Maintaining the Pumps – 02.04.10
February 4, 2010 | Category: Kayaking, Photography, US National Whitewater Center | Leave a Comment
Scale shot of pumps and tower.
I thought I’d start this post with a really neat shot of our Subaru parked in front of our pumps. All the water has been drained down to roughly two inches inside the pump vaults. We inspected the pumps and found them to be in excellent condition. The impellers are not out of whack, and besides tightening a few bolts, not much needed to happen in the pump vaults.
Jim and Donovan getting ready to tighten up some bolts in Pump 3's vault.
Pump 6's impeller. It looks just as it should. For reference, the impeller's diameter is roughly 4.5 feet.
Donovan up on a ledge checking the bolts.
Rubber Ducky's anyone? We found hundreds of rubber ducks caught in the conveyor belt.
We are mostly on schedule with the cleaning and inspections. We began filling the ponds again with well water and we expect to turn the city water on soon. Any questions? Feel free to ask!
Leave a Comment | Permalink
Draining the Pond – 01.13.10
January 13, 2010 | Category: Kayaking, News, Photography, US National Whitewater Center | Leave a Comment
The US National Whitewater Center has been draining the water in order to do general maintenence on the pumps, clean up some of the algae and inspect the concrete in the channels. As of today, at about 5PM there is a foot of water in the bottom pond.
We first drained the water from the channels and spread the remaining water in the upper pond out as much as we can in order to facilitate evaporation. Once most of the water was gone, we began sweeping and removing the algae and mud that was on the bottom pond.
The almost completely clean upper pond.
The next step was to put a large 6 inch Diesel pump in the lower pond to pump out the water that our drain can’t remove. We estimate this pump to remove about 400 GPM (Gallons Per Minute).
Big pump in the lower pond.
Next, while the bottom pond is draining, the water that pooled up in the channels needed to be removed. The issue here is most of that water is frozen with about 2 inches of ice. Worse yet, it stays in the shade nearly all day. We were able to break up a lot of the ice and get the pump intake hoses under it. The ice broke and melted slowly, but there is still a lot.
Justin breaking and shoveling ice.
The goal is to remove the small ponds of water in the channels and keep pushing the water downstream.
Josh pumping out a pool on the instructional channel.
In just a few days we’ll be able to drive into the lower pond and hopefully start cleaning it soon. We still have a lot of work to do on the Wilderness Channel side and have not started on the Competition Channel yet. We are making rapid progress though!
We have a running pool on how many Ballards will be pulled out once the water is drained. How many do you think? My vote is 8. What else do you think we’ll find?
Leave a Comment | PermalinkTags: cleaning, draining, US National Whitewater Center
Wilson Creek – 12.19.2009
December 19, 2009 | Category: Kayaking, Photography, Trip Reports | 2 Comments
Here at Channel 9 they were forecasting blizzard conditions. I had the day off and I wasn’t about to sit around. With Tommy back from school and John up in Hickory, we figured Wilson Creek was a perfect run for a snowy day. In my neighborhood it just rained and sleeted- no snow. Tommy got to my place and we headed up 321 toward John’s. There was a car wreck every few miles and while the roads were icy, I drove all the way up in 2WD taking my time. It took us a little over an hour to get to John’s.
The boats through my icy sunroof.
Typical 321 scene.
Hickory was a nightmare. No plowed roads, people walking, cars stuck off the road. Tommy and I meandered our way through the carnage, arriving at John’s to you guessed it- home made biscuits.
We ate, packed up and headed up toward Wilson. Carnage from other vehicles were all over the place. We saw everything from stuck 18 wheelers to Mustangs that won’t be moving until the snow melts.
The chaos of the snow. One of the back roads on the way to the putin.
The most alarming thing was the downed trees. They were everywhere once we got off the “main” roads. Many of them had been sort of cut with a chainsaw, but we touched up a lot of them with our own saws.
A tree down across the road.
What can I say? It's a Jeep. This was the scene from Hickory to the putin. Trees everywhere.
We arrived at the put in, happy and very excited to get on the water. Jenna would be our shuttle and photographer for the day.
Very happy to be here!
John and I ready to get in the water.
Beautiful scenery.
Some roadside carnage.
John grabbing some style points.
We all had great lines all day, and made it to the takeout, nice and warm. We made a unanimous decision to take a different route home- toward Morganton. The roads were much better and actually taken care of.
2 Comments | PermalinkWilson Creek – 12.16.2009
December 16, 2009 | Category: Kayaking, Photography | 2 Comments
I headed up after work to meet up with John for some boating at Wilson. After some signature biscuts, a cut lock and front door we forgot to close, we headed out to hit the river. We decided we’d take our time, do one long run and try and take some pictures at some of the drops. We got some good ones.
John at the rail slide.
Having fun!
Getting air at Maytag.
John at the rail slide having a good time!
After a great day on the river, we cooked some soup and “cous cous” at the takeout and grabbed some Wendy’s on the way home. A beautiful day on the river!
2 Comments | PermalinkNorth Harper Creek Hike – 12.12.2009
December 12, 2009 | Category: Articles, General, Photography | 1 Comment
Sean, Steve and I decided that a good old fashion hike was in order. I thought it would be a cool idea to show them Wilson Creek and hike into North Harper Creek to check out the falls.
We left their place around 10am and headed up toward Lenoir. We realized that it was going to be a perfect day for a hike, despite Steve’s sneaking suspiscion that we were in for bad weather.
Driving toward Wilson Creek.
Steve fiddled with his iPhone on the trip up, giving us up-to-date minute by minute updates on humidity, cloud cover, temperature, heat index, chances of perciptation and an assortment of other weather related things.
We arrived at Wilson Creek. I pointed out a few of my favorite rapids, we watched some people run them and then we headed toward the trail head.
On the way to the trailhead we came across some dog sledders. This was one of the highlights of my trip.
Dog Sledders!!
We pulled into the parking lot for the trailhead and departed on our trip for Harper Falls. I’m not going to lie. The thought that my source telling me about these falls was pranking me DID come into mind.
Cool ice that sticks out of the ground.
Steve already falling behind.
Sean walking on the trail.
A cool rock wall we climbed up.
After we got a little more than half way we found a cool island in the middle of Harper Creek. We found a fire pit and decided to make some cous cous there. Steve wandered off while Sean and I began cooking on my new home made stove.
Sean and I cooking cous cous on my stove. Steve had wandered off.
The water boiled in about five minutes!! (Two cups of water)
The finished Cous Cous.
Stomachs full, we headed off to the falls. The trail got a little steeper and slicker, but nothing unmanageable. Finally, we arrived at the falls. I wanted to see them up close so we climbed down through thick forrest to reach the side of the river.
First site of the waterfall!
The first drop.
The second drop. (40ish ft) and the third slide in the distance.
Ice
Wider view of the drop. (Third drop not pictured)
The verdict: this drop is clean, runnable and next time we get a decent amount of rain, you can bet John and I will be there running it. We had an awesome hike and we are planning our next hike. My thoughts: hike into the Green Narrows to show Sean and Steve Gorilla.
1 Comment | Permalink-
About
A collection of photos, videos and trip reports about my various paddling adventures! Random Images
