What's For SUPper?

Naked Man's Rock      The short run from Hopper to Caldwell is difficult for late May in the West Virginia hills due to an unseasonably low flow. There are several ledges on this two-mile stretch where the lone negotiable sluice only becomes visible as one frantically veers into a single inverted V.      A first lesson in canoeing 101 is to miss the point of the V where an underwater rock lurks and head instead into the open top for an unobstructed path. I fail even that practical exam on the one rapid of this trip, Naked Man's Rock.      In higher water, the channel past these twin tanning boulders is broad, but it shrinks in summer to a narrow chute shooting past the jutting jaw of the larger slab. I'm angling for a photo on the approach and miss a split in the current. Before I can raise the paddle to steer right, I'm careening from rock to rock in a jarring descent to the left of the open flow.       I pull out of the ...

Entering the Cat Hole       My first real Greenbrier River journey, on the four miles from Renick to Spring Creek and back again on the adjacent trail, came with many other paddleboard firsts, from position changes to standing strokes, rapids reading to boulder dodging, SUP trekking to a first boating accident.       The winding mountain stream consisting of long, clear pools interspersed with riffles and ledges puts the new skill set to the test. Standing paddling is splashy in the first slow stretch, chasing a bald eagle and a kingfisher  downstream  from tree-to-tree, but soon settles into strong vertical strokes using postural shifts as I focus on getting past the last houses.        The next slow-moving section is the Cat Hole where hippy homesteaders from the surrounding communes still meet to celebrate high summer, but now joined by their children and grandchildren. An elderly caver once told me about wading downstr...