NANTAHALA ADVENTURE JUNE 1997
The week of June sixteenth three Louisiana bayou paddlers participated in a four day solo open canoe whitewater clinic at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina.
The Center located at the end of Nantahala Gorge where the Appalachian Trail crosses the river, with its hugh outfitters store, three restaurants, motel and cabins is a beehive of activity.
Mimi Clifton, Darrell Pry and I, Hulin Robert, had made our reservations early and had lived in anxious anticipation all Spring. Like eager beavers we planned to arrive early.
Mimi was riding with me and I picked her up in Mandeville at 7 AM on Saturday. We planned to crash with Martha, my daughter, and Zelia and Mary Lebeau, my nieces, in Atlanta that night. They were also taking the clinic. We arrived just in time to go to a party and barbecue with them. Delicious food.
Mimi and I took off for NOC Sunday morning. Martha, Zelia and Mary were driving up Monday. Darrell, who had been vacationing in the midwest the previous two weeks would get there Monday afternoon.
Monday a friend offered the use of his rubber duckie. Mimi and I jumped at the offer. We did the whole river, bouncing over the hugh waves with abandon in the stable rubber craft and cruising over Nantahala Falls and through the slalom gates on to our landing place.
Monday evening we checked into our cabins and at dinner met our instructors and the other people in the clinic. Tuesday morning we were issued canoes and equipment and on to Fontana Lake to hone our stroking skills. That afternoon we went to a section of the Little Tennessee to practice eddy turns, peel outs and ferries.
Wednesday we were on the Tuckasegee through Bryson City. Bigger rapids and stronger current. We begin to have a few swimmers. After lunch a tremendous thunderstorm came up with heavy rain and high wind. The white water canoes have so much surface above water that they were hell to handle in the wind.
Thursday we went to Tuckasegee Gorge. Bigger rapids, faster water and higher waves. We had a few more swimmers, some on video.
Friday was the day we were waiting for. We were on the Nantahala. Biggest rapids, strongest current, highest waves and coldest water--forty five degrees. Right off I missed an eddy, hit a rapid before I was quite ready and took a swim--about three hundred feet in the icy water before I could get myself and the canoe into an eddy.
Mimi was the only person in the whole clinic, including instructors, who didn't take a swim. And she cruised through Nantahala Falls in the little Dagger Ovation like a pro.
Martha made the biggest save that has ever been made on Nantahala Falls. She got too far on river left, hit a rock, almost went over then managed to straighten the boat and avoid a swim. Those of us watching couldn't believe it.
Now I have the whitewater bug and am thinking about when I can go back.
Hulin Robert