2004 - July Reunion

July 4th Reunion (2004)
Any long weekend is a good time to have an Alak reunion. So we decided that we are going to meet in Atlanta since five of us were already in Atlanta.
Any long weekend is a good time to have an Alak reunion. So we decided that we are going to meet in Atlanta since five of us were already in Atlanta. Paul, Ramki, Vasanth, Setty, Brato, KL, Karthikeyan and Karthik attended. Brato flew in from California. He had to leave early due to the airline schedule. Satya was busy interviewing so he joined us only one day. Even people in Atlanta have not done these activities before and it was a lot of fun.
Day 1As usual we woke up late by the time we started it was 11 am. I knew a place to go kayaking and on our way we had lunch in restaurants and that slowed us a down. The river's name is Cartecay. It has class II rapids with three tough rapids on the end. Cartecay River (http://www.americanwhitewater.org/rivers/id/3418/). It was already 3 pm when we reached the river. We rented some kayaks from River Right rental. I chose the regular kayak and rest of them chose Sit On Tops. Those kayaks hardly flip but once they flip the person sitting has to swim. Those guys got a small intro course from the rental guy. At the put in some guys chose to use the step slide into water and the rest chose the sand bar. The river was a little high that day. We hardly paddled and enjoyed the ride..
Some of the guys did not know swimming. So they were scared for a few minutes. KL was just terrified whenever the kayak moved. At the end, he was the one who did not flip at all. The river was ideal for beginners. The first half was all flat water with occasional shoals and gave us some time to learn controlling our kayaks.
Soon most of us were comfortable and we easily paddled through the scenic river. There were few other shoals that we passed with out any incident. There are three big rapids at the end one after another. We were greeted by a smaller rapid called surf rapid where we had no problems. We eddied out for some time and then continued toward the first big rapid.
The next rapid (S-Turn) was hard that day because the river was high. Brato went straight into the rapid and almost made it. He flipped went straight down and was recovered by locals. Anna and Paul made it through this rapid. Anna did not stop and went straight through two other rapids to the takeout. Somehow all of us met Brato at the spot at the second rapid (whirlpool). The locals were very helpful by thowing ropes and recovering our gear. We took some pics here. The river right guys told us to hurry and so we had to move. Everybody made it safely (some walked and avoided the rapid) through this rapid.
The grand finale is a rapid called Blackberry fallas. I told everyone to watch me run the rapid and learn. I went right into the a big wave and flipped. To be fair, the boat I was in was not outfitted properly and so I could not control it using my hips. Seeing me, some of them walked the rapid. Others who ventured made it safely. All of us met at the takeout safe but tired. We took the shuttle and went back to the put in where we changed our clothes and headed back to Atlanta.

Day 2:
We drove to Tallulah and hiked there.
It was a nice hike with a lot of view points. We went down the steps to the bottom of the gorge. I strongly recommend doing that because there is a nice waterfall at the bottom.
But if you do not want to get tired or do not have time you can go around the gorge.