Solo Prototype Testing
Red Creek, WV 09/09/04
Hurricane Frances brought a lot of rain to some very specific areas in WV. Luckily for us (Joe Stumpfel, Steve Graybill, and Bryon Dorr) a lot of the rain happened to fall on the headwaters of Red Creek. This creek is a relatively remote wilderness run in Northern WV. After about a 2 mile hike in you finally reach the creek. The creek is about 8 miles or so long and starts out with some fun little slides as some major tributaries join the action. The creek then is about at full force and just drops down the mountain with back to back to back and so on drops pretty much all the way to the take out. Big slides and cascades are what make up most of this run. Even when you're not dropping something big the boogy water is relatively steep and tons of fun.
Joe paddled the L Solo prototype and I paddled the S Solo prototype on this adventure. The creek offered up tons of different types of drops and water conditions to test the boats out. Overall both boats did awesome! With some small refinements to the deck and outfitting these boats will be ready for production. The S Solo did exceptionally well on this relatively technical WV creek. Quick turns, big boofs, lots of acceleration, and speed made for a really fun day on the water.
Watch for these boats to hit US shores by early Spring '05.
See you on the river- Bryon Dorr