08/24/00 Paddling Elk River, West Virginia (Holly River):
This morning I was lying on the cot getting ready to get up and go out for my morning walk/run. I had my eyes closed but thought I saw a flash. It was confirmed a few seconds later when I heard a tremendous clash of thunder, seemingly, directly overhead. Then the rains came and lots more thunder and lightning. There goes the morning walk/run. I just hoped it wouldn't be another of those 6 hour rains... but it was.
I drove around checked out a couple of other boat ramps and found a place that has wet T-shirt contests on Friday nights. At noon it was still raining. I hadn't heard any thunder or lightning for a couple of hours and decided to launch anyway. I can't wait to get out of this campground tomorrow but didn't want to miss any good paddling because of the rain.
Today I turned right from the boat ramp and this time it was in the right direction. I paddled out the Holly River 3-4 miles to where it enters the Elk River. I brought the spray skirt along to keep the rain out of the cockpit and had the Gortex Rain Jacket on.
Tendrils of fog rose up from the trees on the steep slopes. The river was higher because of the rains, quite muddy but I saw no current at all. I assume this was because of the dam 10-15 miles away. The slopes only rose 100 feet or so here. Some of the banks seemed to be a shaley type of rock as did some rocky bluffs that were crumbling down to nothing.
Looking in front of me I saw what I assumed was a fox swimming in the water. Why a fox? Well, it might have been a river otter, if those things live around here or it might have been a beaver. It didn't dive as I approached so I assumed it must be something else. As it turns out it was a beaver and it did dive but not until I was much closer than I would have thought possible. I even got a pretty decent picture of it.
45 minutes into the paddle the rain tapered off and then stopped. Unfortunately, this was a signal for the gnats to start aggravating me again. This is the only river or creek that I can think of where gnats were a problem. A fair amount of trash littered the shores.
An hour brought be to the Elk River. Here the slopes seemed steeper and higher. Looking down a straight stretch of river I could see several mountain peaks at the end with fog rising out of the hollows.
I passed Baker's Run and Mill Creek Camping Areas as the 150 foot wide river dwindled down to about 50 feet. With the steeply rising slopes so close by, the mountain views had disappeared so I turned back at that point.
The water had been rising during the paddle and when I turned into the Holly River again, it was littered with bottles and other crap. I guess the higher water levels washed a lot of crap off the shores back out into the river. 90% of that mess has to come from beer guzzling, snuff chomping fishermen. There's no one else around.
08/25/00 Paddling Elk River, West Virginia (Bee Run):
I moved up to the other end of Elk River (the dam end) to get away from that generator noise in Freeman Campground. I'm at the Bee Run Camping Area, still in the Elk River Wildlife Management Area.
I got camp set up and fooled around for a while but then it was still only noon. I was pretty tired from lack of sleep the past couple of nights but decided to go out for a short paddle anyway.
A marina sits right next to the Bee Run boat ramp with 5+ power boats. What all those boats are going to do on a little skinny river like the Elk is beyond me. Just as I was getting ready to launch some really dark storm clouds move in so I waited for them to pass over.
10-25 foot bluffs lined the other side of the river directly across from the put in. I turned right towards the dam, thinking I was going to paddle up Bee Run for a little distance. It was much shorter than I thought so I hardly got the boat wet before turning back.
08/26/00:
A really heavy fog left anything left out in the open soaking wet. It lifted fairly early but left a heavy haze and some dark storm clouds behind in an overcast sky. I pulled out from the Bee Run boat ramp and turned left around 9:45. Around the first bend I was greeted with what I had come here for.
Up ahead the 150 foot river narrowed to sharply to 50 feet or so as steeply forested slopes crashed down to the waterline. Beyond that seemed to be a sharp bend with additional knolls and hills trailing down to the river. As it turns out this was Wolf Creek flowing into the Elk River. The Elk River made a sharp turn to the left.
.5 hours into the paddle I passed Lower Flatwoods Run with plenty of water in it and 20 minutes later Flatwoods run. I started thinking maybe I should stay over and paddle some of these creeks too.
For the most part this section of the Elk River was surrounded by 100+ foot sloping hills with some rocky bluffs. Whenever a sharp bend in the river appeared or a creek emptied into the Elk and you could see a little distance, you could also see knolls and hills stacking up behind each other. I find those kinds of views really attractive.
What wind there was was behind me blowing out of the northwest. Without a cool breeze I could feel the heat starting to build and the humidity was much more noticeable too. Gee, the temperature must have been all the way up into the 70's and it wasn't even 11am yet.
I got to the railroad bridge over the Elk River just a about noon. This is just a short distance from the Holly River where I paddled into the Elk the other day. I had lunch and paddled back. I had a nice 5 knot breeze in my face most of the way and it was still hazy and overcast when I got back.