Day Seven Through Nine & The Way Home

After Ben's class was finished we decided to run the Upper Ocoee again. Not that we were all that excited about being on the Ocoee again, but it was only thing running. We had some fun at Alien boof, but as we prepared to head down the river, something struck me. I'm not sure what it was, but it felt like a stomach bug. I felt shaky and weak, not to mention the fact that I thought I might throw up at any minute. So after completing all of the harder rapids of the upper section I eddied out while Ben went and got the car. Luckily I eddied out at Humungous, so I got to watch some rafting carnage while I waited for my insides to stop churning. I think it might have had something to do with paddling with only sushi and energy bars in my stomach (or the fact that the Chattahoochee is nasty).
Somewhere on the ride home, after I started to feel better (and after some real food), Ben and I got to talking about the virtues of hand paddles. I have been wanting to get a pair, but I kinda wanted to try it out first. The next day we were supposed to take a couple of people down the Nantahala River, a run with "32 class I's, 14 class II's and one class III" (that's what the brochure said anyway), so we decided that woiuld be the perfect time to try our hand at hand paddling (pun intended, but regretted). That night we practiced rolling in the Chestatee River, right in front of Ben's homested (lucky stink - that is if it would ever rain - or if that log would ever move out of the main line of the Coppermine rapid - ok so not that lucky I guess). Turns out it's actually really easy to roll with hand paddles. I even nailed an off-side roll on the first try. So feeling pretty cocky about our ability to hand paddle we headed off to the Nantahala with Missy and Nancy. Ben and I made some comments about not having combat hand-rolls and the likely hood of a swim or two, which made both of them very uneasy about the day's trip. As soon as we seal launched into the river Ben and I both remembered a fact that we had grossly underestimated: the Nantahala River is dang cold. The water temperature is around 50 degrees. So even though everything went fine that day, our hands were about to fall off. Really it wasn't so bad once they lost all of there feeling.
After that we went back to Ben's place and I began to pack up all of my stuff. It was very sad that this week of paddling and hanging out with Ben had come to an end. On Monday I gave Ben his going away present which was the location of a possible first descent. It's short, with only three major drops, but like alot of creeks it has more drops the further you hike up. The main section that we scouted consisted of a steep slide, probably in the neighborhood of 20 ft. Followed by a sketchy crack/slide/crash around the edge of a pile of large boulders. Then a 15 ft. or so slide/boof into a pool at the bottom. I had found these falls a long time ago while camping, and they have always been in the back of my mind. So Ben and I scouted the main drops and decided that this would be best kept to a closed circle of paddlers so that Ben will have a shot at a possible first D. Good luck, Benny-Boy!
At the airport I had more trouble with the paddle. Apparently, TSA won't let you through with a paddle because it "could" be used as a weapon. Good thing I kept my hands in my pockets. All in all it was an awesome week. The only thing that could have made it better is more water!

Thanks to Ben, Talia, Kevin, Renee, Sam, Nancy, Missy, Caroline for paddling and making the trips fun!