Private Boating

I heard a kayaker refer to Ibuprofen as “I’ve been paddling” pills. After a weekend where I did two Upper Gauley trips and a marathon (upper and lower Gauley) I keep needing some of those I’ve been paddling pills. 10 years ago I used to do four marathons in a four day Gauley Weekend, but that was 10 years ago. I made an Upper Gauley trip with Alpine on Saturday and it was an interesting trip. Ronnie the trip leader gave me two “older” men who had never paddled before, one of them was 69 and so big it took two of us to push on the buckles of his PFD (lifejacket) to get them to close. Ronnie told me to just keep them both in the boat. They had no business being on the Upper Gauley, but that wasn’t my decision to make. There were five guests, including the two older fellas and me in the boat and I did take real safe lines all day and no one swam except me. I fell out after Pillow Rock cause I was paying attention to a boat that had flipped and we hit a small rock, which caused me to topple in, I had a very short swim. On Sunday I made a private trip for a friend and he wanted to do the entire river, so we did. Got a late start, we were supposed to leave at 9:00, but I don’t think we got on the water til about 10:00, we still made it all 26 miles to Swiss before 4:00 even though we stayed on Postage Due for 45 minutes and stopped at Mason Branch for a rest room break. We did have an ACE marathon trip setting a good pace for us. They would pass us and then just before a video rapid or just after a video rapid we would pass them. Monday I took a day off work and did another private trip for a friend that works for the retirement board in Charleston. He and his brother have gone with me for four years in a row now, it is like a tradition. We had a good quick trip. We put on about 9:00 and we were back at the Dam about 12:00 and we even stopped on postage due and watched a little carnage for a while. We were able to get back so quickly because I asked for and got permission to park overnight at the place where they towed my truck last time and Sharon helped me with the shuttle. The Park Ranger gave me a pass to put in my windshield so they wouldn’t tow it away and I told him he had better put a date on it or I would be laminating it and using it all the time. (He did.)

Some sad news occurred when I was setting that up on Friday, the ranger said call me back, I’ve got to go, we’ve just had a radio call that there has been another death on the Upper Gauley, the third this year. Turns out it was my company again, ACE and it happened in the rapid they call Lost Paddle. The story I was told is that a boat was pinned (stuck) on a rock and another boat flipped and a guest went under the boat that was pinned and couldn’t get out. It was a seven boat trip and a lot of things can happed to seven boats as they try to negotiate one on the tougher rapids. My friend, Mike Swope and I were on a trip earlier this year and something very similar happened to us, and all I can say is that except for the Grace of God we could have had the same thing happen on our trip. I was the Trip Leader for a seven boat trip and we had a boat up against a rock and another boat flipped against it and two people flushed up underneath the pinned boat, but they got flushed out the front side of the boat. You are powerless to do anything if you are downstream from what is happening except pray and pick up the people, paddles and assorted “stuff” as they float down towards you.

>Sharon spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Clarskburg helping Marci and Tommy get settled into their new home. Then she came back Sunday afternoon and met me at the Summersville Dam, it was incredibly good timing, we had dinner at Mabel’s a nice little truck stop near the Dam. I recommend the White Bean Soup and the long haul burger.

I am not sure that private trips are all that they are cracked up to be. My friends at ACE always call them Pirate trips, cause they believe that you are pirating people away from them. It was a privilege for me to take my Pastor and the evangelist down last weekend (Sept 26) and even though I tried to talk them out of it his son-in-law gave me a $50 tip. We didn’t keep it, but put it towards a picture for the evangelist and in his love offering. Then this past Sunday for the marathon my friend and his crew gave me $40 for the marathon to help “cover” my expenses and take Sharon to dinner. Monday, the four guys tipped me $100 for the quick Upper Gauley trip. But when you add up all the expense and work, washing wetsuits two or three times, loading everything up and taking it to Summersville, the fuel for our two cars, snacks and stuff to take on the river, my time, it really isn’t worth what you get. My pay from ACE for an Upper Gauley is $130 plus normally $40-60 in tips and if I trip lead $20 more, (trip leading is also something that isn’t worth what extra you get) the marathon trip pay would have been $195 plus tips. So maybe they are right to call these trips pirate trips.

It is always a privilege and a joy for Sharon and I to take family and close friends down the river, but it certainly isn’t something I do to make money.I do enjoy sharing the river with other people that enjoy it also.

Didn’t mean to sound so negative about the pirate, I mean private trips, maybe I just need to take a couple of those I’ve been paddling pills.

Upper Gauley

When someone tells me after a river trip in which they held on in every rapid and looked scared to death at every big drop that this was the trip of a lifetime I know that what they really mean is "I'll never make that mistake again." I took my Pastor, Delbert Walker and his son-in-law Aaron, Aaron's Dad Steve and our visiting Evangelist Randy McPheron down the Upper Gauley River in the pouring rain on Saturday September 26 and we had a very good trip, no one swam and we never had a bit of trouble, until that is when we arrived at where I had left my truck. Always in the past the point of security for stopping people from parking at Mason's Branch, a take out close to Sweet's Falls was a gate that was either locked or guarded. Well we've been able to get down there many, many times by catching the gate unlocked or getting the combination for the lock from one of the bus drivers. Well I out smarted myself. The National Park changed their policy and they now leave the gate wide open and simply tow away any vehicles that are parked illegally at Mason's Branch. Of course I didn't find this out until we had arrived expecting our river trip to be over and finding out that my truck was somewhere else, thanks to J and J Towing, oh those guys don't have a real good sense of humor either. If you are interested it cost me three pictures of U.S. Grant, a picture of Alexander Hamilton and a picture of Abe Lincoln to get my truck back. Anyway, praise God that Alpine was on the river right behind us and we bummed a ride back to the Dam for us and to Appalachian Bible College for my boat. Our adventure didn't end there. On the way out on the Alpine Bus a bus for Class IV ran off the road and we had to sit for an hour and 1/2 waiting, buses blocked in both directions, people couldn't get off the river from their Upper Gauley trip and people couldn't get to the river for their Lower Gauley trip. It was a crucial time for the Lower Gauley people also, they were going to run out of water as they turn the dam down early in the afternoon. I knew the bus driver, he used to drive for me in Fayette County Schools, he didn't look very happy standing there next to his bus. He'll catch flak over that for a long time.
There was some sad news for those of us in the River Community yesterday.
A 32 year old man from Kentucky was on a trip with the company that I work for ACE whitewater and his raft flipped in Pillow Rock, the rapid where they take everyone's picture. When they got the boat turned back over and all the guests back in the raft he started having trouble breathing and went into cardiac arrest, although they did CPR, brought in an AED and sent him by helicopter to a local hospital he died of the heart attack brought on by his swim. A grim reminder to all of us about the dangers in this sport and the need for safety. Hug your loved ones, keep your heart and mind clear - you never know which swim could be your last.
Not much to say after that. I've had a good river year, I'll end up with between 45 - 50 trips on the New and Gauley Rivers this year.
I've gotten out of the habit of writing and will try to do better.
The new job, start of a school year, the river and the garden have all kept me pretty busy.

A View to Eternity

The title come from my thoughts that since West Virginia is Almost Heaven and we ought to keep in mind those things that have eternal value we kinda have a view to eternity. I've been thinking a lot lately about the views that we have here in WV. There are the numerous views along the scenic highway to Snowshoe resort, I drove there recently in order to help with the transportation conference and for almost forty miles along Highway 150 I only saw one motorcycle and one car and that was right at the end of the journey. This road is well maintained and has beautiful scenery, takes your breathe away. As I was returning home that afternoon I saw several Hawks that were flying right even with the highway, one was a real pretty Red Tailed Hawk. That drive was what started me thinking that since this was "almost" heaven we could "almost" see into eternity. I might have been influenced by the Phillips, Craig and Dean CD, it was their "live" album and is very moving. Every time I work or play on the river and there is a difference, the view is amazing, 600 - 800 feet deep in a gorge with beautiful sights on both sides. On one recent Sunday morning trip I saw a large owl on the road to the beach at ACE, several egrets and a blue heron along the river looking for small edible delicacies among the rocks and a bald eagle perched in a tree between Surprise and Big Baloney Rapids. I love doing the early morning trips at ACE, when you are the first one down the river and the wildlife is still out and about. I love the view from Long Point, that is the picture on my Facebook page, my wife and I back in October of 2000. Sitting at Long Point you can hear Wolf Creek running, watch the trains cars with their loads of coal destined for some distant power plant, see the rafters on the New, watch the traffic on the bridge, you can almost hear some kid telling their parents that they see someone out on the rock, sometimes you can look across and see Fern Creek Falls, I'll bet a lot this summer - it has been a wet one. I love the view driving over the NRG bridge, and I get to do that almost daily, I think at times we take that awesome view for granted and can only appreciate when we slow down in order to take it all in. There is the spot along Route 19 just on the other side of Summersville when if you look left there is a break in the trees and ridgeline and you can see all of Clay County with small hilltops and vistas, some of the prettiest sunsets I've ever seen were right there, small moments of time when the conditions were just perfect, a gift from God. Once it was so pretty that we had to get a picture and we turned around and drove back, but in just those 30 seconds it took to turn around the sun was set and although it was still a nice view it wasn't the same view. There is the view along Gatewood road of the three crosses that at times has a beautiful sunset. It does seem as though the views here allow us a small glimpse towards eternity. I can't think of any place that I'd rather live and understand what is meant when folks say, "all this and heaven too."

Always and Never

Zig Ziglar said, "Always remember to never use words like always or never." I said when I retired from the Marine Corps that I would never work in Food Service again, it was a thankless job. (God laughed) My brother in law, Art asked me what I would tell people that I did in the Corps during my 20 year career. I said that I would tell them that I killed people. He replied that if the food was as bad as he remembered I probably did kill a few people.

I am glad to be back in Food Service, I think God has given me a heart for it.

New Job

For one seven day period I was on the river six days, that was awesome. I worked Thursday and Friday for Appalachian Bible College and then two days for ACE and then my cousin Mike, Cephus and Lorraine's oldest, came down for a visit and we went on the river Monday afternoon, and then I got a call late Tuesday to work an express afternoon trip on Wednesday at ACE. Six out of seven days made my shoulders a little sore, but that was a good sore. Makes you know you're alive and well.
Oh yeah, the new job, I applied for and got the job as Child Nutrition/Operations Director for the County. It is considered a step up. Food Service is something that I am pretty familiar with and it should be less hours and less stress than the Bus Business. We'll see. I keep telling everyone that they have to keep moving me around because I am so screwed up that they can only leave me in one place so long. Although I did stay in the bus garage for four years. Four years is the longest I've held any job. In fact I've held two jobs for that long in my life - The Principal at Emmanuel Christian School and the Bus Garage. Unless, you count raft guiding which I've done for 15 years. I know that I was in the Corps for 20 years, but I had many different jobs in that 20 year period. I have a list of them for my memoirs.
Tips - no tips at ABC, two pictures of Andrew Jackson and one of Alexander Hamilton on Saturday, that is just as good as one picture of US Grant. Then this past Saturday I got another picture of Andrew Jackson and three of Abraham Lincoln. Sharon was so impressed with all of those pictures that she asked me for them and of course I gave them up.

Annual River Trip

Sunday, JB, Patrick and Isaac came down and we finally got our annual "Fathers" Day trip in. Here is a link to JB's Blog about Boating in WV.
http://creekwv.blogspot.com/2009/07/its-family-tradition.html
It has a nice picture of the four of us in Fire Creek on the Upper New. We set up the oar frame on my small boat and rowed the uppers with the boys enjoying the water. It was a bit chilly for mid July, but it has been that way this year. They spent the night and went hope Monday morning. Isaac just turned two.

Mike and Kim

It was great to see Mike and Kim, we hadn't seen them for quite awhile.
They stayed in one of the cabins at ACE with a couple of friends. They went horseback riding and did a canopy tour at ACE. Sunday evening we went to the New River Gorge and went rappelling. I love doing that, but it made me a little nervous because I haven't been in a awhile and there is very little room for mistakes in that sport. If the boat flips on the river, people take a swim, but a mistake when you are rappelling can be fatal.
I thought of all the people that I will really, really miss in the bus and custodian business, but then I wondered if there were any that I wouldn't miss at all and I thought of 10 people so fast that it surprised me.
One thing about wearing a long sleeve shirt when I raft is that my hands get tan and look a lot darker than my arms. Seems funny at times.
Sharon's family reunion is this weekend and she is heading up to Clarksburg on Friday, I have a River trip Friday afternoon and will drive up Saturday morning. Sharon is working a FLEX schedule, 4 ten hour days instead of 5 eight hour days.
All of the Director's at work got a new Blackberry, you can read email and surf the internet on your phone. Lots of folks call it a crackberry because it is so addicting, as addicting as Crack cocaine. At first I had it set so that it rang for both emails and phone calls, but that only lasted one day and now it is set just to ring for phone calls.
Last week Sharon and I went and picked Blackberries and got about two gallons. She made a cobbler that was superb. Saturday night when I got home from the river she had made stuffed peppers, squash and that cobbler. The peppers and squash came from the garden.
I know that this is more rambling and aimless than normal, please forgive me.