- I'm Ken Whiting and this week on Facing Waves, I'm in Western North Carolina.

Where I'm packing my kayak and setting out on an overnight trip down North Carolina's New River before heading to the one of a kind, Nantahala Outdoor Center to tackle some white water and test my skills in an inflatable kayak.

Whoo!

(energetic music) - My name's Ken Whiting and for over 30 years, my life has been guided by the paddle in my hand.

This is my search for the world's most spectacular paddling destinations.

This is Facing Waves.

Funding for facing waves is provided by Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations, tours, destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups.

Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 Postum Instant warm beverage made with wheat, grain and molasses.

It's non-GMO and caffeine free.

Since 1895, all three flavors are available online at Postum.com and by these additional sponsors.

♪♪♪ (slow-paced guitar music) North Carolina is a diverse land that stretches from its beautiful white sand beaches on the Atlantic, through the central foothills to the rugged Appalachian Mountains.

On the Western edge of the state, smack dabbed in the middle of the Appalachians, you'll find one of the most unique and special mountain cities in the country, Asheville.

While many visit Asheville for its renowned art and music scene, an ever growing number of people are discovering that the eclectic town is also a gateway to an outdoor adventure playground.

Of course, that's what's drawn me and I'm excited to get my first taste of the Appalachians with local paddler, Pete the River King Beck.

So we're kicking things off here in North Carolina with a two-day trip down the New River.

We had to go a bit further outside of Asheville than we'd planned because a whole lot of rain had come down and we had to change our plans.

Packing for kayak camping is like doing a puzzle.

Every time, trying to fit the gear you need especially when it's cold and you gotta bring a fair bit of gear.

But when you're doing that and you're figuring out a new boat, it's a challenge.

(guitar music) Don't leave home without him.

(Ken laughs) - Yeah.

- I can't wait to get on the water.

(upbeat guitar music) There we go.

(fast-paced guitar music) The New River is a pretty ideal kayak camping river.

It's moving and there's no dead zones.

Even the flat looking areas are still moving.

So you don't have to be paddling to be covering ground.

If you do paddle, you're actually moving very quickly, you can cover a lot of ground.

(upbeat rock music) And there's no intense white water.

It has at most class one, low low class two white water.

Which means you can very comfortably take almost any kayak that you're comfortable paddling down in.

- The New River is actually special for me.

- It was the first multi-day river I ever did a trip on, in a canoe, 25 years ago or more.

They say it's one of the oldest rivers in the world and it is definitely one to paddle and remember.

(upbeat rock music) - The New River changes a lot on your path.

It goes from having houses and cottages alongside of it to all of a sudden you're in the wilderness and you feel like you're really out there.

And then it goes from thick wall, high walls.

Thick growth to open farmland.

I mean, it just is...

I love the variety of the New.

(upbeat rock music) - So specifically for me I love North Carolina for the paddling opportunities.

We have mountains, Piedmont's coast.

Year round paddling so you can be, you can be on the nice edge of white water, class five.

You can be in recreational paddling coastal touring and everything between.

It's just a fantastic place.

- It's been a beautiful float trip but it's been really relaxing.

There's a lot of water and it's moving pretty quick but you get a few little waves and all of a sudden it becomes a playground, a paddling playground.

(slow-paced guitar music) Now the boat I'm using is, it's a 16 foot sea kayak.

Now they're called sea kayaks but that doesn't mean they're designed just to be used on the sea.

They can be great for river trips as well.

It's really fun.

They make sections of river that are, would be fairly benign and made white water boat fun because you use rocks as gates.

And you're making these little maneuvers.

'Cause every maneuver you make in a sea kayak, especially when it's loaded with gear, takes some pre-planning and you have to make sure every stroke counts.

It's a fun little mane.

(slow guitar music continues) Long boats are great for covering distance, loading with gear, multi-day trips, but long boats can also be good for surfing.

And in my opinion, a river trip, isn't a river trip, regardless of what type of boat you're in, unless you get to surf a wave.

Whoa, what are we doing?

What are we doing?

Well, we made it.

Not exactly a grueling day of paddling.

Seven miles and truthfully, most of it was floating.

It was a pretty chill day but here's home for the night.

Time for some food.

(slow guitar music) Home sweet home.

- Kayak camping for me was an idea that I had when my granddad told me about taking the Cape Fair River to the coast in 1930 in a canoe with his brother.

And I thought, man, that sounds like something that would be fun.

White water's fun.

But it's a completely different experience to just get on a river in a boat, with everything you need in that boat and just launch.

- So with multi-day kayak trips, you see something different.

Especially on a new river to you.

You get to see places you've never seen, places you can't see without doing this.

It's camping, it's, you know, kayaking all in one.

- I enjoy sleeping in nature, while camping.

Kind of just being away from civilization.

- So if you're looking at getting into kayak camping, the initial challenges are always gonna be logistics.

Trying to figure out how to get to a river, how to set your shuttles, how long you're gonna be there, where you're gonna camp along the way, bringing enough food and water.

And so the planning for a trip is almost as much fun as the trip itself sometimes.

- Whether you kayak to camp, whether you backpack to a camp, or whether you drive your car to a camp spot, there's something magical about the camping experience.

Camping is a wonderful way to just reset the mind and body.

(birds chirping) - Well day two, that was a cold night.

It's one of those mornings where you're in your sleeping bag and you do not want to get outta your sleeping bag.

So we're actually getting a pretty late start.

But there's blue sky, there is a wind whipping.

It is gonna be a cold day on the water.

It's still below zero and is not gonna get much above zero or freezing today.

So it's gonna be cold, but we're paddling.

Life is good.

All right.

Blue sky.

- Blue skies.

- You know what the great thing about blue sky is?

- What's that?

- Makes up for bad company.

- That's right.

I've been thinking a lot about that this trip.

(both laughing) (upbeat music) - All right.

Day two.

We're about a half mile in.

We got 10 and a half more miles to go but that's not gonna take too long 'cause we got a lot of current here.

It's really got beautiful too.

I can't wait to see what's around the next corner.

(fast-paced guitar music) - Paddling in the cold is best.

It's really fun.

There are some things you have to do, to prepare yourself where it's not gonna be a positive experience.

You need some good gear.

You need the proper mindset more than anything because no matter what you're wearing, the water's still cold.

The wind is still cold.

If you notice it's blowing about 30 to 40 today, but we're smiling.

We're happy 'cause we're prepared and we wanna to be here.

(water burbling) - No matter how hot, cold, long, short, difficult, easy.

You know, no matter what type of kayak camping trip you go on there's one constant.

And that constant is when you get to the end you just don't want it to be over.

You wish you had more river, more camp, more everything ahead of you.

Good trip boys.

Woo.

- Yeah.

Mission - Accomplished.

- accomplished.

There's always a little sadness involved with reaching the takeout of a multi-day trip.

But you know, I take great comfort in knowing that the next adventure is not far away.

Wooee.

- I've moved about an hour west of Asheville to the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

Now this is one of the premier outdoor centers in the country and it's had a huge impact on the paddle sports community and industry.

It's developed 23 Olympian paddlers and has introduced a huge number of people to the magic of the river and to white water.

Now, I'm doing things a little bit differently.

I'm not hopping in my whitewater boat.

I'm going to pop in an inflatable kayak.

The way that a lot of people get to experience white water for the first time here.

Mine's bigger, Will.

(both laughs) But yours is yellow so that's pretty cool too.

As the years have gone by, one of the things I've really come to enjoy is trying all sorts of different paddle crafts and experiencing different ways of going down a river.

- The inflatable kayaks, which we also call duckies, are a unique craft.

They allow for you to make some little mistakes along the way as you're learning how to paddle your own craft on white water and better prepare you for more challenging water or more challenging river craft ahead.

- You can get away with making all sorts of different mistakes, but not flip.

And if you do flip, you're sitting open in the kayak.

You'll just fall right out.

How far do we have to go?

- Three miles on the table this afternoon?

And we're gonna enjoy this middle section and give us five miles all the way down to the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

- All right.

The great thing about rivers is you never really have to question which way to go.

Down, downstream.

(fast-paced guitar music) - I don't know about you, but when I'm paddling inflatable I kind of feel naked without having a shell over top.

I feel like I'm exposed.

- The freedom of these duckies is also a nice feeling sometimes.

(water burbling) - The Nantahala is really unique in that it's inherently a very safe river.

People with almost no experience or no experience can take their own boat down the Nantahala.

But at the same time, experienced paddlers can challenge themselves on these waters.

So it's got a really unique mix of user friendliness but opportunity for challenge and play.

It doesn't matter where you are in the world, what river you're on, what kind of kayak you're in, a surf wave is a surf wave and you gotta surf a wave when there's a surf wave.

- Let's go with the first one.

How about that?

- I love inflatables.

Wooh- - Yeah!

- Just held right on there.

- It just stuck.

(fast-paced guitar music) - I am surfing.

I'm full of water.

(laughs) - If you could design a wilderness river from scratch the Nantahala would be pretty close to the blueprint that you'd want to use.

All of those sections seem to really focus on warming you up.

They start with some pretty chill white water and then they get more and more involved.

And then the rapids climax with Nantahala Falls.

- The Nantahala Falls is the classic class three rapid.

And it's the final rapid of a eight mile run on the Nantahala River.

And for so many people it's their first experience conquering a class three rapid.

- And like taking newbies through, that's what I always try to do is eddie out in that left eddie that kayaker just did.

cause it breaks it into two pieces.

This class two approach to the class three finish.

And I seem to have a better success rate whenever I break it in two instead of just one big white blur coming at you.

- All right.

Well let's do it.

- You bet.

We've got some crash test dummies coming through here real quick too.

- Now Nantahala Falls isn't the most complicated rapid.

It is pretty straightforward.

You have to just work your way between two holes.

There's a hole at the top and a hole at the bottom and you cut between the two.

- What makes Nantahala Falls challenging?

Right?

There's a big hydraulic in the middle and a big hydraulic on the bottom left.

The goal is to split the line between the two of them and avoid being munched in those hydraulics.

(upbeat guitar music) - Wow, that was a good day.

And the end is just around the corner.

Dinner awaits.

Here I come.

Funding for facing waves is provided by Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations, tours, destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups.

Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 Postum Instant warm beverage made with wheat, grain and molasses.

It's non-GMO and caffeine free.

Since 1895, all three flavors are available online at Postum.com and by these additional sponsors.

♪♪♪