Ladies Double Header

So it finally rained in the southeast. We all rallied the troops (ie: Myself, Toby McDermott, Pat Keller, Chan Jones, Robin Betz, Drew Duvall, Jon Grace, Joe Barkley, Adam Biksby, and Nick E.) thinking we were going to the Toxaway after a whole day of rain. We were about twenty minutes into the trip and got a call saying that the Toxaway was frozen and to go somewhere else. We figured, lets’ go to the Smokey Mountains, hoping for Ravens Fork or West Prong. Along the way we lost the kayaks on the side of I-40. It was a great view from the sunroof within the Dagger Subaru.

Shane called on the way west to the river and told us the news that Ravens Fork was at 22 inches going up to 25 inches, but he also told us that the road going to West Prong opened that morning (it had been closed due to snow) so we opted to go to West Prong. Upon arrival we found West Prong to be a very healthy high so we made our way across the bridge and found the Road Prong. Perfect level.

At this point everyone is fired up especially Robin and I. This is the creek that I have heard to be terrifying. to bring some comic releif to the crew Robin started digging through her Astral lifejacket and found a few random items.....


We started hiking (it was raining/sleeting) up the mountain, 1000 vertical feet just to kayak back down. A mile and half took only about 45 minutes to hike. Drew about made an icicle out of himself without the pogies, skull cap, or even a dry suit.

All nine of our kayaks lined up on the trail at the spot that we decided to put in. The hike ended when the creek got too full of wood to paddle down.

The river was amazing, minus having the numb hands and feet that felt non existent at the time. Since the eddies were so small and almost invisible at some points I only got a small amount of pictures but here are some.

Just make sure to not boof out too much. Fun rapid though.

Undoubtably one of the best launch your tail boofs in the southeast.

The next morning I woke up once again to the phone exploding “We are going to Ravens Fork”. This was my second time down. I knew how it was going to be but the level was just a tad lower, 7-8 inches vs. 10 inches. It was myself, Jon Grace, Robin Betz, and Polk Deiters. At the take out, which is the house/driveway of Emanuel, a Cherokee who has allowed us to use his driveway as a parking garage while we are kayaking, we found Nick E. smashing beer cans. So we all joined in on the festivities before the river.

After swimming through the rhododendron and trying not to break legs hiking down into the gorge we made it to the river. It was a beautiful day, about 60 degrees and sunny. Since it was Robins first time, my second, and Polk was coming off of the couch we were all stoked to be out there.

Polk and Robin gettin ready for the boogy water before Anaconda

Headless Horseman


Grace in the middle of a low water Mortal Combat run

Robin keeping it real for all of us and launching in Mortal Combat

Grace keeping his head in the right direction on Right Right

After two long days of hiking, being scared, and running some of the hardest rivers in the smokies Robin and I cooled down on Sunday and ran the green at 100%. It was a great way to finish off the double header and to let everyone know that girls really can hang with the big dogs. There will be footage of the double header on LVM 26, the states series.