POD: Birthday Ride Down White Water Canyon
Angie Troia
After meeting Sage our Sobek trip leader, having a quick safety briefing, and watching the rafts slide down the wooden tracks to the river, we put on wetsuits, dry tops, and splash gear and began our Middle Fork trip in the late morning.
rapids. Though not as technical as they may have been in lower water, the waves were tall, the holes were huge, and the water was fast moving and COLD! No one complained about wearing wetsuits! We stopped for a picnic at one of the few reachable eddies and enjoyed chips, cookies, nuts, and fruit while the guides prepared an amazing spread of homemade bread, sandwich meats, cheese, pickles, avocados and various condiments.
There were 3 pools up on the hill with a log placed in just the right position to create a hot spring shower that poured into the river. It was such a fun place to stop and relax! We then went on through Jackass Rapid and also stopped to see pictographs created on the canyon walls most likely by the Nez Pierce or Sheepeater Indians.
In the afternoon, we visited Flying B Ranch which is about 90 miles from the nearest road and only accessible by river or air travel. We took a short walk past the green irrigated fields, through the horseshoe turntable gate to visit their tiny store before resting and eating ice cream treats in the lush grassy front yard. The owner had just repainted the outhouse complete with a river and canyon theme and patriotic decorations. It sort of did make using a pit toilet just a tiny bit nicer. We hit the river again to enjoy Haystack, Earthquake Rock, and Jack Creek Rapids before stopping close to Mile 74 at Wilson Creek Camp. Wilson Creek had only a small beach area and our tents had to be placed a short walk down a path through the bushes to a larger grassy area. The tents were erected just before the first rainstorm hit us. The skies cleared and several people enjoyed some good fly fishing spots before a dinner of huge grilled pork chops, rice, cornbread and pineapple upside down cake.
Later, we stopped for lunch at a spot with an great view of the tall canyon walls. We quickly cleaned up and headed back to the river before the rain hit again. We were cold and wet, and almost too tired to take a short hike uphill to one more narrow waterfall flowing down from some extremely high walls of rock. Legend is that an old river hermit lived there and did not like the being disturbed by people running the river. He was said to have yelled and thrown rocks down on visitors who came near his home. After our short hike, feeling a bit cold and very wet, we stopped for the day at Cradle Camp near Mile 88. To our surprise, some of our guides had gone ahead and set up our tents before we arrived. Changing into dry clothes, enjoying drinks, journal writing and card games under the big green tarp was a nice way to end the day. Taylor took orders and grilled delicious gigantic steaks for dinner.
After much laughter and many photos, we were treated to trumpet and harmonica playing by Joseph and Bob. It was bittersweet moment enjoying the beautiful sunset and clear night skies, but also realizing that it was our last night on the river.
The 4th of July was a fun day. Taylor, David, and Greg chose the long hike to The Meadows in Garnet Canyon as well as a side trip to Surprise Lake. Shelby, Shuana, Jodi, Mark and Mary enjoyed a fun hike to Phelps Lake Overlook. That evening we all went to dinner at the Snake River Brewing Company, on to the Jackson Hole Rodeo, and ended the night watching fireworks over Snow King Mountain.
It was great to see and be able to photo document a grizzly and her cub on the way out of the east entrance of Yellowstone heading home. Back in the days when we worked in the park, you always had to have photo documentation of your bear or bears sighting for it to actually count or for folks to believe you. Seeing bears and visiting Yellowstone never gets old and we always love sharing our favorite park with friends and family.
In the late fall Mary and I will once again head out for another big river adventure on the other side of the world in Nepal. We plan to spend several days exploring Nepal and the Kathmandu area before embarking on a eight day trip kayaking, rafting and camping down the Sun Kosi River.
Day 1, Friday, October 7th: Mary and I drove from Mineral Bluff, Georgia down to Flagg Mountain where she dropped me off at the trailhead late that afternoon. My original plan was to just hike in 2.1 miles to the Weogufka Creek Shelter and spend the night there and get an early start the next morning. I got to the shelter and figured out I had enough daylight to push on closer to where the woods trail ends and the road walk picks up, so I ended up camping very close to the last footbridge at mile 4.7 that first evening.
Day 2, Saturday, October 8th: I got an early start the next morning and began my road walk to the Trammel Trailhead. From there I got a ride back into Sylacauga, Alabama where I met up with a friend who wanted to hike with me for several days. Olivia has a real interest in possibly hiking the Appalachian Trail one year soon and she wanted to experience what trail life would be like. I realize now that she picked the best section to join me on which was from the Trammel Trailhead (mile 22.9) to CR 24 Crossing / Morgan Cascade (mile 91.5).
Day 13, Wednesday, October 19th: From Cave Springs I went into Rome. The best description I can come up with is all road walk, even including a four lane highway for many miles. Not my idea of a fun hike!
Day 16, Saturday, October 22nd: Due to a late morning out of Lafayette and a motivational problem with logging roads and forest service roads, this is where I decided to skip ahead a small bit leaving behind even more logging roads and an area recently consumed by forest fires atop Strawberry Mountain. The woods trail from the Snake Creek Gap Trailhead down to Dalton was actually a nice and beautiful walk. It was one of the better sections in Georgia.
Day 18, Monday, October 24th through Day 19, Tuesday, October 25th: A lot of the trail from the Dennis Mill Trailhead to the Northern Terminus was still old forest service roads although the scenery was much improved. The Cohuttas are beautiful and I knew I was getting close to home when I began hiking by creeks, mountain laurel and rhododendron. I made it to the Pinhoti Northern Terminus around 4:00 p.m. and continued on the BMT to Dyer Gap where Mary picked me up.
It was always my plan to take 2015 off from any long distance hiking and just enjoy a year camping and kayaking on the rivers here in the Southeast along with a mid summer trip out to Wyoming and Montana to catch some higher volume rivers through some of the most beautiful areas in our country. That plan was all coming together and going great until I dislocated my shoulder on the Upper Tellico River in fairly high water last spring.
I made it to the northern terminus of the PCT or the Canadian border on Friday, September 5th right about 5 p.m. to finish my thru hike. It was a pleasure to spend the last couple of weeks on the trail with Red, Daniel and Timberline.
I called Carlos, who had camped on the other side of the trail and was just leaving, over to explain what was going on with Matt. We quickly figured out that we had a forest service road five miles ahead and that we needed to help Matt get there and off the trail somehow. After a pretty long process, Matt got packed up and we all headed down the trail together. As we started down the trail, I called Mrs. Whitewater (Mary) once again on a very weak cell signal and was able to tell her our location and what was going on and that once again we needed help. After that brief conversation, we totally lost any further cell phone service.
We had a pretty good group of thru hikers who ended up at Manning Park at the same time. Pictured below is Wasabi, Lucky Strike, Carlos, Timberline, Whitewater and Quiet-man. Some of the others around (but not in this photo) were Red, Daniel, Tarzan and Asswagging.
After leaving Timberline Lodge and the Mt. Hood Wilderness, I found myself in what must be the waterfall capital of the country. They were absolutely beautiful and I only saw a few of them. Tunnel Falls was my favorite.
I only went into the Sisters / Redmond area for a short afternoon and evening to visit with some old Yellowstone friends from 1979 knowing that when I made it to Mt. Hood I would return and visit for a longer period of time with Mrs. Whitewater. That evening I had a great time with Loren Hall and his wife Jeanene along with Kerry Quimby-Zenich and her husband Henry. We had a great dinner and a long visit at the local Mexican restaurant in Sisters. The next morning, after doing a quick resupply in town, Loren put me back on the trail so I could make it to Mt. Hood to meet Mrs. Whitewater who was flying into Portland and driving over. I got back on the trail mid morning and shortly after beginning my walk, I turned the corner to find Coppertone sitting some 1,500 miles north from the last time I met him doing trail magic once again, but this time in Oregon. What a great guy!
On May 3, 1975, after less than two years of construction, Kings Dominion opened its gates to the public. It didn't take long for King Dominion to be recognized as the perfect family destination location in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The idea for a family amusement park north of Richmond, VA and south of Washington, D.C., began as a dream in 1971. A site was selected in Doswell, VA in the heart of the Mid-Atlantic to build the 400-acre park. The design of the new park was similar to Kings Island near Cincinnati, OH, using similar rides, attractions and themes including a 315-foot-tall Eiffel Tower replica and twin-track, racing roller coaster.
Kings Dominion opened May 3, 1975, offering fun and thrilling attractions that included the Rebel Yell roller coaster, Lion Country Safari Monorail, Log Flume, Steam Train and other family attractions. The park's signature attraction was the Eiffel Tower, a one-third scale replica of the original Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Original themed areas were International Street, The Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera, Old Virginia, Coney Island and Lion Country Safari.
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