We made it to the Black River in New York on a cold rainy day with marginal water levels. It didn’t take long to realize that we were pussy Canadian’s that didn’t like the cold. So we skipped the Black and headed straight for West Virginia.

First stop was the Potomac River. The river was running at a great level for the S-turn hole and the highest it had been in over two months. I spent most of my time there while Zac and Ben did numerous runs on the Fish Ladder section of Great Falls, a rapid that is awe inspiring to look at let alone run. From there we headed south to Fayetteville for some paddling on the New River.

We met up with some video boaters from one of the raft companies that were nice enough to offer us a free place to camp behind the Mini Golf and Go Cart track they called home. Unfortunately “Fun Land” was closed for renovations but that didn’t stop Ben from knocking on the front door and scoring us a free game of 17 hole Mini Putt. (18th hole was broken) One of the video boaters Trevor got so frustrated at one of the holes that he picked up his ball and hit it 200 yards baseball style into the woods. I sensed we had a Happy Gilmore on our hands after he saved face on the next hole by putting a hole in one. A great way to spend the day off before we headed to the Upper Youchinogy (??? Spelling) a super fun continuous river with lots of small drops.

Next it was Gauley time! A river I’d heard tons about and unfortunately missed out on the festival but still made it there for the last weekend of the season. I have to say my expectations were high for this river but it lived up to most of them. Warm water tons of fun rapids, sweet play spots and lots of different lines.
Were off to North Carolina right now for some creeking on the Green, Ben at the wheel doing some rhythm talking (he talks to the beat of the music, hilarious but a little weird) and Zac passed out in the back…which is looking more and more like a mobile Salivation Army everyday. Stay tuned for more updates, play hard!