Saturday I paddled a run defines all the reasons I started creeking in the first place. It is in a bueatiful, rugged, and committing gorge and the creek itself is steep, challenging, and ultimatly rewarding for those who are lucky enough to have the oppertunity to experience it.
Charlie Mix, Joey Jarrell and I rolled out of Alabama Thrusday night, paddled Big Creek on Friday, and met up with a few other bama boys to camp out Friday night. Sam England, Jorday Sherman and Andy Hobson, were finishing a weeklong huckfest in western North Carolina and around the campfire Friday night it didn't take too much convincing to get them to return with us on Saturday to our main objective for the weekend, the Raven Fork.
Saturday morning started early with us packing up our campsite in the national forest just after sunrise. After grabbing a quick bite to eat we were off to Cherokee North Carolina to meet up with Ryan Moore and check the gauge on the Raven Fork. We had heard through the grapevine that the perfect first time level was betwen 6" and 9" and upon reaching the river Saturday morning we found the perfect 7" we were hoping for.
While Sam and Andy had paddled this creek once before, Charlie, Jordan, Joey and Myself would all be first timers. Upon reaching the river, Jordan, Joey, and Ryan made the decision to save the boating for another day and hike to provide camera support. With our paddling group down to four, we geared up and began the hike in...
We hiked into the gorge, putting on the river at the top of a fun warm-up rapid known as Lord of the Rings. Below that we made our first portage of the day as all four of us passed on Anaconda, seal launching in below it to run the first bigger rapid of the day... Headless Horseman...
Here are shots of Andy and I running another rapid known as Right Right...
The next bigger drop was Razorback which features a fun railslide into a long bouncy slide...
Downstream came another easier rapid known as Jedi Training...
Mortal Combat is another big slide sequence with a big kicker boof near the top...
The biggest rapid of the day and perhaps one of the biggest rapids any of us have ever run is Mike Tyson's Punch Out. This HUGE multi-tiered cascade is impossible to capture in pictures and video because its simply massive...
The last of the big ones we ran was Caveman. This features a series of ledge drops finishing with a SWEET boof off the left wall...
Until Saturday I have never had a standout run that I could point to as my "favorite". There are lots of runs that I love for various reasons. The Raven Fork is truely a special and amazing place... and at least for now, its my favorite place on earth!
Until Next Time...
-adam
