This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to get some adventure time with my good friend Kenny. We’d just built up a brand new 2022 Brother Cycles Mehteh adventure gravel bike for him and I knew the perfect way to break it in: an often talked about but never acted on packraft trip around Big South Fork.
A rough outline of a plan was hatched about a week or so out from the upcoming holiday weekend. Initially a multi-day adventure was planned, but as life has a way of doing, as the weekend drew nearer, our available time had grown smaller. So a big day of adventure was the final plan. Some earlier route scouting had concluded some trepidatious cliff access only potential, so we made the call to play it safer (for brevity of an already long days adventure planned) and started the trip with a gently paved descent to the Leatherwood access point.
After the short ride from the Bandy Creek Visitor center, we found ourselves surrounded by grey skies and billowy fog rising from the trees above. We quickly settled in to inflating and packing up our rafts for the 8 mile paddle. Storms raged in the area overnight and had been predicted all morning long, but the skies remained bright but overcast with just some gently off and on drizzle. The radar showed strong storm potentials around 1pm so we’d need to be swift to avoid being stuck on the river in a lightening storm.
The paddle to Angel Falls was swift and adventureous with myriad rapids and rock puzzles to paddle through. We’d feared having to portage much of the river due to earlier scouting trips and low-ish water levels, but we had plenty of float thanks to the recent rains and only a few minimal bottom scrapes through the larger rock features. It was shaping up to be a fantastic day on the river. After a slighly more arduous than expected portage around Angel Falls (practically manditory simply due to lower water levels through the falls) we found ourselves in tranquil waters with amazing views. Neither of us had seen the park from the river before. Looking up you could see the Grand Gap overlooks and the bike trail covered in a thick blanket of mist and fog, all the while river level was clear and crisp. Knowing we had friends up enjoying the trails of the IMBA Epic, we kept keen eyes peeled for each overlook, hoping for a familiar wave.
The tranquility would soon be tested as we encountered 5 miles of flatwater. So much for current assisted paddling! With the time of the expected storms now approaching hitting us halfway through the river section, there wasn’t much time available to dilly or dally, so we paddled on. As our arms ached, the sky brightened, the rain fully stopped, and we were greeted with stunningly perfect weather and absolutely no headwind, so our winning, despite a bit of suffering, was still happening. Score!
Just when the Type II fun was about to seemingly turn towards that nasty Type III fun, we spotted the flags marking our river exit point. Instantly, a return to Type I fun. We deflated the rafts and repacked/assembled the bikes and headed off for the off-road stretch of the day. We’d enjoyed pavement, paddling, some double-track/green lanes, singletrack, and gravel along our loop. If only we’d had a horse and an airplane we’d had hit most modern methods of travel (hot air balloons and zeppelins not withstanding) in a 6 hour jaunt.
It was such a grand day out in nature. The Mehteh’s handled the tasks at hand with aplomb and proved the well rounded capability of a ATB (All Terrain Bike). Huge thank you out to Kenny for handling the driving duties and making this dream trip happen despite all the hurdles. Enjoy the gallery of memories and moments from the trip. Also, check out the coal line along the Angel Falls trail. First one I’ve seen out there.
