Trip report from the fatality on the Upper Gauley on 9/6/25.
By Leland Davis
Our group of 8 put on the river after noon that day. It was a group of very strong paddlers, several of whom had 30+ years experience paddling the Gauley - including Patrick Miljour, who had been a video boater on the Gauley and with whom I had run the river many times in playboats and squirt boats. This day all of the group were paddling full or half slice playboats. Pat was in a small Loki, in which I had seen him have no problems on other runs such as Cheoah and Watauga in the last few years.
Everything went well down to Pillow, we were playing, and I did see Pat roll during this time after splatting a rock right in front of me. At Pillow, I eddied out on the right after coming through the rapid. Pat flipped somewhere near the end of the rapid (I didn't see exactly where, likely trying to splat Pillow or at Volkswagen) and began trying unsucsessfully to roll. This may well have been the first time I saw Pat miss a roll in 30 years of paddling with him. He continued to try to roll as he passed the left end of the giant rock that sits just off the right bank below Pillow, and he washed towards river right downstream of the rock. I ferried around the rock and he was still trying to roll when I got there, with members of our group alongside trying to assist. Around the time I caught up they were finally able to hand of god recsue him upright and push him into an eddy. He looked a bit dazed and washed out of the eddy, but we were all able to push him upright into another eddy on river right just after the little surf wave below Pillow.
After a few seconds catching his breath, Pat complained that there was a ton of water in his boat. I agreed that it looked like there was a lot from watching his roll attemps and the rescue attempts, and I suggested he empty it. He said he wanted to go down a little farther, but I insisted that he empty his boat there and waited with him while he did. He said there were 3-4 inches of water in the boat when he got out, and I attributed his rolling difficulties to that water.
From there we paddled without incident down to Hungry Mother, where we took a break. Several of us were concerned about how long Pat kept trying to roll without swimming below Pillow, and on the paddle down or at the break each of us had a talk with him about the importance of exiting his boat before he was totally out of gas. Another member of the group checked Pat's seat bolts and found two of them very loose, so they were tightened up to help keep water out of his boat. Several of us noticed that he was looking pale at this point and suggested that he eat something. He had a snack from his bag, another group member gave him a bit more food, and he looked noticeably better after a few mintes with good color returning to his face. He put on another layer because he was chilly. I asked if he felt ok to continue, and he said he was good. I did consider asking him to hike out during the break before his color came back, but having known Pat for so long I didn't because I feared that he would just put back on the river alone as soon as we were out of sight.
We continued down to Lost Paddle where the group ran various lines through 1st Drop and then stayed in the flow into 2nd drop. I came out on the right at the bottom and was in the slower-moving water on river right when I turned to watch the others come through. Pat came cleanly through Five-O Wave and down the ramp below. I lost sight of him, but I think he must have flipped in the final curlers. At this point I turned around to look at the giant boulder that sticks out from river right between 2nd and 3rd drops, realized I was close, and began to ferry back left. As I was finishing the ferry in front of the rock, Pat came out of the channel to the left of Six Pack Rock trying to roll. I was facing upstream and watching from mid-river, paddling against the current. I saw him make one attempt as he passed the giant river-right-rock where he was extremely close to success with 2-3 seconds above water, then one more not quite as good but where he also certainly got air. I was paddling towards him, probably got within 10-15 feet just after his last roll attempt, then realized I was starting down the slab into 3rd drop and turned and scrambled right to get around the hole.
I turned around immediately after passing the hole and saw Pat come through 3rd Drop upside down, left of center, with several other group members close behind him coming down the left line. As I was ferrying towards him I saw his boat twitch in what I hoped was him wet exiting, or thought might be another roll attempt, but that I now think might also have been his torso getting pulled on by the super swirly currents in the left side of the runout of 3rd drop.
Other members of the group reached Pat first and began trying to Hand of God him upright. I arrived and several of us were successful in getting him upright, and we kept him mostly upright through the small set of ledgy wavy holes on the left between 3rd and 4th drops. Below those there's a rock shelf that sticks out off the left bank that people typically eddy out behind before running 4th drop. We got Pat to the side at the upstream point of that rock shelf, folks jumped out of boats, pulled him out of his boat and onto shore, and immediately began CPR.
I had been the farthest person out in the flow on the rescue keeping his head up while others pulled his boat to shore and wasn't near enough to shore to stop. Once I saw CPR begin, I switched my focus to catching the eddy on the left below the shelf. I had dropped my paddle in the rescue, so it took me longer than usual to get to shore, then out of the boat and back up the shelf. When I arrived on the scene, possibly as much as 60 seconds after CPR began, the rest of the crew were moving Pat into a better position to continue CPR. We had two nurses with 20+ years of hospital experience in the group, and they advised the efforts as the rest of us joined in with CPR. We activated the SOS on a Garmin inReach, and not long afterward another person found that they had cell service, so we called 911.
4 more paddlers passed by during this time and stopped to help us with the CPR. We are all super grateful to those folks for stopping. At 38 minutes into CPR, 2 park service personnel arrived with an AED and oxygen, and those were applied. At 1 hour into CPR, the oxygen supply ran out and CPR was stopped.
Both nurses on the scene agreed after the incident that there was very likely cardiac a component to this accident that contributed to the CPR not being successful. In speaking to his family since the accident, I've learned that Pat did have an underlying heart condition as well as ongoing effects from past Lyme Disease.
