Alex Red SuperFun
Paul Red Nomad
Adam Yellow Fun
Jason Red granite Fun
River, Charlotte Whitewater Park
River Rating, Class 3s and 4s
Camped at Statesville KOA
