Gauley Fest is one of my favorite events. Not only is it a gathering of thousands of paddlers on one of the best stretches of whitewater in the world, but it’s also a huge fundraiser for American Whitewater. This year’s festival saw great weather and a record attendance of over 5000 people!
Ladies on the Lower G kicked off the weekend with a river run down the Lower Gauley on Friday. We had 20 women participate and raised $500.00 for AW. It was a sunny day full of paddling, chatting and smiles. At the end of the day there was a raffle with prizes donated by Kokatat and Girls at Play. Everyone won a prize! The ladies left feeling tired, yet energized from the day. I’m grateful for all of the women who participated and to Kokatat for donating some great gear to raffle off! I also want to thank Kathy Zerkle, Karen Mann and Anne Conolly for helping out and taking photos.
On Saturday I headed to the festival site to set up the Kokatat booth out of which I also promoted Girls at Play. It worked out great! I had samples of the ’09 line of Kokatat gear, including the new Ronin Rescue Vest which is now available in the US. And new this fall, I also had a few samples of the Girls at Play Limited Edition Ronin PFD — Now available on the site!
Kokatat teamed up with AW to raffle off a new Rogue drytop embroidered with the AW logo. The raffle was open to AW members only. Members signed up with AW, filled out their ticket and brought it over to the bucket at the Kokatat booth where the drytop was hanging. The raffle took place around 10:30 p.m. and we had hundreds of tickets to draw from. I got to meet lots of great people in the process. The winner was a woman by the name of Erin who was very excited!
Sunday and Monday I spent paddling with awesome friends whom I hadn’t seen in some time. I had a blast catching up with pioneer female paddlers like Shannon Carroll, Harriet Taylor, Colleen Laffey and Katie Johnson, among others. It was great to paddle and enjoy the river with them. There was lots of giggling… Here are some photos for you to enjoy. See you on the river!
