Going Green in North Carolina

At this stage I had paddled the two rivers on my list, the Upper Yough  (including a bonus run on the Top Yough) and Upper Gauley, but there was one river that I've wanted to get on for a long long time, so I ended up in Asheville, North Carolina to paddle the Green River Narrows.

I arrived on the Tuesday and hoped to paddle with Eric, a guy who a buddy in Boston told me would be happy to show me down the river. However, it turned out that the Green (which is dam released) wouldn't be running until Friday, so I planned on hanging out in Asheville until then.

My home in Asheville

Before I arrived in Asheville, all I knew was that it was the place where the Green River was. But after hanging out there for a few days I realised what a cool spot it is. You won't find any McDonalds or Burger King downtown, in fact you'll be hard pressed to find any chains at all. It's full of funky independent cafes, restaurants and bars and the place has a really laid back vibe to it.

Cool cafe downtown, it's an old doubled-decker bus from London

I hung out with some folks from the hostel, Nate a guy from North Carolina along with Holly and Katie two girls from Devon. After spending some time sampling the local beer,

mmm, tasty local brew

finding out some interesting facts at a pretty random museum - did you know the X's on a bottle of moonshine stand for how many times it's been distilled?

the KFC guy actually did exist!

and catching some local music

The Holy Ghost Tent Revival at The Grey Eagle - cool venue

By the time Friday rolled around I was already in love with Asheville, and now I was getting to jump on a river I've always wanted to paddle.

The only proof I've been on the Green.

I have to be honest, I don't know if I've ever been so psyched out by a river than I have been by The Green Rive Narrows (American Whitewater - Green River Narrows).  I've paddled a lot of rivers at this stage, but I've watched way too many videos and seen too many photos of this one.  The Green is the epitome of creeking - very steep and low volume (Gradient Profile). I've see lots of video and way too many photos of some of the best kayakers on this run, so it's one of those things that scares the crap out of me, but at the same time I really want to do.

I met Eric at the river and it turned out I had paddled the Raquette in Upstate New York with him a while back. He did a great job of leading me showing me down the river (along with another Eric who we met at the take-out) and convincing me that I probably wasn't going to die.

Once I got on the river I realised why it's such a famous run, it's so many quality rapids stacked on top of eachother. And as Eric put it - you can make the river as hard or as chill as you like. Yes there's some big rapids on it (the infamous big thee), but there's so much more on it as well.

I spent so much time worrying about having all my safety gear that I forgot all my non-safety gear (cheers Eric for the beer after Sunshine!) including my camera (I reckon I was doomed to have no whitewater pics for this trip) so I'm going to steal one of Eric's photos of Gorilla, one of the big ones at higher water:

Eric running Gorilla at higher water

The Green has a lot of stuff on it, including three well know rapids - Go Left and Die, Gorilla and Sunshine. Go Left was at a pretty friendly level and we all ran it, but Gorila lived up to it's name - it's a beast. No pictures or video can do this thing justice. It's way bigger than it looks, and at the low level we were running the river at, it didn't look doable, not for anyone on the river that day anyway. Sunshine's an interesting rapid, there's a line, but if you messed it up you're gonna be hurt for sure - at that level I'd probably run this one before I'd run Gorilla, but we walked this one as well.

Sunshine, another picture stolen from American Whtewater . There is not as nice a landing as it looks!

And so against all my premonitions, I survived The Green. I finished up the run a huge grin from ear to ear, after expecting to come of it a nervous wreck. It's a fun run for sure. This river runs 300 days a year which is unheard of in the whitewater world - what I'd give to have this in my backyard!

A successful run brought to an end a great few days in Asheville, North Carolina. Definitely somewhere I'll be back to - I'd definitely like to stay there for a while. Winter on the slopes, and Summer in Asheville...that'd be pretty sweet, maybe some day.

Next stop Nashville, Tennessee for a quick stop-off..


More pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/105659496923832797916/AshevilleNC