Brian courageously wrote to fill us in on the details on his trip that resulted in perhaps the most trashed boat we have ever seen. For you non- WV locals, Sauverns Run flows into the Big Sandy, which flows into the cheat. See it on the map here, although note that Google incorrectly calls the Big Sandy the Cheat in this section of map. Anyway, enough of my talk. Let Brian take it from here:

Well, the story begins on Friday, March 12th when the big rain and snow melt all began.  I was finishing a solo paddle on Sauverns Run that was just jamming.  It was the biggest flow I had ever seen on this creek.  It was the ultimate mile of stompy Class V solo creeking.  So of course, I was curious about the level on the Big Sandy.  Just so I would know in the future what the level needed to be to have this good of flow on Sauverns Run again.  The last 100 foot stretch to the Big Sandy flew by and next thing I know I am on absolutely enormous water.  Holes were the size of city bus.  Waves were 12 to 15 feet tall.  This type of water pushed me to the gauge under the Rockville Bridge in just seconds.  I struggled to see the gauge because only a few inches of it was out of the water.  Compared to about 6 feet of the gauge when I would normally be paddling the Big Sandy.  At that moment, I knew I needed to get out ASAP.  So I attempted to surf a huge wave across the river to the standard put-in eddy at the bridge.  However, as I came bouncing off the wave into the gigantic boil line, I got pushed into the trees before I even knew what happened to me.  Now I really freaked out because I got flipped in the process.  Branches were in my face.  Branches ripped my paddle out of my hands.  I frantically attempted to roll using some branches, but no success.  The current pulled me out of the trees into the main flow and now I was rocketing down the Big Sandy swimming for my life.  I got close to a tree branch and grabbed on with a death grip.   As I was hanging on, my paddle floated up to me and right behind it was my boat.  The paddle was easy to grab, but when I snagged a grip on my boat I felt as if my arms were going to get ripped off.  My mind immediately realized my reality.  When solo boating, equipment is always disposable. So I let go and struggled to get to shore.  Now the chase was on.  I ran down the bank for over a half mile in snow up to my knees and a few spot to my waist, but the boat just kept getting smaller and smaller on the horizon line.  At that point, I turned around at headed for my truck which was now almost 2 miles up stream.  The best part of the story happened when I started calling around for a boat to borrow.  Jon Reagan came through for me in less than an hour and a half.  A brand new, actually paddle less than 10 times, Large Pyranha Karnali was the kayak of choice for the remainder of the day.  I hooked up with some friends for Muddy Creek which was a whole epic story in itself.  But to end the day, we went back to Saurverns to find the level had come up even more.  Nearly everyone backed out.  But, Ben Ledewitz and I decided to fire it up.  So of course, we rocketed done in minutes since I knew it was all clear of wood.  The walk back up to the truck was even harder this time with a boat on the shoulder and two feet of snow on the road.