It has been a little while since I posted any trip updates, so here is a general recap of my whole Gauley Season.  Since it has been a drought (which as of today has been relieved) I didn't paddle much besides work.  Chasing rafts down the Upper Gauley was the story of my season with a couple of Upper Yough and Valley Falls trips thrown in during the weekdays.  I did, however, take one day off of work for the Animal Race.  This is a super fun race down the Upper Gauley, in which you are mostly just competing against your good friends.  The playboat category (the boat has to be shorter than 8"6") is the most competitive category among locals.  This years turn out was awesome, with the playboat category having 16 competitors, by far the largest category.  Since the race is mass start, there was definitely some paddle strokes taken off other competitors chests.  The Burn once again dominated the race with 3 out of the top 4 ! places.  I actually took first place with a time of 58:54, Brian Jennings of Wave Sport and Jay Moffat came in neck in neck with Brian's time at 59:21 and Jay's at 59:22; team member Brad Buddenburg placed 4th with a time 59:30 and Justin Burd placed 6th at 59:50.  This is a super fun race that I highly recommend to anyone who is comfortable paddling the Gauley by themselves.  The rest of the season was fairly uneventful.  Yet right on schedule as the rafting season ends the creeks start running.  The first decent rain in a long while has hit Fayetteville, brining the water back up to where it should be. 

    Today we did the top mile of Manns Creek at a minimum level (*there was some new wood in this stretch, we cleared some out, however there is still a large log in the first drop of Pillage and Plunder and the rest of the run is likely to have new wood in it*); after Manns John, Taylor, and I went over to the Lower Meadow, where we caught a great ! afternoon run at 700 cfs; with a beautiful fading lig ht and evening fog rolling through the gorge we got to the take out trail just at dark, strapped our head lamps on and hiked back to out cars.  It is supposed to rain for the next day or two, so you might see some more updates with photos or videos coming up. 

Until then later-Logan

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Brad Pushing Hard

Logan In a Zone

Determination

Smooth

Logan Leading The Pack