Here I sit in the drizzle at the public boat ramp below HWY 21 in Independence, Virginia. It's 68 degrees by my car thermometer. And here comes more rain; it's still falling rather softly, but the volume has picked up. The New River Campground somewhere in the vicinity has an open wireless network, so I've hopped on to take a blog break and do some work.
Today it's all testosterone all day. No women on the New, just me in the car. George, Henry, Tim, Tony, Chris, Larry, Brandon and Mike shoved off about 8:30 from the public boat ramp called Bridle Creek in Cox's Chapel and went about a mile to their first big challenging rapids called Molly's Shoals. George, our Executive Director, gave a suitably cautionary briefing and out came the PFDs and brain-buckets. My Henry said he would be pleased to be the Alpha Pussy and take the weenie route around if need be. Good old Henry...
I knew of a spot close to the beginning of the shoals where I could pull off and scamper down some banks to see if I could get some shots of them at least approaching the rapids. There was some barbed wire fence to negotiate and I ended up with muddy pants, but I got some vid and photos. (Just so you know, I peed down there, too.)
Of course, from where I was, it appeared there was not going to be a weenie brigade; looked like they all were going to take a shot at making this Class II-III run. Penitentiary Shoals follows shortly after; if they made Molly's without a problem, they'll doubtless be feeling cocky and hit the next one, too.
I guess I'll find out who made it through, who dumped, who got in trouble, etc., in about an hour or so. That's when they should be coming by where I am sitting right now. If I have enough battery left in my trusty Macbook, maybe I'll shoot a quick video update of how they did.
Today it's all testosterone all day. No women on the New, just me in the car. George, Henry, Tim, Tony, Chris, Larry, Brandon and Mike shoved off about 8:30 from the public boat ramp called Bridle Creek in Cox's Chapel and went about a mile to their first big challenging rapids called Molly's Shoals. George, our Executive Director, gave a suitably cautionary briefing and out came the PFDs and brain-buckets. My Henry said he would be pleased to be the Alpha Pussy and take the weenie route around if need be. Good old Henry...
I knew of a spot close to the beginning of the shoals where I could pull off and scamper down some banks to see if I could get some shots of them at least approaching the rapids. There was some barbed wire fence to negotiate and I ended up with muddy pants, but I got some vid and photos. (Just so you know, I peed down there, too.)
Of course, from where I was, it appeared there was not going to be a weenie brigade; looked like they all were going to take a shot at making this Class II-III run. Penitentiary Shoals follows shortly after; if they made Molly's without a problem, they'll doubtless be feeling cocky and hit the next one, too.
I guess I'll find out who made it through, who dumped, who got in trouble, etc., in about an hour or so. That's when they should be coming by where I am sitting right now. If I have enough battery left in my trusty Macbook, maybe I'll shoot a quick video update of how they did.