Monday, April 7, 2008

The Cheoah River



I finally got to paddle with some old friends on Sunday. The Cheoah River offers up the perfect amount of challenge for me at the this moment in time. While my shoulder is not perfect it felt good enough for the challenges the Cheoah presents. Not life threatening but not a river you can go to sleep on either. The picture above really says it all about the Cheaoh, the hardest rapids are roadside, easily scout-able or portaged. That is Melanie boofing the Big Un while her husband is running the harder middle line. Click on the picture for a larger view, pretty awesome rapid.

It was just a gorgeous day to be paddling on a river with good company. The fellow by the yellow boat is Tom, cant remember his last name, sorry mate and single blader is a long time friend who came for a rare visit. It is always good to be reminded that it is not what you paddle but who you are paddling with that really matters. This was all good company for sure. Tom is from Wales and is just full of tall tales that just make your belly ache. He is a teacher in a high school, much like my beloved brother in law but every other weekend he goes to Asheville where he is a road side entertainer. He said he makes more money making balloon animals in a day than he does teaching Americas children. He was just hilarious and apparently quite an adventurer. As I was trying out the new Pyranha Everest, which is named after the first decent Everest Creek, Nepal in 1976. Tom told me the story of his party of kayakers that was bored and decided to make the third decent of Everest Creek in the early eighties. It was great to paddle with him and here is his awesome boof over the Big Un.


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