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Showing posts from August, 2012

New River paddle, Glade Creek section

Allen took Matt down the Glade Creek section of the New River. It's a fun, easy run for some great practice. I took Josh and Lizzy to wait at the take out and let them swim the rapids there.  Jack had a hard time letting Allen go.  On one of the runs, we let him run along the banks the whole way.  He would have been great, except he kept trying to "rescue" the boys in the rapids!   They don't need boats for these rapids.   Matt had a great run.  Then Josh got a little roll practice.   More pics:

Endless Wall Trail, Fayetteville WV

We took some hikes we haven't before in WV and really enjoyed them!  They weren't very steep and had great views overlooking the New River Gorge, which is always beautiful.   This was the Endless Wall Trail, or the Endless Trail if you believe Josh.   It's a popular climbing area and there are lots of ladders down the endless wall.  Some went straight into caves!      Our first peek at the bridge.        More pics:

More water slides

The Yough was still too high to kayak the falls (just barely too), so Allen and the group just did the usual run below them.  So instead of taking pics of them, I took the kids to the water slides again, then went home to start packing up.  After all the rain, the water was pumping a bit more! Here are videos just for fun.  Top of the slides and Josh yelling about how much better it is. Bottom of the slides.  This part is a bit more dicey, aka more fun! Allen was very surprised when he came home and we were packed up and slid in.  We left a little for him to finish up outside though.  I couldn't do the blue jobs you know!  

Rafting the Yough

As many times as we've come to see Allen kayak the Yough, we've never actually been on the river.  We take a great hike to Cucumber and take pics of the kayakers at a rapid, love the natural water slides, cliff jumping, etc.  So when Joe offered to take us in his raft, we were very excited!  Allen loves this river and has told us about every inch I think, so we looked forward to seeing it up close.  And we loved it! (Thanks to Kathy and Joe for these pics from their waterproof cameras!)   With all the rain and weather changes, it was cold, but we were ready! Joe steered us true and we had a great day on the water! We stopped at Swimmer's Rapid to watch Allen and the other kayakers play, and to swim of course.  The boys did anyway. It was cold!  On the rare boring stretch of the Yough (the Doldrums), our "pirate crew" boarded other vessels and claimed them "in the name of the Pope!"  (Aka Joe, the Paddling Pope.)  Michelle'

Kayaking & shredding

Since the falls were too high, the kayakers (as usual) had to scramble to figure out what else to run.  Allen decided to let Matt kayak with him on the Casselman.  Allen's never kayaked it before, but whatever.  Then Kathy offered to let Josh and Lizzy go with her on the shredder, so why not?  What's a shredder? This crazy looking boat (that we now think we need):  So when I heard the idea of the 4 of them boating and me having an entire day to myself, I thought about it. For about 5 seconds. Yes please!  Oh it was so lovely too.  No cell or internet, so I read a book, all day, in my jammies, inside for a while, outside for a while, ahhh.  This was a rare treat for all of us!  The reports were that the kids did great too!  (Allen always does.) :)

Natural water slides

We love these natural water slides at Ohiopyle State Park in PA.  We found out the Burch family (yes, another RVing family!) was close to Ohiopyle, so we invited them down.  We met them last year in CA as they were considering hitting the road.  (They hit it in full force and have covered half the country and a ton of national parks!)  In between rain storms, their boys and our three enjoyed the slides, which weren't pumping too hard, but just enough to keep going.   I've taken this pic over the years to watch them grow. *sniff* 2007: 2009: 2011: Here's a quick video of the top half of the slides. We also checked out the Ohiopyle Falls that Allen planned to kayak the next day!  Unfortunately for him (kinda fortunately for my nerves), it kept raining and the levels were too high (illegal) to run.