Cheat River Festival
May 2005
Heath Damron
Friday
This was my first Cheat Fest but hopefully not my last. Most of the club members were busy with vacations, graduations and etc, but John Neely and I saddled up and traveled to the Canyon. The week of Cheat Fest was my final week of my first year of my PhD studies so Cheat Fest was my reward for surviving the year. All projects turned in and all tests taken and we were in the wind Friday afternoon. John and I made it to the put-in for the race by 4:30. Nori worked on my stiff neck before the start and we were ready to go. We entered the race but playboated the run. John hit Big Nasty right in the face for some style points. Our group surfed the Nasty till the racers came. Man, that was a fun sight to see. 10 long boats at a time fighting to miss the Nasty was worth the drive up. After Nasty we played our way down the beautiful canyon, but a little too slow because daylight was running short. We made it to the take-out a little after 8pm in time to ride the bus out (fun ride). The camp fire at Teters campground was filled with lots of familiar faces.
Saturday
John paddled with a group from camp on the Narrows. The planning began in the night and it sounded like Upper Yough, even with the crowds, was the place to be. To our amazement it was not crowed. The level was 2.1 at Sang Run. It was my first time paddling outside of WV. The run was sweet and technical with good push. I had one broach that caused a traffic jam (sorry Chally). Other than that it was a clean run except for Luke's hole at the end. Shawn M gave me the fire it up signal but I dropped into the less friendly side of the hole. A few minutes of surfing later by the time everyone was there laughing I decided to graciously squirt out the corner. Shawn said, "Now you have been on the Upper Yough!" The boat was a little heavy with the water that came through the multiple holes in my skirt. The sun came out while we waited in Friendsville. Saturday night partying was off the charts (beer, music and boats everywhere - best party I can think of). You must come to experience it yourself.
Here are some pictures from video capture shot by Brian Rahall the boof line at National Falls:
Rodger Barnett
Patrick Driscol
Nori dancing with a duckie
I could have got a little more rock but I made the eddy avoiding the hole
My guide for the day: Shawn McClung