Professor Paddle: Gauley Fest

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   Went out east the other weekend to the Gauley Festival 08. I'd never paddled back east so I didn't know what to expect. My friends from NoCal and I had a great trip. There's quite a crowd, including 70 + yr olds' running class V and video paddlers jumping in every hole on the river. It's a pretty big river though and crowds weren't as bad as we thought.The whole trip ran us less than $350 each including food and campling since we had miles tickets. You could also do the week before or after and avoid the rush.

Highly recommended if you like:
-Warm water
-Good rapids
-Parties
-Free beer

Flew into Pittsburgh on FF miles. From there we headed down to the Yough. Met up with some local Friendly Friends 'villians' (Keith, Jim, Bob ...) who were super-coolio. 
We were able to scam some boats from assorted locals, but another option would be to rent from Rocky Mountain Kayak outside of Pitt and avoid paying the airlines to ship your boat.
Upper Yough is a great tight technical 4, and usually releases the week before the Gauley Fest. Some years the Sandy may be going too.
From there we headed down to the Gauley, got there in the afternoon and ran the lower. Lots of good play spots.
Saturday of the fest, we waited to put on the upper until after 1 pm and managed to avoid the bulk of the crowds. Insignificant, Pillow, Lost Paddle, Iron Ring and Sweets Falls were great fun. All not too difficult once they are broken down. There was a lot of talk about Pillow, but I saw people run it every way including upside down along the left wall and come out fine. You could cut back after the first hole and miss it to the right if you wanted. Preferred double bonus route was to run the meat left center, move back right, and boof off of Volkswagon rock.
At the festival you could see every type kayak that exists in the work. Pyrahna is coming out with a new boat that looks like a hybrid of the Burn and a displacement hull. Instead of the hard edge it's got a bevel. 
Saw Liquid logics new play boat. ( what were they thinking?).
Lot's of schwag too. My friend won a free astral lifejacket. Legends and BS flyin in every direction all night long. We had great weather all weekend.
Sunday ran the upper again (definitely worth doing twice) and flew back Monday am. 
I'm going back some year...