The Johnson City Press will be at our Freedom Hall Pool Session tomorrow evening (12-20-2011 @ 7:10-9:00 P.M.) to shoot some photos and write up a little story about our weekly event! Come out to join us for a good showing and get your photo in the paper! :-) Hope to see you at the pool and Merry Christmas!!!
Team APE’s came back together this past Saturday afternoon at the NOC for the Canoe Club Challenge event #2! Another great time was had by all in attendance and we had a total of 13 paddlers support our team! Big thanks to Max, Rick, Jeff, Ryan, Jennifer, Mike, Ty, Paul, Tierney, Clay & Ann Marie for joining Team APE’s! We came in with another strong 3rd place finish overall in event #2 as a club. Team APE’s has a solid 3rd place spot on the podium currently in the series and we are only 10 runs away from taking 2nd from the AWC! We also met one of our goals for this series, which was to place above the AWC and CCC in one of the events! Rock on Team APE’s!! Let’s keep the strong momentum for the Team going into the final event next month!
Club Point Results for Event #2
Georgia Canoe Association – 119
Nantahala Racing Club – 51
APE’s – 48
Atlanta Whitewater Club – 46
Carolina Canoe Club – 36
Club Point Current Series Standings
Georgia Canoe Association – 181
Atlanta Whitewater Club – 98
APE’s – 87
Nantahala Racing Club – 64
Carolina Canoe Club – 53
East Tennessee – 9
The complete results are in the PDF link below for team and individuals:
Big thanks to Erin Weatherford as our team timer/coach and for the photos in this report! Thanks to my lovely wife, Jennifer Bradley, for the coordination on the pedestrian bridge to keep the team running smoothly. Jen sure did look good running my Villain through the slalom gates 
-Deb Reynolds reporting
Church Hill to Christian’s Bend
This stretch of the Holston River is a great stretch for a both beginner and more advance paddler. The water typical has enough current to allow you to drift and look around at God’s creation but enough water to get a work-out if you want one. It is one I have traveled several times but every paddle is different and thus worth repeating each year.
We had a completely new crew today with 5 solo kayaks and a canoe. I left my kayak on my car for the opportunity to canoe with Bill Tindall who lives on this stretch of the Holston River and provided me a personalized tour. We started out about 9:30am with a light rain that eventually disappeared with a temperature in the high 60’s low 70’s. After week of hot humidity, this day was a gift.
This year we saw the results of the storms we have had with many trees on the shore washed away and no signs of beaver slides. Bill took us around every island for the most scenic route, several of which I had not been around before and we skipped by one island as a small sandbar had appeared blocking our way. Spencer was fishing most of the trip and caught and released ~7 fish – a few bass and several small bluegill. We saw a very small fawn for this time of year on the last island. We also saw blue heron, cormorants, tons of green heron (a first for me), kingfishers, Canadian goose, many wood ducks, turkey buzzards, and LLB’s (little brown birds), catfish, and turtles sunning on rocks. I think many of the group will be back after seeing several fishing spots they want to try. Present were Rick and Denise Wright, Eric and Trish Osborne, Spencer Gilliam, Bill Tindall and myself.
Trip Leader Bill Tindall
Team APE’s came together Saturday afternoon at the NOC for the Canoe Club Challenge! A great time was had by all in attendance and we had a total of 9 paddlers support our team! Big thanks to Rick, Whitney, Josh, Andy, Jeff, Jamison, Ryan, & Steve for joining Team APE’s! We came in 3rd overall out of 6 clubs with a score of 39. I thought this was a good strong start for the series!
Club Point Results for Event #1
Georgia Canoe Association – 62
Atlanta Whitewater Club – 52
APE’s – 39
Carolina Canoe Club – 17
Nantahala Racing Club – 13
East Tennessee – 9
The complete results are in the PDF link below for team and individuals:
Make plans to join Team APE’s on July 16, 2011 for Event #2 at the NOC! Hope to see you on the Nanty!!
We had record attendance at the cleanup this year! But first let me say and I couldn’t have done it without the support of our club officers Jerry, Cheryl, Wes, Jeff & Scott. All the help with organizing, getting the food, helping to pick up donations and TVA bags was a huge help! At sign-in time there was an overwhelming period of giving out location assignments and organizing clean teams that was very exciting. After getting everyone on their way at all the pacific points of focus I teamed up with a small band of merry volunteers and set off to the Saw Mill put in. The weather was perfect and the water was wonderful!
From this years heavy rains there were a lot of debris piles full of bottles and all sorts of other stuff. We found clothes, boots, cans, pipes, plastic, metal pieces, barbed wire and even a microwave and stuffed animals! What was the name of that doll again Phyllis? Jerry reports that we cleaned up 3 full truck loads of trash with several tires. And Michael took trailer loads of trash too. I also have reports that many of you took your bags directly to the dump so we really got a lot out of the river!
One of the participants that was new to attending the cleanup said. It made her mad to find so much trash carelessly left in the river. That comment reminded me of when we started concentrating on these sections of river. It use to be much, much worse. I can’t explain how bad it was through Bumpass Cove and across from the Saw Mill a decade ago. Heck I can remember there being a mini van in the river that stayed there for two years before the County got it out!
At Chestoa park the Sheriff showed up with manpower to help out too and that was a total surprise! They will definitely get a letter of gratitude from us!
We timed our duties to be finished around 3:00 and were all getting off the river and playing in the hole at the Big Rock about the same time. It’s always such a pleasure to be at the Riverpark Campground. The atmosphere is so festive when the river is right and the boaters are there! Cheryl’s pics reflect the good time had by all! Nancy & Brucie are hero’s to let us have free access to it for the cleanup!
The food was wonderful. Cheryl out did herself with BBQ from the best local restaurant and all the fixins and some WONDERFUL cookies! There wasn’t even crumbs left of those! I made the club style beans we look forward to each year and many others helped with the set up.
The Toluenes band was a big hit too. They were friends of mine from Gatlinburg who are an acoustic duo with really good stage presents and also coming out into the crowd and working it for audience participation. They helped me with giving away all the prizes donated by our sponsors and holding the grand prize for last being a scholarship for a swift water rescue course at Landmark Learning. The winners being a new couple who own property on the river and are boaters too! I won it one year and it is a really good course that’s made me a safer boater!
I want to thank the volunteers from The Carolina Canoe Club, TEHCC, The Chota Club and The Johnson City Team River Runners. This was the first year TRR has participated and they were a big help with parking, driving a trash runner trailer and with shuttling. Not to mention hard working helpers on the river!
Special thanks to Mahoney’s this year too. They were responsible for getting a monetary donation from Columbia Sportswear and then Matched it! It completely covered our food and the band expenses! Then on top of that sent a team to come help with the cleanup!
Thanks to all! But in the grand finale of this report, it was such a pleasure to see so many APE’s come out this year and give their ALL! Our work shows and brings a smile to my face every time I paddle the Nolichucky and see how much better the river is looking!
Debbie’s Noli Cleanup Photos are here: http://community.webshots.com/album/580305480BdlBMP
Cheryl Killman’s Noli Cleanup Photos are here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1909316607325.106123.1074133134&l=28096744f6
Debbie Briscoe
The meeting was fun and productive! The BBQ from Creekers was really tasty and it was great to see all in attendance! We had a total of 20 APE’s at the meeting and we got a lot decided for the upcoming year!
For all those who did not get to make it to the Annual APE’s Winter meeting/Party, click on the minutes link below for a PDF copy of the items we went over at the meeting with notes added to the agenda in bold blue. Please feel free to send any comments, suggests, or voluteer to wesley@worldkayak.com and I will forward it to the appropriate coordinator! Hope to see you on the river!
For all those who can not make it to the Annual APE’s Winter meeting/Party tonight, click on the agenda link below for a PDF copy of the final draft of the items we will be discussion tonight FYI. Please feel free to submit any comments, suggests, or voluteer to wesley@worldkayak.com! Hope to see you on the river!
