1984 Organizer: ??? 1987 Organizer: Kirk Smith 1988 Organizer: Kirk Smith 1989 Organizer: Joe Cychosz 1990 Organizer: Joe Cychosz 1995 Organizer: Jeff Treece

There have been many GSP trips on the Gauley River. Next-door-to the New River, it's usually only runnable in the Fall and the Spring. A number of the trips have been made in the fall, and this page describes some of the reactions.

The logo shown above was used for the 1987 and 1989 Gauley trips planned by Kirk Smith ('87) and Joe Cychosz ('89). It was drawn by Bob Peterson of Locomotive's (and now Academy Award nominee "Finding Nemo" 2003) cartoon fame.  No relation to Gary S.

Commentary:

1984 Gauley Trip

Date: 18 Sep 84 18:52:17 EDT (Tuesday)
Subject: Gauley River Trip Report
From: Don Wegeng
 

Well, we seem to have somehow survived the weekend. Let me tell you, we had a great time! I believe that this will become an annual event.

The trip was the "Upper Gauley" and the "Lower Gauley" trips combined, with one night of camping on the river. Each raft held six paddlers and one guide who manned large oars. This combination makes for a very maneuverable raft, thus allowing the guide to give us the best possible ride. The presence of the oars does NOT remove the need for paddling by the rest of the crew.

Our guides this year were by far the best that we've had. They were very familar with the river, which allowed them to give us a good ride and at the same time allow a margin of safety. My guide was a bit unorthodox, for he seemed to get a lot of joy from bouncing the raft off rocks, causing us to make 360 degree turns and in general knocking his crew around. These guides are familiar enough with the river that they do not usually have to scout rapids before running them. The water/weather conditions weren't too bad. The water was in the 60's both days. The air was in the low 60's on Saturday, and in the high 60's on Sunday. The sun finally came out on Sunday, but both days were windy. I wore a farmer john wet suit, booties, a polypropylene long sleeve top and a paddle jacket. I took off the paddle jacket for a little while on Sunday, but otherwise was happy with it all [thanks Holly!].

I'm not going to bore you with descriptions of all of the rapids (there are 43 significant rapids on the river), but a few are worth mentioning. "Pillow Rock Rapids" was the first class VI that we encountered, and was the first rapid that our guides decided to scout. This rapid drops very fast (perhaps 25 feet over 75 yards) and has lots of rocks. It's very intense.

After a short breather we then encountered the class VI "Lost Paddle Rapids" which features five major drops and several undercut rocks on the left. This is a good place to get hurt.

The next class VI rapid was "Iron Ring Rapids". It was blasted out by loggers in the nineteenth century, and is very narrow and jagged [similar, I'm told, to the Upper Yough]. It has lots of undercut rocks. We took this one with extreme care.

The last class VI rapid was "Sweet's Falls". The right side features a, uh, 12 foot waterfall. I had always figured that we would run the left side, but no, the waterfall is runable. I knew that we were in for some "fun" when the guide told us to hold on for dear life when we went over. He was serious. Below the falls there is a large rock on the left side that we nearly hit, but otherwise came out ok. We stopped for lunch below the falls and climbed up on some rocks and watched other rafts run for awhile. Most ran the falls, but some of the paddleboats ran to the left instead. Several people got to take an unexpected swim below the falls.

The last interesting rapid was "Pure Screaming Hell". This is another good place to get hurt. It's another long run with lots of rocks, a rapid drop, and a huge "Hell Hole" at the bottom. It was fun.

I suppose that I should also mention a hole called "Guide's Revenge". This is kinda interesting, for as there are no rocks below it's a safe place for the guide to "arrange" for the person in the back rear of the raft to go swimming. My guide, however, wanted to give us all a thrill so he tried to flip the raft. Unfortunately (??) he only suceeded in filling the raft with water, but it was fun (??). Another interesting experience was when he tried to fit the raft lengthwise through an opening that was about three feet too narrow. That didn't work too well.

The Gauley also has quite a bit of good surfing water, which we put to good use (almost flipping once in the process). It's interesting that all of the class VI rapids are encountered within the first eight miles of the first day's run, which makes for an intense morning.

Oh yes, we were also well fed on the trip. Lunch on the first day featured chili (a big winner) and cold cuts. Dinner that night was steak, baked potatoes, rolls, salad, and peach cobbler for desert. Also provided was a large supply of beer (which along with our own supply of Wild Turkey and Jim Beam seemed to warm us up). Lunch the next day was cold cuts.

In all, it was an excellent way to spend a weekend. All that was missing was the Henry's!

/Don

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1987 Gauley Trip

From: ks@rvl2.ecn.purdue.edu (Kirk D Smith)
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 88 12:55:30 EST
Subject: Gauley trip report
 1987 GSP Gauley Trip

Most of the people showed up Friday night. We had an amusing time around the campfire drinking heavily. The major entertainment for the evening was watching Jeff Treece (successfully) set up his tent after drinking 12 beers.

Saturday was a bright sunny day, perfect weather for Bridge Day. Bridge day is one of the most bizarre events anywhere in the world. About 200,000 to 250,000 people show up to watch people parachute and rapel from the New River bridge. We showed up 1.5 hours before they closed off the northbound lanes of the bridge to start the event. We were able to park on the road by the visitor center. Tom and Deb, who showed up later, ended up parking about 2 to 3 miles from the bridge. It was a real zoo.

We walked out on the bridge, watched some jumpers, took some pictures. We bought some food at one of the many vendors. We drove down the gorge on the north side. Stopping half way down at an overlook, we were able to see the jumpers from an interesting perspective. We finally made it to the bottom of the gorge, walked across the old bridge, and hung out by the beach landing spot just below Fayette Station rapids. The jumpers had this incredible ability to land precisely in the middle of the beach. Occasionally, one was off the mark. This provided amusement as they landed in the water. Some landed so far out that they had to send the pontoon boats out to get them. We talked with several jumpers. It sounds like a real interesting sport.

We then worked our way downstream, below the bridge where the rappelers were making their way down about a dozen rappeling ropes. Sarah Rodgers was about to rappel down one of those ropes. While we were waiting, tragedy struck as a jumper fell into the water with his chute partially open. Phil and I ran down to help. He was alright (in shock, broken knee, sore back, some bleeding), but the camera strapped to his helmet was literally demolished. As we assisted in the rescue efforts, Sarah started down the rope. Unfortunately, not 10 minutes after they restarted jumping, a jumper came down rather quickly. His chute opened about 20 feet above the water. Phil assisted in his rescue, but efforts were hampered when he was dragged through Millers Folly rapids. There was little that could be done. Sarah, who witnessed the event from half way down the rappeling rope, was shaken.

Although the death put a damper on the day, overall, it was an interesting and fun day. We topped it off with the traditional campfire drinking with some Wild Turkey. A favorite pastime at the campfire was trying to get Karen Russell flustered. (Now Karen, let me get this straight, you were on a L1011 or you were in a L1011?) As it turns out, Jeff again came through again with the entertainment. This time, he was so drunk, that when we went to sleep, he went and sat with some other random people at their campfire.

Sunday, showing up at MRT, we did the normal stuff. The Lower Gauley was interesting, continuous, but not overly tough. Our two rafts comprised the whole trip. It was fun.

Sunday night, we drove the troop transport down to Wood's Ferry to camp. This was an interesting trip. The Class VI food was incredible. We had so much beer with us, that we had trouble finishing it. It was fun.

Monday, the Upper Gauley lived up to its reputation. It was incredible. We worked our way into the MRT end of the season staff trip. We rafted with 11 GSP's and 15 guides. It was a blast. Three of the guides went down the Upper Gauley in ducky's (one man rafts). They were crashing and burning right and left. They were a major source of amusement. Several of the other guides rafted in small rafts. We rafted in Avon paddle boats (like the summer trip). It was awesome. Karen Russell made GSP news when she fell out of the raft in the first drop of the five drop rapid called "Lost Paddle". We have some awesome pictures from the second drop. When we made it to Sweet's Falls, we were confused when our guide, Jeff, gave us paddling commands to execute a 360 degree turn immediately before going over the falls. That was a surprise. The other raft was able to pull off some very well choreographed synchronized paddle slapping at the top of the falls. The guides that were on the shore watching were able to confuse their crew by yelling conflicting paddling commands to that raft. As expected, they were boxed, much to the displeasure of their guide.

At lunch, guides were walking upstream to get a chance to go over the falls in duckies and other small floating objects. That was amusing. One of the girls from the office and a guide walked out from the lunch spot. I innocently asked how they were going to get all the rafts down the rest of the river. Breakin' Bob said that they had rolled up a ducky and were going to carry it down the rest of the way in a raft. Then, his eyes lit up, and he said, "But you could take it down if you want". Of course, without hesitation, I volunteered. Cliff (the general manager) and Jeff (the guide) looked at me pretty funny when they saw me carrying a ducky around, but Breakin' Bob defended me and promised to play papa ducky so that I wouldn't get lost going down the river. It was a BLAST! I did great through all the rapids except Wood's Ferry (Class IV right before the take-out). Bob, Cliff, and Jeff teamed up to give me advice on how to run the rapid. At the end, Bob said, "Just follow me, and you'll be alright". Well, Wood's Ferry has 3 basic holes: small, medium, and large. As I cautiously followed my daddy ducky into the first small hole, I noticed that the ducky was upside down and Bob was swimming. Passing him, I didn't even get a chance to wave. Basically, I was able to make it through the medium sized hole, but coming out of that hole, I was not set up right for the third and largest hole. I was swimming.

Back at the headquarters, we found an appropriate use for the leftover beer. We had a great party with all the guides. They even offered to let us spend the night in the headquarters. Alas, we had to get back, and we couldn't stay.

Overall, this was the best rafting trip I have ever been on. Tom and Joe took hundreds of pictures, so see one of us at next July's trip for a more detailed description of what went on.

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1988 Gauley Trip

From: 3ksnn64@pb.ecn.purdue.edu (Joe Cychosz)
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 88 16:18:34 EST
Subject: Gauley Trip Report
 

written by: Kirk Smith and Joe Cychosz

1988 Gauley Trip Report

Roster: Joe Cychosz Steve Poehlman Kirk Smith Deb Stakes Tom Tengdin Jeff Treece

Everyone arrived Friday night. Beer drinking and staying warm was the order of the evening. Two Shot stopped by to drink and tell humorous tales for a while. It was COLD (like low 20's Fahrenheit).

Saturday, we awoke to the sight of ice covering everything: tents, cars, and the ground. The campground people prepared a welcome breakfast, and we were off to our Lower Gauley trip. Kirk and Jeff had talked MRT into letting them run Funyaks, and everyone else went in a R-5 with Curt, the guide. Although the trip leader had protested the use of Funyaks, enough guides and random MRT employees stood up for Kirk and Jeff so that they allowed it. Unfortunately for the rafters, Curt was a much better ducky guide than raft guide, but Jeff and Kirk appreciated it immensely. The rafters did allot of swimming as Curt was trying to get the "feel" of the raft.

At 1440 CFS, the Gauley was different than any of us had seen. In Ender Waves (the first rapid), Jeff got off to a good start by swimming it, followed by a duck to duck rescue by Kirk. Not to be outdone, Kirk swam Back Ender (the second rapid), and managed a sloppy self rescue. At this point, the raft guides figured it was going to be a long day, but this was when Jeff and Kirk got warmed up. Both of them were able to hit every major hole and wave in every major rapid the rest of the day with no further swims. On several occasions instructions were given on how to "sneak" rapids, but that was never done. Kirk ended up getting stuck surfing in 5 boat hole and had to get pushed out with a raft. Jeff got cheered on by kayakers as he narrowly escaped a swim while surfing diagonal ledges. In Pure Screaming Hell, Jeff and Kirk were told 3 times to sneak left of the Hell Hole, but this advice was promptly ignored and both ducks ran the center of the hole. Jeff somehow accidentally ended up surfing the Hell Hole and actually came out of it still in the duck.

Throughout this, the rafters had a relatively subdued day on the water. Everyone in the GSP raft swam at one point during the day. This was largely due to Curt's inability to stay off of rocks. This was Steve Poehlman's first whitewater rafting ever, and he got somewhat accustomed to how to handle himself in a raft.

After another night of drinking, and a fine steak dinner prepared by the MRT campground staff, we embarked on the Upper Gauley trip. At the put-in by the dam, we came across some rafters from ACE (another company) who had recently put in and then got right back out, insisting that they go back in the bus. Apparently, they had ferried across the rapids at the dam, and had somehow got themselves into the eddy on the other side of the chutes. This eddy is particularly strong, and brought them around under the chutes (only 1 chute was operating). They apparently passed under the chute that was dumping 1440 CFS into the river, and "thought they were going to die". They somehow made it through, and promptly got out of the river and headed back to the bus. The raft was still stuck in the eddy when we got there. Attempts to paddle it downriver failed while we were there.

We rafted the Upper Gauley in a couple of R-4's in the following configuration:

Raft 1	Raft 2
Steve Crawford	Clif Bobinski
Tom Tengdin	Joe Cychoszi
Deb Stakes	Jeff Treecei
Steve Poehlman	Kirk Smithi

At first, both rafts were shakey, attempting to learn how to work together well. Steve Poehlman had only rafted once before (the lower Gauley), but Steve Crawford whipped him into shape very quickly. A few rapids require special notice. Pillow Rock was very intense with lots of little rocks to get snagged on as one tries to paddle for the big rock. Kirk and Clif took turns falling to the floor of the boat, and alternately paddling. Steve's raft had an extremely clean run, except for the fact that Deb was completely ejected from the raft just above Pillow Rock. Had she landed in the water, this would have counted as a swim because she clearly lost all contact with the raft. Instead, she hovered about three feet above the raft, and landed on Steve Poehlman. After these comic runs, we all figured we ought to improve at this rafting stuff. At Iron Ring, several other rafting companies were walking around. Many were running it, however, and many were swimming it. Both GSP rafts had extremely clean runs, and ended up setting safety and fishing swimmers out of the water for a while. This cleanup service was provided until the other MRT guides and customers could all get back to their respective rafts, and we proceeded onward. Sweet's falls was another very clean run, and things worked well for the rest of the day. For Clif's raft, Iron Ring was the clear turning point, where slight apprehension evolved into pure fun. Due to the highest quality guides, and accumulated level of GSP rafting skills, nobody swam from a GSP raft the whole day.

Sunday evening saw the MRT staff party. The GSP's provided a source of entertainment by bringing all the leftover beer. There was quite a bit of this since we all know it is hard to drink when it is COLD. At the party we presented Cliff, Steve and MRT support staff with special edition GSP Tooth Sheaf Australian Stout. Clif had quite a smile on his face as he probably remembered his Tooth Sheaf experience from this summer. Margaret Kuhn and Susan (the video person) both got extremely funny after polishing off their Tooth Sheafs. Clark Bar found a Tooth Sheaf and was quoted as saying "Nothing like a beer you can feel when you drink it." Other guides who had Tooth Sheafs slowly disappeared into the sunset. The party went on for quite some time. About midnight, Paul Brewer (the owner of MRT) went on a beer run, and came back with more beer. Of course, after that gesture, we had to stay and drink more.

Monday morning, everyone departed to go their respective ways.

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1990 Gauley Trip

Trip report: GSP Upper Gauley Fall trip
 

time: 7:45am Sunday October 13th
guide: Steve Crawford
crew: Joe Cychosz, Debra Stakes, Tom Tengdin
 

Despite all the eastwardly moving rain in Lafayette the week before and the hurricane moving into the east coast. The weather was almost perfect, plesent temperatures (65-70) and partly sunny.

You know its going to be a good day with hot runs when the guide says "Ah, don't worry about the bucket, its not going to be swimming". This is a reference to not tieing the bailling bucket to the raft.

The water release was 2200 cfs with a 1100 cfs addition at the Meadow located at the beginning of Lost Paddle. The GSP raft would lead the way and serve as safty for the rest of the MRT rafts.

We ran a few of the rapids in new ways. In Insignificant we entered from the left. Pillow Rock we did a right entry, not enough water to enter from the left and drove straight for the BIG rock.

The water in the second drop of Lost Paddle was awesome. Greater than 15 ft. wave in the hole. I felt like Moses standing in the middle of the Red Sea as the waves parted. It was awesome. The forth drop probably was the most dangerous rapid of the day.

We had a great run though Iron Ring. It too had an awesome hole at the bottom of the rapid. Steve Crawford swam here the day before as the food cooler got in the way of his legs, he exitted the raft.

The trip leader JD flipped the raft in the above mentioned hole and another raft dumped a few people out. We were pretty inmovable since our raft was completely full of water. However, we did pick up quite a bit of plastic in the way of buckets, paddles and helmets at this rapid.

At Sweets falls, everybody had nice runs. The ejector rock was barely visible and could only be seen if one knew where to look. ACE and USA rafting both flipped/dumped a raft at this one. Since the water was high and moving fairly well lots of rafts lucked out by not spilling anyone despite there incorrect setup at the top of the rapid.

After lunch the only exciting events were at Galepsie Hole (now named GSP Hole) and Sleeper. At Galepsie Hole Steve wanted to try surfing. Its a particularly difficult hole to get into. It is almost impossible to get into by catching an eddy and paddling into the hole. Steve also noted that what ever happened it would be DYNAMIC. So into the rapid backwards, at the bottom two hard strokes forward and we're in it. In the middle of my third stroke I was washed completely out of the raft. I remember doing two summersults under water, once directly under the raft and once somewhere down stream before surfacing. When I surfaced I looked for the raft and I was still up stream surfing. Deb also was washed out and donated her Vaurnet glasses to the river god.

In Sleeper (just before Woods Ferry) we had a picture perfect near flip of the raft. We thought we'd help Mike sell some video remembering the two basic Cs when it comes to selling video. Carnage and Cleavage.

Joe

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1995 Gauley Trip by the Treece's

From: Jeff Treece
Subject: Season's First Gauley Report

Fall Gauley releases started September 8. Cherre and I did an "all the way" trip on Saturday, September 9. A friend of ours from Bedford, IN arranged the trip through West Virginia Whitewater, a company located fairly close to the Western Pancake House on 19. Six of us drove out in a van, arrived Friday evening, and camped at MRC. The rest of the group stayed at a hotel in Beckley, I think. Ray and Dren had a pretty full campground, but they were happy to find a place for us to park our tents.

7:00 comes early, but if you're doing 26 miles of Gauley in one day, it's essential to get going. We drove straight down to the parking lot below Summersville Dam, and we were on the river almost immediately. There was reportedly a 1+ hour wait to put in where the "chutes" come out, so we skipped it and put in a few hundred yards downstream. Our group of fourteen was split into two rafts of five and one of four. They were small self-bailers. Most wore wetsuits, though I just wore some long polypro and got along fine -- the weather was great.

Cherre and I had been a bit concerned that only a couple of people besides us in the group had ever been rafting before, let alone on the UPPER GAULEY! However, we soon realized that everyone was catching on quickly. Cherre and I were in the 4-person raft, and our guide was the trip leader, Randy (and manager of the company, I think). His daughter, also a raft guide, was along for the experience (she was a GV). The other two in our raft, friends of ours, had never been rafting before. Almost instantly, however, the four of us were working as a team, and we had definitely one of the best rafts I have ever been in. There was one point in the trip where Randy had us play "Frank's Game," which involved closing our eyes (on the Gauley?!?), and we still managed to follow directions and paddle together.

I got butterflies in my stomach plenty of times on the river. A lot of it was when we were at the top or in the middle of a rapid that I recalled vividly from a previous trip, such as the lower Gauley "Duckey Muncher" trip and lower Mash rapids. I doubt that anyone who's been through Lost Paddle can sit in that pool at the top in anticipation of five big drops over three quarters of a mile, without having butterflies. Then there was also the pure anticipation of hitting another huge hole, when each successive rapid seemed even better than the previous rapid. Of course, the view from the BOTTOM of the river at Pillow Rock rapid (that's right, I picked a good one to swim!) sets you up for a good day chock full of butterflies.

At Stairstep rapids, Randy told us to close our eyes. It was fairly unnerving, hitting gentle rolling waves, occasionally getting unexpectedly jerked left or right by a breaking wave. Randy gave us commands, and we followed blindly. Without being able to anticipate motions, it was harder to stay in the boat. As the boat started moving up and down more, in a gentle "rocking," Randy said, "OK, now you can open your eyes." When we did, we *all* screamed, because we were just cresting a huge wave, after which the bottom of the river dropped off the face of the earth.

Sweet's Falls was a BLAST, not just from the huge drop and rippin' water, but also because we (and 5,000 other people) took a break, stepped out on the rocks, and watched other rafts screw up. When our raft went "over," all I could do was hang on for dear life. We eddied out to river right and climbed on the rocks. We saw three rafts stick to "Postage Due" rock, numerous high-sides and swims through box canyon. No rafts self destructed on Ejector Rock, though. Bummer.

The length of the trip was about right. The water moves you along so much better -- a 26 mile Gauley trip isn't that much "longer" than a 14-mile New River trip. The excitement just kept on coming. We bit off big pieces of hole after hole, including the "Hell Hole," which almost bit off big pieces of us.

Though we had an excellent trip, there were a few things about the company that bothered me in comparison to MRT. For example, when I was flushed through Pillow Rock, the rapid that some say is the most difficult to do correctly, and NOT a good place to swim (I went over Volkswagon rock, hit bottom a couple of times, under the corner of a nameless rock, and pushed off an undercut rock with my feet), all that Randy did was scream at me, calling me evil names (I found out later, because at the time, I was studying the river bottom ecology, and didn't hear a word he screamed). I think that MRT would have had a sweep boat in place, with whistles blowing and ropes a'flying. Randy's throw rope wasn't even readily accessible. Also, after we got off the river, one of the guides drank too many beers and got on everyone's nerves. MRT, IMHO, is more professional about the whole thing. And I would NEVER go rafting with ACE. I've just seen them screw up fifty too many times.

To sum this all up, "Do it. Do it now. Stay in the boat at Pillow Rock."

Jeff