Creek West Virginia

Captain Thurmond's Challenge 2009

2009-08-10T14:16:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago my friend Jaime said "Me and Mike are thinking about doing Captain Thurmond. You wanna do the paddle leg?" I quickly agreed, and set about finding a fast kayak. Mike and Jaime are both fast, and I didn't want to race the New River gorge in my creekboat. Bobby Miller had a Wavehopper he wasn't using, and I jumped at his kind offer to use the boat. I'd never paddled one of them, but a straw poll of friends moderately reassured me it would be fine. Except Nori, who reminded me how unfun it would be to swim in Double Z rapid. (He gets the last laugh, since he beat me, but at least I didn't swim)

Race Day dawned nice and sunny, and as church bells tolled the noon hour, 58 racers took off on the Le Mans start of the bike leg.

Video by Dave Seay.
If you look close at the :17 second mark, you can see Mike (in gray on a red bike) take off through the pack. The bike leg ran from the Fayetteville town center to Cunard, via a mix of pavement, gravel road and single track. Mike, on a hardtail single speed (34x16), grabbed the lead and held it as he bombed through the course in 54:52, a full 3 1/2 minutes in front of the next finisher. He would have been a little quicker, but a wheel came out from under him on a bridge crossing and the wreck twisted his handlebars around. He tried to ride 'em crooked, but eventually stopped and yanked them square. Also, there was the matter of divebombing around raft buses and trucks on the paved descent into Cunard. Just before 1pm, someone said "Here comes the first rider" and I looked up to see Mike blasting in. He handed me the team bracelet, and I sprinted off to the river.
I was a bundle of nerves and twitches as I sorted out the Wavehopper and my pacing in the first few miles of the race. (I squeezed the inside of the boat so hard that my legs ached for days.) It was indeed counter intuitive to paddle, (lean right to turn left) and the initial stability was almost nil. It took some time to learn to trust the wings and secondary stability the boat offered when heeled over or engulfed in whitewater.
There was no question it was fast though. Terrified I would lose the lead Mike gave us, I probably asked a dozen different rafts if they could see any racers upstream. If you are a raft guide, and a guy in a red Wavehopper paddled past and said "Seeanyonebehindme?" in a single grunt, that was me. Thanks for checking my six.
I passed a few friends and grunted hello's, and several people cheered me on in the pools. I got a little surge of speed every time someone cheered me on, which felt foolish and fun at the same time.
I rolled through Fayette Station rapid and nearly eddied out on the left, but managed to stay in some current almost to the beach, where Jaime was waiting. My kayak time for the Cunard to Fayette Station paddle was 53:23, good for 5th overall. I got beat by a Sea Kayak, two Pyranha speeders, and a K-1. It was fast enough, however, to keep us in the overall lead and send Jaime up the run in front.
She did a great job running up the seriously steep trails back to Fayetteville; nobody caught her and she cruised back into town with a bigger lead than she started with, still in front. Her run was 1:02:45, and our total time was 2:51 flat. Sweet!
Our team at the finish line. Mike Vanderberg, Jaime Fields, and JB Seay. Photo by Brian Menzies.

Brian Menzies, another Morgantownie, and winner of the Men's Solo with a stellar time of 2:59:25. 6th in Bike, 2nd in Kayak and 6th in the run. Fastest individual competitor, and he beat all the teams except one.

Messing about in boats after my leg of the race. I even had time to get in my boat and chase down a pilotless kayak. The Wavehopper proved to be a surprisingly good bulldozer for the swamped Mirage.
We hung around in town for the awards ceremony, and picked through the big pile of prizes onstage. I scored a pair of END trail runners via Water Stone Outdoors. I like em, and the company appears to have a great approach to making environmentally responsible shoes.
I had a great time, and look forward to defending our team title next year. Full results of the race can be found here. Thanks to Adam of Marathon Bikes for keeping the race alive, and thanks again to Bobby for the use of the fast kayak! Its pretty fun to paddle those quick boats...

Ed Gaker

2009-08-08T19:21:00.007-05:00

Photo by Adam Johnson

It's been two months, but it still stings.
The phone rang at a late hour, and I knew intuitively it was not good news. I sat on the steps outside my in-laws', stunned by what I had just heard. The Morgantown kayaking community lost a member.
Ed Gaker was more than that, of course; he was one of a big family in Ohio, a doctor's son, headed to med school himself in the fall. Ed talked about how he needed to get all his boating in now, before he really hit the books. That's funny considering that he had just graduated Summa Cum Laude from WVU with a degree in Chemistry, while boating all the time. That dude was motivated.
Ed was in love; he asked his fiancée to marry him in the big eddy above Sweets Falls on the Gauley. He raised money for the ring he gave her by selling his Dagger Green Boat.

She was there watching helpless when everything came apart on Ed's run of Sherman falls, on the Lake Fork of the Gunnison in Colorado. You can read Sarah's brave account of what happened here. Her ability to collect her thoughts and post that to multiple message boards is impressive and appreciated. Thank You Sarah.
Ed's Facebook page quickly became a memorial of sorts, with words from friends and information about what happened pouring in. A number of boaters made the trip to Ohio to attend the memorial service and burial. Matt Fithian spoke of the recent marathon day of paddling that Ed and Ben Ledewitz had completed: Deckers Creek, the Big Sandy, the Upper and Lower Blackwater, and the Top Yough in a single day. I told you he was motivated. His parents invited everyone out to their home for food and fellowship after the burial. I think Sarah was the only person who knew both the boater and the hometown side of Ed. It was a nice chance to meet much of his family, learn more about Ed and each other, and find common ground in memories and recollections. Thanks very much to them for their hospitality.

One of the last times I paddled with Ed was a unique, spur of the moment opportunity. Clear skies and a full moon coincided with a good water level on the Big Sandy. I called Ed about 9pm, and of course he was game. C-1 extraordinaire Jay Ditty was game too, so we met up around 10:30 and headed to the put-in.
We blinded ourselves pretty well trying to take a picture at the beach, then clipped glow-sticks to the back of our pfds and set off. Everything went great. Wonder Falls was in full, direct light; from downstream it appeared to glow from within. Beautiful. Familiar rapids and lines passed by, and we found ourselves at Big Splat, the largest drop of the creek. As we crossed from river right to left to approach Splat, two large rocks loomed like a gate, with deep shadows behind them. I eddied out to think about the line, and ask Ed what he thought about running it in the dark. He made it pretty clear what he thought when he paddled right past me, into the entrance of the falls. I've run Big Splat pretty high, and I've run it in a playboat, I've even run it pretty high in a playboat, but no previous run compares to peeling out behind Ed and running though our familiar beast at midnight.
I'm gonna miss you buddy.

Its A Family Tradition

2009-07-21T10:11:00.009-05:00

My Dad and I have been doing whitewater trips together for about 15 years. He helped me learn this sport, and we have had some fun adventures over the years. We got into the habit of doing a river on or around Fathers Day to make sure we got on the water together at least once a year. I now have kids of my own, and these trips are even more special.

The first trip was with Patrick, at 18months on the New River:Fire Creek Pool between Thurmond and Cunard

He enjoyed the trip, and giggled when we went through the waves, but I don't think he really got the river until next year, when we went out in duckies on the same stretch.

In 2008 we did the Cheat Narrows in duckies, his third time down that river. He had a great time, yelling directions to hit waves and insisting on having a paddle.

This year I was on a trip to California, which I will get all written up soon, so we did our Fathers Day celebration in July. This year, we had a new member on our team:

Isaac joins the Seay Family New River Rafting Team. I look forward to years of trips and memories.

Whitewater Blogger Malapropism of the Day

2009-07-08T14:39:00.003-05:00

Its CHOCK full people. Not chalk full. As in "Dude, that river is chock full of wood"
Its like Chock full o'Nuts, but different.
You might also say "A log was chocked well overhead in the narrow canyon, evidence of high water" But you might as well use wedged that way nobody gets confused.

A weeklong Celebration of the Cheat River drainage, Part Two (Hiking through the woods with a kayak, Waiting for the water to go away,and Red Run)

2009-05-19T22:27:00.006-05:00

The Monday after Cheat Fest it began to really rain. Morgantown got 2+ inches of rain in the early morning hours. My wife had an exam, so I played some phone tag with people, and Ed Gaker and I agreed to meet up once Rebecca got home and settled in with the kids.
In the interim, Ben Dunham called and told me that everything he'd seen around Morgantown was blown out, and that he was on his way to Daugherty Run near Albright. I held out hope that Quarry might just be high, and maybe even falling, but an inspection at the top proved it had at least 2x as much water as was prudent, maybe more. Ed and I decided to leave a car at a nearby parking lot and go catch Ben. While we were parking, a truck drove by with boats. We waved at the guys, and they backed up to talk. They were planning to put on Clay Run, which drains the middle of Coopers Rock State Forest, and flows into Quarry Run in the steepest section. They'd hiked the run before and thought it would have some drops worth doing. I warned them that we'd seen waaaay to much water on Quarry, and wouldn't be able to boat below the confluence of the two creeks, but that we would probably be okay on Clay until then. Hopeful of something new to run, we set off on foot down the creek, essentially starting from ridge atop it's headwaters.
3.5 Miles later, we reached Cheat Lake, having boated only a few yards of creek. The very top of Clay, out of the pond at the State Forest, was too small, and once there was boatable flow, the constant wood and lack of eddies in the tiny streambed made things difficult.
This 4' diameter culvert was interesting and fun early.

By the time we reached some good boulder piles and slides, the creek was high and still woody. Before long, we'd reached the confluence with Quarry Run, and 600+fpm does not handle the volume of water we saw in a "safe" or "fun" manner.

Big slide just below the confluence. This is the last third or so.

If you've ever seen "A Token of My Extreme" you may recognize this as the entrance to the real big slide where Jeff Snyder paddles into an overhung cave, disappears into the pillow and emerges onto the slide below. (Then vows "Not To Ever Do That Again) The cave is in the upper right quadrant of the photo, and was kinda full on this day.
Once we got back to the cars, the guys were kind enough to get me on the road home quickly, as I was late. They continued over to Bull Run after they ran the shuttle, and found it was much too high as well.
I spoke with Ben that evening, and he'd gotten three runs on Daugherty, including a solo sandwiched in between two different groups.

Tuesday morning brought still high flows and at least 4 different groups checked Bull Run throughout the day, expecting it to have dropped overnight, but it continued to remain much higher than anyone wanted. I stayed home with my kids while Rebecca studied for her next final. Creeks further out were running, but I hoped to stay on runs close to home and fast to do. Ed and I planned to try for Bull Run again in the morning,with him checking it early and hopefully getting a run in before his 11am final in Advanced Organic Chemistry. I also talked to Ben again, he did three runs on Fikes creek. A pattern is starting to emerge...

Wednesday I met Ed at the creek, and I think I pretty much talked him out of a high water run on The Matador, Bull Run's premier waterfall. A small storm cell had put 1/2" of rain right on the creek overnight, and it looked no lower than the day before. In retrospect, we should have put in below the falls and paddled the bottom of the creek at booming high water, but Ed was tired of driving to the creek and not being able to knock off the Matador, and just wanted to get going. Plus he had that final in a grad level chemistry class.
He did make up for it by running Stupid Falls on the East River in Colorado a week later, so hopefully he feels better now.

More rain was coming Wednesday night, so a bunch of people made plans to meet Thursday and try to get a run on one of the Canaan Valley creeks. 11am Thursday found lots of kayakers at the Otter Creek trailhead parking lot, the shared takeout for Red Run and Otter Creek. Seneca was too low, Otter was running, Red Run looked perfect, but might still be rising, and Red Creek had yet to be seen. We left cars at the trailhead, so we would have options, then drove to check Red Creek. It was too low, and the sun had come out, so we decided to get some burritos for lunch then put on Red Run.
Our group of 8 made quick work down to the first slide.
Ben Dunham, trying to keep warm in a pvc rain jacket (drytop forgotten at home).

Soon after is Goliath, a high speed, turning mix of bedrock and boulder
Don Smith starting at the top as Matt Fithian films.

Shawn Yingling up on the big pillow at the bottom, as Fithian continues to document.
Just downstream is the "Seed Spitter" drop, which I chose to walk, and then regretted after watching a couple boats go through. Not enough to un-portage and run it though.

Adam Johnson landing the pourover below the seed spitter slot.

Matt Fithian route finding in Maze rapid as Ben Dunham looks on. Ben is now warm in a borrowed drytop, thanks to the kindness of Jeremy, who abbreviated his own run to get to work on time.

Adam Johnson in the middle of the Maze.

Geoff Calhoun finishing up the Maze.

My favorite photo of the day, the bottom of Maze is just visible at the top of the photo.

Below Maze, we at a lot of time up getting around wood, pulling a log out of the water, and dealing with two equipment breaks. A snapped paddle blade, right above the Red Run Falls, and just below it, a badly broken boat, beyond any bituthane repair.

A breakdown solved Geoff's paddle problem, but Adam had to hike his boat out. Don volunteered to go with him, since he was familiar with the trails to the take-out, and also pointed out that daylight was fading, as it was about 6:30pm by then. The remainder of us continued downstream through several more big rapids, and then split up further at the cave rapid, which is hard to scout or film well, as it is ringed with large boulders and rhododendron. Three of us ran through, while the other two carried around and put back on a few minutes behind. With the exception of one poorly placed log, the mile below the Cave drop was fast, fun, read n run boulder gardens all the way to the Dry Fork of the Cheat.
A few more photos are available at my Picasaweb gallery, and at Shawn Yinglings.

A weeklong celebration of the Cheat River drainage. AKA "How I spent my Cheat Fest" Part One.

2009-05-14T20:56:00.006-05:00

Woohoo rain. I considered naming this blog something with "rain" in it, because its such an integral part of the boating here. Other than a few Dam release rivers, you can't go kayaking, especially creeking, without rain. I ended up doing something else, as there were several other folks writing under banners with "rain" in them, and I didn't want to seem unoriginal. So I stole a name from an old bumper sticker instead.

Cheat Fest is always the first weekend in May, and it's almost always wet, or at least damp. After a check of Bull Run, which my optimism convinced me was running, I got the kids to the sitter (Hooray! Grandma!) and met Adam Johnson. A second opinion and a few hours of ebb led us to leave Bull Run for another day, so we left a car at the adjacent Big Sandy/Cheat takeout, then backtracked to Deckers Creek. We had about 300cfs, which is a good minimum as the gage reads these days, and then drove up the mountain to the Little Sandy.
We were joined there by Jim, from New York/Connecticut, and headed down the tributary of the Big Sandy River. It was pretty low by that point in the afternoon, but once we reached the confluence of the Big Sandy, we were on big, brown, roiling water. And we were not alone! I have never seen that many people on the Big Sandy River. Dozens and dozens of boaters were enjoying the upper stretch of my home river. Eddys crowded with groups, craning over their shoulders to look downstream, with leaders explaining the wheres and whats. Surf spots were crowded, with friends corralling errant, driverless boats. It was pretty amusing and very colorful.
The river was still at 7.1 when Adam and I passed the bridge at Rockville, and after a quick help to some swimmers, we were downstream and all alone (Jim took out at the bridge, where his ride was waiting). The Lower Sandy was great, fast moving fun. One quick portage around the entrance to Big splat, and we were soon at Jenkinsburg, and then off to Cheat Fest.

Sunday brought drizzle and chillier temps, and after a round of calls and texting, I ended up back on the Big Sandy, with hopes for an afternoon run on something smaller. Ben Dunham, Bobby Miller and I got a quick run at 6.7, and Sean Devine met us back down at the take out. We popped over to check Bull Run, and decided to put on. It was low, but it sure beat folding laundry and watching TV, which is what I would've done at home.
Ben Dunham in the first rapid. If you have ever driven into the Cheat River take out (Jenkinsburg) from river left through Masontown, this is the drop next to the old mill (which is now a house).

Bobby Miller in the wall check rapid.

Video!:

Video by Bobby Miller. Thanks man. I stalled out a little at the lip, and ended up doing a weird twisting thing off the Matador. Ben did a nice just hustling into the eddy sans paddle yes? Bobby says it right in the video: Low but Fun. I'm glad I got on, especially since it eluded me the rest of the week.
I have a few more photos in a picasaweb gallery.

Top Yough Race

2009-04-19T15:09:00.006-05:00

The Second Annual First Official Isaac Ludwig Memorial Top Yough Race was held on Sunday, April 19.
Geoff Calhoun won, (completing his weekend sweep) followed by Matt Fithian, Matt Walker (pictured above), Jay Ditty (c-1) and Evan Garcia (short boat). Full results and multimedia coverage should be available soon at Immersion Research and/or LVM. Evan, in addition to killing it in his Jefe, gets special note because he had never paddled this river before.

The race was from above Swallow Falls to the bottom of Suckhole rapid, which at race flows (323 cfs) is a 10-13 minute race.

Hanging out after the race.

Nori Onishi and Shawn Yingling entering Swallow Falls.

Much thanks to Roger, John, Walter and Matt for administration and timing for the race- it was good fun and much appreciated guys.

I have few more photos at my picasaweb account. If I hear of more, I'll link to them later.

Big Sandy Race

2009-04-18T22:48:00.010-05:00

Photo by Katie Buddenberg. Thanks Katie!

Saturday, April 18, a group of usual suspects met at the take out and hashed out the 2009 Big Sandy Race. Jay Ditty was the ringleader, and Willy Witt clocked everyone in at the finish line. I served as start timer, sending racers off at one-minute intervals.
We raced from the put-in bridge at Rockville to the pool below Little Splat, roughly 1.66 miles.
The level was 5.7 ft.
This race was easy to do and fun. We should have more of these all over the place!

Special Thanks to the safety folks at Wonder Falls and Little Splat.

1. Geoff Calhoun	Greenboat	13:52
2. Matt Walker	T-slalom	14:01
3. Brian Menzies	Greenboat	14:10
4. Jay Ditty	Response c-1	14:11
5. Dave Gore	Response	15:09
6. Shawn Yingling	Vortex	15:16
7. Ed Gaker	Nomad	15:17
8. Jake Greenbaum	Nomad	15:26
9. Nori Onishi	Cerro	15:47
10. JB Seay	Burn	15:50
11. Ben Dunham	Nomad	15:55
12. Lila Thomas	Greenboat	16:12
13. Willis Phillips	Phat	16:37

After hanging out and chatting a bit, these four decided to add a 2nd leg: Above Big Splat to below First Island.

1. Geoff Calhoun	Greenboat	16:30
2. Jay Ditty	Response c-1	16:50
3. Brian Menzies	Greenboat	17:10
4. Jake Greenbaum	Nomad	18:26

Winter/Spring Update

2009-03-31T22:27:00.018-05:00

Its been pretty quiet and dry so far this spring. Last weekend was the first good stretch in a while. Lots of people got out on the Top and Upper Yough, Big Sandy,and Blackwater. We still haven't had that huge rain event where everything is running high and you start checking the little micro creeks.

I did the entire Blackwater a few weeks back. I like paddling all the way down to the bottom. You get miles more river, and you don't have to hike with your boat. I always say I'm a boater not a hiker. I've been working on documenting some of the more visually impressive rapids in there, and at comparing waterfalls with the historical sketches of Porte Crayon for a future post.

JB Seay making the second move in 'Hundred Yard Dash", paddling from the river right eddy. Photo By Alden Bird,

Alden Bird making the same move, viewed from downstream in "Hundred Yard Dash". This is the put in rapid featured in my previous post

Panorama of "My Nerves Are Shot, I can't Take it Anymore" featuring Jay Ditty, Adam Johnson, Ed Gaker, and Alden Bird, twice each. I was pretty close to the river for the shot, so the upstream and downstream portions of the photo are closer than they appear. Without a crane, this was the best spot i could shoot from. Photoshopping by Adam Johnson. Thanks!

Lindy Point from river level. This is a very popular overlook and day hike near Blackwater Falls State Park.

I also managed to get out on the Big Sandy for a quick run with an old friend, and a new one.

Ben Dunham on Wonder Falls.

Nico Zegre on Wonder Falls.

JB Seay on Big Splat, the top of which seems more cantankerous these days than it used to. Pushes right. Photo by Ben Dunham.

Upper Blackwater Put-in Panorama

2009-02-15T12:53:00.011-05:00

When you walk down to paddle the Upper Blackwater, near Davis, West Virginia, this is what greets you as you emerge from the trees onto the riverside boulders. ( Click for a bigger view. )

The standard start for the trip is Hundred Yard Dash, starting dead center, but everything upstream to the base of Blackwater Falls has been run at one point or another. For reference, this photo was taken at about 280 cfs. The river has been run down into the 100's, but many prefer 250-300 as a minimum level.
Maximum is user discretion, but I know of at least one recent run by Justin Venable at 750 on the Davis Gauge. Solo, no less.

View Larger Map

Elsey Run

2009-02-09T22:18:00.009-05:00

The snow and ice have relented and we got warm (for February) temps, and on a weekend no less. Saturday night everything shot up, and Sunday offered lots of options. I enjoyed a lazy morning and caught up with a group who had just finished Daugherty Run, in Albright, WV. Five of us got together and headed up the mountain to paddle Elsey Run

Elsey is the steepest run in the Albright area, starting off with just a few minutes of warmup and then getting right into the goods.
Here is Art Barket getting back in the water after portaging around a log.
Note the heavy glaze of ice; we had difficult conditions for scouting and portaging drops. Slippery and cold.
From the first big scout, (which has a log in the entrance) Elsey falls out of the sky for a good half mile. There are 10 huge boulder drops, right on top of one another, with minimal eddies, logs in play, caves, rhododendron everywhere, and tough scouts and safety. You know, awesome. Sitting in bed last night, I realized I still smelled like Hemlock sap from all the scrambling amongst the trees. (*edit: looking at the map, this section falls at about 800fpm for a 1/4 mile)
JB Seay (me) enjoying the boof at the bottom of Acid Drop the first of the big ones. Photo by Art Barket.

Art in the middle of an easy one in the steeps.

For you guys who have run Elsey, the "room drop" is still diverting through the cave, with an uphill paddle to get to the old line. We skipped that one.

Sam Burk hitting up a nice slab of sandstone.

Ben Ledewitz styling the very next drop. JB Seay, Adam Johnson, and Sam Burk on safety. Art Barket behind the lens.

Me in the middle of my favorite drop on the creek. Photo by Art Barket.
This marks the bottom of the Captain Insano section.

Ben Ledewitz finishing er up. Photo by Art Barket.
Below here the creek transitions to high speed mank (description courtesy Ben Dunham) still short on eddies, and lots of logs and Rhododendron, but less stacked up. After a half mile of that, we reached the bedrock section of the creek, with half a dozen 10-25' slides all in a row.

Adam Johnson on a slide in his borrowed kinda old school creekboat. Whee.

As the canyon opens up, there is one last big one on the run, a 70 degree slide with some unfriendly guardian rocks on its right side. Sam and Ben aced that one, but with light fading we had no photo. In the classic video Fallin Down you can observe BJ Johnson and Colby Mackley running this drop with good result.
Below the Big Falls the creek is read and run all the way to the Cheat. It's a good thing, as at least one of the landowners along this section has threatened several times to shoot kayakers floating by for trespassing on his property. For this reason, we park at the Daugherty run take out just downstream on the Cheat and move fast when checking levels or finishing a run.
For more info you can check out my gallery, Art Barket's awesome set of pics and Sam Burk's post on the Team Riot site.

View Larger Map

Whats it got in its pocketses?

2009-01-21T10:29:00.007-05:00

I carry a fair amount of stuff in my boat and on my person whenever I kayak.

In or on my pfd, I have a knife, folding saw, a tiny drybox with a led headlamp and a lighter, two mini pulley thingies, 2 locking carabiners, two prussicks, a glow stick, a compass, and a whistle. I also carry a sling of webbing around my waist with a locking carabiner and a paddle carabiner. This is how I hit the water, whether its raft guiding, steep creeking, or taking my son out in a ducky. I used to carry a bag valve mask, but decided I'm more likely to hike out in the dark than perform cpr, so i swapped in the headlamp and lighter so I have something even if I lose my boat. I used to depend on the glowstick, and still keep one in there, but it's hard to hike through rhododendron with just a glow. Trust me. As for the lighter, well, I think Jack London painted a pretty good picture.

In my boat I always carry a 70' spectra throwbag, and an emergency kit packed in a nalgene bottle. My kit contains a large trashbag, lighter and rubber for a fire, sam splint, ibuprofen, maxi pad and a few band-aids, space blanket, duct tape and a paddle carabiner. The nalgene bottle can be emptied out and used for water, with the other gear put inside a ziploc from the kit. The trash bag can be used as a splint, to carry water, groundcloth, poncho, partial bivy sack, and covering a large wound. The sam splint is a luxury, but it makes splinting so easy I bring it. I'm pretty light on first aid equipment, but for simple day trips, your priorities are going to be stabilization and evac, not particularly treatment. Maxi pad for blood, band aids and duct tape for stubborn bleeders, ibuprofen for pain and inflammation. I've taken an EMT class, and followed it up with a Wilderness EMT upgrade, so I feel comfortable with my level of knowledge. If I'm going in somewhere more remote, like otter creek or red creek in the winter, I'll throw in a dry bag with some gloves, an extra fleece, and a warm hat.

Comments? What do you carry?

Red Run

2008-12-26T20:50:00.015-05:00

Red Run is a small creek that drains the southern backside of Canaan Valley. It sports the same tannic acid stained water as the other Canaan creeks. I think Red Run is the most difficult of the regularly run Canaan Valley creeks, and offers a fine collection of unique boulder gardens with a few bedrock slides for variety. A big group of us met up in Hendricks back in May to decide on a plan. The water level was minimal, so group A headed up to do Red Creek, flowing out of Dolly Sods, while Ben Dunham, Jay Ditty, Matt Walker and I chose to put on Red Run. This would be Matt's first time, and my first time in quite a while. The run is tiny and busy, and almost always seems too low for the first mile or so. The first real, long slide gets your attention, and signals the beginning of the goods:

Ben Dunham about to glide through. The hole here can get really big.

Shortly downstream is a large, multi-tiered twisting drop.

Ben again, starting at the top.

Me, in the middle. Photo by Jay Ditty

Jay Ditty at the bottom 90 degree turn.

Immediately downstream is the "Watermelon Seed Drop" Most of the creek funnels through a folding slot, then spits you out, often in a tailstand, over a pourover. A unique sensation.

Scouting the Watermelon Seed. The spitter is on creek right, about where Jay is standing.

About halfway down the run, it steepens up again, with several big boulder piles, then a transition to bedrock slides just above the falls of Red Run. Here's a few shots of the funnest boulder pile:

Ben picking his way through the top.

Matt Walker powers through the next to last slot

Me finishing up the pile. Photo by Jay Ditty
It had numerous slots and choices throughout, and is just an awesome rapid. I was so excited to snap photos of it, that I slipped and fell while scrambling to get a pic of Jay, and the camera flew out of my hand and over the boof pictured. The camera was later found, and the memory chip made its way back to me just before Christmas. Hooray!
Just below camera eater is the Falls of Red Run, and another great mile or more of serious boulder drops before you hit the Dry Fork of the Cheat.

A complete and total skunking.

2008-05-11T10:15:00.003-05:00

Saturday I made plans to meet Don Smith in Canaan and go kayaking. Here's how it went:

9:30am Depart Morgantown with entire family.
10am: My brand name roof rack system came apart on the interstate, sending my kayak cartwheeling across the roof of my car, down the side (where it smashed a window right behind my 3yr old son's head) and onto the asphalt at about 80mph.
It passed me as I stopped on the shoulder of the road. Sounded like when the videobaters go down the steps at Cunard.

I think, "Okay, everyones fine, the boat's not broken, I can save this". I finished the drive to my mom's in Clarksburg, dropped the boys off with their Grandma, and took off in her truck, bound for Canaan and the joys of gravity. Taping up the car window and getting my mom's truck ready took a little while, but I can still make it. Its about 11am.

Stop and get a sandwich in Elkins, smell antifreeze, and find the upper radiator hose has a hole in it. I hurry to an Advance auto parts, change the hose, and have the truck running and topped off with coolant again. It is now 12:30 and I'm freaking a little.

Finally arrive at the Red Creek take out at 1:10 or so, and see a bunch of cars, including Don's. He is about 20 minutes ahead of me, and I figure I can still catch them on the hike or at least in the paddle-in to the steeps. I CAN STILL SAVE THIS!

Halfway up the mountain I realize I don't have a skirt.
I'm Doomed.
Why I forgot to put it in the gearbag, i don't know, but it ain't there. I drive on, hoping to catch someone with a spare at the put in, but no luck.
Back down the mountain, and I leave a note on Don's car. I'm sorry you had to wait so long man.
Decide to head for the North Fork of the Blackwater, hoping to borrow a skirt there for a quick run, but on the way out I discover the fuel gauge does not work below 1/2 a tank and run out of gas.
2:30pm: take a pleasant walk on a country road with my wife.
3:30pm:depart Canaan with my tail between my legs, and hope for better luck next time.

Exploring

2007-12-13T20:25:00.001-05:00

We got a LOT of rain in Morgantown, and things were quite pumped in the area.

After some phone tag, Ben and I met up to look at some little no-name creek (really, it doesn't have a name.) Our good friend Mike had hiked and worked on this creek over the years, but it never had enough rain to try out.
This creek was at least 600fpm, enough that only one person would be able to boat at a time, so we used a hybrid aproach to the creek: 1 kayak between us, and no shuttle; hike in, boat, hike out.
This was a very pretty path between two boulders. I went around so I wouldn't scratch up the carpet of moss.
It ended up being a 3.5 mile round trip hike with about 600 feet of loss and climb back up. Not much Rhododendron, but the soil was so wet that we had to traverse or use trees and such to climb; going straight up unaided was not possible. Great scenery, good workout, but no kayaking due to wood and VERY continuous large rapids. A volleyball net to stretch across the creek would've come in handy as a backstop.

First major drop. I would have run this but for the trees. Its about 20 feet tall.

Same drop from above. Woody. Start center, then drive right to finish.
Downstream, things really picked up;
and it quickly became obvious we wouldn't be kayaking. We got too far away for any sort of photographic evidence, as we worked our way back up the mountainside. These pics are worth clicking on to zoom in. Awesome sandstone boulder piles.

Ben, happy to be back on top of the ridge as light failed, with just an easy mile of gravel in the dark and mist back to the car.

Cheat River Narrows

2007-06-13T14:32:00.000-05:00

What do you do when it’s hot and humid with no creeking in sight?
I took my 8month pregnant wife and 2 year old son on a duckie trip to the Cheat Narrows .
This section of the Cheat features pleasant pool drop rapids, roadside access, pretty scenery, and less environmental damage than the Canyon downstream; the Narrows sustains fish and other aquatic life, and has normal colored rocks. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have threats; several AMD laden creeks run into the Narrows, and agricultural runoff and other problems always lurk. BUT, I saw a fisherman land a pretty little trout on our run, and that’s not something you see a few miles downstream.
We met up with Janet and Kristina Szilagyi in Kingwood, and headed down over the hill to the river. We dropped and inflated gear, then set shuttle to take out where Pringle Run flows into the Cheat.
Patrick was stoked.

Rebecca sat up front, I sat in back and Patrick sat between my feet. He giggled and yelled “FUN!” when we went through rapids, and even stole Rebecca’s paddle so he could help Daddy. He’s awesome.

Janet and Kristina in a calm spot.

I asked Kristina to take our picture in Calamity Rock Rapids, and while I waited for her and Janet to get downstream and set up, I bank scouted the rapid, to be extra double super sure of where I would pilot the boat. Kristina took a fun shot of us.

At the Mystery spot below Calamity, I plopped out the back of the boat and caught some nice downtime. Patrick was pretty surprised, and yelled "Daddy... get back in boat right...NOW!" in his best scolding voice. We finished up the trip in a pleasant hour and a half, Kristina rescued a runaway pool-croc at the take out, and a good time was had by all.

Deckers Creek

2007-03-01T12:32:00.000-05:00

With a demanding job schedule, a 2 year old and a fixer upper kind of house, my boating availability is sometimes limited. I've chosen quality over quantity, so when I get out its generally on something good. Fortunately for me, Deckers Creek is 10 minutes from my house, and runs pretty frequently.
When I was a undergrad student at WVU, there was a serious crowd of boaters who would be out on Deckers pretty much everytime it ran. That group has moved on, landed full-time jobs, wives, babies, etc.. Its a lot harder to find people out there anymore. Part of that may be bacause even though Deckers creek is a roadside run, it carries a lot of dangers. It is a sandstone boulder pile, with a just a bit of bedrock at the bottom. It is similiar in nature to Manns creek for its hazards. Gaping sieves and undercuts line the run, with many rapids requiring very precise or unusual lines. Two major pourovers have 10' deep caves behind/under the curtain.

Here is an example of your typical stretch of the creek.This is towards the top of the run. Deduction is the largest rapid partially visible behind the hemlock at the top of shot. Carcass is at the very bottom.

A few weeks ago my good friend Stewart Caldwell snuck into town and we hit up Deckers on a cold (in the 20's) day. Stewart is one of my favorite paddling partners. He has run just about everything you can boat in WV, including 1st descents, and is as reliable as they come when the water pours downhill. The water level was pretty much perfect: 300cfs, on the USGS Gage. We put in at a roadside pullout, being careful not to step on this guy:I don't think I've ever run Deckers without seeing a dead deer. Its kind of like good luck!

This is Stewart running Carcass, the start to a great boogie water section in the middle of the run.
Notice the icicles. Several limbo logs on the run had big fat ones hanging down from them, requiring the lead boater to play icebreaker.

Not long after this run, we had a big freeze here in WV, and boating was limited for several weeks. This past weekend, the Ice broke up, and the"Kayaker piggy bank" started to melt.

Tuesday I met Joe Hatcher after work for a quick run. Joe is one of those guys who got a real job after his masters degree, and now quietly and consistently paddles WV's finest runs around work and family. We'd waited since Sunday for the creek to come down to a friendly level- I think it was around 425 CFS. No photos from that day; it was a quick run before dark. 1.5 hours round trip from my house, sweet! Highlights included watching Joe's right side line at Hercules, my first run of Deduction since the seive opened back up, and a fun surf at the bottom of the last slide. Then it was back home to clean up and get ready for the roll session I sponsor at my job.

Unfortunately for me, I found out that evening I may not have that job much longer, due to some, ah, financial constraints on the city. Fortunately for me, Deckers was still running on Wednesday, and I was able to get out and paddle again. I really needed to paddle to clear my head; I love how everything but the task at hand fades away when running serious whitewater.

Stewart drove over from Parkersburg again, and we ran into Jared Seiler and his good buddy Max at the creek. They were just finishing up a second run, and Jared agreed to go back up with us for his triple dip. We all explored Joe's right side line at Hercules, and ran the rest of the creek in pretty tight formation, getting down in an easy 25 minutes, with about 250cfs in the run. Since we still had daylight, I suggested we go to the "Lions Club" section of Deckers, which is a park and huck series of waterfalls a few miles upstream of the usual run.

Kayaking access was probably not in the Lions Club's intentions when they took over this park, but... Thanks Guys!

This run consists of a flume drop, an automatic-stern-first-big-air-boof waterfall, a clunkier falls, and then the final waterfall pictured below. Total drop is around 100 feet in just a short section. It is geologically similiar to the NF Blackwater, and has a larger window of boatable flows than the lower section; the upper limit really depends solely on your tolerance for large holes.

Max was kind enough to take this photo of me on the final falls.

The LZ of this drop has undercut shelves under the water on river right and river left, with a small deep pocket in the center. The hole at the base of the falls is also big enough to recirculate a boat and or swimmer at high water, which makes for a (not) fun time. Plugging not recomended.

You can see Jared's take of the afternoon, with additional photos, on the Team Pyranha website.

Jared will also be appearing at the WVU roll session on Thursday, March 1, with a handful of Pyranha kayaks to sample.

Late Fall Upper Blackwater

2006-11-20T14:12:00.000-05:00

Another work free Saturday rolled around, and with gorgeous weather, I broke my general rule of thumb and went to the Upper Blackwater below 250 cfs. My excuse: a combination of weather, good friends, and a recent lack of other paddling. Ben Dunham was the best man in my wedding, and a recent resident of our guest room. Ben Badger is a Morgantown area friend looking to get his first run in on the Upper Blackwater. We loaded up boats, a bike, and a big dog, and headed towards Canaan.

We droppped the bike in Douglas, and circled back around to the put-in. Upon arrival, it was confirmed that the Blackwater was low. Like 200 cfs or less low. Oh well, it still goes, and it was blue skies and high 50's. The photo at left is looking back up toward Blackwater Falls from the put-in. Most trips begin in the foreground eddy. The brown color of the water is not mud, but tannic acid, leached out of spruce, pine, and hemlock tree detrious in the headwaters of the river. This river and Red Creek and Red Run of Canaan derive their names from the tea-like appearance.

Ben Dunham running 100 Yard Dash, the first rapid of our run. The move Ben is making comes immediately out of the put-in eddy.

Ben Badger finishing off Tomko Falls. Higher water opens up several other lines.

Ben and Ben at the bottom of Pendleton Falls.
Ben Badger on the final ledge of My Nerves are shot, I can't take it anymore. The perspective afforded by my point and shoot does not do this rare bedrock rapid justice. The uppermost ledge visible in the photo drops 10-12 feet and is 50-60 yards away.
Ben Dunham climbing the hill from the Blackwater/North Fork confluence to the old railroad grade. 500 feet up and then a mile back to the parking area.

My priveledge for being the first back; shuttle biker. To save fuel, get more exercise, and enjoy company on the drive, we used a bicycle for the shuttle. The ride took about 40 minutes on the cross country bike. Single speed bike= great for the woods, slow on the Blue Highways. I was peevishly honked at/flipped off once, and a pick-up truck accelerated angrily around me, over corrected onto the shoulder, and nearly flipped into an oncoming Tahoe. Exciting.

Outwit.Ouplay.Outlast?

2006-10-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

This spring I was blessed with one of those great days when it rained, hard, on a Friday night. That, combined with a work-free Saturday means its time to go boating. It was one of those tweener days we get sometimes here in Appalachia; enough rain that some creeks were much too high, but some of the once or twice a year creeks were not running yet. A group met in Kingwood; Oliver, D, and two aquaintances of D. We drove over and checked out a little 800fpm screamer that empties into the Cheat, but it was too low.
Elsey creek was high, and with 5 in our group, two of whom had never done it, plus rumors of wood, and a known gun slinging landowner, we elected to go do a "Quick" run on Pringle Run. We reasoned it would be fast, we could evaluate the group some more, and maybe make it back over and do Elsey afterwards.
We drove over to look at Pringle, which had ample water :

Photo: Take out Gauge on Pringle Run the day of our run.

So we started the process of gearing up. Unfortunately, Oliver realized his keys, along with his boating gear, were locked in the cab of his truck, and we were not able to quickly gain access to it. I ended up giving him my cell phone and truck, so he could drive out enough to find a signal and call for help.

And then there were four.

The four of us hiked up the road to above the falls, and started out on the creek. I ended up portaging the entrance to the falls, for fear of being pushed too far left on the lip. It turns out this was silly; don't bother. I peeled out of the eddy and ran what is my favorite waterfall in the area: 20+ feet into deep foamy water. I didn't bother checking the depth of course, I am much better at the West Virginia Boof than the Oregon Tuck. I eddied out to set safety and take some photos of the other guys. Aquaintance #1 came over and took in on a nice 45, and aquaintance #2 (Mark Cecchini) took an early boof stroke and pretty much plugged it into a backender, but looked good doing it. D had a hard time getting into the proper current, and was nearly flipped on the wall at the lip; he came off the drop on a full brace and not much else. Photo: D dropping into a foamy Pringle Falls.

And then there were three.

While D hurried downstream to make sure his boat didn't flush into the Cheat, the other guys and I started working our way down through the next few rapids, keeping eyes peeled for the AWOL boat. Pringle Run has classic West Virginia boulder piles, full of offset chutes, mank rocks, and pin spots. The rapids are pretty long and complex, so we carefully scouted and set safety. After completing the first major rock pile, I saw some outdoorsy looking people on the opposite bank, gesturing that there was a swimmer and a pinned boat downstream. I sort of nonchalantly said "Yeah, I know", and indicated we'd get there when we got there. They didn't seem all that satisfied with my answer, but Don and I had a plan to deal with things, and were sticking to it.

We boogied the few yards down to the next big rapid, and saw D working with his boat. We hurried down and helped him get it unstuck, using the wade/armstrong technique. Then we started scouting the hanging vines, rock guarded boofs and seives of the rapid.
Mark had pretty big eyes after the pillows, seams, and pitons of boulder drop # 1, and elected to set safety and call it a day.

And then there were two.

After scouting and with ample setting set, I entered the rapid, made the first 4 or 5 moves, and whipped into an eddy above the last offset chute. Looking upstream, I saw Don scurry off his rock perch and assumed something had gone wrong. Aquaintance # 1 was pinned, head well out of the water, but in a place where swimming would be not fun. We managed to get him stable, and out of his boat, then roped the now filled Diablo to shore as well. He planned to get back in the saddle, and finish the rapid, so with a pat on the back I went back to my boat and pinballed in a most ungraceful fashion down the last third of the rapid. It was apparently so ugly that it dissuaded him from his plan, and he joined D and aquaintance #2 in walking the last hundred feet or so to the trucks.

After a long and frustrating game of dropped cell phone calls with his auto club, Oliver ended up calling his wife for a set of keys. While catching up with him at the takeout, he started laughing, and pointed out that it was like an episode of Survivor: Pringle Run.

Pringle Run, like many in West Virginia, has serious environmental issues. AMD has colored rocks orange, lowered the ph and killed off much of the aquatic life. The town of Tunnelton is pretty much the headwaters of the creek, with stormwater, polluted runoff, and sewage getting into the water at one point or another. The creek is quite full of trees and relatively flat above the falls, I have always hiked up from the bottom (scouting the whole way)and put on just one rapid upstream of the falls. The falls has been run center and on river right. A unique aspect of low water runs is the opportunity to boof from the river right launch pad into the curtain of the center. Fun!