Mike Gilzow invited me to join with Kathleen Simpson, Bridget Tincher, Stuart Titus, Tom Snead, Sonha Payne, Cheng Ling, and Tom Eisenschimd at the Go-Mart in Gauley Bridge for my first run on the Middle Gauley. When I arrived no one was there and suddenly everyone was there. I found myself surrounded by folks with degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering and all kinds of Kanawha Countians; even some of the wild ones!

We finally left Go-Mart and drove and drove until we finally finished the death-defying part of the trip - the shuttle. Then I was with her! There is no doubt she is a diamond, she is worthy of your love, she is like no other. She is the Gauley! I hope she forgives any rude trespassers who do not treat her with reverence, or who ever try to own her or change her.

It was much colder water than I was used to and I had no paddling jacket, only my polypro T-shirt. So I was immediately concerned with avoiding a sudden cold dunk. Bridget wasn't really feeling well but she was determined and this gave me determination as well. This was also her first Middle Gauley as well as it was for Sonha and for Tom Eisenschimd. We were all a bit tentative. Kathleen had her usual attitude - "so what if we do take a swim" - and sure enough, you guessed it!

Early on, Bridget and Kathleen did swim but we all recovered and continued on to be joined by Slick Hottinger and ----, who along with Tom Snead and Mike started showing us lines through some very exciting rapids.

Tom Eisenschimd did a great combat roll in a small trough I thought much too narrow to run, much less roll in. I believe that for a first year paddler in a brand new Mongoose he did very well. Since we had four first timers we were all trying to keep the lines a little tight, which turned out too tight for me.

I was having a great day and then - kayaks got both parallel and perpendicular pool parked all at the same time as we pulled over for a serious discussion on how to run Woods Ferry, the most difficult rapid in this section of the Gauley.

I followed Kathleen and Stuart down a long, congested and very technical route. Stuart parked his Canoe in an eddy as I watched Kathleen barely make it around the big rock at bottom right. Suddenly, I was out of space, out of time, the rock was approaching I was looking for the pourover called Julie's Juicer, realizing as I saw Slick and --- pointing left vigorously from the top of the rock that maybe I was going to look at the situation from another viewpoint - upside down!.

Yes, I will vouch that the worst thing to do is nothing, which I did. I didn't even feel the cold water and somehow came up with one hand on my paddle and my grab loop in the other. The swim wasn't all that bad and I appreciated the help in getting my boat to shore.

A few rapids later my ego had recovered and my day and summer were made as I burst trough a wall of white while being hit left, then right, then left again and suddenly I was out of Backender, upright with arms extended, saying "YES!" as I watched other heads popping to the surface, their turn to swim.

Well, so it goes. Thanks, people- it was a great day. Thanks especially to Mike, Slick, Charlie, Kathleen, Bridget, Stuart, Turner, Brent, and all the other boaters who have helped me have a great kayaking summer! See ya on the river!

Editors note: thank you, Vince for a very interesting article. I hope there are more coming . Prior to this trip, Vince had only run Prince-to-Thurmond. Thus the Middle Gauley was quite a step up for him and he handled the challenge very well. The "popping heads" at the bottom of Backender were yours truly and the next three who mistakenly followed my line to the far right instead of the far left over the last drop. By the way, Vince, the flow that day was more like 1500 cfs, not the 500 cfs we assumed at the put-in. Quite a bit more pushy.