Skip to content

Random Connections

A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Photos
  • Resources
  • Other Voices
  • Post Archives
  • Home
  • Paddling
  • Tuckaseegee II

Tuckaseegee II

Posted on July 10, 2005 By Tom No Comments on Tuckaseegee II
Paddling

Me in the Shark's Tooth holeI almost chickened out. TS Cindy flooded most of the Southeast on Thursday. The Tuck was running at 5.8 feet above normal, Hurricane Dennis was scheduled for landfall today, and it was cloudy in Greenville – all ingrediants for disaster. Despite certain doom, I loaded up the kayak and headed toward Dillsboro to meet Bob and Roxanne.

After a slight memory slip as to the location of the put-in, I found Bob and Roxanne and unloaded the boats. The river didn’t look too rough, and a local raft company was getting ready to launch with children on board. We figured if kids could take it, we could handle what the Tuck might throw at us.

The river was indeed much higher and faster than when we had run it in October. With a sprinkling of rain and cloudy skies, it was also only slightly less cool. I was glad to have a wetsuit. The first part of the river started out with a constant chop and numerous small standing waves. Even in between rapids, there was almost no place to float and rest. We needed to be on constant alert. The rapids themselves were the most turbulent whitewater we’ve taken on in these kayaks to date. The standing waves and holes were enormous.

On the Green, it’s fun to just plow right through the waves. This time, the large waves were hitting us at angles, almost forcing us over numerous times. When I did manage to plow straight through a hole and into the next wave, it almost submerged the boat. Good thing I wasn’t in the canoe, or I would have lost the boat.

With the increased current, we were at the takeout after only an hour and a half on the water. We felt lucky to be alive, so, naturally, we decided to run the river again. We called Roxanne, who had been visiting the shops in Dillsboro, and arranged another shuttle. The second time around things started OK, but it was obvious I was getting tired.

At a particularly large rapid, one family without a guide got their raft pinned on a rock. They were rescued by some other kayakers and we retrieved their paddle. We hovered fairly close to them the rest of the way down the river just in case they ran into more trouble. At one point I decided I didn’t want to hit another standing wave. After plowing through a particularly large one, we looked up to see the take out. This trip had taken even less time.

When we pulled the boats out, we found that a photographer had set up at the last large rapid and was selling photos of the river runners’ attempts. The shots were actually quite good, so I bought a cd of the photos. This guy also has the pictures posted at Paddleshots.net. For more pictures from this trip, click here.

Post navigation

❮ Previous Post: Justin’s Steakhouse
Next Post: First Spy Music, Now Spy Cameras ❯

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Categories

  • EdTech (199)
  • Entertainment (201)
  • Family (118)
  • Gear (115)
  • General Technology (97)
  • Geocaching and Maps (208)
  • History and Genealogy (253)
  • Internet (144)
  • Local (447)
  • Miscellaneous (539)
  • Music (188)
  • Paddling (239)
  • Photography (777)
  • Podcast (6)
  • Rambling (223)
  • Rants (160)
  • Recipes (34)
  • Religion (48)
  • Restaurants (165)
  • Science (48)
  • Things Overheard (29)
  • Travel (410)
  • Uncategorized (129)
  • Washington Sabbatical (113)
  • Weirdness (59)

Recent Posts

  • Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Germophobic Paranoia Blues and Other Dream Tunes
  • Orphaned Graveyards – Bakers Chapel AME
  • Orphaned Graveyards – Fellowship Church
  • Website Updates

Recent Comments

  • Elaine Griffith on Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Ruby on Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Alan Russell on Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Johnny on Paddling the Saluda River from Cooley’s Bridge
  • Shelby chambers on The REAL Children’s Cemetery

Tags

blogging cemetery Christmas Columbia Edisto River edtech Entertainment family Flickr Florida Furman Furman University gear geotagging Ghost Town Ghost Towns Google Earth Google Maps GPS Greenville Greenville Chorale hiking history Instructional Technology kayaking Lake Jocassee LCU Lowcountry Unfiltered maps Music North Carolina Paddling Photography rambling restaurant Restaurants review singing social networking South Carolina time-lapse Travel video Washington Washington State
March 2021
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Feb    

Copyright © 2021 Random Connections.

Theme: Oceanly by ScriptsTown