It’s the end of September, our rafting season is coming to an end and Gauley Fest weekend is fast approaching. Jumping in a car with Pikey and Lisa Scott, we leave the valley with nicer weather than we’ve had all summer. Along the way we catch a run on the Black River in Watertown then stop to paddle the Upper Yough. The Yough is a classic run for the area and releases quite a few days before and after Gauley Fest. Its the perfect place to brush up on some rusty creeking skills. Along the way we ran into Tyler, Lu and Dave as well as groups of friends from River Run and Liquid Skills. We put on the Gauley River with a group of about 15 people, which is a big crowd, but add in hundreds of other people and you have a very entertaining day. If you don’t know the river picking lines is fairly easy, all you have to do is watch dozens of people paddle past you into horizon lines and follow, its like a big game of lemmings. You knew you were getting to serious rapids by the huge crowds gathered there to watch the entertainment. I gotta say that it is worth stopping to watch at pillow rock but it is hard to leave because there is always something entertaining happening. The actual festival is a big party set in the middle of a fairgrounds with thousands of people in attendance. This is a great place to find cheap gear for sale. There are many vendors selling all sorts as well as some very funny booths there for entertainment purposes. Tyler, Lu and Dave along with LS owner Chad Hitchins set up the Liquid Skills booth as a paint ball shooting gallery, where if you hit a beer can you got a free beer. It was a very rowdy booth. After spending a good chunk of our night at this particular booth and drinking lots of cheap American beer we were feeling a little rough and paddled the lower Gauley the next day. It was a perfect way to end the trip on, some decent rapids and lots of nice scenery. Moosefest was our next festival. Which turned out to be a cancelled festival, but apparently no one told the boaters who all showed up anyway. And in true kayaker fashion we made things happen anyway. Our group rented a hotel and filled it with as many people as possible, which makes for a better party and a cheaper bill as long as no one rips the shower curtains down. We lucked out with good weather and got a run in on the bottoms section of the Moose River on both Saturday and Sunday. We were able to do enough filming to put together a short video. Lord Of The Forks was the biggest mission this fall. We left Friday evening at 6:30 pm and arrived at the Russel Fork put-in at 11 am Saturday. With a quick run Tyler, Lou and Pikey figured out their race lines and headed back to the top for their timed run. It seems that we can’t show up anywhere with the right kayaks, we used to show up with playboats and be surrounded by creek boats but this time we showed up with creek boats and were surrounded by long boats. So needless to say we didn’t win the race but Tyler set a short boat record for the run and Pikey had a big take out on Lou in the last rapid. So at this point it is around 5 pm and we need to get to Asheville for Chris Gragtmans Party Like a Rock star Birthday party. What a great house party. It took a few monsters and rock stars but we managed to get our 10th wind and party pretty hard. Around 3 am we made our way back to Chris’s house and passed out for some needed sleep. After sleeping in we ran down the trail to the Green River Narrows and put in 30 mintues later than you should but luckily we had some really good guides with us. Daniel Stewart and Chris did an awesome job getting us down the run, without letting us stop to scout anything but safely showing us the lines, before the river went dry. It was quite the first Green River experience, I highly reccomend doing it this way. What a way to start a trip. We got some sweet partying and kayaking in and we had a place to stay for the week to get ready for the Green Race. What a week to be in Asheville, almost every night there was an event leading up to the race and there was a good buzz on the river with everyone being so fired up for the race. Lu, Pikey and Foxy decided to race and I decided to spectate. There were hundreds of people there watching. You could hear the crowd cheering from way up river getting louder as paddlers got closer and then the roar continued down to the finish line. Watching 120 exhausted paddlers run gorilla was worth making the trip and I was happy to see no one get hurt even though there were some close calls. The after party was at Woody Callaway’s house. The food was amazing, there were tons of people there, a big projector was set up and played the action from gorilla and they handed out the awards. 1st Pat Keller (4:31) 2nd Chris Gragtmans 3rd Eric Deguil I’ve got to send a big thanks out to Chris Gragtmans and his roommates Alex and Taylor for letting us stay at their place for the week. It made our trip. By Blake Mahoney Photos: Louise Urwin, Blake Mahoney, Mike Piacenti Fall Road Trips 2008
The Liquid Skills Crew ... Chillin
at the Gauley Put-in
Wait for me!
Mr. Bee
Wheres waldo?
Peek-a-boo
Don’t mess with the Chadly.  Grrrr!
A sweet crowd.
Chur!!
No pressure
Lisa. Stoked
In the Shit!
nah just a sweet rapid
Whooooo Daver.
Mikey P. getting it done
Lu mid 360 spin-o-rama
Pillow Talk
The Moose-Fest Gang
Tyler’s Sweet Boof, knifes edge
Lu’s sick boof,
Diamond Spliter
Tyler looking all good,
Magilla
Pikey nailing it shut,
Magilla
Lu keeping dry,
Crystal
 
boof
Ouch!!!
right side Magilla
Tyler setting it down,
Magilla
Lu getting the shot,
Fowlersville
Mikey getting the shot,
Crystal
Tyler,
Aggers
Blake,
Aggers
Lu,
Aggers
Crazy Canoer’s,
Crystal
Blake coming in hot,
Fowlersville
Blaker breaking on through,
Fowlersville
Tyler & Lu
Lords of the Fork
The Mega Party Van (MPV)
Happy Birthday! Chris
Favorite rapid.
Bride of Frankenstein
Green River Race
The Crowd
Pencil Sharpner
The Notch
Into the Launch Pad
Off the Gorilla
Hopefully forwards
if not there’s always the Pit Crew
Or the Crowd
Volter ... pure focus
Volt, the sideways stare
Race Day
The awards
Back on Top
Congrats!  Pat Keller
Good Times
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