Today has been an exciting day of white water rafting at ACE Adventure Resort. I have been the only one of us four crazy brave enough to take on the challenge of the Upper Gauley River.
Facts about Upper Gauley:
-2nd Best commercial white water rafting in North America
-7th best white water rafting riverin the world
-5 Grade 5+ rapids
– Lots of Grade 4 & 5 Rapids
We had an early start waking up at 5:45 to be ready for the safety briefing at 7:00 (after breakfast), after this I boarded the bus and we started our journey to the Summersville Dam (1h away).
The river trip was incredible, it started with some rapids called the initiation rapids, a collection of grade 3-4 rapids for everyone to practice their paddling before the first big rapids.
The first of the big five was “Insignificant” which was awesome. On the river the ‘scarier’ the name, typically the rapid is less dangerous, and vice versa. This was a great rapid spraying all of our raft with brisk refreshing cold water, I was in the front of the raft, so got a great ride, with lots of wash.
After this we continued further downstream, taking some runs down some good Grade 4-5 rapids. After this we reached the next of the big five; Pillow Rock. This was a huge rapid, with a steep drop in gradient, and some wild water.
Next we took on the longest rapid at nearly 1 mile long; Lost Paddle Rapid. This was a series of 4 drops and waves. on the first we rode the wave Hawaii-5-0 which was a huge wave which rushed us downstream. This was fantastic, and we ran a super line through all the rapids to get an amazing ride.
Up next was a rapid Iron Ring, which had originally been blasted with dynamite to clear a route for timber to flow downstream, this left sharp jagged rocks, which resulted in turbulent water. This was a great run, and we got loads of spray as we descended through the rapids.
This left us for the biggest, most fearsome rapid; Sweets Falls. this was a fantastic ride, the boat was completely flooded from all the wash. This was a great place to watch other rafts and kayakers attempting, with a large number of swimmers. This was the lunch stop, where we stopped at ACEs decking area with a large food platter and a great overlook of the river.
After this we continued downstream down a large selection of smaller class 3-4 rapids. When we reached swimmers rapid we got a chance to swim, which was very refreshing. Shortly after this we had the chance to jump from the cliffs into the water below, this was exhilarating and great fun.
The final rapid of the day was “Fluffy Box of Kittens” (formerly Guides Revenge until it was changed due to legal reasons) this is an awesome rapid where it is very easy to flip the raft if you take the correct wrong line. We were very close to flipping but managed to keep the raft balanced. Some of the other boats had some great swims here.
After loading the rafts and returning to ACE, showing and changing, I went back to the big tents to watch the video of the day (filmed by our kayak video boater). This was awesome, but I think I have some great videos from my GoPro, which I am excited to watch when I get home.
After reuniting with Sam, Stephen and Steph we found Eddie, the friendly bus driver who picked us up from Charleston. Eddie drove us up the mountain to our tent, we picked up our bags and he drove us to our hotel in Beckley. We had a good chat to him in the shuttle bus and he offered to drive us to a restaurant he recommended.
We arrived at the restaurant “Ryan’s”, paid $11 each for the buffet and entered. This was absolutely fantastic, there was a huge choice, of absolutely everything you could imagine; from a selection of meats, pies, pizza with every possible side dish. This selection was amazing, and the best bit was it tasted fantastic! This was not the end, there was also a huge selection of desserts, including some very nice chocolate cake. The best bit of all was seeing Stephens face when he found different foods, he looked like a young child at Christmas, so excited by all the presents and wanting to open all of them!
We offered Eddie some food, but he had already eaten, so declined, but he still sat with us an had a good chat. It was very entertaining to see the people working in the restaurants reaction when they heard our English accents, they thought it was hilariously fascinating (I don’t think they get many international visitors in Beckey). The meal was fantastic in every way, after this we returned to the hotel.
It was sad to say goodbye to Eddie, he was a legend. He has facebook so we will keep in touch, we have him a big tip, he kept trying to refuse it, but we insisted he had it, he was just so awesome. He even offered to help get us some staff discounts if we return. The other three are very happy to have an American friend, I am very happy to get another American friend in a different part of the country.
Sam and Stephen washed their clothes, I dried my rafting stuff and we have packed ready for our long journey tomorrow.
US4 Adventure 