Narrows of the Green
I am ferrying back to river left and in the back of my head a little voice starts jibber-jabberin, "What the hell are you doing!? Turn back around. You are going to break your new boat the FIRST day and only day you'll ever paddle it." Luckily for me, the voice shuts up and I can focus. I turn my bow to point downstream and start cranking the strokes: one stroke, two, three, four and BOOF like mad through a four foot wide slot, over a funky hole. I glide into the eddy and think, "That wasn't so bad. What's the big deal?" Then reality comes barreling back into me as I take a look downstream, horizon line like no other. This is the BIG drop of Gorilla...the notch isn't scary in itself but because of what lies mere yards downstream, a vertical 17 foot drop onto a rock shelf into a stompin' hole. I now find myself in a precarious position but cheers from the side egg me on. I ferry out and go for it, one stroke, two, three and BOOF...fall...bounce...BIG hole and I'm free and into the eddy at the bottom, safe and onto the sane drops of the Green which I promptly bomb down.
This was a few weeks ago; the first time I paddled my newly acquired Large Fluid Solo and the first time I ran Gorilla on the Green Narrows. I love this boat. It really takes care of me on the river and gave me the confidence boost I needed to run Gorilla. I'd been meaning to do it for a while now but not until paddling the Solo did I feel like I had complete control while on the river. It felt awesome to sail on into the eddy, planing right over the weird currents in the notch. Good stuff! I don't have any shots of Gorilla but here's one of me running Sunshine a few days ago.
(PADDLER: Adam Secrest RAPID: Sunshine PHOTO: Will Selle)
On this day, after I had adjusted the outfitting a bit, I really started feeling good in the boat so I knocked off all of the big three on the Green, Go Left and Sunshine for the first time. Throw me in with Secretariat, I triple crowned it.
I look forward to getting the Solo out on something steeper and naturally flowing. However, we all know that rain has been cancelled here in Western North Carolina; all I'm expecting is pollen to make me sneeze. Thank God they dammed the Green River.
-Adam Secrest
