Kayaking the Headwaters of the Linville at High Water

[@big1dog23]

A lot of westerners like me, PDX, didn't realize how much rain you got BEFORE Helene. Originally from NC, I have been thinking about my old stomping grounds and praying for western NC.

[@garycousino]

That tropical depression that hit before Helene was very surprising with the amount of rain dumped. That was the last time I boated

[@RogueDragonNate]

@@garycousino yea. It was crazy how high stuff got before Helene. The headwaters of North Fork Catawba got really high before the actual storm. That thing takes tons of water to get going to be runnable.

[@knaz7468]

That feature at 9:40 was a bit of a mini-stopper eh? Really cool video, looks like a fun run. I liked hearing the rain falling.

[@RogueDragonNate]

I wasn’t expecting it lol. This is the highest I’ve ever done this section. It’s exploratory. I finally got it on AW earlier this year. I’m probing different levels and getting a better understanding of everything before I add proper beta. Also things are probably going to be different too from Helene. We were out on this the day before the storm came through.

[@justin_other_kayaker]

What’s the portage at about 3:00

[@RogueDragonNate]

@@justin_other_kayaker - I forgot to say something about that lol. One of the bigger rapids at this level was really burly and had several big holes stacked back to back. I was tempted to fire it up but ultimately decided to play it safe and walk it since it was just us 2. Go to 2:15 in my previous Headwaters Linville video if you want to see me run it in a Vamguard.

[@IraFowler3]

Too bad that level isn't the normal

[@RogueDragonNate]

Catch it after a big storm. Monitor rainpursuit

[@christschool]

An incredibly selfish and irresponsible thing to do when first responders were staging for Helene which was due to hit in 12 hours.

[@MH-qb9ev]

there is already rafters complaining about parking access near poplar boat ramp when the whole place is destroyed.

[@BarrySoterothe3rd]

Who the hell are you to judge....?

[@garycousino]

Am sure they had no idea of the disaster that was about to happen. Gotta take advantage of water while you have it