2011 Big Sandy Race (when C-1's attack!)

While running the Big Sandy on Friday, a light bulb went off about the coming weekend: The forecast was for a little bit of rain, and then sunshine and 80 degree temps on Sunday. The rain would hold a nice comfy level on the Big Sandy, and what better way to enjoy the sunshine than a race down our mainstay run? (The times are at the bottom if you have to skip ahead)

A bakers dozen showed up Sunday afternoon, with the usual suspects out of Morgantown, plus a few new faces. The agreed upon format was a mass start sprint race from the put-in bridge at Rockville to the pool below Wonder Falls. The course is easy class 3-4, and 1.2 miles long. The day of the race, we had about 6.2' on the gauge at Rockville.

We had ten longboats and three shortboats in a pretty tight bunch. I was behind all the longboats, but could still see the leader, Ben Ledewitz, all the way in to the rapid above Wonder. He had a pretty comfy lead, with Eric Henrickson and Jack Ditty battling for the second spot as they came to the lip of Wonder Falls. Which is when things got interesting.
We had debated whether to end the race as you landed Wonder, or to move it to a rock downstream to allow for final second passes and carnage penalties off the falls. I'm going to let the photos from photographer and artist Annie Simcoe do the talking.






Do note that Jack is looking back to check on Eric.

Hey look, here comes Brad and Brian!


At this point Eric is downstream of his boat swimming hard for the finish line. I imagine Brian (green Green Boat) had quite a view as he came over the lip here. Charlie Walbridge was standing next to Annie when she took this photo, so that makes it all okay right?

The above series all happened in about 10 seconds, and included but not shown was Eric Nies running the falls and passing a swimming Eric Henrickson to claim third place.
The remainder of the race was pretty tame. We had less than 90 seconds separating the first and last finishers, which made the jobs of Mike Vanderberg and Ty Miller, our official timekeepers (translation: buddies I conned into helping at the put-in) VERY busy. No further wrecks or carnage, however.
Thanks to everbody who came and raced, Thank You to Ty and Mike for helping keep times and finishes, and Thank You to Annie for letting me use her pics from the day. Much appreciated.
More of Annie's photo's in a chronological order slideshow below. Note the race winners attire, obviously drytops make you slow.

Ben Ledewitz 9:10 LB Jack Ditty 9:43 LB C-1 Eric Nies 9:48 LB Eric Henrickson 9:49 LB Brad Buddenberg 9:50 LB Brian Menzies 9:51 LB Art Barket 9:52 LB Dave Gore 9:58 LB James Fogartie 10:08 SB JB Seay 10:10 SB Brad Romano 10:19 SB Kathrin Allen 10:37 WLB Lila Menzies 10:37 WLB

Kayaking advice from a three year old

Hey Isaac, I'm gonna go kayaking





(sticks head out from shower curtain)
You got your paddle!?




It's right here buddy (waves paddle)





You come back?






I'll be back later




Okay! (goes back to showering)






(kayaks the Big Sandy. returns home. )




Hi Daddy!





You fall in the river?






Nope, I stayed in my kayak.





OKAY! (wanders off to toys)

Ed Gaker

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 through our familiar beast at midnight.
I'm gonna miss you buddy.

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

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 job 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.

Big Sandy Race

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

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.