If you already paddle and want a Labor Day weekend of new river friends and big-water runs, the New River Rendezvous is your kind of party. The Carolina Canoe Club hosts it at Ray's Campground in Hico, on the north side of the gorge, and there's no ticket and no stage: paddlers camp together, meet each morning and split into groups for self-organized runs on the New. The 2026 Rendezvous ran Saturday, September 5 to Monday, September 7. No 2027 dates yet, but Labor Day 2027 is Monday, September 6, so pencil in that weekend.
The only cost is camping. In 2026 that was $11 a person per night, plus $9 for an electric site, with reservable and first-come tent sites and walk-in sites "typically available," per the club's Rendezvous page. Book with Ray's Campground at 304-658-4386; they take cash, check, card and Venmo, and dogs need a leash.
How a Rendezvous weekend works
Mornings set the day. In 2026 the groups met at 10:00 AM Saturday at the picnic tables behind the campground office, then at 9:00 AM Sunday and Monday, and paddlers picked runs by water level and skill. You'll be boating with more than one club: the Coastals, the Monocacy Canoe Club, TRPC and the Keelhaulers all joined the Carolina crew.
There's room for a range of paddlers. The 2026 menu had Class II trips on the upper New for newer boaters, the New River Gorge at Class III to IV, and the Dries, also Class III to IV, which was expected to be running. The Gauley releases start the following Friday, so pair the two if you've got the week (see Gauley Fest). The club puts the entry bar memorably: the weekend's "ordinarily open to almost all levels of paddlers, though if you've never been in a boat before then you aren't ready."
Never been in a boat? Start with a guided raft trip instead; the guide to rafting the New compares sections and outfitters.
Put-ins: Cunard, Thurmond and Fayette Station
Which runs your group can do depends on the roads into the gorge. In 2026 a mudslide after the mid-August storms closed Cunard Road, so the club sent paddlers in at Thurmond for a long, roughly 14-mile run to Fayette Station and skipped the shorter Surprise section. By September 3 the road was open again as one lane through the repaired stretch. Expect Cunard Road to be one lane from April to October and closed past the Brooklyn Mine Trail from November to March through 2027, per the Park Service's closures page.
Check the gauge before you pick a section. The river conditions page shows the live Thurmond reading and what each level means on the water.
Which "New River Rendezvous" is this?
The name gets reused. This is the paddlers' Labor Day gathering. There was once a spring climbers' festival by the same name, which Blue Ridge Outdoors covered and which no longer runs, and Adventures on the Gorge has an event venue called Rendezvous River Lodge, listed in the New River Gorge CVB's directory. Only the paddlers' weekend is still going.
Rather sleep indoors after a long day on the water? Compare lodging around Fayetteville on the map beside this page, or see the camping guide for other campgrounds. The rest of the fall lineup is on the events calendar.
