Wilson Rocks!

Said it before, but gotta say it again.  Wilson Creek is awesome.  Good day and good people on the water!  Shoot me a message if you're ever heading that way.

10 Foot

Triple Drop

Razorback

Keeping the Flow - When Trip Plans Don't Work Out

My outfitting company, Frog Hollow Outdoors, is really starting to gear up for the 2013 Season.  This past weekend was our first Staff Training/Refresher for the year.  Our original plan was to head to the Coast to camp and work on site-management and paddle skills.  We we're gonna really work the area - protected inlets, secluded barrier islands, a variety of tidal conditions, and even the surf zone were all going to be our play/training ground.  A trip and training to remember!  

Well, Thursday evening, with a forecast predicting 80% chance of thunder storms most of Saturday, i made the call to scrap the Coast as the location for our training.  I got a little flak about this from some of my non-work paddling and backpacking buddies.  OK sure, working with staff in adverse conditions is excellent first hand experience on handling thunder and lightning storms (which, personally, i typically enjoy camping in), but for the sake/goals of our training weekend, being huddled up in camp and NOT out on the water, seemed like a poor use of our time.  So, we shifted the focus of our paddle skills and transferred the site-management refresher to some of our awesome local locations.  We paddled the Eno in whitewater kayaks on Sat in a steady and cold rain (but no thunder or lightning!), and then got out in the touring kayaks on Jordan Lake for a good chunk of the day Sun.  So, no, we weren't at the Coast, but we were in some good ol' magical Piedmont.  Both days were awesome!  And i gotta say i'm really proud of the Staff i worked with this past weekend, they really got right back on track from last year and are ready to get out and work with folks on the water again!  It's gonna be a great year!  

A handful of the 2013 Frog Hollow Staff prepping for a paddle down the Eno River during our pre-season Guide and Instructor Training and Re-fresher.  Y'all Rock!

A few of the 2013 Frog Hollow Staff out on Mystery Island on Jordan Lake during our pre-season Guide and Instructor Training/Refresher.

Whitewater Dreams on Triangle Rivers

Big Wave on Flat River 4.5'

What an incredible few days this is for the Triangle Region!   With the freezing rain/snow we'll have everything local running at some point between yesterday and Sunday (hopefully longer-fingers crossed).  While this is not unheard of, especially given our relatively wet year, every time it does happen it makes me giddy :)  I had the pleasure of getting out with some friends on the Little and the Flat Rivers yesterday, at what i consider really nice running levels.  They were both running 4.5'-5'.  This makes the Little pushy, with grabby hydraulics at various pour-overs and ledges, and a huge variety of lines down what is a short little gorge.  Run, boof, and repeat :)  The Flat at this level begins to form what is possibly one of the sweetest play spots in the NC Piedmont.  If you're familiar with this run,  this feature is located just upstream of the island where the river narrows down significantly.  At this spot there is a ledge that forms a super fun wave on river left.  At higher water this wave becomes river wide. At just under 5' this feature will allow for a huge array of moves, but as the level drops below 4.5' there is a rock or two that will keep you from being able to bury your bow or stern, but you can still spin like a mad man on it!  ...OK, I'm finding myself wanting to describe the potential this wave has to you here in more detail...but there is a decent amount of info on the AWA website.  No need to completely re-create the wheel.  Check it out: http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/1073/

Spinning the Big Wave on the lower Flat @ 4.5'

Anywho, if you find yourself here, make sure that you're looking carefully at all of your downstream hazards.  On typical high water days the island becomes a big strainer, and as of yesterday, upstream of the island (even closer to the wave) is a HUGE tree broached on some rocks creating an ugly log jam that one would not want to find themselves flushed into.

 All you Piedmont whitewater junkies get out and enjoy some local water!  As always, KNOW what you're getting into, be REALISTIC about your abilities (and those you're paddling with), make good CHOICES, be SAFE, and have FUN!

Deep River Trip past Endor Iron Furnace

While every day on the water or in the woods is a good day, every so often there is a day that really is just excellent.  Yesterday, i guided a trip down the Deep River past the Endor Iron Furnace and everything was perfect.  The weather was just right (cool and sunny), all of the trip participants were interesting and engaging people, the avian wildlife was active and consistent, and Endor is always an awe inspiring structure to visit.  Even the take out at the 15-501 bridge which is notoriously, ...well, a pain in the ass, went smoothly.  Days like this are great reminders that this is why i do what i do.

Goose Creek Family Camping Trip

This past weekend we went on a family camping trip to Goose Creek State Park.  We try to take one camping trip a month with other friends and families.  My family consists of my amazing wife, Andrea, and our two beautiful children Miles (almost 6) and Zella (1 year, 4 months old).  These trips always have some sort of interesting challenge associated with them.  This particular trip was one of the most difficult we've had.  Things started off rough with us rushing to set camp before dark on Fri night, plus Z had some funky snotties, the temps were some of the coolest she's ever camped in (high 30s), plus she has no love for blankets or anything else over her when she sleeps, on top of this she has 2 new teeth coming in ...it was a relatively sleepless night, for us as well as our friends (sorry y'all).  The following evening we moved to a campsite further away in an effort to save our friends from the late night howls, screams, cries and other noises of discontent from Z.  However, the second night Z actually slept pretty well but we quickly discovered we were so far from our friends that we hardly saw them the remainder of the trip.  ...sad for us ;-(

All these aspects of the trip made it one of our families most challenging yet.  But taking a moment to step back during the trip as well as reflect on things a bit afterward, we were reminded that this trip was actually quite excellent despite our immediate perceptions.  First of all our whole family was camping!  That in and of itself is awesome.  We paddled our new-to-us family canoe for the first time, taking it out on 3 different little trips through both brackish and freshwater wetland swamp areas, and the open water of Goose Creek. One of our paddle trips was Miles very first night paddle and the moon was absolutely amazing! Miles also went fishing with a good buddy and caught his first fish, which we cleaned cooked and ate (awesome full-circle sort of moment)!  One of the families brought pumpkins (thanks M&M) that the kids designed jack-o-lanterns with and got to take home.  At night while trying to sleep we heard all sorts of wildlife (great horned owls, screech owls, and something that made a completely bizarre flapping noise as it flew right over top of our campsite). And finally even though we didn't see all our friends as much as we may have liked, we did still get to see them some and hang out in the woods together!

So, i suppose the take-away lesson here is that while creating these sorts of family outings has the chance of being difficult and challenging in certain ways, they also offer amazing educational opportunities and life altering moments for our kids and our family as a whole.  ...we'll keep doing 'em ;-)