Meadow (Gauley River trib.)

I've been paddling the Upper Meadow for decades, but today for the first time paddled from Rainelle to Russellville, the stretch described here. Years ago we used to put in at Corliss, river left, for an 8 mile paddle that used to involve a long walk in but today can be accessed to the river bank by four wheel drive or within 1/4 mile by two wheel drive.
The generally used access these days is at Burdette, putting in river right at the mouth of Burdette Creek, just below the railroad trestle for a six mile run with whitewater right off the bat.
Today we checked out the flatwater section starting at Rainelle, putting in at the railroad trestle just above the rail trail entrance by the lumber mill on Snake Island Road.
Flow was about 575 cfs, which still provided good current in the flat water and got us to the Corliss access in a couple hours. That section is indeed mostly flat, with a few class I maybe II small rapids, with beautiful scenery that would make a good canoe trip, flotation optional. After a 20 min lunch break we continued down to the real whitewater, which is still entertaining with minimal scraping at this level. Personally I'll do the Upper Meadow down to 400 cfs, but that does get a little scrapy towards the end. The major rapids all chanellize nicely though. Today we were plenty satisfied by the level, multiple slot moves, and entertained by two otter who ran the rapid with the mid stream boof about a half mile below Natural Weir just in front of me, chattering away, then showed as much interest in us as we did in them for several minutes in the eddy below.
We hit the takeout in Russellville 4 1/2 hours after our Rainelle put in with big grins, no mishaps, and minimal scraping. A fine day!