What Makes West Virginias Gauley Raftings Madcap Mecca?
Each fall more than 80,000 parents, children, Harley bikers, and church groups journey to a 28-mile-long (45-kilometer-long) section of West Virginia’s Gauley River. They’re young and old, gay and straight, first-timers and river rats. They come from places as close as Fayetteville, West Virginia, and as far as Frankfurt, Germany, many making the trip year after year. It has become a right of passage. But even though the river’s Class V-plus rapids are wild enough to host the World Rafting Championships (they were held there in 2001), other rivers are wetter. And while West Virginia’s hills may be “purty,” they’re little more than goose bumps compared with the towering peaks surrounding the Snake, Salmon, and Colorado Rivers out west. So what is it that makes the Gauley’s 22-day season the most lucrative and frenetic in rafting? As writer Mark Sundeen discovered while guiding the river in 1996, the answer is as varied as the people in the boats. Sure, the world-class rapids draw plenty