New

Low water but a few American Whitewater staff and friends got out on the New River for an evening paddle after Gauley Fest set up. It was an approximately 2 hour run from 4pm to 6pm with dinner in Fayetteville afterwards.

retest

Words by Douglas Ackerman.
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This rapid was originally called Harmon's 99.
Many now call it Hook 99.
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The name came from Richard Harmon's C-1, which had a big number 99 painted on it, probably from a race. Richard once ran near this rock and '99' got pinned. He got out, but could not retrieve the boat and finished the run in a raft. Over the next week or so, we (Wildwater Unlimited rafting), picked up the fiberglass boat in three or four large separate pieces at various points downstream. We gave them back to Richard and with a bit of resin and fiberglass, he put the C-1 back together. Soon '99' was running the New again. Try that with a plastic boat. Richard was a quite a character in the early days of WV paddling.
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Splatting on river left at the bottom of the pool below Duddley's Dip.

The Thurmond Gauge is back up and running, though possible only until October sometime. Stay tuned.

I just lost my red Dagger Redline in the Meatgrinder by Lower Keeneys. Nasty pin, thank god I was well on my way to the shore when it happened! At the level today (4') there wasn't any way for me to get it out. If anyone sees it when the river gets to a lower level and it look extractable, can you please let me know so I can go and try to recover it. Or if you find it floating along somewhere please let me know as well. I never got around to putting my name in it and I think it may have the name of the previous owner. I already reported it to the park service so they know there's no one in danger at the scene. Thanks for any information!

Craig
cpp6fATvirginia.edu

Hi - I just kayaked this section with my 12 year old daughter and some friends. What a beautiful river! This was the first solid Class IV that she has paddled & she did great. It'd be great to find other kids her age that are kayaking this kind of stuff. I also have a 15yo daughter that is paddling Class IV as well. We're planning on trips for the Lower Gauley and the Cheat in the next couple months.

djeffsmith@aol.com

Steve-O for a Mystery Move at Mellow Ledge

A Mystery Move at Mellow Ledge at miniumum flow (2.0 feet)

Bryan Mangum Fayette Station Rapid

Roy's only flip all weekend paddling in WV at the put in steps

Sandman shreds GBS while lesser boaters admire wonders of nearby eddy

John Eskew, Dan Fritts,Dustin Bunch,Chris Thomas, Julie Thomas, Don Humphrey on the New in June. Photo by John Miller.

Don Humphrey completes his 1st run of the New River in West 'by God' Virginia.

This photo depicts the rapid well at medium water levels. You'll notice Thumb Rock barely sticking out of the water at the bottom of the picture (top of the rapid). About half way down the rapid in the center of the river, the rock (Buery's Rock) that is barely out of the water forms a BIG hole above 13,000 cfs. The flat rectangular rock on river left towards the bottom of the rapid is known as the Butchers Block and is extremely undercut. The rock guarding the exit of the rapid at the bottom is also undercut. This rapid is best scouted from the top of the big boulder on the top right of the rapid. Enjoy!

This is the first rapid below Double Z. Note the sieve that I pointed out in the photo. It's drainhole style and is adjacent to where I and many others commonly make runs through this rapid. The large finger rock left of center is also undercut.
In this photo you can easily see three distinct parts of this rapid. Whale rock is pretty aparent in this photo on the left side of Upper Keeney. Note that the main current comming out of Middle Keeney (the whiteist whitewater in the photo) points straight towards a dangerous grouping of boulders (the Meat Grinder).
Note the grouping of boulders below the rapid on the right. Above 5' (10,000 cfs) they form a keeper hole known as the Teachers Pet.

As the water gets to this level and higher, you can see that Upper, Middle and Lower Keeney mesh together and form one class V rapid. The main current comming out of Middle Keeney goes straight into the Meat Grinder (in the photo, Middle Keeney is located at the wide spot of the river where it bends to the left going downstream and the Meat Grinder is obscured by trees). It's pretty freakin dangerous and sieved out and the current at higher water levels will put you there in a hurry. If you find yourself swimming here don't just float into it, swim for your life.

Thanks to the Park Service we can now drive to take pictures like this.
What a Hole!!!!!!

Just Missed The Hole!!

fun wave at the right level

The drop

Start of rapid.

Does this look like a good idea to you? Now this would be a lame photo if there was no whitewater ahead! Next photo. More of my photos can be found on my American Whitewater page and my Geocities page.
The adventure of the CRAZY rafter continues. Back to 1st photo. Next photo.
It looks like that there is a BIG wave comming. Back to 1st photo. Next photo.
Finally, some air time for the CRAZY rafter! Back to 1st photo. Next photo.
And the CRAZY rafter comes crashing back down to reality! Back to 1st photo. Next photo.
I SWEAR that there was a person just sitting on the front of this raft SECONDS before this picture was taken. Click here for the previous photo. Click here for the first photo of the series. If anybody knows what happend to the guy, send me an e-mail at rogerspat@hotmail.com I am not exactly sure what happened in the raft but it does not look pretty for the guy!

Not a bad way to start your day on the New River is with a BIG hit at Surprise

Only 2 first-timers left in the raft with no paddles. Took me a full minute to get back in the raft - like a cork in a washing machine !
A really close pass to Meat Grinder to catch the waves !

After a night of downpours, the New was raging ! The river flashed up from 1.5 ft to 13.5 ft during our trip.
Though there's almost enough water flow here to be the New itself, this is actually a swollen Wolf Creek. We had to take out at Fayette Station Bridge due to a washed out bridge downstream. This is what the flooding did while we were on the river. Note the torn up pavement. Across the river, 20 feet of railbed under the train tracks were washed out. A NPS ranger was waiting for us and apparently chewed out the lead guide as they were telling all rafting outfits to stay off the river that day - I guess nobody checked.

I took this from my campsite at dawn. This was pre- Gorge Bridge, when the Fayette Station bridge in the background was the only north-south route.

Ed Gertler on the left, May McEwan on the right. I don't recall the names of the folks in the middle.

Fun stuff!
It takes a couple of rides to figure it out, but once you do, its a GREAT hole!
This rapid has some BIG waves in it and a couple holes to match. At lower levels (2'), its a real minefield of holes.

Relief map of the NRG area with a few of the roads, rapids, and access points indicated.

Cal Hite is the Superintendent of the New River Gorge National River. He does an excellent job of protecting and managing the New.

Photo courtesy of the Monocacy Canoe Club.