Me in my happy place - the Hiwassee

 

Hiwassee River, 09-13-25. Photo by Peggy Robertson.

I wanted to post this photo of myself in celebration for 26 years of paddling the Hiwassee River.  It was my first whitewater river back when I started, and it still remains one of my favorite places on Earth. As one of our paddling clan said, "She's the mother of us all" because the Hiwassee is where so many Southeastern paddlers take their first learning trips and become part of the river family.  Also I really like this picture.

Fun Stuff 2025 Part 2

 Blogger is not letting me update my blog so I'm starting a part 2.  

I'd like to find a better hosting platform but a minimal search this morning didn't come up with much.

Anyway: 

April 12 Upper/Lower Mulberry. In the Jackson Antix 2.0.  With Peggy, Jie, Kevin S., and Westin.  Level around 2.1.  Kind of too low for the Upper but we were happy to get on it at least once this season. 

April 18 First dive of the year at Blue Water Park.  With Bethany G.  My first dive with my new 5mm wetsuit which is a Henderson Aqualock.  It is very warm!  

April 26 Diving at Blue Water Park.  With Helen, Andy, and Reed.  Nice couple of dives.

Me mind-melding with a young bass. Photo by Helen H. 

May - we did the Mulberry and Locust. We had fun.  rinse and repeat.

May 24-26 BCC Hello to the Hiwassee.  We stayed at AU.  I did the Hiwassee Saturday and Sunday, and then the Cartecay on Monday.  Fun in the rainstorms. The water was colder than usual on the H so I wore my drysuit both days.

May 30 - June 1 TVCC Paddle School.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0 m.  Hiwassee both days.  I helped Paris with his class as a support boater.  Sunday I was going to go on Ocoee but the group wanted to leave too early for me to break camp, so I went back to the Hiwassee with Pat Carver's class as a tag-a-long.

June 7 - 8 Stress and Rescue class.  

June 21 Bear Creek Float.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0 m.  With Peggy, Juliet and Michael, and several canoeists.  I love this float!

June 22 CeCe SSI Try Mermaid and CeCe/Gus SSI Snorkel Diver.   Great time!  At Blue Water Park.  Taught by Bethany at https://www.instagram.com/mermaiding.and.more/

CeCe is 7 and is part fish!

June 27 - July 3 Week of Rivers 2025 WOR CCC.  In the Jackson Mixmaster 7.5 and the Antix 2.0 m.  Great time and reasonably dry weather too. 
Saturday - Tuckaseegee in the Mixmaster
Sunday - Nantahala short trip Ferebee to Surfers with Mona
Monday - Nantahala Ferebee thru the falls. I walked the falls with my swimmer's ear still going on
Tuesday - Tuckaseegee, memorial trip honoring Richard Hopley aka OC1- Kanubi
Wednesday - Nantahala Ferebee thru the falls.  I had a great line at the falls.

July 13 - 100th Dive.  At Blue Water Park.  With Bethany.  She made a sign on her dive slate and took some pics. So stoked to have gotten my 100th dive!  

July 19 Hiwassee.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0m.  With Helen, Andy, and Peggy.  It was raining buckets on the drive up and Helen called and asked if we could just day drink instead. (she was kidding).  The day turned out really nice, not rainy just cloudy so the air temps were nice not super hot.  

July 20 Ocoee. Rails to Go-Forth. In the Jackson Antix 2.0m.  With Mary M, Helen, Andy, Trey aka Roscoe P. Wavetrain.  After a long hiatus I returned to the Ocoee to find it exactly how I remembered - the familiar lines, the great water temps, the fun rapids.  I had two combat rolls, one below Double Trouble and one in the runout of Flipper.  Mary and I took out at Go-Forth and had lunch.  I hadn't seen Mary in ages and she's one of my best friends so it was great to catch up with her. 

Helen took a photo of my boof at Double Suck:

...and my smile after landing the boof:
 

July 26 Diving at Blue Water Park.  With Helen, Andy, and Bethany.  We saw an interesting person at the airplane.

Aug 3 Diving at Blue Water Park.  With Bethany.  Then BCC Pool Party at Jason and Kathleen's with members of the Birmingham Canoe Club.

I love my Amazon 3mm cheapie wetsuit

I had to stay local this past weekend for a family dinner.

Aug 9 Diving at Blue Water Park.  With Reed.  Then wonderful family dinner at Wooden City.

Aug 10 Coosa at 8000cfs. In the Jackson Antix 2.0m With Ryan and Ming, Rusty, Emily L, and others.  Had a combat roll at Maytag after a windowshade/head bonk.  Great surfs in Baby Gap and Moccasin Gap.

Me with my brother Frank at Wooden City. 

Rick, myself, Frank, and Sam

Diving - mid- august, I forget when. Blue Water Park.

Labor Day Weekend - 3 days, 3 rivers.  With various friends.  Saturday, Hiwassee in the Jackson Mixmaster 7.5.  Sunday, Nantahala Ferebee in the Jackson Mixmaster 7.5.  Monday, Ocoee Rails to GoForth in the Aire SPUD.   There was a luau prom at the Busbar Saturday night, so fun!

SPUD on Double Trouble, Ocoee

Sept 6th Coosa 8000.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0.  Had some nice surfs here and there, but swam Moccasin Gap after one two many attempts to get back on the wave... caught a pipeline surf on the fly so that made me feel a bit better.
Sept 7th Dive at Blue Water Park.  With Ross, Reed, and Bethany.
Sept 13th Hiwassee.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0.  I debated taking a playboat, but the Antix was in the truck already so...  and it really is the best surfing hull of all of my boats.  With members of the BCC, HCC, TVCC, and various friends of mine including Peggy, Donald W., Halie and Jes, Lorraine, Pat C., Deborah W., and many more.  I sealed the drainplug on the Antix with aquaseal, and covered it with pink duck tape so that nobody tries to unscrew it anyway, and so far the boat is much drier.  This after replacing the original drainplug with a warranty new one from Jackson. 
Camped at AU and had take-out pizza from the Gondolier.  Nice fire and camraderie.  We didn't wander over to the BusBar.  But the music was good.  The night had some crisp fall notes and was perfect to tent camp in. We debated what to do the next day.  I checked the schedule page for Apalachia and the Hiwassee was scheduled to run again.  This is not guaranteed to happen on Sundays after Labor Day.  One of my 'win the dream lottery' ideas is to lobby for it to be guaranteed on Sundays until the end of October, like it used to be years ago.
Interesting note - it's not releases we want, but power generation - if 2 generators are running then the river is good to go.  The waters of the Hiwassee are trapped in 2 giant tunnels going from the dam through a mountain and then down to the powerhouse, which is right above where we put-in.  Also - it's not a typo - Apalachia is the name of the reservoir.
Sept 14th Hiwassee.  In the Aire Spud.   Sunday we had options.  I had brought the SPUD thinking maybe I could get another run on the Ocoee in it.  The consensus was to do the Hiwassee again since it was running, and I said hmmm I'll take the SPUD.  I didn't expect the SPUD to be so freaking fun on the Hiwassee, but it was!  360's, surfing, eddy hopping, Threading the Needle, fast ferry at 3 Chutes.  Everyone needs SPUDs and/or the bigger version TATERs, they just haven't found out yet.

Peggy has joined the Aire TATER NATION

I swam.

 

SPUD the Ocoee was awesome!

Here is me buzzing about my great SPUD run on the Ocoee Labor Day!

Love getting my hair cut by my cousin Regina!

My cousin Regina owns Salon on Crescent and it's always great to visit with her.

kayaker pic

I saw my friend Terra the other night at the Leeds Farmers Market. I have not been able to paddle together with her and Micah much this season. But hopefully soon! 

I like this picture of me so I'm sharing it.

Jackson Flow review

 

I demoed Dennis C's medium Jackson Flow on the Hiwassee Sunday. I had paddled his Flow once before briefly on the Mulberry Fork last year and wanted to give it another try.

I've been spending all of my river time in my medium Jackson Antix 2.0, and expected the Flow to have a similar feel. Once we put on and I ferried over to the grasses where we get everyone together, I thought, this thing is a pig. It felt sluggish and slow. I was surprised by this and had a suspicion that seat position was the key. I pulled over at the teaching island and moved the seat back from the middle to one notch back. (One great thing about Jackson outfitting is how easy it is to adjust the seat and bulkhead on the fly.) I was right; moving the seat back let the bow release some and it let me edge the boat and surf. I was able to put the boat where I wanted and catch all of my little surf spots. Front surfing is my favorite thing to do in a kayak and it surfed well. I purposely did not boof any rocks as I was in a friends boat, but I also purposely went through holes just to see how the bow rocker felt; as expected it went over the holes instead of plugging them. Example being the feature at the top of Devil's Shoals.

The knee position is flatter than the Antix, and I kind of wish they had gone with the Antix knee height and am curious why they didn't. I didn't notice it after awhile and it wasn't uncomfortable. It rolls easy.

The Flow does not have the feel of a fast performance creeker, but that isn't its purpose.

To me it's like an Antix for days I don't want the slicy stern grabbing me. I think the Flow is designed for river running and creeky rocky runs with little eddies to tuck in. I like that it is shorter than most creekboats these days. No idea how it does in big water, but it does have edges which would help. I dig the boat.

*edit to add, this would be a good boat for beginners as well.

Me in the medium Jackson Flow 

Fun Stuff 2025 part 1

Jan 1 2025 BCC Feast on the Beach. At the Birmingham Canoe Club property/Mulberry Fork takeout.  Level 1 ft, my favorite.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0m, also my favorite.  It was sunny, perhaps 60 as the high, and many people enjoyed the float and the feast after. 
Photos here: https://dangerjudy.smugmug.com/Other/PADDLING/Feast-on-the-Beach-2025

Jan 2 Mulberry.  Level approx 8 inches on the old bridge.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0m. With Tammy P., Andy L., Jason L.  Shahn W. tried to join us but he had left his helmet at home.  It happens to us all - have to Count Five. Sunny, mid-50's, Training Wheels wave was great, Lunchstop was flatter than at 1 ft so a bit harder to get onto, but was great to surf.  5-0 was shallow and steep.  
What does Count Five mean?  It means count the five things you must have in order to whitewater kayak: your paddle, your boat, your spray-skirt, your pfd, and your helmet.

Jan 16-20 GCA Florida trip. In the Dagger Axis 10.5.  Wonderful trip to paddle the springs of Florida with the Georgia Canoe Association.  Now I want a Stratos 14.5s.  I had a hard time keeping up with the long boats!  
Google maps will tell you it's 7.5-8 hours drive to Chassahowitzka Hotel where we stayed.  It's more like 9.5-10 hours. I went through Atlanta, it adds 100 miles but is the same amount of time and mostly interstate instead of little country roads.  
Friday 17th - Halls-Homosassa Rivers
Saturday 18th -  Pithlachascotee (Cotee) River
Sunday 19th - Withlacoochee River from the Inglis Bypass to Bird Creek Beach
Monday 20th - Chassahowitzka River then drove home.  Tons of Manatees!

Photos here: https://dangerjudy.smugmug.com/Other/PADDLING/GCA-Florida-2025

Feb 1-7 Ski Steamboat Colorado.  Beautiful trip including a visit to Strawberry Springs. I stayed with my friend Betsy.  With Margaret W., Eva V., Trey C. and David MC.  

Photos here: https://dangerjudy.smugmug.com/Other/Other-1/Steamboat-2025

Feb 15 Locust Fork. In the Jackson Antix 2.0 medium.   Level 3.75.  Justin C. and I were going to do Calvert Prong but it had dropped out.

Feb 16 Mill/Murphy creek and Calvert Prong.  In the Pyranha Scorch medium. Mill/Murphy was minimum and manky.  Calvert was high and the weather was down to 41F.  I had a crappy swim on Cyclops.

March 1-2 Mulberry Fork Races.   I volunteer gate judged on Saturday and went by Sunday to take photos.  Level was low but they added the Duck release Saturday so it was higher than minimum.

March 15-21 Roatan Diving. With Andrea and Keith, Larry and Leslie.  Wonderful trip. I did 9 dives, including a night dive that featured the String of Pearls.  Tuesday was too windy to dive so I visited Carambola Gardens.  Not sure why I left Roatan to return home.  Photos here: https://dangerjudy.smugmug.com/Other/SCUBA-DIVING/Roatan-March-2025.

March 15-23 Mulberry.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0m. Level around 1.17.  Great surfing with lots of friends.  Unfortunately I got something in my eye (probably sunblock) and it was windy so I was dealing with that.  Mexican at Casa Fiesta afterwards.

March 29 Mulberry. In the Jackson Antix 2.0m. Level around 1.17 again.  Perfect surfing levels at Training Wheels, Lunchstop, and Hawaii 5-0.  The Antix 2.0 has turned out to be the best boat for my needs that I've ever owned.  With Peggy, Andy, Joe, and open boaters John and Bobby.

Me surfing the Antix 2.0 at Hawaii 5-0 wave.

April 5 Locust Fork Races.  In the Jackson Antix 2.0.  For the first time in many years I decided to race. As in the past I was very slow but had fun. Great time visiting with friends and playing guitar with Shannon G on violin. I chose not to camp due to the forecast. Unfortunately the weather overnight meant Sunday was cancelled. The river went from 2 ft. range to 13 ft. range very quickly Sunday morning!