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What an awesome day of paddling! This was the single best run I have had since I began paddling last March. I wish this river was closer to home. I would paddle it every chance I got. Unlike last weekend, I was completely calm from the minute we put in to the second we took out. This definitely boosted the enjoyment factor up a couple of levels. This river is beautiful. It was just what the Doctor ordered for me. It starts out slowly with some mellow Class I riffles and pools, becomes more continuous, picks up in intensity and difficulty (Class III) and then calms down some again (Class II) before reaching the take-out at Audra State Park. It gave me the chance to relax and get comfortable with the river. No numb face or arms this week. As the intensity and continuousness picked up I followed Dave through the rapids paying close attention to his boat angle and trying to figure out why he went were he did. There were many ledges and technical rock gardens which required some maneuvering. I got ahead of him in a few instances when he took the time to surf some nice waves & hydraulics. I managed to pick decent lines and catch a few eddies along the way until he caught up with me and took the lead again. While following him, I didn't always get to where I needed to be and got hung up on a couple of rocks in the middle of some good rapids. What a difference a year makes. Last year I probably would have panicked and maybe even got flipped while this time I kept calm, worked myself off the rocks and got my boat lined up to successfully run the rest of the rapid. On the drive down I read the river description found in "A Canoeing & Kayaking Guide to West Virginia, 5th Edition." Although I was calm and relaxed the description of a "vigorous 8-foot drop" in "Resort Rapid" gave me pause. There is a nice drop above "Resort". At this point Dave was pretty far ahead of me so I followed Bruce's directions on how to run it and was right on line. I caught up to Dave and watched as he negotiated "Resort". I then followed suit. According to three canoeists from the Virginia/Washington DC area, I had a great line through this rapid and if there was an 8-foot drop, it must have sloped over a large area because I really didn't notice it. After running this rapid I started congratulating myself on my great run and almost let myself relax. I caught myself and put an end to that recalling my swim on the Dry Fork within sight of my take-out. I wasn't going to let that happen again so I dug in and stayed sharp until the end of the run. One other noticeable difference about this run is that I didn't avoid anything. I ran right through the big waves instead of skirting them, I didn't sneak down the sides of anything and I even practiced catching some eddies and peel outs in the middle of rapids. Although I know this was an easier run, I am still proud of what I did. This is a great practice river and awesome confidence builder! I would recommend this river to any and all beginners.
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