Day 12: The portage from hell

Wednesday morning was busy for Richard. He woke up around 6:00 AM - he is now in Alabama, which means he is on Central time - and went for a quick run.

After returning from his morning run, he had an interview with the local paper - the Cherokee Herald. He finally began the day’s journey on Lake Weiss around 9:15 (CDT). He commented that he is making great time with his new, feathered paddle and he’d already paddled 8 miles by 11:00 AM (CDT) on Wednesday. This means that he’s averaging 4 miles per hour on a flat lake. That is very speedy for a kayak - believe me!

The first person he met on Wednesday was a fisherman named Lamar Schrader who was in town from Tennessee for a fishing tournament on Lake Weiss this Saturday. After visiting for a few minutes with Lamar, he took his obligatory picture and asked him to sign his trip log. Soon after that, he was out on the lake for a full day of paddling. He arrived at Weiss Dam and parked his kayak, jumped out and snapped a few pictures of the dam. He finished taking a few pictures and then paddled down to the Weiss Powerhouse. The dam on Lake Weiss in not like the typical dam you see on a lake - on Lake Weiss, the dam and powerhouse are about 4 miles apart. The actual dam does not allow water to flow through, instead it flows through a man made canal to the powerhouse and then out into the original riverbed. Because of this unique dam, he would portage around the powerhouse instead of the actual dam, and continue down the Coosa toward Gadsden.

On his way to the Weiss Dam Powerhouse, he paddled near a park along the lake. Once he was near the park, he spotted a man standing out on a dock at the park, so he paddled over to him and introduced himself. The gentleman on the dock turned out to be a visitor to the site, David Morgan who knew that Richard was in the area and was looking for him on the lake. If that isn’t enough of a coincidence, he also knows Jaime and Mr. Pruett - two people that Richard had met on the river within the past few days. Richard and David talked for a few minutes and then he was off to see what fun was in store for him on his portage around the powerhouse.

Richard arrived at the powerhouse to find that no one was home - he was going to have to handle the portage all by himself. To add to the excitement, the dam was generating power at the time. Because the dam was generating power, the water below the powerhouse was moving swiftly, so he knew that he needed to be careful when getting back into the river.

After paddling on the lake all day, he was understandably tired and he was hoping for an easy portage. That was not the case - this portage was a real doozie and he knew it would take brut strength and sheer willpower to get through it. The first challenge was to pull his kayak across a field - about 300 yards. To accomplish this task, he tied his rope around the grab loop on the bow of his boat, wrapped the rope around his waist and pulled it across the field. After conquering the field, his next challenge was to get the kayak across a road.

He didn’t want to drag his boat across the road as it could damage the hull, so he opted to “duck-walk” it across. He would take the stern (back) of the boat, pick it up and swing it out in front of the bow, repeat the process with the bow, moving it out in front of the stern, until the kayak was safely across the road. The last challenge came in the form of steep (almost vertical) bank down to the river.

Not giving up, Richard scouted for a better spot along the bank, but he didn’t find one. He decided that the area where he’d crossed the road would be the best spot to lower his kayak down to the river. He estimates that it was at least a 30 foot drop - his rope, 25 feet in length didn’t reach the bottom of the bank when he dropped it down.

To prepare his kayak for this next stage of his adventure, he removed all of the bags on the front and back decks and opted to carry them down after the kayak was lowered down to the river. The next step was to move the rope from the grab on the bow and move it to the stern. He did this because he has gear stored in the bow of his kayak that is not secured by a bulkhead. If he were to lower the kayak by the bow, the gear would most likely fall out of the kayak, go floating down the river and since the water was so swift, he may never see his stuff again. In addition, the gear stored in his bow includes his essential gear - his tent, trip log, and itinerary

After getting his kayak ready, he proceeded to lower it to a ledge along the steep bank until he could make his way down the top of the bank to the ledge. The kayak would rest on the ledge until he could get down there with the rest of his gear to complete the second step of lowering the kayak down to the bank. Because the distance from the road to the river was greater than the length of rope he had on hand, he had to complete the lowering process in two phases.

He arrived at the ledge only to find his kayak wanted to take the quick way down. It took him a few minutes to stabilize the boat and then he began working on slowly lowering his boat down to the river from the ledge. There was a 5-7 foot wide sandy bank along the river and when his kayak was lowered onto the sand, he was amused to find that the kayak stood upright on its own in the sand. Of course, this was too great of a photo opportunity to pass up, so he snapped another picture of his boat standing on end in the sand.

After safely arriving with his boat intact along the river, he quickly secured his gear onto the deck of his kayak, got in and began to paddle downstream. A few miles downstream, he met up with two fishermen near the Mountain View fish camp. Roy Golden and Taylor Hamilton were on the river near the fish camp, so Richard stopped to visit with them for a while. He found out that a gentleman by the name of Bill Trammell owns the fish camp. He called Mr. Trammell to ask for his permission to camp on his property along the river on Wednesday night. Mr. Trammell gave him permission to stay for the night and Richard proceeded to set up camp along the riverbank. He estimates that his tent was set up about 2 feet above the river and 5 feet from the river. He prefers to sleep within sight of the river if at all possible.

After setting up camp, he had a nutritious and delicious dinner of SPAM and Saltine crackers and began to plan the next day’s journey. He’s enjoying taking photos on this trip now that he was able to find a waterproof, compact camera (the Pentax Optio W10). I also sent one of my newest photography “toys” with him so that he could capture pictures of himself on along the way. He was happy to let me know that he stopped to take pictures of himself dragging his kayak through the field. I can’t wait to get these pictures in so I can post them for everyone to see. I think he is planning to FedEx his camera card to me when he gets into Gadsden, so stay tuned for pictures in the next few days!

He should be arriving in Gadsden sometime on Friday. As of Wednesday evening, he estimates that he has 42 miles to paddle before he arrives in Gadsden. He’s heard from locals that there is a Wal-Mart along the river there, so that should be a treat! He’s looking forward to picking up some supplies that he needs - more applesauce and Gatorade. He also commented that he is absolutely thrilled with his new REI tent - it’s kept him dry and warm for the past week. He is also thankful to his brother-in-law, Paul for bringing it to him after his first tent collapsed on him during a thunderstorm on the first night of the trip.