West Virginia

@LooneyArtimus

The only times that I've been to West Virginia were to KAYAK various whitewater rivers.

I've paddled THE NEW RIVER, The Cheat River, and The Gauley multiple times.

One time on THE NEW RIVER, I was paddling WITHOUT my normal river guide friends.

That turned out to be a huge mistake.

I wound up getting my kayak pinned against a small submerged flat mini-boulder in a place I never expected.

My kayak was almost fully submerged with me in it.

Only the top inch of the kayak was sticking out above the churning water.

I could have been a goner, but the kayak got pinned in such a way that I was able to just wiggle out of the kayak and stand on the submerged flat mini-boulder it was pinned against.

Then I needed to figure out how to get my kayak unpinned and how to get down the river back to the camp site.

Well, it turned out the kayak was TOTALLY pinned by the force of the flowing water. There was no way I could pry it free from the grip of the powerful flowing water pressing it against the submerged flat mini-bolder.

So to get the kayak out, I knew I just needed to wait until the water level dropped the next day because the river was controlled by a dam-release for that weekend.

So now I needed to figure out how to GET OFF that submerged flat mini-boulder I was standing on IN THE MIDDLE of the river.

I must have been a strange sight to see. It must have looked like I was walking on water in the middle of the river.

Fortunately, I was able to hitch a ride with rafters who were paddling by me in a small 6 person raft.

The river guide in the back was really nice and let me sit in the back with him because he could tell I knew how to paddle well.

The guide and I were a great paddling duo.
We perfectly guided the raft through the maze of boulders sticking out of the river in certain spots. The other people in the small raft were his customers (about 4 of them). The customers paddled but the guide and I were doing all of the expert steering paddling maneuvering.

I remember the blonde young woman in particular. She seemed to like me and smiled a lot.

Then near the end of the river trip at the flat and slow part of the river...
the river guide asked his clients if they wanted to jump in the water for a short dip.

They all leaned over the raft and slipped into the water, floating merrily along in their life-jackets on that beautiful sunny summer day.

Then they they all swam back to the raft and pulled themselves back into their seats.

But then I had another huge surprise...

As we came to the end of the river trip where they were to all get out....

I could see there was a line of wheelchairs.

My heart was suddenly broken. I just realized their situation. The whole time we were paddling, I had no idea.

Overall.... the whole day was surreal....

I almost got drowned in the most unexpected place (flat water section in the middle of the river)...

Then I met up with the happiest bunch of people I ever met
who were totally different than I ever expected.

I learned many lessons that day....

First I learned I was not as good at assessing river hazards as I thought,
even though I had read many many river books
and been on many many expert level river trips.

Second, I learned to be patient.
I was able to get my kayak and paddle back
but I had to wait a week until the water level dropped.

Third, I learned that people can be really supportive when they see you need help, especially in an environment where people are teaming together like on the river.

Here is a video that will give you an idea of what it was like.
I was paddling at low water levels.

http://nicertube.com/zr9bff