Adding to this mystique of being one the greatest of the east, there’s the significant danger involved. According to American Whitewater (www.americanwhitewater.org), this 2009 season alone involved three rafting deaths, a trend that seems be pervasive through the recreational history of the river. Whether many of these are the result of lack of skill, poor health, several more can be attributed to poor knowledge of the dangerous spots on the river.

Initiation, one of the earliest rapids on the river, contains one of the most evil sieve spots conceived by a river. Entering the rapid, an inviting surf wave beckons you to enjoy it’s frothy goodness. Once you hop off, however, there’s essentially crack in the rock beneath, jammed with a large rock that creates a sucking funnel, creating an almost unavoidable pin situation. The site of numerous near death experiences and actual deaths, it’d be best to brief and check out this amazing rescue effort reported from Think Rain.

But behind the veil of dangerous undercut rocks, some shallow waters, and past tragedies, there’s a pretty awesome river here with an even MORE awesome festival (more on that in another post).

Since this is probably one of the best documented rivers in the history of east coast rivers for river running on the web, I’ll just run through some highlights, starting with the put-in. You either walk down a gloriously paved road to the parking lot below the dam, or hitch a ride in the back of a fine government truck while a trailer lugs your boat down for you. Seemed like a no-brainer, so we took the truck.

After getting out at the parking lot, you’re quickly ushered away from traffic, check out the park sign that has details on the river, and follow the flow of kayakers and rafters to the water. Greeted by the not-so-pretty Summersville Dam (above picture), we took in the sights, waxed the paddles, and put on, where you’re quickly confronted with a nice little warm-up wave train with a reasonable front surfing wave. This being Gauleyfest, the wave had a ridiculous line, had about 8 million rafters thundering toward you, and you just kinda took what you could. There’s little like the feeling of being drilled by an undercut raft.

Somewhere down the line, you’ll end up at another popular surfing spot. Dubbed Geek Wave, it’s really one of the playholes on the entire river. Not entirely sure why it’s called Geek Wave, but does it really matter? You could probably pull of any move you like here. Just keep in mind it’s not exactly that steep of a wave. Going to be a little hard to really hit that GNAR and throw a mondo-super-rotator-mcshizzit, catch what i’m sayin?

Didn’t get much one on one time with this and spent most of the time taking pictures. It’s one of those spots with tremendous eddy service… which can only mean one thing. MONSTER LINES of kayakers all bumping into each other! It’s a theme for Gauleyfest! Regardless, Chris Reid did take the time to wait and line and generally did an excellent job of shredding it. But when Eric “Fulltime Kayaker/EJ” Jackson is there throwing down, generally you gotta watch and wish that was your career.

Additionally, there’s a pretty phenomenal rock to watch from if there’s a massive line. I believe I saw some people perform quite a few safety checks there, so it might be something you’d like to check out.

Additional random note, I found what appeared to be a rabid squirrel stuck on a rock. I’m guessing he was mostly just really upset to be caught in the release. I know that I’d be. So just a heads up, watch for those squirrels, they’re out to get you.

So Geek Wave is done, you’ve surfed yourself out, now what? Well, you come to my favorite rapid of the river, Insignificant (Above). Given it’s name by an old river expedition deeming it insignificant, it’s the first class V on the river and also has one of the most beautiful steep waves you could ask for at the bottom of it. The line is fairly simple, hold center left and dodge the holes, but just the fact that there’s a HUGE hole that can likely flip a rafter and hold multiple boaters at once just makes part of me happy inside. The additional fact that said hole comes on you completely by surprise if you don’t know its location… ahhhh. Not pictured is the beautiful surf wave, which is probably the number 1 surf spot for me on the river.

A ways down from Insignificant is the next class V, the infamous Pillow Rock. Crowds of rafters and kayakers gather here to gaze as people get wrecked at the “pillow” of foam being pushed against one of the large rocks the Gauley is well known for.

Here’s a progression of a general pillow run, demonstrated by Reid, Gilly, and Brian. Generally has an easy approach on churning waters, eventually culminating in a beautiful hit at the foam pile, followed by a drop into a large foampit called Toilet Bowl (easy to imagine).

Finally, it’s a great place to go for a swim. It’s refreshing to resurface about 50 yards down stream after getting water flushed up the nose. Seriously, it is.

Past Pillow Rock you’ll encounter such beautiful sights as Shipwreck rapid, eventually followed by one of my favorite scenes of the river. I got a few laughs, thinking “Hey, this looks like a whale!” Of course everyone already knew that. Later I found out it’s actually named Sperm Whale rock. That’s my college degree at work there folks.

Spots I was unable to get photos of, but are readily available around the web, include Lost Paddle, a pretty meaty class V that get so shallow that the odds of getting knocked out if upside down are probably not in your favor. Iron ring, a spot that was originally blown apart to make way for a log flume, is an excellent class V drop that has very sticky holes that make an ideal spot to get drilled by an enormous floating undercut (raft). And finally, there’s so many other “minor” rapids on this river that by the end you’re completely spoiled. You’ll go back home and that drop on your local run will look like something out of a KB toys magazine.

The advice is to check the Gauley out if you have someone showing the routes or are pretty confident in your scouting abilities. It’s really too good to miss out on, and the release season (Generally 6 weekends starting somewhere in September) is a great time of year to do it. For a more detailed list (with video!) of every major rapid, check out here.

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