Sunday, July 04, 2010
River adventure
Riders Up! Outfitters in Clifton Forge hosts weekly -- and always exciting -- summer kayaking trips.
REBECCA BARNETT The Roanoke Times
Sara Dressler (center) of Clifton Forge paddles down a 3.75-mile stretch of the Jackson River during a Thursday evening group kayaking trip.
Photos by REBECCA BARNETT The Roanoke Times
Shannon Downey of Selma laughs with friends from work while paddling down the Jackson River. This was Downey's fourth time kayaking. "It's just fun, something to do," she said.
Jerell Milstead of Covington gets ready to set out on the Jackson River for a Thursday evening group kayaking trip.
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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The Wild Life blog
COVINGTON -- "Where are the brakes on this thing?"
Sara Dressler's question wasn't entirely serious. But it was rooted in actual concern as she dipped her kayak paddle into the chilly water of the Jackson River and headed downstream.
Ahead was a narrow chute and as the first-time kayaker followed a string of brightly colored boats ahead of her, she had a prediction.
Things were going to get clogged up down there.
"And I won't be able to stop," she worried.
No need to worry.
Dressler, who lives in Clifton Forge, made it through unscathed, as did everyone else on the weekly Thursday evening kayaking trip hosted by Riders Up! Outfitters in Clifton Forge.
Riders Up! runs the trips during the summer months on the Jackson and James rivers.
Trip spots are rarely announced ahead of time.
"Tom usually makes the call that morning, depending on where the water is," said Dawn Carey, half of the Riders Up! team.
Tom is Tom Kirlin, Carey's husband and the other half of the team. Ready for a change of pace, the couple moved to the area from Northern Virginia a few years ago and ended up in northern Botetourt County, where they manage a horse farm and from where Carey works as a sales representative in the equestrian industry.
Kirlin, a former steeplechase horse racer, was drawn to the river.
In 2005 he started by running car shuttles, doing it solo by riding his mountain bike.
But when clients started asking if he had rental boats available he made the jump into that business.
Riders Up!, which sells as well as rents outdoor gear, opened a retail store and headquarters on Clifton Forge's resurgent main drag in 2007.
Every Thursday evening paddlers, many novices but some with experience, meet at the shop for the paddling trips.
Many are staying at nearby Douthat State Park, but plenty are local residents.
A fee of $10 covers rental of a kayak, paddle and life jacket, a ride to the put in the river and back from the exit point of the river, plus snacks at the end of the trip.
At that price, it's no surprise that the trips usually sell out, as did the jaunt Roanoke Times photo intern Rebecca Barnett and I signed up for in late June.
Even when it's full the trip isn't a moneymaker for the business, Kirlin said.
It's marketing to get people excited about paddling and the area's rivers.
"Some of them come back and buy boats," Kirlin said.
And some come back and do the Thursday trips time after time.
This trip included not only some first-timers such as Dressler, but some trip veterans.
One was Jerell Milstead of Covington, who works with Dressler in the operating room at the Alleghany Regional Hospital and persuaded her friend to take the trip.
With the boats on a trailer behind a big pickup truck, the paddlers piled into the Riders Up! shuttle van and headed to the Jackson River for a float between the public access points at Indian Draft and Petticoat Junction.
The shuttle van is something of a marketing tool itself.
It's painted pink, with a Riders Up! logo on the back.
"That's the color it was when we got it," Kirlin said of the van, which they call Pearl. "It was only my second eBay purchase and I got it for $1,800 -- the one and only bid."
At the put-in, guide Harrison Young had the kayaks out, each labeled with the paddler's name.
Kirlin gave a short lesson on paddling basics to the first-timers, then Young helped get them going.
There was little time for a warm-up as the river quickly flowed into a mild riffle.
Kirlin and Young were both in white kayaks.
"When in doubt," Kirlin urged, "follow the white boat."
A couple of the paddlers twisted and turned, but managed to remain upright.
At the next slot of swift, rocky water Kirlin offered help by telling paddlers how to paddle.
"Left forward twice," he shouted. "Back right. Back right!"
He smiled when the paddler he was trying to help stuck her left paddle blade into the river.
"Maybe I should have spent more time going over right and left," he joked.
Like any good guide, Kirlin doesn't just give orders. He takes time to chat with the paddlers about wildlife, the river or anything they want to talk about.
About halfway through the 3.75-mile float Kirlin was paying more attention to talking than to the river when he hit a rock sideways and tipped.
"First time I've gone in three years," he said with a sheepish grin.
Dressler was grinning, too.
"I was glad to see it could happen to anyone," she said.
Soon, it nearly happened to Joy Booze of Covington, whose boat got wedged sideways on a rock.
"I was doing good," said Booze, who works with Dressler. "And then the water started coming in."
Young was downstream, but turned and paddled back through the moving water. He jumped out of his boat and let it float away as he helped Booze get free.
"He was my knight in shining armor," Booze said with a laugh afterward.
The trip ended without further incident, the paddlers laughing about the near misses while munching on chips and Carey's homemade dip while Kirlin and Young loaded up kayaks.
Rachel Winter, a Roanoke firefighter, was smiling about her first kayaking adventure.
"It was cool," she said.
Kirlin smiled.
Another paddler made.
