By Jay Young

I sat quietly at my desk and chewed a pen as I pondered an email I was about to send out to the Songer and Adventures On the Gorge recipient lists. The email in question was to be all about spring rafting on the New River, which is a curious animal.

Once upon a time, spring was the busiest time of year on the New. Adventurers came from all over in April and May to raft, because that’s when the water is highest and the waves are biggest. At some point in time, the Upper Gauley became the money run, but the New at this time of year is still my favorite. Think of all the really big waves on the Gauley—Iron Curtain, Hawaii 5-oh, Lower Mash, Lower Stairstep. Those are some pretty crushing hits, but how many of them are out there? The real excitement from the Gauley comes from the isolation of her gorge and the frenetic nature of her tightly-packed rapids with screaming turns and must-make moves in virtually all of them. If you like waves, though—I mean humongous, boat-eating, face-shot waves—then really the New in the spring is where it’s at. Roller-coaster haystacks are a dime a dozen when the water gets up around 12k cfs, and at 20k cfs and higher, it’s a wave-hunter’s paradise. Whereas the Gauley is all about technique and timing, the New this time of year is all about aggression and power. There’s nothing like hitting van-sized wave after van-sized wave as hard as 8 people can possibly paddle!

But I digress. I needed photos of spring rafting, but nothing I had looked really good.

You might think that’s a bad thing, but it isn’t. It means I need to leave my desk and go get photos. And this time, I grabbed my Shredder (a 2-person frameless cataraft that I affectionately call the Black Pumpkin) and Songer’s Melanie Seiler. Trevor Coffmann, who heads our video-boating team, joined us along with Brandon (another Songer guide) and his friend Daniel.

We decked the Black Pumpkin out in three Go-Pro cameras, each set to snap a frame every 2 seconds. There was one on the bow looking back at us, one on the stern looking forward and one on my paddle shaft. Unfortunately, the SD cards in the paddle cam and the stern cam decided to not be formatted correctly (a stupid mistake on my part). They filled after a pic or two each. The bow cam had a nice big card, but Upper Railroad, the first big rapid of the day, destroyed the rigging. Ugh.

Enter Trevor, who had GoPro mounts on both his helmet and his kayak. He took over the cameraman job, a role with which he’s well versed, and saved the day!

Click the photos to see larger versions.

From top to bottom and left to right…

1. Melanie and I looking for the tongue through Upper Railroad.
2. Me trying in vain to fix the rigging for the bow camera.
3. Trevor saves the day!
4. Riding the fluffy freight train in Middle Keeney, with big waves all the way to the horizon.
5. Kickin’ it out in Lower Keeney.
6. Sitting on a monster’s back in Dudley’s Dip… seconds before it curled, broke and landed in Trevor’s lap.

By Jay Young

Not many companies in the rafting game stand out as much as Songer does. I could roll off a litany of reasons, but I’ll just stick with the most visual of them—purple boats.

A couple days ago, I was posting away on the Songer Facebook page, and I posed a trivia question—how did Songer get its name? It was during the course of people trying to answer that question that another popped up…

Why the purple boats? Songer’s Len Hanger explains.

Answer? West Virginia’s newest & most exciting Zip Line!! Construction is finished, testing has commenced and we are excited about this new adventure being available soon.

Are you ready for an extreme adventure?  This is truly one of the most exciting adventures you will enjoy while visiting the New River Gorge.  New River Zip Lines is a true zip line adventure. You will travel over one mile, soaring over 100 feet above the ground over the tree tops while zooming at speeds of 40 miles per hour. Situated high on a West Virginia mountain, the views are simply spectacular! From this vantage point you will see the Gauley and New River Gorges, only at New River Zip Lines.

Got your couriosity up yet? Call today and get on the list for opening dates and times.

One of the things I love about Gauley Season is the anticipation leading up to it.  I always get a ton of questions when I’m taking guests down the New River before Gauley:

Hey! We're on two wheels!

• Am I good enough for the Gauley?
• What are the rapids like?
• What’s the hardest rapid?
• Do people get hurt all the time?
• What’s your favorite color?

Here’s a post to answer some of the questions that seem to be foremost in the minds of the uninitiated…

Am I Good Enough For The Gauley?

Probably.   The vast majority of people are ready for a day on the Gauley, with only a few who really shouldn’t try.  If you’re only going to get off the couch once a year, go to the movies; don’t go to the Gauley.  But if you like doing exciting things, then sure.  Go for it.

Remember, running white water is all about having a good time.  If you’re freaked out about the Upper Gauley (read: hard), try the Lower first (read: not as hard).  Both are equally fun- it all depends on you.

What Are The Rapids Like?

Big.  It’s important to keep in mind that, while the Gauley is a class V river, there are over a hundred rapids, most of them in the class III and IV range.  The classification system only tells you how difficult rapids are, not how big they are.

In the Gauley, we luck out by having really huge rapids that are (sometimes) not terribly difficult.  That just means there are big, crashing waves and holes everywhere, which we in the river community call “fun”.

The really cool thing about the Gauley is that, almost always, the biggest part of a rapid is right where you want to go.  That’s what separates it from a lot of big white water rivers; most of them keep you running away from the biggest stuff.  On the Gauley, you just point right toward it and paddle forward.

What’s The Hardest Rapid?

Lost Paddle.  At least, that’s my opinion.  Everyone has a different “hardest rapid” on the Gauley.  Also, that’s at fall flow, or what we consider normal water levels.  Also also, everyone who doesn’t say Lost Paddle is wrong.

Lost Paddle is the Gauley’s 1/4 mile long class V beast, with 4 (some say 5) distinct drops, including 2nd drop’s famous “Hawaii 5-0″ wave, and 4th drop’s aptly named AKA, Tumble Home.

At low water, Iron Ring is the hardest rapid.  At very, very high water, they’re all hard, but Heaven Help Us is probably the hardest.

Do People Get Hurt All the Time?

No.  Statistically (and practically), very few injuries happen out on the river.  There’s risk, sure.  But people don’t get hurt much at all, and when they do, it’s usually Band-Aid stuff.  I’m not a lawyer, I’m just sayin’.

What’s Your Favorite Color?

Blue.

Any other questions?  Feel free to leave them in the comments…