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Greetings

We've just finished paddling through the whitewater of the New River Gorge National River in West Virginia. The only thing new about the New River is it's acquisition as a national river in 1978. The river is one of the oldest in North America, about 65 million years old. It flows across the Appalachian Plateau, not from or around it, because the river was flowing before the mountains were formed.

For us the New River was a river of many surprises. We planned to paddle the section from Sandstone Falls to Cunard. The 35 mile trip had rapids ranging from class I to III. The first surprise came at the first set of rapids. Three locals (park ranger, shuttle service owner and whitewater store employee) assured us that we could run this section without floatation or a spray cover. Well, they were wrong. We were ten minutes into our trip when we hit the rapids. A huge wave crashed over the canoe, swamping us. We found ourselves still upright in the canoe, but chest high in the water. It wouldn't have been a big deal, but we were trying to film this section and, you guessed it, the video camera took a dunk. We ferried the water-laden canoe to the shore and assed the damage. We didn't lose any gear, but the camera would film no more. Having learned the hard way, we recommend that anyone planning to run the New River in a canoe should have at least a spray cover. Floatation bags would be a good idea as well.

The next day we headed out to run the rapids, this time with the spray cover on. It's a good thing we did because the rapids we would encounter had waves as big or bigger than the ones that swamped us the day before. We successfully ran a dozen rapids that day with no damages or losses.

Our final surprise came, believe it or not, at Surprise Rapids. This rapid was the last rapid we would encounter . Our confidence was high, and at first look the rapid appeared similar to all the others. But as we got closer and saw the twelve-person whitewater rafts getting tossed we realized we may be in for a big surprise! And that we were. We entered the rapid perfectly and the ride began. We dropped into a huge hole surrounded by boiling whitewater and proceeded to plow successfully through 4 foot plus waves. Then came the big surprise. All we saw was a huge wall of water in front of us. All we could do was try to go through it, but Surprise Rapid had other plans. The next thing we knew we were upside down in the middle of the rapid. We slipped out of the spray cover and surfaced only to face another huge drop. We held on and eventually the rapid let us go and we swam to shore with the canoe in tow. All that was lost was a pair of sunglasses and a little bit of pride.

The rolling mountains of the Appalachians provided a spectacular backdrop to our float trip. Unfortunately, we observed an alarming amount of trash on the banks of the river. It's a shame that more people don't pack out what they pack in. Another aspect of the river that you may not find attractive was the amount of people that have access to it. Many whitewater rafting companies offer daily excursions. Some of the groups we encountered numbered into the hundreds. Even though we saw close to 500 hundred people one day on the river, it was just us, the stars and the river at night. Solitude can be found on the New River, you just have to be patient.

We're now off to explore the Upper Chub River in Adirondack Park, NY

See You in the Outback!

Kevin and Steve

P.S. Sorry no pictures or film clips . . . they're still drying