Gauley River National Recreation Area: Lower Gauley Raft Trip

Today we hit the Gauley River in West Virginia, home to the best whitewater rafting in the eastern US. We rafted the lower Gauley with a few class IV and class V rapids. It was a great time. Some really fun whitewater. I had fully expected to fall out of the boat at some point, but it didn't happen. Three whitewater trips this year, zero unintentional swims. Thus concludes the "Summer of Whitewater". Already looking forward to more next summer. Oh well back to school and work. Noelle and I will not have any days off together until Thanksgiving. Man, I can't wait until Thanksgiving in Wisconsin!

New River Gorge National River: Grandview

 Yesterday evening, Noelle and I finally had the chance to spend some time exploring together. We packed up the Civic and headed east into West Virginia. We made it to Ace Adventure Center later than expected due to some road construction, made camp and went to bed. This morning we awoke to beautiful blue skies and warm temperatures. We headed to breakfast at Tudor's Biscuit World, then drove to the Grandview area of New River Gorge to do some hiking.

We hiked the interesting Tunnels Trail,

the Canyon Rim Trail, 

and the Castle Trail,

but were not able to find the Turkey Spur Trail that was marked on my map. It was a great day for a hike. After our time at Grandview, we headed southeast to Sandstone Falls

where we looked at the falls

and did some short hikes. Then it was back to our campsite for a beer, potato salad, and hotdogs.