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Carolina Canoe Club

Week of Rivers - 2008

March 25th Status Update

By Allen Gaither

This years Week of Rivers is quickly approaching and will be here before you know it. In the last issue of The Paddler I promised a schedule of activities for WOR 2008. Unfortunately, the schedule is still a work in progress so I cannot post it at this time. However, I will highlight many of the activities which will be available at some time during WOR.

First, the activities which have firm dates:

  1. Once again Peter Van Gieson will be offering the Red Cross CPR class in the morning on Sunday, June 29th. The cost will be around $10 (Peter will provide an accurate cost once he has it) and each person will have to supply their own Red Cross manual. If you are interested please email me at cruise.chair@carolinacanoeclub.org
  2. The Club is offering an Essentials of River Safety and Rescue class June 29th and 30th. The course lasts about 12 hours, will be physically challenging and covers accident prevention and management, hazard recognition, self-rescue, boat based rescue, wading, swimming, and basic rope rescue techniques. If interested or need more information please email Bobby Simpson at safety.chair@carolinacanoeclub.org
  3. The American Canoe Association will be attending WOR this year. Mr. Chris Stec, ACA Assistant Director for Safety, Education and Instruction, will be offering a canoe instruction clinic during the day and giving a presentation on the ACA in the evening. Both of these activities are scheduled for Wednesday, July 2nd. This is a wonderful opportunity for excellent instruction covering the topics you are interested in. All interested canoeists should email me with the topics they would like to see covered in the clinic.

Now for the activities whose dates have not been set (further details will be forthcoming):

  1. Mark Singleton, the Director of American Whitewater, will be stopping by WOR. He will once again give a presentation in the evening on the wonderful work AW is doing in North Carolina, and nationwide, to secure access and maintain water quality in the rivers we paddle. In addition, we will have an opportunity to “paddle with AW”. Mark will be offering a trip to the Tuck Gorge during the day. We will meet at the put-in in Dillsboro to discuss the status of Duke Power FERC re-licensing and the Dillsboro dam removal. Afterwards, we will all paddle the mighty Tuck Gorge together. This is an activity for all that is not to be missed.
  2. Wayne Dickert, NOC Paddling School Director, will once again be offering some instructional clinics and possibly some other fun activities. Please email me if there are some particular clinic topics you would be interested in.

Just like last year, I would like to schedule a Novice trip in advance for each day of WOR. If you would like to volunteer to lead one, or more, of these trips please email me with the details. In addition, I would again like to have mentors available during the week to answer questions anyone might have. I will be available for questions, but would appreciate the assistance of one or two more people. I would prefer the volunteers be the same people for the duration of WOR. Please email me if you are interested in being a mentor for the week. The help of volunteers is greatly appreciated by all.

Finally, as a reminder, the new procedure for making tent site reservations at Smoky Mountain Meadows for WOR this year is as follows:

There are many other things in the works for WOR that aren’t far enough along to talk about. I apologize to those without internet access, but the complete schedule of activities will be posted on the website as soon as it is complete.

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