May-June11 Bowlines - Bluegrass Wildwater Association

Newsletter of The Bluegrass Wildwater Association since 1976. May/June2011
In this issue:
A Grand Journey into the Big Ditch
Photos from BWA 2011 Spring Clinic
2011 Week of Rivers Journey: Part-time River Gypsies
Argentine & Bolivian Whitewater
Off the Cuff
Eddylines of Interest:
Message from our President.
Minutes from BWA Meetings
Summer Party Announcement
BWA Summer Roll Sessions Info
A Grand Jouney into the Big Ditch
23 Days of Introspection, Relaxation & Beer!
Brandon Jett
I recall it was early February of 2010, one of those slow days at work spent daydreaming of rivers and road
trips. I noticed JBob had posted on the BWA forum about the deadline to apply for a private Grand Canyon
permit, and there were 3 days left to get in your application…I said what the heck, its only $25. I filled it out
online, and every desert rat knows the prime time to be in the southwest’s canyon country is April and May
so I chose 4 launch dates in April. Springtime in the desert brings snowmelt from the high country and the
springs and side canyons are full, not to mention the flowers and cactus that are showing their true colors
and awakening after a cold, dry winter.
Continued on pg. 3
Looking Ahead
Coming BWA Meetings
Bowlines is the Newsletter of the Bluegrass Wildwater
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New BWA Members
April
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May
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Dates:
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Members:
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Allen Kirwood
Clay Warren
Fred Coates
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Don Spangler
Don Perkins
Bethany Overfield
Brandon Jett
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2
Continued from pg. 1
A week or 2 later, I received an email from the Park
Service, the subject line stating “You have won a trip
through the Grand Canyon river lottery!” What? No
way. Can’t be…after emailing Brent (he won a permit
for 2010) to see if this was legit and verifying that it
was, I immediately approached my boss and
informed him of my good luck…and asked if I could
take a month off of work next year. Fortunately I didn’t have to quit my job…let the games begin! I started to put the team together, and researched outfitters
and logistics. We ended up with 16 people…9 from
Kentucky, 4 from Colorado, 2 from Oregon and 1 from
Montana when all was said and done…west versus
east. I decided on the option to take out at Pearce
Ferry instead of Diamond Creek, adding about 50
miles to the trip, which gets you through the entire
Grand Canyon from start to finish. 280 miles in 23
days, boating through one of the Seven Wonders of
the World.
The Kentucky crew consisted of myself, Bart,
The Crew in Blacktail Canyon
Bethany, Mark Stuber, Todd Harbour, Tim Miller, Mike
Larimore, my mom Jamie and her friend Ellen. We
went with Canyon REO as our outfitter, going with 4
18’ oar rigs, the deluxe kitchen setup, and most of the
necessities that the Park Service requires. The food
and menus REO put together were incredible, more
than enough and it was delicious. These guys have it
down to a science. Nate and Chloe from Grand
Junction, Colorado brought their 15’ cataraft, and
Bryan Moore from Grand Junction brought his brand
new 15’ raft. He happened to be the only raft flip of
the trip, early on in the Roaring Twenties. With only 3
kayak swims, the amount of carnage was minimal; I
swam at Grapevine Rapid, Todd swam at Granite and
Nikos (also from Grand Junction) swam somewhere,
trying to C-1 his Jackson Fun. Quite a crew of kayakers…myself hand paddling the Jefe, Bart C-1, Todd
charging the Nomad through every hole and wave,
and Nikos with a single blade for the first time. Not to
mention the wigs.........
We set off from Lees Ferry on Friday, April 8th. Nate
3
had been down 3 times before,
so he knew some of the highlights of the Canyon, and
where and when to scout. We
had 16,000 CFS consistently
almost the entire trip, which is
very rare for a Grand Canyon
descent. The first few days
were a bit chilly and windy at
times, and I was sick the first 3
days with a stomach bug that I
happened to pass along to a
few other crew
members…sorry guys, at least
it only lasted 24 hours for you!
We set off through the sandstone corridor, into the deepening canyon…Badger, Soap,
House Rock, the Roaring
Twenties…our first taste of
Grand Canyon rapids. The
first few days got us acclimatized and used to the cold, big
water and dry desert environment. By about the fourth day
the teams were clicking,
unloading and loading boats
quickly and efficiently, making
the set-up and break down of
camps a breeze. We had 4
teams of 4…cook crew, dishes
crew, groover crew and the day
off crew, switching up every
day to keep it fair and balanced.
A private trip down the Grand
Canyon is a lot of work, but
worth it. Layover days are a
must, staying in the same
camp for 2 nights and relaxing,
not having to worry about
heavy lifting and taking a break
to enjoy the best of what the
Grand has to offer…and of
course enjoying cold beers
from the comfort of your camp
chair without a worry in the
world, except maybe getting a
sunburn or making sure a
raven doesn’t fly off with your
sunscreen.
View down canyon from Nankoweap
4
5
little trouble, while I had a knack for finding the
sneaks and shoulders of most of the big ones…I didn’t want to lose my stylish afro wig by flipping, that
would have been a travesty. The rafts styled all the
big rapids, Stuber and his buddy Mike from Montana
made Crystal and Lava look easy, and Larimore had
the best line at Lava. Brian Massey and Rocio, from
Oregon, along with Bethany, went deep in Lava but
came out upright with big smiles. Tim Miller steered
the heavy kitchen raft down everything with no probThe temperature was getting warmer the further
downstream we traveled, and the side canyons were lems. Todd had the most epic surf of the trip in Lava,
but paddled out and we all celebrated at Tequila
begging to be visited…the first week we stopped at
North Canyon, Redwall Cavern, Saddle Canyon, and Beach, the famous spot below Lava on river right.
While only 10% of the Colorado River through the
the granaries at Nankoweap while running some big
rapids like Unkar, Hance and Sockdolager. All of the Grand Canyon is whitewater, the rapids are a
blast…huge reactionary waves, big boils and chaotic
camp sites in the Grand are exceptionally clean with
great views and plenty of sand, and we didn’t have to eddy lines, holes to avoid and crazy laterals that will
appear out of nowhere. Quite a rush paddling into
contend much with other groups at first so we had a
those troughs, picking your next move from the top of
choice of camps. Once we started to get into the
a wave. Some we scouted, others we would read
Upper Granite Gorge, the big rapids started to show
and run with Nate leading the way and a brief
up past Phantom Ranch…Horn, Hermit, Granite,
Crystal and the Gems. The classification of rapids is description from the river guidebook. Once the
Canyon enters the Granite Gorge, the walls close in
different in the Canyon, it goes 1-10 with Lava and
Crystal rated a 9, the highest rating on the river. Todd and the rapids get a bit more intense. The geology
and Bart gutted the meat of almost all the rapids with changes to schists and metamorphic sandstones, in
Around mile 30 the canyon deepens, and the side
hikes start to get much more interesting. The geology
is fascinating, cutting down into older rock each day
and as the light hits the canyon walls the colors constantly change. Having green water and not the typical muddy brown was a nice touch and definitely
added to the intense variations of color we saw on a
daily basis.
Granite Gorge at Dusk
6
7
many places the polished and sculpted walls are 1.7
billion year old Vishnu Schist, some of the oldest
exposed rock on earth.
From a personal standpoint, the highlight of the trip
for me was the side canyons. This is the reason I
applied for the permit, the river to me was an awesome bonus, a medium to get me to the best of what
the Grand Canyon has to offer. I fell in love with the
canyon country of the desert southwest after living in
western Colorado for 5 years, and spending a lot of
time in southern Utah exploring the nooks and crannies of the Colorado Plateau. There are some real
gems down in the big ditch, canyons like Blacktail
Canyon and its example of the Great Uncomformity, a
geological oddity with a gap in the rock record spanning millions of years. Other classics we explored
with the benefit of layover days were Shinumo Creek
and its raging waters from North Rim snowmelt, Deer
Creek and its awesome narrows, waterfalls, archeology and gushing spring, Tuckup Canyon and its unsurpassed beauty and variety…this one was my favorite.
Full of wildlife, blooming flora, cool geology, waterfalls,
cold clear stream, exciting climbing and route finding,
and an overall cool vibe and energy coming from the
canyon. We also hiked in Royal Arch Creek and the
classic Elves Chasm, Matkatamiba Canyon with its
Muav Limestone narrows and clear stream, Vishnu
Creek and its cool granite narrows, and Havasu
Creek. Havasu is a must see for every Grand
Canyon trip, as long as the water isn’t muddy.
Deer Creek Narrows
Calcium Carbonate deposits create travertine ledges,
and give the creek its crazy turquoise color. Lots of
waterfalls, and the colors here are amazing with a
mix of blues, greens and reds.
We paddled past Diamond Creek, ran a section with
some really fun rapids, and then things quieted
down…a few days to go, almost out of the Canyon.
By day 21 we started to see helicopter tours from
Vegas, and signs of Lake Mead started to
show…eroded silt banks caving in, brown water…fortunately we had good current the rest of the way.
Reality was starting to kick in, and the inevitable fact
that we had to enter the “real” world soon. Pearce
Ferry appeared a few days later, and I think it’s safe
to say we had our fill. Ready for a shower, beer on
tap, bed…but if I had the chance I would have gone
back to the top and done it again. We de-rigged,
said goodbye to the Grand Junction crew, and the
Canyon REO shuttle picked the rest of us up, heading to Kingman for lunch at In-N-Out Burger…and the
shock of small, enclosed crowded places…but that
burger was damn good! Back to Flagstaff, dinner,
goodbyes to Brian and Rocio, and a good night’s
Havasu
8
9
sleep. The most exciting drama of the trip was getting to Flagstaff and realizing I had lost my ID somewhere
in the Canyon or at Lees Ferry…somehow I got on a plane the next day without it, and made it home safe
and sound.
Huge props to my mom and Ellen, they were out of their comfort zone and never complained once….I think
they ditched the tents after the first week. Fortunately they never ran out of wine! They had the time of their
lives, and were an integral part of the team. The most rewarding experience for me was being able to bring
my mom on the trip of a lifetime.
If you haven’t been down the Grand Canyon, find a way to go…hope for a permit, or an invitation…if it
comes your way, drop everything and make it happen! We are lucky to have such an awesome place in the
states, a place where you can disconnect for weeks at a time and test yourself, physically and mentally. A
great place for a soul journey… I give it two thumbs up.
All Photos by Brandon Jett
pg.
pg.
pg.
pg.
pg.
5 Top
7 Top
9 Top
10
11
Canyon scenery about mile 130
Bottom
Blooming barrel cactus
Bottom
Havasu Creek
Bottom
Bart in C-1 approaching Redwall Cavern
Rafts below Bedrock Rapid
10
Mark Stuber/ Mike Holmes hero line Lava
Evening Primrose
Redwall Cavern
11
Photos from BWA Clinic 2011
Photos by
Don Spangler
12
at Elkhorn City, Kentucky
13
14
15
2011 Week of Rivers Journey.....
Part-time River Gypsies
Brent Austin
Ron Hunt
Hugo at Big Splat of the Lower Big Sandy.
Hugo Araneda and I have been paddling together for
approximately 17 – 18 years. I took him down the
Upper Gauley, the Russell Fork and the Narrows of the
Green, among other rivers for his first time in the mid
nineties. He is a true veteran of Class V boating and a
good friend. I love to be on the water with him. So,
with a bit of persuasion and pestering, I got Hugo as a
paddling and traveling mate for this years’ Week of
Rivers. No small accomplishment, but as you can tell
from the Cover Photograph of Hugo launching a perfect
line at Big Splat on the Lower Big Sandy, he went Big
and that stands as a metaphor for the whole trip.
(Metaphors be with you!) It was an awesome journey
with our friends as we played River Gypsies, for 8 solid
days of boating.
this trip for a number of years, and it was his week of
rivers originally, but I guess I have confiscated it from
him). So, with that in mind, I began to round up the
usual suspects and urge some of my other buddies to
jump in. Hugo and I had been boating a fair bit this
spring, he has been one of my boating partners for
nearly two decades, and we are simply good friends.
So, I was stoked when his calendar opened up and he
informed me he could ride with me and go. Yee ha, the
trip was on.
Friday, April 29, 2011, Hugo and I drove to our
crib in the Smokies to decide where to go the following
day to begin the river journey. Scott Bradfield, a veteran
of the Week of Rivers trips with me in the past, was
heading straight to the river and hoping to get on Cain
The Week of Rivers this year seemed a bit later than
Creek with some guys he met from Chattanooga. (They
past years, as our plan was to paddle and end up at the got on and it was high and apparently quite epic.) As
Cheat Fest, which falls on the first Saturday in May.
always, the plan was to follow the water, work our way
This year, that was on May 7, 2011, so we put our
from the South and end up in northern West Virginia to
blocks of time in for the week before and began to
re-experience the arrival of Spring. There had been
anticipate what has become a grand week of paddling a substantial amounts of rain in the Cumberland Plateau,
series of classics with good friends, although one of my with some rain drifting east, so we were eyeing the
very good boating buddies, Don Kinser, was again
Caney Fork, but also hoping to start off at the Watauga.
unable to make this trip this year. (He and I had done
We made a fine meal that evening, played drums, had a
16
Big South Fork of the Cumberland, running at a nice
2200 or so. While we lost Chief who had to return to
Knoxville, everyone else from the day before was there,
and we were joined by Wes Prince. A nice relaxing day
on the river, the BSF was beautiful as always, but
because we all had been on the river many times
before (except Wes and Ron, this was their first run),
we definitely were wanting more and wanting to “step it
up”. And West Virginia had water everywhere, so we
were ready to move on.
But, of course, our first stop north was to stay at
Carson Island and paddle the Russell Fork. Setting up
Ron Hunt
camp that evening, we learned from Steve Ruth that
some big news had taken place – Osama Bin Laden
Scott Bradfield at Devil's Kitchen, Caney Fork River
was finally found and killed. News comes late to those
fire and sat in the hot tub. By Saturday morning, April
hanging on remote rivers.
30, it was clear that Caney Fork was going to be the
Anyway, Monday morning
move and we were going to meet up with YT, Chief,
we went to the Rusty Fork,
Scott Bradfield, Ocoee Ed, Damon Patterson, Dave
had breakfast and then me,
Alnutt, Heather Warman, Ron Hunt, Fred Wilson and
Hugo, Scott and Wes met
Tyler Williams. The “Dirty Dozen” that we consisted of,
up with James Stapleton
put on the Caney Fork at a level of 1.5 and dropping
(ended up at 1.3 when we finished), Chief guessed it to (Ron took a day off in
Morehead), and we had a
be roughly 600 cfs, and while on the low end, it was
nice 580 level at Garden
absolutely wonderful. I can’t say enough about the
Hole. A beautiful sunny day on the river, and while I
uniqueness of the Caney Fork. It is remote, it is fairly
thought I had a bit of excitement when I got blown
long (perhaps 10+ miles or so), it is action packed with
through Second Drop into the fold at Third Drop to get
fairly continuous class III and lots of IV technical water,
and it is by all means, totally fun. The run took us 3 and flipped, Wes got surfed hard in Second Drop and was
a half hours, without any time taken for scouting except not coming out until James came through, collided with
him and pushed him out. Triple Drop is always a subat Devils Kitchen, so we boogied down pretty quick. It
was just a fabulous day of sunshine and camaraderie on stantial rapid, and Second Drop is definitely sticky at
that level. Always great fun on our favorite river. Again,
a beautiful river in the Cumberland Plateau.
we wanted to take it up a notch and/or get on new
rivers.
That night, we drove to Rock Creek
Campground (Nemo Campground) on the Emory-Obed
Game plan next: go to Bernie Farley’s cabin on
hoping to have the rain that was moving in get somethe Meadow River and see what was happening on that
thing up in the area like Island Creek or even bump up
Daddy’s Creek which had been closed due to the annu- river and the surrounding river paddling opportunities.
al Turkey Hunt at Catoosa. We got wet, but not enough The Gauley had been releasing 10,000 cfs and the
to get anything up, so we decided to move north via the Meadow was dropping from a previously high level into
the 800 range. Bernie suggested the Lower Meadow
and gave us some names of some locals that paddle it
often. As it was, Hugo and Scott took up the offer and
paddled their first descent of the Lower Meadow with
Todd Richendollar, a hot paddler from Fayetteville, WV
who was on the river all the time (about 50 times a
year). Me, Ron and Wes, not feeling the love, and otherwise intimidated by the Lower (I have 5 runs on it
back in the 90s, so I knew what to expect), settled in for
a nice relaxing day on the Middle Meadow enjoying
class III water at that level and working up an appetite.
We got back to Bernie’s and began putting together a
food plan for dinner in the rain and waited for our boys
to return to tell us about their adventure and make plans
Ron Hunt
for the next day. They had a great day and I think they
were impressed with the quality of the run. They conOn the Big South Fork of the Cumberland
17
fessed that they definitely got their adrenalin fix for the
day.
It rained all night. By the next morning, with
intermittent rain and taking advantage of breaks in the
weather, we packed up and headed up to Audra State
Park. It is my favorite place to camp in West Virginia
and is situated in the heart of the mountains, next to the
Middle Fork of the Tygart, and nestled amongst large
conifers and rhododendron. We arrived fairly late, and
decided to put on around 5:00 p.m. Hugo demurred the
paddle because he aggravated a muscle on the hike out
from the Lower Meadow the day before, so it was me,
Scott, Wes and Ron on the river. The level was lower
than I had done it before, and was reading 3.3 as we
paddled by the gauge. But, it was definitely paddleable,
was quite creeky and with pristine water and river mountain settings, was just awesome. When we got to the
Tygart gorge proper, it was running a little over 4 feet
and we enjoyed nice water and rapids including S-Turn
and Shoulder Snapper (which we got out to look at due
to the horizon line). We were back at camp by dark. It
is an amazingly short shuttle, much shorter than the
paddle itself.
had a great day, as did we. Tired from the day and the
week, we went to bed looking forward to seeing some of
our Kentucky boys living in the area and/or driving in,
the next day.
We awoke the next morning surrounded by
Kentuckians. YT, Clay and Chief showed up in the middle of the night. DJ and Chris arrived the evening
before. Matt Walker, Willy Witt and others were going to
meet us at the Lower Big Sandy which was running a
nice 5.6 level at the put in. What a day! Other than
Chief and I both penciling in at Wonder Falls and face
splatting and having to roll up, it was a splendid day of
precision boating. Hugo and Clay fired up Big Splat
with Matt Walker and we all had an awesome day on
the river. Wow, what a cool run! I have to say I am
impressed with this classic every time I get on it.
Back to camp, we threw together a feast of Rib
Eyes, potatoes and salad, drank a little red wine, had
some beer and then after visiting with Jay Ditty and Eric
Nies, most of us retired for the evening, tired and sore
from yet another awesome day of boating. The next
day was still up in the air, as most wanted to go to the
Top Yough, followed by a run on the Upper Yough. But,
The next morning, we were in touch with Matt
I wanted to paddle with Jay if possible, as I count him
Walker, Jay Ditty and Willy Witt and moving towards the as another one of my now old paddling friends, with
Albright area. Matt offered to show Hugo and Scott the BWA and Kentucky roots. I knew his Dad, from my
Upper Blackwater which was running at a good first time years playing competitive tennis in the 70s and 80s.
level of 230 cfs. Again, more than I wanted to paddle at Further, Jay and Charlotte have a less than one year old
this time, I opted for other paddling opportunities. Wes son, Sawyer (as in Tom Sawyer of Huckleberry Finn on
and Ron opted to hang with me and we went straight to the Mississippi River), and his time was very limited to
Albright to snag an early campsite at Cheat River
boat that weekend. He wanted to do a couple of laps
Campground, which is adjacent to the Cheat Festival
on the Lower Big Sandy and I told him we would touch
site. We arrived in sunny conditions, set up camp, took base in the morning about doing that run again.
our time and finally decided to get on the river and run
shuttle. The Cheat River was running at a very nice 2’
So I vacillated in my mind about the next day and lislevel, perhaps my favorite level for this run, and we slid tened to Jay explain his newer perspective in boating
in the water at 6:20 p.m. for a quick jaunt down the
class V+ classics like Decker Creek that had been runCanyon and enjoying missing large holes like Big Nasty ning often this year. He said that he had only been on it
or the one directly in the flow at Coliseum Rapid. We
twice this year, despite how often it ran, because he
were off the river in an hour and 40 minutes, got back to was sketched out about the sieves that used to be
our camp and met up with Hugo and Scott who were
clogged and now were in play and extremely dangerous
just getting back from their run on the Upper B. They
on an already dangerous river. He also commented that
Ron Hunt
Below Wonder Falls on the Lower Big Sandy
18
Ron Hunt
Hanging with my buds on the Lower Big Sandy
despite his world class standing as a C-1 paddler, he
was not too keen on running other class V+ runs like
the Raven’s Fork, in North Carolina, for example, close
to where he and his family are moving this summer
(2011). The reason he offered was sound: His son
Sawyer. He commented that he wanted to be there to
see him grow up and face the world and he already had
seen other of our friends with small children perish in
unexpected ways on a river and not be there to share in
that important experience. “Ah ha”, I thought to myself,
“I recall when I started stepping back from wanting constant class V action too.” I too have lost friends on
rivers and it makes you pause. I am glad to see Jay
think that way as I want that brother around as a leader
in the whitewater community he has become, for many
years ahead. I know that he wants to see the world
through his son’s eyes. Anyway, all that made me
appreciate Jay and want to paddle with him all the
more, and the Lower Big Sandy was still running around
5.5 on the gauge. It would be good to see it back to
back perhaps.
consecutive days of paddling and also my upper back
was feeling a bit tweaked from the penciling in at
Wonder Falls the day before. I did not feel like the
Lower Big Sandy and Hugo announced that he had
never paddled the Cheat and would like to take the
Green boat down. To me, Chief and Ron, a nice chill
day on the Cheat which was running about 1.5 feet on
the broken bridge gauge, sounded appealing on a partly
sunny day in the low 60s. We debated the Yough, but
agreed we had a full week and would be back up during
the summer to paddle it, so we prepared our shuttle
from camp. (I love camping at put–ins and take outs).
After returning, we were joined by a kid that I had met at
the Cheat Fest the year before who went by the
name/handle: Bones. This would be his first time on the
Cheat Canyon and he wanted to paddle it with us. Of
course we welcomed him to join us. Then, unexpectedly, we received a call from YT. Apparently, giving his
attention to arranging for boats and gear to be placed in
his van to go to the Yough, his own gear, including his
helmet, life vest and skirt, were left behind. We waited
The next morning, I woke up to breakfast whipped up by for him to return and paddle with us on the Cheat. He
Chief and all the boys rousing and getting ready for the jumped in a Green Boat and joined our little caravan on
Top and Upper Yough. I was feeling my 52 years and 7 the river. Again, the Cheat is a very cool river, a river
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with good flow and it is not a creek. It has classic West
Virginia features and scenery and the whitewater is
probably as difficult as the Lower Gauley, and being a
fairly large river, the flows allow the paddle to have a
nice “bite” in the water - a treat after a day of creeking
on the Lower Big Sandy.
A great run, we cruised down to below Coliseum Rapid
and hung out in a rock shelter on the river left while it
rained gently. A bit of lunch and after taking a break, we
pushed back out into the current and paddled out to the
takeout at the Jenkinsville Bridge. YT reminded me of
our slogan “Another Fine Day of Precision Boating”, and
we giggled. Ready for a cold beer and the drive back to
camp we loaded up the truck and headed back to
Albright. After all, it was Cheat Fest and there was food
to consume and music to listen to. I, like everyone on
the trip, felt the soreness from daily boating, and it felt
good to have been doing it after a solid week of rivers being the River Gypsies that we were - if only for 8
days.
coffee, broke down camp and meandered back to
Lexington, content and feeling completely satisfied from
our boating trip. As the Grateful Dead waxed poetic on
my Ipod player on the drive back, we observed the
changes in the flora. The budding spring leaflets up on
Cheat mountain, gave way to the appearance of early
summer foliage on our way home, and indeed, we felt
like we were connected to it all and that we had been
and were, as the song went, “The Eyes of the World” for
at least a week. And, Mundania was still a day away.
Ah, the life of a River Gypsy – if only for a week in the
prime spring paddling season. No plan, just go with the
flow. The opposite of Mundania. So, with that in mind,
I reckon I will do something very mundane: I will calendar it again for next year - right now.
See you’ins on the River!
Brent Austin
We did not boat Sunday, but leisurely got up, had our
Ron Hunt
Cheat River Festival Music Scene
20
Argentine & Bolivian Whitewater
Glenn Goodrich on the left in his shredder with an Argentinian guide on the Juramento in Argentina.
Greetings to all of you on my reduced stories list. A
little update from my first of my second half of my
time in South America, with a couple of stories of
Argentina lifestyle and commercial rafting in Bolivia in
the text.
Been getting on rivers regularly. Got to borrow a raft
(had my shredder stored elsewhere) and paddle with
my friend and co-worker in Montana, KT and her
friend on the Maipo near Santiago, Chile. Duckied
the Mendoza River on the way through, then got up
to a beautiful area of Argentina called Barreal and
shredded the Rio Los Patos. Then on to northern
Argentina to a river called the Rio Juramento, where
the owner of Salta Rafting, Grillo and his girlfriend
hooked me up for a few days. Shredded a couple of
runs and found my shredder has a bad leak. Made it
down pumping air in it every half hour. I found the
leak, a difficult spot to fix. It wasn’t just a valve where
you could possibly eliminate the leak by cleaning it.
No bueno.
On to Bolivia. The poorest country in South America,
so the cheapest as well. Leaving after many months
in Argentina. The ice cream in Argentina was the best
which I’ll really miss, always had three flavors, a
dulce de leche, a chocolate and a fruit ice cream.
The size of a Cold Stone Gotta-Have-It for just
US$1.75. Mmmmm.
In Bolivia I am splurging for a private room, just had
one with a private bath as well for US$4.50 per night.
It is nice to have the private room here, because in
dorms, my life style didn’t really coincide with the
Argentinian lifestyle.
A bit about that and my hostel life in Argentina:
I usually go to bed between 10 and 12 and try to get
to sleep while the rest of the hostel goers, who fit in
with the Argentina lifestyle came in and out of the
room, lights on, lights off until it was time for them to
go out, usually around 2 am. I’d get up for some river
trip or tour at often 7 am and tried to be quite in case
21
anyone was home yet from their night at the bar. For
me normal US breakfast lunch and dinner. Not for the
Argentinians or hostelers in Argentina. There routine
is you wake up around noon, unless you have a job,
then you wake up at 9:50, 5 minutes to get your mate
breakfast and 5 minutes to get to work at 10. For
those not working breakfast is mate with a bit of
bread. 2 o’clock is siesta (job or no job), during which
you have your biggest meal of the day, almuerzo
(lunch). That is unless there is an asado tonight (SA
barbeque) which is the biggest meal. There is at least
one sometimes 2 asados per week. The lunch is
soup, rice, a meat and veggies (even if your having
an asado). If you work, back to work at about 4, if not
you can nap or start partying.
They don’t need any stinking hitches in Bolivia!
Dinner is usually around 10 pm, unless there is an
asado then you start cooking the meat (which is with
salt only, asados are great!) at 10. The asado is
served around midnight. The partying goes on at
home so you can be ready to go to the disco or
favorite bar, some which do not open until 3 am! Yeah
really. You go to the bar until it closes at 6 or 7, then
head home to sleep until 10 or 12. Those times when
I got up a 6 am to catch a bus or get some early tour,
in some small towns, the streets were the busiest at
this time, as it was packed from people heading
home from the bar.
You fill up five taxis with staff and guests. The hatches are open except for the one that have the life-jackets, some of which were sewn last night, by Ariels
girlfriend, Lydia. The other hatches are open so than
you can fit 6 in the cab with two people (even guests)
ride in the back with their feet dangling inches above
the pavement. Bolivia rafting, quite exciting.
And my next Bolivian river was when I did a 3 day
jungle tour in Rurrenbaque, the last day, we build a
raft out of trees and travel four miles on the Rio
Tuichi. My guide, Alcide, nailed the one big wave, but
I really think he was trying to avoid it, got all our gear
and my camera soaked, but great hit!
Anyway, even though different, loved it and really
enjoyed Argentina. Back to Bolivia. Very nice 4-day
tour with 3 Europeans, through a national park and to
the Uyuni Salt Flats. Uyuni, not great though. Real
dirty though, approached the town from three different
directions and each time thought I was going through
the landfill.
But the most bizarre part now on these Bolivian river,
was that when I ran the shredder. Pumped up my
tube at the last second, with anticipation of it leaking
bad. Both runs where a good hour and a half, tube
still solid. I have no idea how, but it seemed to have
fixed itself.
To La Paz, which I like, almost 14,000 above sea
level. Bolivian culture with ladies in their top hats, for
real not for tourism show. Off to Villa Tunari, a tiny
town on the edge of the jungle, where I had a contact
of an owner of Bolivia Rafting, Ariel. Two rivers here,
shredded a nice Class III+ with a guide named
Bandito. Next day hopped in a customer boat on the
Class II+, Lower Espiritu Santo, as Ariel wanted me
to guide the next day. Then in the afternoon, Bandito
and I shredded another Class III-III+ run the Upper
Espiritu Santo. The next day I guided a group of
Bolivianas. Got by with my poor Spanish, but now
have down the adelante and atras commands and did
much better than my carnage day on the Mendoza in
February. Interesting this company’s capacity (2
boats) 16 person trip. A taxi comes and you tie the
trailer with rafts, to the back seat of the taxi (no hitch).
Part two (second half) is about to begin when my long
time friend, Chris Erb arrives tomorrow. Hasta luego.
Greetings to all of you on my reduced stories list. A little update from my first of my second half of my time
in South America, with a couple of stories of
Argentina lifestyle and commercial rafting in Bolivia in
the text.
Been getting on rivers regularly. Got to borrow a raft
(had my shredder stored elsewhere) and paddle with
my friend and co-worker in Montana, KT and her
friend on the Maipo near Santiago, Chile. Duckied the
Mendoza River on the way through, then got up to a
beautiful area of Argentina called Barreal and shredded the Rio Los Patos. Then on to northern Argentina
to a river called the Rio Juramento, where the owner
of Salta Rafting, Grillo and his girlfriend hooked me
up for a few days. Shredded a couple of runs and
22
Glenn goodrich guiding on the Rio Espiritu in Villa Tunari, Bolivia.
found my shredder has a bad leak. Made it down
pumping air in it every half hour. I found the leak, a
difficult spot to fix. It wasn’t just a valve where you
could possibly eliminate the leak by cleaning it. No
bueno.
I usually go to bed between 10 and 12 and try to get
to sleep while the rest of the hostel goers, who fit in
with the Argentina lifestyle came in and out of the
room, lights on, lights off until it was time for them to
go out, usually around 2 am. I’d get up for some river
trip or tour at often 7 am and tried to be quite in case
On to Bolivia. The poorest country in South America, anyone was home yet from their night at the bar. For
so the cheapest as well. Leaving after many months
me normal US breakfast lunch and dinner. Not for the
in Argentina. The ice cream in Argentina was the best Argentinians or hostelers in Argentina. There routine
which I’ll really miss, always had three flavors, a
is you wake up around noon, unless you have a job,
dulce de leche, a chocolate and a fruit ice cream. The then you wake up at 9:50, 5 minutes to get your mate
size of a Cold Stone Gotta-Have-It for just US$1.75.
breakfast and 5 minutes to get to work at 10. For
Mmmmm.
those not working breakfast is mate with a bit of
bread. 2 o’clock is siesta (job or no job), during which
In Bolivia I am splurging for a private room, just had
you have your biggest meal of the day, almuerzo
one with a private bath as well for US$4.50 per night. (lunch). That is unless there is an asado tonight (SA
It is nice to have the private room here, because in
barbeque) which is the biggest meal. There is at least
dorms, my life style didn’t really coincide with the
one sometimes 2 asados per week. The lunch is
Argentinian lifestyle.
soup, rice, a meat and veggies (even if your having
an asado). If you work, back to work at about 4, if not
A bit about that and my hostel life in Argentina:
you can nap or start partying.
23
Dinner is usually around 10 pm, unless there is an
asado then you start cooking the meat (which is with
salt only, asados are great!) at 10. The asado is
served around midnight. The partying goes on at
home so you can be ready to go to the disco or
favorite bar, some which do not open until 3 am! Yeah
really. You go to the bar until it closes at 6 or 7, then
head home to sleep until 10 or 12. Those times when
I got up a 6 am to catch a bus or get some early tour,
in some small towns, the streets were the busiest at
this time, as it was packed from people heading home
from the bar.
But the most bizarre part now on these Bolivian river,
was that when I ran the shredder. Pumped up my
tube at the last second, with anticipation of it leaking
bad. Both runs where a good hour and a half, tube
still solid. I have no idea how, but it seemed to have
fixed itself.
Part two (second half) is about to begin when my
long time friend, Chris Erb arrives tomorrow. Hasta
luego.
About Glenn:
• Started raft guiding in 1977 on the New and Gauley
Anyway, even though different, loved it and really
Rivers.
enjoyed Argentina. Back to Bolivia. Very nice 4-day
•
Was associated with the BWA during its’ early
tour with 3 Europeans, through a national park and to
years.
the Uyuni Salt Flats. Uyuni, not great though. Real
dirty though, approached the town from three different • General Manager of Carolina Wilderness on the
French Broad, Nolichucky and Pigeon for 17 years
directions and each time thought I was going through
until selling to Nantahala Outdoor Center.
the landfill.
• After sale became a full time raft guide.
• Started guiding out west in 2003, currently guide
To La Paz, which I like, almost 14,000 above sea
Grand Canyon, Salt and Gauley and wherever I
level. Bolivian culture with ladies in their top hats, for
land for the summers.
real not for tourism show. Off to Villa Tunari, a tiny
•
Currently on an 8 month trip of rafting rivers in
town on the edge of the jungle, where I had a contact
South
America, so far have paddled 30 different
of an owner of Bolivia Rafting, Ariel. Two rivers here,
river sections, 54 river trips in 5 months.
shredded a nice Class III+ with a guide named
• In my career 354 different river sections in 28 counBandito. Next day hopped in a customer boat on the
tries.
Class II+, Lower Espiritu Santo, as Ariel wanted me to
guide the next day. Then in the afternoon, Bandito
and I shredded another Class III-III+ run the Upper
Espiritu Santo. The next day I guided a group of
Bolivianas. Got by with my poor Spanish, but now
have down the adelante and atras commands and did
much better than my carnage day on the Mendoza in
February. Interesting this company’s capacity (2
boats) 16 person trip. A taxi comes and you tie the
trailer with rafts, to the back seat of the taxi (no hitch).
You fill up five taxis with staff and guests. The hatches Hey you know I have run a lot of rivers around the
are open except for the one that have the life-jackets, world (354 to be exact) including 30 on this South
America trip. Don, iIf you want to let the BWA memsome of which were sewn last night, by Ariels girlfriend, Lydia. The other hatches are open so than you bership know that they are more than welcome to ecan fit 6 in the cab with two people (even guests) ride mail me for advice on any trip planning that I can
help with, feel free to put my e-mail address up.
in the back with their feet dangling inches above the
pavement. Bolivia rafting, quite exciting.
Thanks,
Glenn
And my next Bolivian river was when I did a 3 day
jungle tour in Rurrenbaque, the last day, we build a
Glenn Goodrich
raft out of trees and travel four miles on the Rio
Tuichi. My guide, Alcide, nailed the one big wave, but [email protected]
I really think he was trying to avoid it, got all our gear (828) 380-9353
103 Sunny Ridge Dr.
and my camera soaked, but great hit!
Asheville, NC 28804
Offer of Advice for BWA members on
Whitewater Trips by someone with over 40
years of River Running Experience!
24
Off the Cuff
Comments From the Forum
Worth Remembering
Holiday Weekend Paddling Stories?
eddy's to hit at O&W...definitly one of my favorite
places to paddle, and one of the most beautiful
sections of river in the southeast.
Who got out and got wet? I heard rumors about
some action on the Ocoee, Pigeon, Green
Narrows, Elkhorn, Yough...
Elkhorn on Saturday kicked off the weekend...a
brief warmup for my first Ocoee trip in a long time.
This was also the first weekend I spent paddling a
small flat-bottomed boat in what seems like forever...sure is nice not having to lug around a 45lb
barge everywhere, especially in 90 degree heat.
Picked up Dot and Todd H saturday evening and
headed south...had lots of first timers on sunday
for the Upper Ocoee...Jason P, Liz, Mel...and of
course Barry Sipple. Actually he's run it a bunch
but its always the first time for Barry. Anyway,
Chief and JBob led us down, added Brian Link and
Steve Price to the mix and enjoyed a day of great
lines, all smiles...creekboats, tiny boats, inbetween boats...hand paddles, regular paddles...
good stuff. It was only the 2nd time I've run the
Upper O, and after the Grand Canyon it didn't
seem very intimidating...still lots of holes you want
to miss but the lines are wide, and the waves a big
and bouncy. Thanks Dot for the use of the Project
45, maybe I shoudn't have sold mine.... Todd busted up his finger pretty good with a flip at Blue
Hole, but in usual Todd fashion rolled, shrugged it
off and paddled through every hole he could find.
Middle Ocoee putin was the usual mass of rubber,
buses, gawking tourists and more than a few cute
raft guides in bikinis...but I digress...the team
spread out on the river, I had a nice head bashing
stuck in a hole in a no-named nemesis rapid, a
brief swim...shook it off and enjoyed a day of raft
dodging on the Disneyland of rivers. I personally
dont mind the crowds at the Ocoee, it adds a certain element to the run...like the element of surprise, when you look behind you and there is a raft
4 feet away barreling down on you... all of the
sudden that tiny eddy looks catchable.
A tasty meal, some quality beers and a good night
sleep...then off to catch some Big South Fork
action before returning home...adding some balance to the weekend. Single file lines at the put-in
on Saturday to the remote, wilderness feel of the
BSF. Level was around 1000cfs when we left,
probably had ~900 for our run...got a late start,
just hit up the Canyon section to avoid the Gorge
shuttle. Spent 2 hours in there, surfing, ferrying,
attaining, and wowing the locals with our strange,
brightly colored plastic boat tricks. The BSF
Canyon, at levels below 1500, is one of the best
training grounds for class II-III boaters in my opinion. I still find a new eddy to hit or attainment
move every time I go back... Eddy contests in
Deliverance rapid, boof or ferry at Jake's, more
On that note, the BSF can dish it out unexpectedly...a few weeks ago Dot had a close call with an
undercut on the right side of Jake's Ledge, and
yesterday Todd got stuck in a bad recirculating
eddy/boil next to a boulder and wasn't coming out.
Eventually his boat flushed without him, but he
kept going back under...by the time we had a rope
ready he had kicked off the boulder and backstroked his way out, exhausted. Stay on your toes
out there, carnage happens, and sometimes it's
where you least expect it.
Brandon
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Old Paddlers
I wanted to share this link about the life of Walt
Blackadar, one of the sports pioneers who started
boating when he was 45 years old. I could not put
the book down when I got it. Walt ran Turnback
Canyon in 1971, 4 years after he started boating,
at the age of 49, having already accomplished the
first kayak descent of the Grand Canyon in the
late 60s. I have to admit to finding a certain inspiration at a story about a kid around my own age
now (I am 52) paddling the things he did at that
point in his life. Others in my age bracket that paddle, may find it interesting as well. Anyway, here is
the link:
[www.isu.edu]
Also, here is an excerpt of his story:
The Portal
By Ron Watters
This is the first chapter from Never Turn Back: The
Life of Whitewater Pioneer Walt Blackadar, by Ron
Watters, Copyright 1994.
THE cold, grit-filled water rumbled as it ground
between the dark polished walls of the gorge. The
half-mile-wide river funnelled into the canyon, and
the current accelerated as it narrowed to half its
width and then to half again and half once more
until it stretched only 200 feet from bank to bank.
Insignificant in the midst of the gray river, a white
object floated. Squeezed within the thin fiberglass
walls of the 13-foot-long craft, a man with a red
helmet paddled toward the portal of the gorge. The
red helmet and the orange from his life jacket
flashed the only warm colors present in the grim
grayness. The man himself was dressed all in
25
black, covered by a quarter-inch layer of neoprene
to shelter his skin from the sharp biting cold of the
river. He dipped the kayak paddle in one side and
then on the other, alternating sides, propelling his
boat ever nearer to the rumble. The rhythmic
motion of his arms was the only human movement
for a hundred miles.
ing at the river from 500 to 800 feet in the air is
deceiving. Once a kayaker gets to river level,
rapids that appear harmless from above can be
death traps. He would cautiously enter the
canyon, he had planned, and get out of his boat,
scouting here and there, looking at the rapids. If
he saw anything too dangerous, he would carry
his boat around.
A vast scale of inconceivable proportions rose
above him, a monstrous scale of the towering icy
mountains of the Saint Elias Range, standing like
giant transfixed souls shrouded in white; and slipping slowly downward between the white shrouds
moved great masses of glacial ice groaning and
cracking, flowing toward the river. To his right the
glacier snapped, and another house-sized slab of
ice slapped against the river and joined him as an
unwanted companion while the water raced into
the canyon.
It was early in the day on August 25, 1971, when
Walt Blackadar entered Turnback Canyon on the
Alsek River. He was a doctor from a small town in
Idaho. Originally from the East, he moved his family west shortly after the war so he could be near
hunting and fishing. Forty-nine years of age, he
had only started kayaking four years earlier, yet
with each stroke of his paddle he edged nearer to
the start of the most difficult stretch of big whitewater ever attempted by anyone. There was something incredible in the fact that he was there in the
first place. He wasn't much of an athlete. He had
done some wrestling in high school and certainly
he was endowed with strong shoulders, but otherwise he wasn't impressively built nor a particularly
attractive man, lacking the smooth muscular look
of young, fit world champion kayakers. He was
short, had a slight paunch and lacked an athlete's
endurance. He mostly kept in shape after his long
days at his medical office by working on his ranch
and doing a little hunting, hardly the kind of fitness
program one would expect in preparation for
attempting one of the world's great unrun stretches
of whitewater.
On top of that, he had little information to go on.
Only a few parties had ventured down the river,
and when these early explorers had scampered up
to the icy edge and peered down upon the furious
torrent of water cascading through Turnback
Canyon, they quickly understood the danger and
arduously carried their boats and equipment
around on the glacier. Blackadar had been told
that trying to run the canyon was foolish and
impossible. So why was he now attempting it?
He had, at least, hedged his bets somewhat
before starting. He was adventurous, but not foolish. Five days earlier, he had reconnoitered the
canyon from the seat of a single-engine, fixedwing plane. Carefully looking at the rapids below,
he could see that the waves appeared huge, perhaps as high as 20 feet, but he could see nothing
that from his experience was virtually impossible.
Difficult? Certainly. Exceedingly difficult? Yes, that
it most accurately was-and is. He knew that look-
It was a sensible plan, but the normal standards of
river running did not apply here. The water raged
between the narrow walls of Turnback Canyon
with more raw power, more exhausting frigidity,
and more frightening turbulence than anything in
his experience. Though he didn't fully realize it at
the time, the challenge he faced would in time represent the Everest of the whitewater world. It took
years of probing Everest with teams of mountaineers before it was climbed, and then more
years of team ascents before it was climbed solo.
Walt Blackadar was making the first attempt at
whitewater's Everest, and he was making the
attempt alone.
He reached the point of no return. The current
dashed him between the twisting canyon walls. He
paddled up over building swells of water. The bow
of the kayak rose and fell, rose and fell. Cold icy
water splashed over him as he struggled to keep
upright. The pace quickened, and his boat, like a
mouse tossed between the paws of a cat, reeled
from side to side. "I was in a frothy mess that was
far worse than I've seen," he wrote. "[It was] like
trying to run down a coiled rattler's back, the rattler striking me from all sides . . . . I skidded and
swirled and turned down this narrow line."
He held on, trying to survive the powerful grip of
the river. Busy with the business of survival, he
had little time to reflect why he was there. He had
mentioned in his diary of the trip that he got
depressed watching patients with incurable diseases and that he wasn't getting any younger. He
refused to retire from his manhood into what
Steinbeck called "a kind of spiritual and physical
semi-invalidism." Invalidism. It was a chilling word
to Blackadar. He wanted nothing to do with it. In
his work, he had seen it all too frequently. And he
had seen its menacing shadow descend upon his
father. He wondered why his father couldn't fight
back. "A kind of second childhood," said
Steinbeck, "falls on so many men. They trade their
violence for the promise of a small increase of life
span." Blackadar held fast to his violence like a
miser; no, more like a boxer fighting his way out of
a corner, but he had picked some place to stage
his fight.
Perhaps he really didn't know why he was there.
He knew, simply, that he must try. And try he must,
for he was in for the ride of his life. Powerful
whirlpools, back-rushing walls of water and vicious
holes lay in his path below. He hadn't even begun
to face the full fury of the river. If he faltered-or
even if he did everything right, but had bad luckthe current could tear him from his boat and he
26
would die. Conrad put it aptly: "An elemental force
is ruthlessly frank." To survive the forces of
Turnback he must not leave the protection of his
boat. Indeed, in his own words, he was "caught up
in a hell of whitewater."
US, whereas accidental drowning doesn't even
break the top 50. In 2007, the last year for which
complete statistics are currently compiled there
were:
--over 616,000 deaths from heart failure and
Elemental forces had always captivated him. He
found a certain sensual pleasure and heightened
sense of self-mastery from paddling a canoe
across a stormy, white-capped lake, stalking an elk
in a snowstorm, or maneuvering a raft over a
waterfall. He was motivated by the problem and
risk posed by an obstacle and was stimulated by
surmounting it, the tougher and more physical the
effort, the better. His attempt on Turnback Canyon
was an extension of this need to test himself, to
arouse his sensibilities, carried to an extreme. In a
sense, Blackadar's run of Turnback Canyon is a
metaphor for his own life. Even the word
"Turnback" is so accurately representative of what
he sought to overcome that a Hollywood script
writer couldn't have thought of a better appellation.
There could be no turning back for Blackadar. The
powerful motivating forces which brought him to
face the treacherous waters of Turnback Canyon
are the same which drove him relentlessly through
his life.
--3,443 accidental drownings
And except for one raw, trying day when youth
swirled past his reach, he never looked back, he
never turned back.
That's 179 heart failure deaths for every 1 drowning. For the AHA, this is a no brainer, since compressions only CPR has several advantages over
breaths and compressions in cases of heart failure.
1) It's easy. A 911 operator can train you to do it
on the spot over the phone2) It takes away the
squeamish factor. No mouth to mouth contact with
a clinically dead stranger.
3) Heart failure victims usually have a gallon of
fully oxygenated blood in their system so just circulating it can maintain them for a few minutes.
4) The vast majority of heart failure happens in a
setting where Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
is close at hand.
If EMS is not close at hand, CPR of any type has
an absolutely dismal chance of success against
heart failure. This is because CPR does not
address the mechanism of injury (usually a
blocked artery) and so if EMS can't get to the
victim quickly, their chances are extremely slim.
------------------------------------------------------------------Compressions-only CPR has one huge drawback
CPR Class
I have CPR cards for the folks who took their class
last week. In case you forgot, that's:
Lawrence Cable
Dorothy Edwards
Deborah Coates
Annette Trotter
Robert Milgate
Tammy Laurick
Joseph Laurick
Andrea Harbour
William Shelton
Derek Bocard
You can either pick these cards up from me at the
next SC meeting or regular meeting, or you can
ask me to mail them to you.
Hanley
More CPR. Very Important, please read
What you as a boater should know about the difference between traditional breaths-and-compressions CPR taught by the American Red Cross
(ARC) and compressions-only CPR taught by the
American Heart Association (AHA). It is vitally
important for you, as a boater, to know and understand the difference.
Heart failure is the leading cause of death in the
1) In the event of drowning or suffocation, compressions only CPR just adds insult to injury.
Performing compressions-only CPR on a drowning
victim wastes precious time that could be used to
save their life.
Drowning, is an entirely different ballgame. In
drowning, or suffocation, the mechanism of injury
is LACK OF OXYGEN. That is why their heart has
stopped and oxygen must be reintroduced into
their system immediately if there is going to
be any chance to save them. In this case, you as
the rescuer can address the problem directly by
introducing fresh air into the victim's lungs. You
can reverse the mechanism of injury and literally
save the person's life, even if EMS isn't coming.
CPR when applied to a drowning victim swiftly,
actually has a VERY HIGH rate of success.
So, to sum up:
Heart Failure: In this case, the main purpose of
CPR is to maintain the person in the hope that
advanced life support will arrive swiftly and if it
does not, there is little that you can do to help
them, Keep doing CPR and hope help arrives.
Drowning (or suffocation): In this case, you as the
rescuer can literally snatch a person from the jaws
of death if you can re-introduce oxygen into their
system quickly and circulate it. In these circum-
27
stances it is absolutely vital that the CPR you perform is traditional breaths and compressions CPR
and that it start as soon as possible.
For a better picture of the importance of breaths
and compressions CPR, go to the American
Whitewater accident database and browse through
it. There are numerous cases of persons whose
lives have been saved because one of their rescuers knew CPR and applied it quickly.
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Accide
nt/view/
Don't be caught out on the river without the one
best tool you can have to save someone's life!
Hanley
Great information Hanley, and of course you are
100% correct as usual. The main reason why compressions-only CPR is gaining a foot hold is that it
takes away the squeamish factor as you said and
makes it more likely that the average person will
attempt CPR on a heart attack victim, but it WILL
NOT WORK for a drowning victim. If it's me out
there please give me mouth to mouth along with
CPR. I promise I wont slip you the tongue.
There have been some changes in compression/
breath ratios since a lot of people have taken the
course, it's 30 and 2 which was a change from
back in 2005 . Besides that, a refresher is always
a good idea so if you haven't taken it in a while
please take the course. It really can make the difference in rather someone lives or dies.
is true. Bear in mind that doing research on CPR
techniques are pretty difficult to do as you've got
to have a good reason to deviate from standard of
care and what are the victims families supposed to
think if their loved ones got the new technique and
died and the new technique was later shown to be
inferior? You really can't get permission from a
victim who's unresponsive to try a new CPR technique on them ... and with our medical legal climate in this country (sorry Brent ;) ... it's a pretty
difficult to try to advance medicine. Sometimes
you've got to be pretty brave and those that are
involved in risky research like that have my total
respect.
At any rate in cardiac arrest in adults the survival
rate is very poor but can be statistically improved
by around ~7% if CPR is at hand (~4% with compressions / breathing), done right and the defibrillator is ~10min or less away. My recollection of the
data is ballpark, may not be exact. Now to deviate
a bit from Hanley's statement that CPR doesn't fix
a clogged artery ... no .. and neither does the
defibrillator! The usual cause of cardiac arrest is
arrhythmia - either V Fib or Asystole (flat line). The
Asystole group have an even poorer chance of
survival ... we rarely get those back even if they
code in the ED bay with everything ready to go.
The clogged artery doesn't get fixed until later in
the cath lab, bypass surgery or with thrombolytics
long after you stabilize them from their arrhythmia.
Re: CPR / BLS ( Basic Life Support) - I haven't
received community BLS since I was a raft guide
and we don't teach the drowning scenario in
healthcare BLS. I don't know if they are teaching
Heimlich maneuver for drowning victims currently
in community BLS. Based on my reading of the
Heimlich page, I think they should. It makes
sense, and as I will state below, doing research to
say it doesn't help is extremely difficult. It won't
hurt and may help so why not?
Cardiac arrest in children / infants is treated the
same as drowning - the cause is assumed to be
something other than coronary artery disease so
respirations are indicated. I usually dislike my
experiences with medical BLS classes because
the way it is taught is intimidating to the person
taking the class. One of my early experiences with
BLS was first aid / BLS at Southeastern
Expeditions at The Pines on the Chattooga in
Spring of '86. The way it was taught there was a
bit intimidating and stressful and it's often taught
that way in medical classes in my experience. I'm
hoping community BLS is better these days as
ACLS / PALS is better. Typically we sign off on it
while taking ACLS / PALS. When I say it's intimidating I mean there's an emphasis on accuracy
but IMO not what matters. What matters is (1)
quality of compressions (2) reasonable accuracy of
sequence regarding the airway (3) reasonable
accuracy regarding counts and re-evaluation.
If you do 30 compressions or 25 or breathe 1 sec
or 3 sec or do 4 cycles or 6 cycles before you reevaluate - trust me it will make little difference in
their chance of survival but I've seen instructors be
militaristic about accuracy on things that really
don't matter and I think it scares folks away from
the class. I'm presuming in community settings it's
never taught that way, so that folks are encouraged to take the class and take refreshers.
It is true that compression only CPR has shown a
better survival rate than compressions / breathing
for adult cardiac arrest and the reasons Hanley
state are some of the theoretical reasons why this
What matters in CPR with cardiac arrest is good
compressions at a fairly rapid rate. You cannot tell
using Annie if you are doing good compressions regardless of what the instructor thinks. She does-
Bob
Good information above but I'm a stickler for
semantics so it made my fur stand
up a little to see cardiac arrest labeled as "heart
failure" above. Medically speaking they are two
very different entities and what we are really talking about here is cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest
or cardiopulmonary arrest (both) regardless of
underlying cause.
First, I want everyone to take a look at this page:
http://www.heimlichinstitute.com/drowning.php
28
n't feel like a real chest being compressed and
she doesn't have a real heart and blood vessels
with an art line waveform showing you if your compressions are good or not. She is as good a simulation as we've got, so we work with her to learn
technique. I've had that real experience many
times and you develop a feel for what works and
what doesn't. When you are the medical student at
the code, you do the compressions for a reason.
In the ICU with an art line hooked up to a monitor,
it's an invaluable experience. I've coached EMS /
nurses during a code based on my palpation of
femoral artery pulses during CPR - not as accurate as an art line, but much better than Annie
measuring. Bottom line - don't be timid on your
compressions. If they are old you should break
some ribs - that freaks some folks but that tells
you that you are probably doing it right. It's not
part of BLS but have someone check for a femoral
pulse while you are doing compressions IRL - it
should be at least palpable if you are doing decent
compressions.
Regarding airway / rescue breathing - if you can't
move air, look for a reason or assume it's water in
a drowning victim and strongly consider the
Heimlich to clear it. If there's a chance of C-spine
injury take reasonable precautions to protect it. If
you can't open with a jaw thrust, do a gentle chin
lift while someone is maintaining inline spinal
alignment or you are. If they're dead from no airway / breathing, their severed spine will matter little! Look for foreign body / food in the appropriate
setting - any young child or anyone who was eating. Even adults can choke on lozenges / hard
candy though and it can be deep
- these are often catastrophic.
If you are doing CPR on someone that is a cardiac
arrest with a cause other than loss of airway /
breathing, they are dying and you are just slowing
the process a bit in hope of EMS support soon. If
EMS is not activated, or more than 10 min away,
their chance of survival goes from poor to practically zero. If they are in arrest after traumatic
blood loss - the chance of survival is absolutely
zero. As Hanley stated - the drowing victims that
are treated in less than 10 min (sooner the better)
have the best chance of recovery from CPR. Even
so, learn both types of CPR because how will you
feel later if someone drops from an MI and you do
nothing? Would be hard for me to live with
whether I knew the person or not. Even in a situation with a poor chance of recovery, we should
always do whatever we can! I've seen some
apparent miracles of survival in the ED that I still
shake my head about.
Wes Prince, MD
Emergency Physician
I remember hearing some years ago about using
the Heimlich on drowning victims but then saw
nothing more on it for years afterward. It sounded
like a good idea to me at the time. I asked Jay
Ditty about this when he did his drowning cpr
and shoulder dislocation reduction clinic at the last
Gauleyfest. If memory serves me he said this was
a bad idea due to the likelihood that a victim will
most certainly vomit when given the Heimlich and
that vomit aspiration does considerable lung damage.
I was surprised the Heimlich Institutes web site
doesnt reference any studies more recent than 10
years ago.
Chris H
First of all - a retraction. I had done no reading on
this in a while, so based on Chris's report of what
Jay said I did some further research today. Turns
out that in the past 10 yrs or so, Dr Heimlich has
turned out to be a liar and a fraud. He falsified
claims and research to suit his beliefs. He's the
most dangerous kind of researcher there is - one
who cares little about the facts and more about his
own ego. His own son, also a physician, has spent
the last 10+ yrs trying to expose his own father's
false proclamations. Talk about family tension wow! His son has a website debunking most of his
father's claims and setting the record straight. It's
a scary read. When I was writing my post I just
went looking for information on the Heimlich being
used in drowning rescue that I had read about
years ago and saw the page and linked it. Sorry I
didn't take the time to more thoroughly research
the topic. Had I done that I would have found out a
lot has changed re: Dr Heimlich's proclamations in
the past 10-15 yrs. My bad, flame away.
Regarding clearing water from the lungs. I already
knew, but neglected to say in my earlier post that
usually because of laryngospasm very little if any
water actually goes into the lungs (provided we
are in the time window where rescue is reasonably
possible). I should know, I get laryngospasm fairly
easily! There may be water in the airway, and a
simple roll over as you are lifting the person from
the water should easily clear that. Later, the
Larynx relaxes and water can enter the lungs.
However it's absorbed into the body fairly quickly
before and during rescue breaths. This later causes a secondary problem called pulmonary edema
and / or ARDS - where the irritation from the water
in the lungs leads to fluid from the body filling the
alveoli so oxygen exchange cannot take place and
airway compliance increases. This is similar to a
massive pneumonia effect though it is not an
infection initially. Later, drowning / near drowning
survivors are at increased risk for pneumonia.
There are other complicating effects that I will not
go into here.
A synopsis of the effects of drowning / near drowning can be found at the following link if you want to
learn more:
http://www.hyperbaric-oxygeninfo.com/drowning.html
Re: the Heimlich causing vomiting, there probably
29
is increased risk but it all depends on what's in the
stomach prior to doing the maneuver. Those of us
that have done a lot of codes know that vomiting
during any resuscitation is very common and one
of the reasons we tube folks ASAP to secure the
airway and prevent aspiration. It's also why right
after the intubation I'm usually ordering an NG
tube to clear the stomach because even the ET
tube is not 100% preventive of airway aspiration tubes can come dislodged during vomiting, CPR,
etc And yes, gastric contents in the lungs are more
irritating to lungs than water so increase the risk of
secondary drowning.
Re: semantics ... I don't know those computer
terms, so I don't expect you to know all the medical terms ;) And yes, I agree with the points of
your msg.
Re: flames / thanks - I suppose it's a game to
some folks so I'm not really paying attention to
them.
to completely rethink what we are going to do next
time the water is this high or higher. I understand
that it's an issue to reschedule this event, but we
were lucky we didn't get someone hurt this weekend. If we don't want to reschedule, do the
cleanup in a more limited fashion leaving the
duckies on the bank, or just bag it and organize
another group to go in and haul the garbage out
when the river is low and it's just hard work.
Larry Cable
Thanks for the comments Larry. This is one of the
higher Red River clean-up levels that I have participated in. It wasn't without it's complications,
obviously.
I'm not familiar with the other put-in so I can't comment on that. I've only ever put in at Russ' place. I
always think of it as a right of passage.
It would be a good idea to send people ahead to
deal with strainers if they can safely be dealt with.
Wes
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments on Red River Cleanup
Now that I've had a day to think about it, I'll make
a couple of comments on the Cleanup.
If we run the cleanup at the water level that we
had on Saturday, IMO we need to seriously rethink
our execution.
Some general logistical ideas. At 150 cfs or above
at Hazel Green, we had about 170 cfs or so when
we put on, I would putin at the normal putin and
paddle down instead of lowering the boats and
shuttling the gear down the cliff. If we were concerned about the property along the river being
private, just don't start until we hit the forest service boundary. I certainly could have drove to the
putin and paddled down in the time it took to get
the boats to the river. Number two is, especially
since we had such a large group, to let a couple of
the more experienced boaters jump ahead of the
pack with a rope, saw and an axe and to do a little
strainer clearing. I don't think it would have taken
a lot to remove about 80 percent of the strainer
problems and with the lack of experience of a
good portion of the paddlers, it would have been a
smart move.
The last is the most critical. Once we got the duckies into the Narrows section of the river, they were
impossible to handle and just out of control. Those
of us that tried to wrangle these beast through the
rapids and beyond were taking stupidly dangerous
risk trying to keep them off the rocks and out of
strainers, get them out of the rocks and off the
strains and generally corralling the garbage that
was lost when the boats pinned or capsized. I'll be
honest, I'll never take the chances I did this weekend to free a boat full of garbage again. We need
As far as running duckies down the Narrows, this
is largely up to those people that chose to run the
duckies. I portaged the one I was using. Along
with my canoe and two others. In my opinion, we
should portage everything. It's a pain in the ass,
but then we are all accounted for and know exactly where everything is and what's going on. But I
certainly wasn't going to stop people from running
stuff down after they made the decision to do so.
Like anything else dealing with whitewater and
weather, it's all a crap shoot. We can certainly
continue to try to make the clean-up safer and
more efficient though. So thanks again for your
comments.
And again, huge thanks to all of you who helped
out!!!!!
love,
bethany
I figure if we only lose 2 volunteers per cleanup
we are doing pretty good. we can get the bodies
next year.
I would recommend double-bagging the trash next
year. a few broke loose after getting pummeled in
a hole...then a rogue ducky came through and
saved the day. Todd and I played goalie downstream and got most of it. mildly epic day for sure,
but the pizza sure tasted good. And the water is
warmer than the in the Grand Canyon, so the
swim was kind of refreshing.....
Brandon
No one chose to take any of the loaded duckies
down, they just were not able to get them to the
side at the portage. That is why I said out of control.
But we had just as much of a problem below
30
where everyone got back into the boat. We
dumped at least three of the ducks below the
Big rapids and I personally pryed two through a
crack between boulders. I don't think portaging
every little drop would even be an option at even
no more water than we had, but it Would have
been better than what went down. I'm not trying
To be a safety Nazi, but it got pretty out of control
for a while and the duckies were a huge part of
that mess.
Larry Cable
Sorry for the misunderstanding Larry. Yes, the
duckies were, indeed, hard to wrangle!
Thanks to everyone for doing the best they could
to keep them under control. We dump a number of
duckies every year, but the extra water and the
barely usable duckies made it extra hard this year.
love,
bethany
I had a great time with everyone and got to meet
some new faces. Thanks to the great efforts of
those who organized it all, especially beer and
pizza at Miguels afterwards! That was the best
tasting Miguels pizza I have had in 13 years, or
was I just so hungry and tired?
I have to second Larry's suggestion to start at the
public put-in site upstream next time. I understand
that putting in at Russ' place cuts off 2-3 miles of
the journey but the public put-in is right there off
the road and much less blood, sweat, and tears.
The Red collects so much wood I am not sure we
could confidently count on quickly cutting the
strainers out in time doing it the day of the event. I
remember 5 or 6 years ago there was a huge
sieve of wood just above the narrows. It was a
class 2 move to get around it but class 5 consequences if you didnt and all the main current went
right into it. It would have been impossible to cut it
out and the portage was through the worst
Rhododendron and boulder hell you could imagine.
My main concern was that given the level of the
river, the novice canoeing skills of us full-time
kayakers (including myself), the wood, and the
lack of staging eddies for the last set of rapids
below the portage we should take a few more precautions. How about an advance team that paddles the river the day before to identify any hazards we may have to deal with the next day and/or
reschedule the event?
For the record I noticed the Hazel Green gauge
got up to 225 while we were on.
Chris H
-------------------------------------------------------------------
May 03, 2011 08:47AM
I'm sure many of you have heard of this before but
it was certainly news to me. Good info to have in
your brain already if it ever happens to one of us.
~Maryanne
[www.nrsweb.com]?
ferdunerd [ PM ]
Re: "Dry Drowning" article by Walt Bamman link
May 03, 2011 10:28AM
Most drownings (that's when the person dies)
occur without aspiration of water since the victim
holds his breath until he passes out.
Laryngospasm is a frequent occurence in patients
emerging from anesthesia and is easily treatable
with gentle postive pressure ventilation, usually
coordinated with the patient's attempts to inhale. If
you have laryngospasm, your vocal cords collapse
when you create a negative pressure in your airway when you inhale and forced attempts to inhale
will make it worse, so don't panic and breathe in
very, very slowly and gently, even if you only move
a miniscule amount of air and make a crowing
sound as you try. You will still be able to exhale
without any trouble. This differentiates laryngospasm from airway obstruction where you can
neither inhale nor exhale and the Heimlich
Maneuver is appropriate.
If someone is conscious, cannot inhale, and can
cough or exhale, then gentle mouth to mouth or
other means of rescue breathing will be the appropriate treatment if they are not panicking and will
let you do it. If you do the Heimlich Maneuver and
can force an exhalation and they have larygospasm they still won't be able to inhale and
you'll need to breathe for them.
If someone is unconscious it wil be unlikely that
they still have laryngospasm and rescue breathing
if they have a pulse, or chest compressions if they
don't have a pulse will be appropriate.
Last year at the clinic at the Big South Fork I aspirated a piece of a wheat cracker and started
coughing, so I walked out of the shelter and up to
the bathroom facility up the hill to get a drink of
water. I kept coughing despite the water and went
into larygospasm. I could cough out but I could not
breathe in and I started getting light headed, so I
got down on my knees and concentrated on
breathing in very slowly and gently even though I
could only get in a wisp of air and it sounded very
weird. No one else was around which could have
been good or bad, since my fear was that someone would see that I was unable to breathe, grab
me, and do the Heimlich Maneuver when I was
doing what needed to be done. That may have
changed if I had passed out or had an arrythmia
and arrested. Eventually I could move more and
more air and was able to breathe normally.
"Dry Drowning" article by Walt Bamman
31
As an anesthesiologist I have treated many
episodes of laryngospasm in others and I hope
that will be the last time I treat it in myself.
skeert! I will also second the observation that it's
pretty hard to relax and take shallow breaths when
you're in that situation and starving for air!
Fred
Wes
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I experience laryngospasm nearly on a monthly
basis in some form or fashion and I'm here to tell
you it's terrifying. Trying to breath in slow while ur
gasping for air is like trying to remember to keep
ur head down when ur trying to roll up.
Thanx for the helpful info.....i'll c what I can
do....next time...ughhhhhh
It is very hard to stay calm and breathe in as little
as possible under those circumstances, but that is
what it takes. Also, pulmonary edema can develop after even a short period of laryngospasm as a
result of trying to forcibly inhale with a closed glottis, injuring the lung tissue and allowing fluid to
seep into the alveoli. If that happens, the lungs
become "stiff" and breathing is very difficult,
requiring positive pressure ventilation in a medical
facility.
On a side note, if you are ever in one of those
movie situations where your car has overturned in
a creek and water is filling up the last of the
trapped air space, hyperventilate before you go
under completely so you will lose consciousness
from lack of oxygen before you have the panic of
not being able to breath since your respiratory
drive is mainly from increasing carbon dioxide
levels. The fact that I coughed a lot as I was
developing laryngospasm probably helped me to
stay calm and think about how weird it would be to
be found dead there and no one would know what
happened to me.
For the same reason, never hyperventilate before
free diving from the surface since the absence of
the CO2 drive will make it possible for you to pass
out under water and die.
Russell Fork Release for
US Nat'l WW Team trials
The Army Corp of Engineers is likely to give us a
Russell Fork Release on Friday October 14, 2011
as a practice release for the trials. So, looks like a
three day weekend for October 14, 15 and 16.
Mark your calendars.
Brent
Here is the email I received:
ohn Flannagan Advisory Panel
Please note that the recommended information line
for Flannagan status is now available.
On a second note, the U.S. National Wildwater
Team Trials will occur on the Russell Fork the
weekend of October 15th and 16th, 2011.
Whitewater flows will likely be provided October
14th for training.
James Schray
Water Managment Specialist
Huntington District
USACE
(304)399-5604
Jim,
We'll have the information line running beginning
Friday. The public can call either project number
276-835-9544 or 276-926-8977. If someone is
here, we will transfer them to the information line.
If no one is here, the public can then press option
1 to get the information line. They can also dial the
District Office: 1-304-399-5000 ext 8984 to get to
the information line.
Fred
Can't say much about this now as I'm using my
phone on week of rivers trip but I've posted on this
topic a few times here as most of you know and I'll
second what Fred has said. My most recent
episode was Mon. For those of you that aren't
linked to me on FB, I got a decent beat down in
2nd drop hole at 580. After backendering, windowshading and prolonged (felt like) upside down surfing the only reason I got out in my boat was
because James Stapleton knocked me out on his
run and somehow didn't get surfed too. Then did
my first combat back deck roll cause I was too
tired to tuck and knew I was about to either surf
again or run the seam at triple - just a little better
than a second surf - and came up to find I was
about to surf again but had laryngospasm and
could not breathe and could barely paddle into
right eddy. I am now convinced that fear is a key
factor in my episodes. In every event I was pretty
We will provide lake and outflow information as
well as flows at Bartlick (feet/cfs).
Harold E Miller, Jr.
Resource Manager
John W Flannagan Dam
276-835-9544
32
Eddy Lines of Interest
My Year as President of the BWA
This is all due to the immense talents of the members
of the BWA. I am glad to be in the company of such
extraordinary people. Thank you for giving me the
opportunity to be the president of such a wonderful
organization.
Respectfully,
Allen Kirkwood
BWA April Club Meeting Minutes
April 12, 2011 at Panda Cuisine,
15 members present
I. Meeting called to order @ 7:38pm
With the upcoming of the officer elections in June, I realized that my term as president was about over. I began
the year worried that I would be nervous presiding over
the meetings. Having watched Bubba, Brent, and Hanley
smoothly handle each meeting, I only hoped that I could
do as well. While I am not sure that I completely
achieved that goal, I did feel more comfortable as the
year progressed.While my progress might have been
slow, the growth of the BWA was anything but slow. Our
membership has steadily grown and by the time this is
published we may well have over 250 members. The
past year also saw the clinic move to a new location, the
Russell Fork in Elkhorn City. By any way of measurement, the clinic was an overwhelming success and I look
forward to having future clinics there.
II. Reading of Minutes
Minutes read from March meeting. Motion made to accept
by Hanley, KC second.
Minutes adopted.
We also saw the unveiling of our revamped web site,
thanks to Don Jr. Awesome job! This year's NPFF was
simply amazing and having Doug Ammons as the guest
speaker was icing on the cake. Our annual trek up to the
Red River to give our dear friend, Russ Miller, a hand
with his cleanup was a great success. Perhaps a little
more exciting than some of the other cleanups due to the
higher water level, but it certainly one all will remember.
In addition to these successful ventures, we also were
able to donate to several worthy organizations such as
American Whitewater, Team River Runner, etc.
As the old saying goes, “All good things come to an
end.”, we also say goodbye to a few officers who have
reached their two year term limit or have decided to step
aside and let others take the reins of a BWA office. Fred
Coates, Bubba Sisk, and Bethany Overfield have decided not to seek office this year. I want to thank them and
all of the other officers for their outstanding contributions
to the club over the past year.The past year saw the
BWA grow, accomplish a lot of outstanding things, and
hopefully continued our good stewardship to our creeks
and rivers.
III. Officer Reports
Don P (Web Master) – please check guidelines for posting
on the forum
Vice President (Clay Warren) – Sign up and volunteer for
Clinic (May 13-15 @ Russell Fork)
Treasurer (Fred Coates) – $5806 balance
- Elkhorn passes valid Aug-Aug and we will pay them AprilApril
Conservation Officer (Bethany) - Red River Clean-up May
7th
Safety Officer (Hanley Loller) – roll sessions back on this
week, 4 more until clinic
-Wilderness First Aid Class being put together
IV. Unfinished Business
Summer Club Party: July 29-31 at Ocoee ($600 allotted)
Muddy Creek Gauge update: up and running (working
things out)
V. New Business
BWA Banner and Media Package: SC will make final decision and allot appropriate finds up to $300
EA Parking Lot Gravel – tabled once the club knows total
cost
Charitable Donation in remembrance of Holly Wallace, wife
of William Nealy (SC voted to donate $200)
TRR – Pigeon trip June 11th; event at Equus Run Winery
April 19th 6-9 – need volunteers!
Motion made to adjourn by KC, seconded by Hanley! All
approved! Adjourned at
8:36!
Aleighia Barker
33
Membership Renewals
Membership renewals are due on July 1 for all members who joined before January 1 of this year.
Notices will automatically be sent via e-mail starting on June 17th. If you are not automatically getting system event e-mails, you may want to check the e-mail address we have for you.
To renew, click on the Member Profile tab, login, and hit the button labeled "Renew until 1 July
2012" and continue through the payment process (hit the "Start renewal in a new window" button
when prompted). If the button had said "Renew until 1 July 2013," you don't have to renew this year.
While you are in your profile, check to see if you need to update your contact info - the handbook
will be updated soon.
http://www.bluegrasswildwater.org/
Make Plans for the
BWA Summer Party
(new event)
July 29-30 2011
Details forthcoming.
Summer Rolling Sessions are set for Shillito pool once again.
(Last two sessions in August will be at the Tates Creek pool)
Wednesdays from 8 to 10 PM.
Dates:
June 8, 15, 22, and 29, July 6, 13, 20, and 27, August 3 and 10.
Members:
Adults: $5
Children 12 to 17: $2
Children under 12 - free
Non-Members
Adults $10
Children $5
Virgins (first time at a rolling session anywhere)
Member rates, after that either join or pay non-member rates.
MAP:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&q=shillito+park&fb=1&gl=us&hq=shillito+park&hnear=0x8842734c8b1953c9:0x536418a08867425c,Frankfort,+KY&view=map
&cid=11559842315047412280&z=16&iwloc=A;
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The BWA needs your help!
BWA Officer Elections at June 14 Meeting.
• Additional nominations accepted from the floor.
President
Vice-President
Treasurer
Secretary
Safety
Program
Newsletter
Cyber Communications
Conservation
Film Festival Coordinator
Russell Fork River Festival
Coordinator
Equipment Coordinator
At-Large Member:
Membership Coordinator
BWA meetings
Meetings held Second Tuesday of every month at 7:30pm
To eat during the meeting come a little early so you can place your order before the meeting starts.
For up-to-date info on meetings always check http://www.bluegrasswildwater.org
Bluegrass Wildwater Association
PO Box 4231
Lexington, Ky. 40504