Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / July 10, 1980, edition 1 / Page 2
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(Whitewater Rafting i Page l) f several of the others rriver a bit more closely. i put on a Class V life jacket and crash helmet, grabbed a paddle, and then listened as Jim gave us a few safety instruc tions. He said that if we should find ourselves "floating down the river without the aid of our raft," the most important thing to do was get back in quickly. He told us to throw an arm and leg over the side, and let those still on board roll us into the raft. I like that idea, especially the part about getting back in quickly. Then Peggy, a 16-year-old from Bradenton, Fla., came up with the first of several funny comments. She had noticed the safety rope on the side of the raft, and asked, in all seriousness, if we could "grab onto this rope if we start to fall, or do we have to go on and fall?" When the guides quit laughing, they tolc her to grab the rope if she could. That made me feel better, too. I started practicing reaching for the rope so I would know whert to find it in a hurry. The second important thing we were tc remember was that if we did fall out, not tc get downstream of a raft. Jim said that il we did, we could get caught between the raft and a rock and end up looking like the middle of an Oreo cookie. I decided that would be a pretty good thing to remember. We pushed off from shore, wading out into the river with the rafts. We climbed in and started paddling downstream. I was in the front of our raft, along with Greg, another visiting Floridian. Peggy and her sister, Cindy, were on the second row, with Sam and Scooter, a South Carolinia, in the rear. Nobody bothered to tell us that the ones in the front would get twice as wet as everyone else. The stretch of the French Broad we rode is pretty popular with white water en thusiasts. There are rapids there which in clude Classes I through V. The danger in creases with the number It didn't take long before we reached the first rapid. Sandy Bottom 2, the guides estimated, was a high Class III or a low Class IV that day. Considering it was the first rapid I had "over run, it looked wicked to me. The way to run it, we were told, was to keep paddling, keeping the raft moving faster than the river. If we stopped, we would be caught in the currents and eddies around the rocks and would have a problem. So in we went. Sam tried to steer us in straight, but something went a bit wrong. We came in at an angle to one side: mine. The front of the raft dropped down the backside of one wave into a base of a second, larger wave. Sam later guessed that this wave was eight feet high. It curled down on the front of the raft. The cold water threw Greg against the side, and I was washed into the floor. But we kept paddling. The ride couldn't have lasted more than a minute, but it seemed much longer. Sit ting in the floor of a raft going down rapids tends to distort your perception of time, you see. The next big rapid was Pitstop. This one didn't have the large waves that Sandy Bot torn 2 had, but the current was trickier. The rear end of our raft got caught in an eddy and we were pulled in almost sideways. A wave hit us from the side, thoroughly soaking everyone. When we reached the end, Greg and I, pleased that now we weren't the only ones wet, turned around to see how the rest had faired. Cindy was trying to wipe the water off her glasses, the same problem I had been having for the whole trip, and Peggy was picking herself up from the bottom of the raft, where she stayed about a third of the trip. Sam was just grinning; after all, he's been a guide for five years, so he ought to be enjoying himself by now. We rowed over to the bank to have lunch. The van had brought the picnic sup plies on down to a pre-arranged meeting place below Pitstop. I have been on lots of picnics before, but I don't think the food ever tasted any better than it did then. The sandwiches we con structed would have made Julia Childs cr inge, and we were all wet and a little bit tired, but there is just something enjoyable about eating lunch while you drip-dry, get ting jo knovi| different folks while you're at jlL- - ?**...? U at'XM/ ... I. After lunch, it was time to tackle the Class V rapid, Frank Bell's. Also known as Deep Water Rapids, this stretch of whitewater falls 16 feet in 26 yards over three ledges. It looks, and is, rough. The other raft went through first, then it was our turn. We got lined up and managed, for the first time, to go straight in. The front dropped on the first ledge and burrowed into the base of the wave in front. The wave was larger than any of the others ; instead of hitting me in the face, as usually happened, this one landed on my head. Needless to say, I was sWept into the floor. Greg was on his way over the side when he managed to push off the side of the raft and fall back in. Peggy also landed in the floor, again. The back end of the raft started to sw ing downstream. We were going to go over the second ledge sideways. Sam, sounding slightly hysterical, shouted for us to "Paddle forward!" Still sitting in the floor, I started paddl ing forward. I don't know what Sam did to straighten us out, but we were back on course when we went over the second ledge. This was the last major rapid of the trip, so Sam put Peggy and Cindy in the front for the last mile. We went through one smaller rapid. Sam ran us through this one at an angle to see if what we figured would happen would. Sure enough, it did: Peggy ended up in the floor again. This time, however, she manag ed to keep paddling. Never mind that she wasn't coming close to getting the paddle in the water, she was still paddling. When we pulled over to the bank to dump the water out of the rafts, Peggy in formed us that she wanted to "paddle back upstream and start again!" The group seemed to agree very quickly that she need ed more practice going down before trying to go up. We brought the rafts off the river at Hot Springs. Unfortunately, we went a little fur ther downriver than the trip usually goes, so we couldn't use the regular "take-out" area. We had to carry the rafts up a bank to the road. The unfortunate part was that the bank included a splendid growth of poison ivy. I haven't broken out yet, two days later, so I guess I probably won't get it. My back is still sore, though, as is the slight case of sun burn I picked up. But it was worth it. Cindy certainly had the right idea when she told Jim that the afternoon had been "the most fun I've had in a long time." I'm going to ride another river before the summer is out, although I'm not sure which one yet. I'll have to be careful, though, if I do down to many more rivers like that I could end up liking water. Church Play To Be Held At Red HUl Red Hill Chroch on Upper Brush Creek Road is presen ting a play entitled "Don't Wait Until It's Too Late" at 7 p.m. Saturday. The program will be follow ed by a song service featuring the "Singing Servants." The public is invited. Births To Mr. and Mrs. Alan Payne, of Route 7, Marshall, a daughter, Lisa Renee, June 30, 1980, in Memorial Mission Hospital. Veterans Representative To Be In Marshall A representative from the North Carolina Division of Veterans Affairs will be in Marshall on Thursdays of each week from 10:30 a m un til noon to assist veterans and dependants in filing claims with the Veterans Administra flat. Those persons desiring assistance with veterans pro btems may contact the veteran representative at the Ramaey Building on Main Street. The Division of Veteran* Af fair! office serving this area is located at ? Grove St., Aaheville and is open Monday through Friday between the hours of (am and 5 p.m. Hie phone number is 2SMM7. ??t*r ... \ . ? , ?; V _ " Folk-Ways / On Clearing New Ground And Old Poetry By ROGERS WHITENER Several recent editions of Folk-Ways have dealt with the problems ? and occasional pleasures ? of clearing newground, including the bur ning and grubbing of roots and stumps prior to the introduc tion of dozer and tractor. A letter from Roy H. Atwood of Hickory provides informa tion on transitional, make-do methods of grubbing employed by his innovative father. He writes: "My father bought a farm about one mile from Rhodhiss Lake in 1932. One field had been cleared, but there were still plenty of stumps. At that time the state road scrapers would give people their old blades. We got several and made a two-drag scrape to make ditches and terraces. We bolted the old blades on each side and it lasted for several years. "Papa had an oak beam sawed eight inches square at Rabies Clinic The Parvo Virus and Rabies Clinic will be held from 1-5 p.m. on Tuesday, July IS, at the Madison County Health Department. Prices are: Parvo vaccina tion, 96; regular distemper vaccination, $6; rabies vac cination, $3.50; or all three shots for |15. Miss Ray Linda Ray of Marshall, daughter of Mr and Mrs Lawrence K. Ray, Sunset Drive, served as a Page in Governor Jim Hunt s offices WaUm the front. A blacksmith took a blade in back at an angle. He hooked up mules weighing about 1300 to 1400 pounds to this stump and root-cutter, and he wore a pair of high-top boots with heavy boot socks over work socks for protec tion. It took a good man to use it with roots hitting shins and feet." Later on, according to Mr. Atwood, the equipment pic ture improved but even then stumps continued to offer pro blems. THE INVENTOR'S WIFE It Is easy to talk of the pa tience of Job; Job had nothing to try him. If he had been married to By jah Brown, folks wouldn't have dared come nigh him. Well, didn't he make me a Singing The regular Night p.m. will be held at 7 *1 the Baptist Church will be the Glory Quarter!, cradle once that would keep itself a-rocking? And didn't it bounce the baby out, and wasn't his head bruised shocking? As for locks and clocks and mowing machines, and reapers and all such trash, Byjah has invented heaps of them, but they don't bring in no cash. Have 1 told you about his bedstead yet? It was full of wheels and springs. It had a clock face at the head, and at any hour you said That bed got up and shook itself and bounced you on the floor; Then it shut up like a box so you couldn't sleep any more. Mrs. Feimster remembers The News -Record NON-PARTISAN IN POLITICS (USPS 38*440) JAMES I. STORY. Editor* Consultant And Columnist JULIA WILLIAMS. Advertising Manafer DkJJUiiAjl ? ?-*- n. . rUDnSnM WtWKIJr ay Madison County PuOttshing Co. Inc. BOX 369 MARSHALL. N.C. 28753 PHONE: (704) 649-2741 ___ ICoiasa County 12 Mm MJO 12 Mas. UiOO ?Mr "00 6 Mo. 3 Mas. MOO ( M.US 4 pwcent N C S?H? T?tl
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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July 10, 1980, edition 1
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