Last month I was lucky enough to attend two awesome whitewater festivals, Gauley Fest on the East Coast and Feather Fest on the West Coast. As expected, both festivals delivered with amazing rivers, great friends and fun dose of debauchery. And as much as I love whitewater kayaking, I also love mountain biking and climbing too. So I decided to make the most of both weekends by turning them into multi-sport adventures, taking advantage of the beautiful mountain locations.
I had been to Gauley Fest many times before, and always had a good time so I was excited to be back east in time for the festival. This year, however, I changed up my normal routine by including a day of climbing and a day of biking in the weekend. I rode up with Dagger's very own Chris Gragtmans who was also keen on some multi-sport fun.
We deep water solo climbed at Summersville Lake, road downhill on our mountain bikes at Snowshoe Resort and finished up the weekend with two runs on the Upper Gauley. What an awesome weekend!
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| The scene at Summersville Lake |
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Making my move (Photo: Chris Gragtmans)
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| Chris giving it over a road gap |
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| Me trying to give it- I'm still learning to jump (Photo: Chris Gragtmans) |
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| Mary Frances Hansford having a great day on the Upper Gauley |
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| Anna Levesque hitting a big loop in Dagger's new playboat, The Jitsu |
The following weekend was the Feather Festival, located in Chico California and tagged the "Gauley Fest of the West." I had never been to Feather Fest before but had heard many stories about what an awesome time it was. Now that I am officially living out in California, I was determined to make it to the festival this year. So after making it home from Gauley Fest, I hoped on a plane and headed west.
After arriving in Cali, but before heading up to the fest, David Maurier and I took a day to climb at Lover's Leap in the South Lake Tahoe area. It was a beautiful spot and I even got to lead my first trad climb, which was both exciting and nerve racking!
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| David climbing at Lover's Leap |
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| Me after my first trad lead |
Saturday morning we drove up to the North Fork of the Feather, home to the Tobin section as well as the site of the festival. We spent the morning lapping the Tobin section and trying to dial in lines for the race that afternoon. While I did not have the best race lines, it was still a super fun event that I was stoked to be a part of. After the race we headed downstream to Grizzly Dome, a local sport climbing spot and watched the sun go down high on the rock overlooking the river.
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| Practice race laps on the Tobin (Photo: Bryant Burkhardt) |
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| Party time on the Tobin |
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| Post-race climbing at Grizzly Dome |
Following the climbing was the infamous Feather Fest party and race results announcement. I won't reveal exactly what takes place there but its definitely worth experiencing one day! The next morning I had to get up early to fly back to NC to start my EMT course, which I just finished and passed a couple days ago (hence the delay in getting this post written).
If you've never been to these festivals you should definitely make an effort to check them out! They're worthwhile for the people, the kayaking, the partying as well as the multi-sport potential!
