OK guys, tell me about the upper Gauley

OC1er · Post by **OC1er** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 1:57 pm

Gonna fire it up this year for my PFD, taking the Mystic. I'm nervous but confident, any words of advice?

agrestal · Post by **agrestal** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 1:58 pm

Here's my advice: Its not about the approach. Its about control in the hole.

Wait, have I heard that somewhere before...?

OC1er · Post by **OC1er** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 2:03 pm

Dooleyoc-1 · Post by **Dooleyoc-1** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 2:16 pm

#1 piece of advice- go with someone that knows the lines and follow them. If you do you'll be fine. Also, a roll helps a lot on this river in a canoe.

Here's the breakdown on the big ones:

Insignificant- follow someone and you'll be fine. It's not that hard

Pillow- It's a big wild ride. It's a lot of fun. If you swim you'll go deep but you'll flush to the bottom no problem.

Lost Paddle- don't swim here. Break it down and stop below each drop. It's really 4 rapids.

Iron Ring- It's easy if you hit the line. It's also easy to portage.

Sweets Falls- It's a small line. If you hit it you're fine if not you flip. There's a sneak line and an alternate boof line.

It's one of the best rivers in america. It's beautiful and there are lots of great play features. The Upper Gauley is awesome.

OC1er · Post by **OC1er** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 2:23 pm

Hoping it'll go like this!

RodeoClown · Post by **RodeoClown** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 2:31 pm

The first thing to know is go left at Initiation. Whoever is taking you down will know this. If they don't know this, find someone else to take you down. (it's not hard at all, there's just a bad sieve on the right that someone seems to paddle into every year).

Like Dooley said, none of the big rapids are that hard to get through. Running them smoothly might be a different story.... Keep your cool and enjoy the ride.

Louie · Post by **Louie** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 3:13 pm

Short of some description Psyho would give you. I don't anyone could give you a better description of the rapids than dooley did above. Last year I only swam one and it wasn't really in a rapid I feel out of the boat reachin for a beer.

scott curtis · Post by **scott curtis** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 9:59 pm

Louie · Post by **Louie** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 12:22 am

Que es hmmmm?

Creeker · Post by **Creeker** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 3:22 am

1st of all it's deep so hang in for rolls (maybe not so much 2nd drop of lost paddle though)....I've run it down to 600 cfs VS 2800 cfs (standard release) and all the standard lines still go...except iron ring. Goodness is that iron ring can be the driest of the big six even at 2800 cfs. keep 2 holes on your left as you drive hard from river left to hard river right. You'll read the dry line very easily...go for it.

great strategy on Insignificant is work right through the first half where you'll see a singular huge boulder (van sized?) eddy out behind it, chill, charge back to the center and read on the fly for your best center line to finish.

Sweets is a one punch pony. It wants to flip you hard to the right, guard or setup against that.

Louie · Post by **Louie** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 10:47 am

I think normal release is 2400, not 2800, but I could be wrong. The highest i have ever run it was 4000 (didn't care for it) I carried iron ring at that level and Chad ran it ( still hear about that) and the lowest I have ever run it was 700. Since 1984 I have always run the right side of the second drop in lost paddle till last year when Dooley and i ran the race line on the left side, totally changes that drop.

Creeker · Post by **Creeker** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 11:48 am

whats 400 cfs between friends

still 2800 is the target and once you're past the lower medow confluence all bets are off on the flow anyway.

I just found out if you run a creeky iron ring in the 200 cfs range some people boat litterally though (under) the iron ring sieve at the top of the drop. this the river right rock bank in the immediate green water area just above the break to white on river right.

not catching that moving eddy anytime soon at release.

Jim Michaud · Post by **Jim Michaud** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:24 am

Insignificant dry line: Follow a kayaker over the horizon line. You'll then see a hole on your right and just a short way after that there's a hole on your left. The standard route is to angle to the right after the hole on your right and go through lots of big waves that will swamp your canoe. The dry line is to rim-shot the left hole and paddle hard 90° to the left. You then turn right and boof over a ledge onto calm water to the left of the big waves.

Second drop of Lost Paddle: Eddy out above the 2nd drop. Move as far right as you can until you can see a rock just below and to the right of the horizon line. That's your target. Now get back up into the eddy and get set for your run. Paddle hard over the center of the horizon line, angling right and pass just to the left of the rock. This will take you down very smooth water to a giant eddy on the right of all the mayhem.

Iron Ring: Watch other paddlers' lines as they ride up onto the ridge line. Do the same. The technique here is to ride up onto the ridge line at a one o'clock angle and keep paddling towards the eddy at the bottom right. The biggest mistake that paddlers make is that they quit paddling once they reach the ridge line and end up in the big hole at the bottom.

Jim

Louie · Post by **Louie** » Fri Sep 17, 2010 3:54 am

Jim I don't know if even Psycho could have given a better decription of the second drop of lost paddle.