Thank you Charlie Mix!

This post must begin with a big thanks to Charlie Mix for flying to Europe for the Holidays. His absence, conbined with the great distance he was from Alabama surely helped bring much needed rain to our beloved Little River Canyon. For those of you who haven't figured out this great indacator, the general rule seems to be if Charlie or I are out of town... Alabama goes off. Now that I have made this fact public... if we ever go out of town at the same time you will know to load the boats and start acting sick at work because its about to start raining in Alabama.

Last weekend I was actually out of town too, but not too far away to drive back for what would be a great weekend on LRC. Joey and I had done a low water Russell Fork run on Wednesday and then the Green on Thursday when an "Operational Schedule was Determined Daily" against us and said 60% for Friday through Sunday, effectively ending our plans. We both headed back to our family homes in VA only to hear that AL was getting hammered on top of a good rain they received earlier in the week. My love of LRC and Johnnies pulled hard on my mind and I quickly reloaded the truck and drove late in the night. After 5 hours of sleep at Brandon's place in Knoxville (thank's man) I finished the drive arriving at the Johnnies at 9:30 eastern.

Although Johnnies had run Friday in the late afternoon, it was already too low so it was off to meet Spence and set shuttle for the main canyon. I was expecting 4-5", but we rolled up to the bridge to find a good crew of boaters dressing out and the Rt 35 Bridge Gauge just over 10". It was on! I quickly dressed out and offered to go first so I could get some pictures from the bottom of the falls. I felt good about my line and kept a dry head as I hurried into position at the bottom of the falls.

Below are some of the better shots from the falls....

Next up, Mark Travis...




Charlie Simmons...



Andy boofed the hell out of the first drop and cleaned it with a nice vert line at the bottom....




Mark checking out the bottom of the falls...


After all the big smiles of the falls we headed downstream with a big crew of 7. Here is Mark at Mammoth Rock...




Andy catching a breath at the top holes entering mammoth...


After a great run on Suicide and Upper Two I drove back to the top to find the water had dropped to 8" and Chuck was getting ready for his first run on the falls. I jogged down to the falls with my boat and passed my camera off to Andy as I joined Chuck in the water. While many folks run the falls down to 6"... Saturday evening's 8" was actually the lowest I had ever run the falls... and for the first time I scraped some off the first lip causing me to get more verticle than planned and bang the front of my Everest on the shelf upon landing. It just goes to show what I ahve always known... this drop is much safer at 10" and up.






Chuck went right after me and had a great line...




Until Next Time...
-adam