A huge thank you to Wade for putting this trip together and for showing me down the Lower Gauley. I had an absolute BLAST. I made it down 4 of the big Class V rapids with no problems. I will say Wade's cataraft tubes are very clean on the bottom. I got to inspect them in great detail and up close as I swam under them at Lower Mash rapid. Thanks to Justin for the rescue, thanks to, I think it was Wade yelling for me to swim hard away from an undercut rock. And thanks to the young man (sorry, I can't remember your name, who towed me across river and downstream to retrieve my cat. When I got up Saturday morning I got ready and discovered I'd left my scan disc to my camera in my computer, so I have no photos, but that probably actually saved camera as I'm sure it would have been tucked into my vest and been lost or ruined. I did Upper Mash rapid no problem then somewhere in Middle Mash rapid I either caught a underwater rock or a wave really caught my right side oar and jerked it clean out of my hand. By the time I recovered it I was lined up dead center of my right tube with Indecision Rock just sticking out of the surface. I hit the rock and the right tube slide up towards the sky, slowly at first and then dam quick. I plunged in backside first, felt my back hit a large rock, probably three feet below surface and hang there for a millisecond and then slide over the top. I remember thinking, oh that was lucky as I was surfacing. I found my upside down raft and manage to get a hand on the tube handle just in time to start my run on the Lower Mash rapid, a solid Class V rapid . As I was going through Lower Mash I saw Wade's cat right in front of me. I could clearly see his cat hit a wall and stop. About that time my upside down cat and I slammed into his cat and I went under my tubes and came up and smashed the bottom of Wade's tubes and then I went under again and came up and for good measure smacked the bottom of his other tube. Then I heard someone, I think it was Wade, yelling at me to swim hard river right to avoid a big undercut rock, which I did. Then Justin rescued me to an eddie. I was fairly wiped out at that point. Walked a ways down the shore and then got a ride down river on the back of a kayak. Thank you everyone who helped me out, I appreciate it ALOT. Pure Screaming Hell rapid (the last Class V rapid on the Lower Gauley) was my best rapid all day, had great lines down it and was very smooth, glad to have ended it on a good note. Supposedly there is some video of my flip, one of the commercial rafts was filming, I'll have to try and track it down.
