The Other Brother

Dedicated and longstanding loyal readers may be surprised to find out that there is a 4th Andresen sibling. Our beloved older brother, Joshua Michael Andresen. We've tried to get him to join us kayaking, but so far he has not felt the lure of the river. So although he has not participated in our CFs and Boondoggles to date, as he is a new father (if having a 6 month old counts as a "new" father), I trust that he's got many parenting CFs and Boondoggles in his future. I'm writing this post just because I wanted to get some pictures of my adorable nephew on our blog and thus felt the moral imperative to tie it into the blog's theme. :-) So, without further ado, meet Max and Josh! (It's hard to get a good picture of a squirmy baby where all subjects are smiling and in the frame. Sigh)

-Tina

Jeremiah Loops!

Way to go! (The laughing is not at all related to the loop attempts...someone was telling knock-knock jokes. yeah, that's it).

Gauley 2009

• JJA, CK, MM left 9-9-09 at night.
  

BD1. Chad forgets trailer hitch rack.
BD2. Chad forgets camper water container.

• Trip takes 19 hours. (There is a disputed story about a guardrail. MM and CK are fraidycats)

• Get 2 campsites at free campground by upper put-in. Yay!

• MAA, TLA, MMG, CS, SS left 9-10 by plane.

BD3. Melissa forgets ID at home. Her sister saves the day by leaving work early and getting it to her in the nick of time.

• Plane crew gets rental car in Charleston, drive to Summersville, arrive by midnight. Driving crew is still up, and quite drunk on jooce. (“the nastiest shit ever”-Jeremiah)

9-11

• First Paddle Day! Ran the lower Gauley. Breakfast at gas station restaurant. Yuck. Get to put-in around 11:00, shuttle took 1.5 hours. On river by one, off by five. Perfect weather. Almost too hot. The water was warmer than some led others to believe it would be. That will teach us to trust decade old memories. Awesome day, no swims! MAA, MMG, MM get stuck in last ledge hole. JJA thought he had it on video, but new camera didn’t work the same as old, so didn’t get captured. Shoot. MAA had a laminated river map with all the rapids named and short descriptions as well as flash cards (which were not waterproof and thus relegated to a waterproof case). Having the map was the perfect way to temper the nerves of tackling this fated river. Thanks to Clay for finding the website with the rapids' descriptions: Allllllllrighty Folks

• Left shuttle car to drop off crew (all 8 boats and people in truck) at camp. JJ and MMG go to get groceries and the shuttle car. They return with the groceries before getting the car, but turned out to be a blessing because the headlights made the shuttle road a lot safer.

• Had great brats for dinner.

9-12

• JJA and CK leave to set shuttle for running the upper.

BD4. They forgot to put the hitch rack in. Will make it difficult to load boats at the end of the day. And Missy’s awesome annotated laminated river map was in the truck.

• Cooked great breakfast at camp. Better than the gas station. Put on right at end of campground at 10:30.

• SS swam at initiation. Hung onto CS’s boat for a titch too long. “Let Goooooooooooooooooo!”

• Rest of run up until Pillow Rock goes very smoothly. Lots of fun rapids. Get out to scout pillow and eat lunch while watching carnage. Mistake. Too much carnage watching makes most of us afraid to run it. JJA, CS, and CK run it and make it look too easy.
  

• MAA has trouble negotiating the immense boiling eddy at the end of Pillow and ends up swimming. No harm to MAA, but the laminated map is lost! This is the harbinger of doom to come!

• MAA, TLA, and MMG spend next five miles thinking they had come to the Bud’s Boner rapid. They were wrong on all of them. Finally ask professional rafters. MAA and MMG get two different answers.

• MAA swims twice during Lost Paddle rapid. Sigh. Tina swims at end of Lost Paddle. JJA and CK only ones to go through the gates upright. CK saves Missy’s life at end of swim after she swims through a narrow slot and into a big hole. Out of breath and under water, she looks up at the light but can’t get to it. Finally kicks to the surface and is stuck in a hole with CK just out of reach. He yells at her to swim to him, which she is finally able to do. Hard swim, out of breath, lots of water swallowed. Yuck. CS and SS found Tina’s paddle stuck on a boulder and showed it to TLA and MMG. CS, SS, MMG and MM walk the gates.

• Only halfway through at this time, it’s getting late and the water is already shut off. The rest of the river is run “ducks in a row”. Even through the piddly class 2 stuff. Most of us walked the class fives (Iron Ring and Sweets Falls). Very tough portages. JJA and CK say the rapid is difficult at low level, Sweets had to be sneaked because tongue gone.

• Woods Ferry is last rapid. JJA and CK only ones to make ferry. SS somehow ends up on top of newly named “Scotty’s Rock”. Could have been very scary. He then very clearly signals to the rest of us at the top of the rapid that there was a sneak route on the right. CS, however, has some trust issues, did not believe SS was signaling correctly. Funny stuff.

BD5. MM gets off the river with a nasty eye infection from his contacts. So sad. Looked very painful.

• Dinner is hamburgers cooked awesomely by CS. Everyone but MM has a hot shower.

BD6. Nonnie. Ugh. MAA escapes first into fitty. Then CK escapes. Then JJA. Then Tina. Then Melissa. Melissa told Clay that Jeremiah wanted him so Clay could make his escape. Scott finally made it in. Mike never escaped. Show of hands: who thinks that MM will become Nonnie in 30 years?



9/13.

• MM’s eye is painful enough to warrant a trip to the ER. SS agrees to set shuttle for the rest of the group and then be the ambulance. Another run on the lower. Great weather again. Sunny and 70s.

BD7: MAA did not, as instructed by several paddlers, do the gear count for the top 5.

• Discovers missing skirt as the shuttle is being set by JJA and SS. Said discovery interrupts what had been up to that point a delightful trip down memory lane of the start of CK and CS’s friendship. JJA arrives back and there is some discussion of taking the necessary hour to retrieve the skirt from the shuttle vehicle at the end of the run. MAA nixed that, with concern for the late start on the river as well as the delay in getting Mikey to the Dr. (Turns out this was a wise decision, as the skirt was NOT left in the shuttle truck as thought, but rather was back at camp in the fitty). JJA then surprises everyone by offering to give his skirt and selflessly forgoing the run. MAA reluctantly agree, and just like that the group is winnowed to 5.

• We put on and run the one rapid we missed by putting out (tee-hee) a little early on the previous day’s run of the upper. A fun little rapid, triple ender, or something like that. WEEG probably had less fun in their sturdy creekers: CS looked like he got a fun ride. With that rapid, we can now proudly proclaim that we ran the whole Gauley. (Well, not counting the rapids that were portaged).

• About the run…some people did better then others. Enough said. A million thanks to those of you who rescued the boats of the fallen. Your bravery and feats of strength will not soon be forgotten.

• The river crew arrived back at camp around 6:30ish. Discover from the non-river crew that MM has an ulcer in his eye. Also find out that an eye ulcer does not prevent one from locking someone else in the trunk if the opportunity presents itself. Poor SS.

• Went to the pizza pub for dinner/drinks. VERY good pizza. A bit on the expensive side, but definitely worth it.

• Back to camp. Some of the crew went next door to the Liquid Logic camp to shoot the breeze. Others enjoyed drinks around the campfire. CK and DMMG went up the steep hill in the pitch black to hack down and bring back some burning materials.

9/14.

• Last day. Sniff. Had breakfast at a restaurant in Summersville. There was some discussion about doing a short run on the upper (taking out at Pillow) for the plane crew, but in the end we decide not to risk it. So just JJA and CK will be paddling (the lower). Mikey is still unable to see out of his injured eye. CK is anxious to get back to the ledges hole, where he and CS had the best play of their lives the day before. Some hippies asked for help in setting shuttle, so SS agreed to drive their vehicle to the take-out. MMG and MAA also went to set the shuttle. Everyone packed up most of their stuff before taking off. All gear was left out to dry in the hot sun before being packed into the fitty. TLA/MM/CS had to do most of the packing up/kayaking-loading by themselves. It was nice not to have to worry about time (flight wasn’t until 5 pm).

• The shuttle-setters finally got back. Heard about a potential BD that was averted: MAA forgot to disconnect the battery on the truck…a random discussion with MMG about her camera battery jogged her memory in time to go back and take care of it. A new takeout was used. Apparently it was very steep and bumpy. MMG used JJA’s phone to take a video. If we can figure out how to get it onto YouTube, we’ll get it posted. They stopped at a lookout to take gorgeous ravine shots of the junkyard rapid.

• Plane crew made it to the airport fine. All are despondent at the thought of having to go back to work. It was such an awesome trip with fun people, challenging runs and beautiful scenery! Hopefully we can make this an annual trip Mark your calendars for 2010!!!

• Driving crew made it back Tuesday afternoon after…

BD8.The truck gets a flat tire. Sounded like not a fun time.

• Boys tired from long trip. CK and MM have just enough energy to place awesome sticker on JJA’s boat. If you ever get the chance, ask Jeremiah if he is, in fact, bringing sexy back.