Gulpha Gorge

[RomanLA]

I woke up to this (and a downed tree) at Gulpha Gorge this morning. Unfortunately, I had to head home before I got to do any paddling...the joys of working for a power company.

[Ryan Viser]

Hey Roman,

Where is that located at?

[RomanLA]

That's where the creek enters the Gulpha Gorge Campground at Hot Springs National Park.

[KAYAKN]

Roman,
Dang man you like to give me a heartattack, i thought you found some ww in La. Geezzzz!!! Well anyway moving on, how was your trip out east??? I tryed calling ya a couple of times and missed a call from you. I took the La folks over to the Ocoee and took them down a couple of times. Wish you could have made it. I was hoping to meet ya, maybe next time.
Adam

[RomanLA]

Hey Adam,

It was great! I had setup private instruction with NOC Saturday morning. I was a nervous wreck for the first 15 minutes. I flipped in the second big wave train and couldn't roll up. The current was pushing against my onside roll. I hung in and got my first bow rescue in current though. The instructor said he couldn't believe I hung out that long. lol At that point, I was really questioning if I was ready for the river. I've practiced doing peel outs and catching eddies at a couple of play spots, but this was really only my 3rd time running a river.

A little while later I got my first combat roll and rolled up just in time to boof Delabar's Rock! From that point on, I calmed down and just started having a lot of fun. I had a ton of firsts and worked every skill I had hoped to learn that weekend. I caught eddies behind rocks, caught one boat eddies, did S-turns, peeled out and caught eddies in rapids, and most importantly got comfortable in class II water. The only thing I want to work on next time is floating sideways through the big wave trains.

Anyway, it turned out I really didn't need an instructor. I guess I just needed someone there as a safety net for me to push myself. He said I just got better and better the further we got down the river. I had planned on taking an intermediate I course, but he said I was already close to being intermediate II and was ready to step up to class III. That pretty much shocked me, since this was my first time on real class II. lol

SYOTR!
Roman