With App having a bye week, effective tomorrow at 9AM through Noon Sunday I will be taking a hiatus. I will be off the grid in West Virginia (kayaking, camping, fishing, beer drinking, etc.) By the way, we catch mostly red eye, small mouth, blue gill, every now and then a trout - we throw them back. Yes, at times I have catch the same fish over and over. ha Although not required, I'd recommend a short hiatus to anyone during this bye week. The river:

ALMOST HEAVEN !!!

Enjoy the trip. Spent a weekend on the Gauly many years ago. Not quite Boone/Watauga, but close.

Watch out for those dueling banjo people...

How deep and "whitewatery" is the Potomac in this area for kayaking?

Rick83 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:53 am

Watch out for those dueling banjo people...

That was in North Georgia - NOT West BY GOD Virginia -

WVAPPeer wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 9:31 am

Rick83 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:53 am

Watch out for those dueling banjo people...

That was in North Georgia - NOT West BY GOD Virginia -

Well...that is true and I do love WV...been skiing and kayaking many times. The New River Gorge was one of my favorite paddles back in the day.

McLeansvilleAppFan wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 9:16 am

How deep and "whitewatery" is the Potomac in this area for kayaking?

We kayak The South Branch of the Potomac River near Springfield/Romney WV, just a "jump skip and holler" from Cumberland, MD. Due to the recent dry weather I'm not sure how high the river will be on Saturday. It's supposed to rain all night tonight into Friday morning, thus, the river should be up a little. This is good, when the river is down there are more rocks to maneuver around. We put in at a place called Millson's Mill and float south toward my friends camp. We will be on the river anywhere from 4 to 6 six hours depending on the water level. If you add the time we pull over to eat, swim, drink a few, etc. it's more like 6 to 8 hours. We're off the river in time to shower, build a fire, cook some dinner, etc. before the sun sets. The rapids we hit are between a class one (maybe two), nothing major. Below is a clip of an area we kayak through, between a class 1 to 2 I'd say. Anyway, it doesn't get any rougher than this. I love watching those "rookies" flip in this video (at roughly the 4:44 mark), LOL.

BeauFoster wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:49 am

Enjoy the trip. Spent a weekend on the Gauly many years ago. Not quite Boone/Watauga, but close.

Agreed

In my paddling days (mostly whitewater kayaking but some canoe floats) we'd always joke that anybody could master a river in a boat but it took a real man to swim it. I'll bet they learned a lesson about tying down and waterproofing their gear...LOL.

WVAPPeer wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 9:31 am

Rick83 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:53 am

Watch out for those dueling banjo people...

That was in North Georgia - NOT West BY GOD Virginia -

Ha, that's right! I'm in Atlanta for a two week business trip and have the weekend off. Its too far to drive back home to VA, so I was thinking of driving up to the north Georgia mountains Saturday. Maybe I will reconsider.

Rick83 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 10:56 am

In my paddling days (mostly whitewater kayaking but some canoe floats) we'd always joke that anybody could master a river in a boat but it took a real man to swim it. I'll bet they learned a lesson about tying down and waterproofing their gear...LOL.

We always pack a "dry bag", I put mine in back of my kayak. I keep my cold beer up front with me in a collapsible cooler. LOL Some of the guys have small canoes, which are bigger than a kayak. The larger coolers containing food are kept in those canoes, we call them "mother ships". I also keep my fishing gear in one of those "mother ships", whenever I'm not fishing that is.

BeauFoster wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:49 am

Enjoy the trip. Spent a weekend on the Gauly many years ago. Not quite Boone/Watauga, but close.

Just North about 15 miles from the New River Gorge Bridge is Summersville Lake - absolutely one of the most beautiful lake areas I have ever seen - they release the water in the Fall from the dam and I believe that is when they do the real rafting on the Upper Gauley - they let the water level come way down and it fills back up after the winter storms (not as many anymore) so the lake water is as clear as any lake water I have seen ---

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_ ... ginia.html

http://www.summersvillelakeretreat.com/

WataugaMan wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:25 am

With App having a bye week, effective tomorrow at 9AM through Noon Sunday I will be taking a hiatus. I will be off the grid in West Virginia (kayaking, camping, fishing, beer drinking, etc.) By the way, we catch mostly red eye, small mouth, blue gill, every now and then a trout - we throw them back. Yes, at times I have catch the same fish over and over. ha Although not required, I'd recommend a short hiatus to anyone during this bye week. The river:

Yes, I remember you telling me about your WV trip several years ago - Please have a great time and toast the Mountain State for Old-timer Mountaineer (both)

One last thought, and it's very important. When going down river don't ever, ever forget to bring an empty Gatorade bottle.

WataugaMan wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 1:14 pm

One last thought, and it's very important. When going down river don't ever, ever forget to bring an empty Gatorade bottle.

Yep, if you're tubing it's not necessary, but helpful if boating it..

WVAPPeer wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 12:05 pm

BeauFoster wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:49 am

Enjoy the trip. Spent a weekend on the Gauly many years ago. Not quite Boone/Watauga, but close.

Just North about 15 miles from the New River Gorge Bridge is Summersville Lake - absolutely one of the most beautiful lake areas I have ever seen - they release the water in the Fall from the dam and I believe that is when they do the real rafting on the Upper Gauley - they let the water level come way down and it fills back up after the winter storms (not as many anymore) so the lake water is as clear as any lake water I have seen ---

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_ ... ginia.html

http://www.summersvillelakeretreat.com/

The dam release is in early October. Rafted the Gauley during the release 5 times, its awesome. Between the class 4 and 5 rapids the gorge is beautiful. Last time I went we got up that mourning and it was snowing. All my friends wanted to eat breakfast and go home. I called them a few names and shamed them into going out on the river. We froze and they never went back after that trip.

A real Mountaineer you are!!!

WVAPPeer wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 12, 2019 2:24 pm

A real Mountaineer you are!!!

Thanks for the tip on Lake Summervill. I’m going to look into making a trip there next summer, place looks beautiful.