The art of Porte Crayon

I've always been drawn to the sketches of David hunter Strother, who wrote numerous articles for mid- 19th century periodicals under the nom de plume "Porte Crayon".
Strother covered a wide variety of topics and places, but his words and sketches of the Allegheney Highlands, in particular, appeal to me. You can read about him at the WVU library, and see a huge catalog of his sketches here.
You can read his book Virginia Illustrated on Google Books. I conveniently linked it to open on a page with what looks a lot like Pendleton Falls, a tributary to the Upper Blackwater. The story contains themes familiar to anyone who has boated in the area. Logistical uncertainties, hiking under hemlocks, scrambling through seemingly endless rhododendron thickets.
Another visit to West Virginia, entitled "The Mountains" was written about for Harper's New Monthly Magazine, in April of 1872.

So how does this relate specifically to boating? I took a good hard look at several of the sketches I really liked, and tried to figure out where they were, and even from what perspective they were drawn. In particular, I chose two shots from the North Fork of the Blackwater; one of Douglas Falls, and one looking up toward Double Indemnity.

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

2011 Top Yough Race

Almost 40 kayakers came out on a snowy, chilly April morning to race down Maryland's Top Yough . This was the largest turnout by far for the Isaac Ludwig Memorial Race. This year we had about 250 cfs on the gauge in Oakland. Not as much as previous years, which is reflected in the times. Speaking of times, here is race organizer Jon Harmon announcing them to the crew:
Roger Loughney provided start times for everyone and ran sweep on the race, and Walter Augustine went out in front and recorded everyone's finish time at Suckhole rapid. Thanks Fellas!
Jason Beakes won for the 2nd straight year, and Charley Bartlett won the shortboat class for the 2nd time in 3 years. Jack Ditty was the fastest C-1 as usual. We had a ladies class this year, which was won by Paula Knochel in her inaugural race.
Full spreadsheet of times is at the bottom.

The pre-race HQ and post race party were held at Streams and Dreams rental cottage, which was perfect for getting ready beforehand, and for partying after the race. The cottage is a great location to stay if you wanted to paddle in the area. Sleeps 8+, right at the Top Yough takeout, and close to a whole lot of other boating.
We got to eat great food, and check out several hundred photos of everyone's run at Swallow Falls:
Kayakers Love Pictures

Zach Yomboro shot this video of all the racers on Swallow Falls. Pretty cool, and much appreciated. You can see a mix of lines, with a lot of the longboats choosing to go left of center.



The snow on the course made it extra beautiful out there. Good for snowballs at the finish line too.

Full times for the 2011 race:

Jason Beakes	10:26	Overall Winner
Ben Ledewitz	10:34
Jack Ditty	10:42	Fastest C-1
Jon Harmon	11:01	AwesomeOrganizer
Geoff Calhoun	11:05
Matt Fithian	11:08
Andrew Robinson	11:10
Charley Bartlett	11:45	Fastest Shortboat
Bobby Miller	11:51	#2 Shortboat
Micah Weglinski	11:51
Art Barket	11:52
Travis Coles	12:07
Martin Wick	12:09
Justin Teague	12:10	#3 Shortboat
Randy Greidever	12:16
Blake Huber	12:26
Jeff Blood	12:31
Roger Loughney	12:35
Seth Chapelle	12:37	#2 C-1
Andrew Miller	12:38
Andrew McCauley	12:38
Chris Schwer	12:38
Dave and Rob Fusilli	12:48
Matt Burnstein	12:49
JB Seay	12:56
Nori Onishi	12:57
Matt Sloan	13:04
John Stephens	13:15
Paula Knochel	13:18	Fastest Womens
Sean Chapelle	13:27
Max Harbert	13:39
Chris Heim	13:44
Mackenzie Hatcher	13:49	#2 Womens
Bob Norr	13:56
Nico Zegre	14:02
Laura Lindzey	14:26	#3 Womens

If I HAD to leave

The smarter, better half has been interviewing for a Residency position in various locales. I tagged along and got a chilly run on the Green.
If I had to leave West Virginia, I could think of worse rivers to have in the backyard:


Dave from Johnson City on a lap of Gorilla, Scream Machine, and Nies's Pieces.

Jack Frost is a kayaker

Stewart, one of my most stalwart paddling buddies, after a solo run on the Lower Meadow.
Glad his better half had a nice warm car waiting for him.

Staying Engaged

Whats going on around here? A move back across the state, a sorely needed kitchen renovation, and the beginning of my wife's fourth year of doctor school. Plus a little whitewater.
Creeking season ended a long, dry time ago, so it's been maintenance paddling mostly. A trip on the New with my Dad, a few runs on the Upper Yough. Enough to remember how and why I do it, and enough to finally wear through the hull on my Burn. I had good luck with that boat, a surprise Father's Day gift,- I never had to swim out of it. I suppose that might be because I boat quality over quantity, or I haven't been pushing myself, but I prefer to attribute it to the good luck of a thoughtful present.

Dry times are a good time to do creek maintenance too. Adam Johnson and I got out on Deckers creek twice for some log removal.

Someone else had already done some work just above here, thanks whoever you are! This one was in the run-out of the creek, just above the old takeout slide.

Moving and busy schedules made us late for our annual Father's Day paddle. We did get out there eventually, and did a Lower Yough trip with our family of four + my Dad, and two other friends with their kids as well.
Five adults, six kids, and a teenage safety boater made an entertaining flotilla.
Isaac with my Dad in the doldrums. Every wave that crashed on our duckie was met with a gleeful "Do it again!". Just like his big brother.


Patrick tried out a Thrillkitty in the doldrums, and liked it enough that his Grandparents ordered one a few days later.


He was not nearly as big a fan of the thunderstorm that rolled through during lunch at Swimmers.

We picked up the brand new boat from Custom Inflatables a few weeks later, and got right out on the water. We are very pleased with the boat; incredibly stable and light. Perfect for a kid to learn in. Dad and I chose an upper mile of the Arden section of the Tygart Valley River for the shakedown cruise. Low water at 180cfs, friendly geology, road side access, and a swimmin hole where we took out made for a great run.


The big one of the day.

I commented to a friend that taking my family out on the water puts joy back in river sections (or levels) that I had written off for MY pursuits. The changing priorities of taking the whole family out is actually going to get me on a lot of river stretches I've rarely, if ever, seen. I'm looking forward to it as much as I am the next steep creek run.

Almost everyone looking at the camera.

2010 Top Yough Race

Sunday, March 28 just over a dozen boaters got together for the Isaac Ludwig Memorial Race on Maryland's Top Yough.
We had about 550cfs, which made for a very fun race course, and quicker times than last year.
Reigning champion Geoff Calhoun was unable to make the race, so this year Jason Beakes came in and claimed the title and a sweet Limited Edition GreenVest. Geoff also missed out on getting chased again by the angry goose next to the hydro plant, so I took his place as the outlet for the wrath of that particular Branta canadensis.

I really appreciate Jon and Roger getting everybody rounded up for the race, and Thanks to Walter Augustine for timekeeping.

Paddler	Time	Boat	Note
Jason Beakes	8:45	Green Boat	That is Fast
Matt Fithian	9:30	Green Boat
Brian Menzies	9:32	Green Boat
Sam Kane	9:35	Green Boat
Jay Ditty	9:44	Response C-1
Jon Harmon	9:45	Green Boat
Adam Johnson	9:54	Magnum	Fastest shortboat
Charlie Bartlett	10:00	Karnali
Nathan Sass	10:06	Green Boat
Clay Warren	10:23	Green Boat
Nori Onishi	10:39	Jefe	Fastest Asian
JB Seay	10:41	Burn	Slowest Asian
Roger Loughne	10:45	Jefe
Billy Clipper	10:50	Nomad	Handpaddle Champ
Cody Walsh	11:09

Middle Kaweah lap two + gawking at big trees.

After my first run down the Middle Fork of the Kaweah, i was pretty tired.
My back was also killing me, so after dinner I decided I wanted to sleep in a real bed, and ended up getting a room for us in Three Rivers for the night. I realize this makes me a sissy, and it hurt my budget for the trip, but that bed and shower were nice. The room also included breakfast in the morning, and an internet computer. The computer was handy to determine exactly where the best Middle Fork take-out was, and we could check what else was going on with water levels. West Cherry looked to be on the high side, and most everything else was low, so we stayed in town for another lap.
Jay Moffat arrived in the middle of the night, having driven straight through from Asheville, NC with just a few naps. He slept in his car and was up early rigging his new boat and (correctly) harassing us for being slowpokes. That motivation probably explains why Jay managed to run Upper Cherry, the Middle Kings, NF San Joaquin, the Stikine, and more this season.
Oliver headed home to do some work, and Adam, Jay and I went back into Sequoia for some boating. We put on at Buckeye Flats, below Chuck's Drop this time. What took hours to sort out the day before, we got done in minutes. We were soon through the mini canyon, and out scouting the heinous boulder pile above V-slide, which Adam ran, and then the V-slide itself.

Jay Moffat runs V-Slide, photo by Adam Johnson.


A spectacular place, complete with live studio audience. Jay Moffat and JB Seay below V-Slide. Moro rock above. Photo by Adam Johnson.

We did not get out of our boats again until the bottom of the 420 gorge area, where a shallow drop with a 90 degree pillow/flume at the bottom prompted a quick portage. Adam and I had both run it the day before, and neither of us liked the chunky stuff we felt in the pillow and flume. It was a good time for some beef jerky and a panoramic picture anyway.

Sitting still for the picture felt like one of those old timey, manual, sepia photos.
Panoramic photo by Adam Johnson.
From there it was more bombing and quick explanations over the shoulder to Jay all the way down to Zero to Sixty. Adam and I probed (scouting again seemed risky to me) and then Jay styled it right up.
Jay Moffat runs Zero to Sixty, photo by Adam Johnson.
We were soon drying gear in the sunshine at the Potwisha campground, the confluence of the Marble and Middle Forks of the Kaweah, unaware that Ben Stookesberry and Darin McQuoid were on a mission just a few miles up the Marble Fork.
We completed our run from Buckeye Flats to Potwisha in a little over two hours, quite an improvement from the 7 or so it had taken the day before while we figured it all out. The Middle Fork of the Kaweah is a great river, and one I look forward to running again someday. I understand it has an early season, before the melt, and that fall rains will also bring it in. What a fantastic resource! Once you know the lay of the land, you can adjust your put-in for how much you want to bite off, and it has a fun combination of drops. When you add in the other forks of the river, its no wonder the Kaweah River has an informative webpage dedicated to it.

After our run, Jay hit the road to Oliver's house, and Adam and I took the scenic route on the Generals Highway through Sequoia National Park. We climbed Moro Rock, a kind of must do since it was always photo-bombing our kayak shots. We saw several juvenile bear cause a "Bear Jam" on the Moro Rock access road, and obviously, a lot of fantastic large trees and mountains. We arrived late that night at Oliver's house to find Shannon Carroll in town to join our merry band with several days off from work and ready to boat.
Adam has more pics on his picasa site, and his take on the Kaweah on his blog.
Keep watching for day three; "A weekend warrior finds his limits" or something. Middle Cherry is up next.

Middle Kaweah day one.

This spring, I made plans to try for some Sierra creeking. The trip was to be part vacation, part adventure, part reward for pulling up stakes and moving to a new town. I had a narrow window in the month of June to go, but was able to free up 6 days in between moving and my wife starting her rotations in a new hospital. I started scouring blogs and message boards for dates and flows on runs in California. You guys need to put more dates on when you do those snowmelt runs. For the record, we ran the Middle Kaweah at low water on June 17th and 18th, and then the dam controlled Middle Cherry on the June 20th.
The plan was to meet Ed Gaker and Adam Johnson in California, and hopefully hook up with our friend Oliver Grossman for logistical help and some boating around his work schedule.
We wanted to try for Upper Cherry, and if it was too high, do day trips or maybe West Cherry.
I had my Westbound ticket bought, and was looking for the return flight when I got terrible news: Ed had drowned boating in Colorado. (I wrote some about this in a previous post) I struggled mightily with what to do about my trip, and looked into giving my ticket away and just letting this one go. In the end I decided to proceed, confident Ed would have wanted it that way (cliche or not it's true), but with a heavy heart.
On Thursday the 11th I shipped my kayak west to safeguard against any airline snafu's.
Friday a bunch of us drove to central Ohio to attend Ed's viewing, and his memorial on Saturday.
Sunday and Monday my wife and I packed up our house and moved 3 hours East, to the Panhandle of WV.
Tuesday I flew to Sacramento.

I got there late Tuesday night, and Adam picked me up, with my kayak already on top of the car. We headed south, checked in with Oliver, and confirmed that we would meet somewhere near the Kaweah the next morning.
We got to Three Rivers, just outside Sequoia National Park, around 4:30 in the morning. I slept in the back of the car for about 2 hours, then got up to get a snack and call the wife to let her know I was there and safe. I dozed some more until about 7:30, when Oliver met us and we went to breakfast.
We saw a car with boats and Oregon tags, so I went over to say hello. I asked the guy standing there if he was Chris (Korbulic) as we have a number of friends in common. Oops. It was actually Ben Stookesberry, with Darin McQuoid riding shotgun. We chatted a bit and quizzed them on levels, before hitting the road. Nice guys. They had just completed the 3rd or 4th decent of the Upper Middle Fork, hiking several hours upstream from the end of the road.
We were unsure of put-ins and take-outs, but Adam remembered paddling all the sections of the Middle Fork of the Kaweah, so we figured we could run the whole river, and loath to pay for two cars to get in the park, we left a car in town. We drove into Sequoia National Park, and ended up meeting with a group of 6 guys from the U.K. (who had no more info than us), and we put on at the Paradise Creek Trail bridge, just above the Buckeye Flats campground.
Just a few short drops around a corner, and we were at Chuck's (Kern) Drop. Its big, shallow and gets run occasionally.

Not by us though. Bill Anderson portaging Chuck's Drop. We dropped one team member who wasn't feeling well here, bringing us down to 8 first timers* on the run.
*Adam had run the Kaweah in high school, but when mixed in with the memories of their 200+ days a year paddling pace, he was fuzzy on where things were. Sometimes, at the bottom of a drop he would say "Oh yeah, I remember that one" but that was the extent of his beta.

The first drop of any size below Chucks. JB Seay, photo by Oliver Grossman.

Oliver Grossman runs the same.

More fun read and run brought us to a series of slides in a mini-canyon. We scouted from the river left, climbing on top of a house sized boulder perched on the bedrock. 2/3 of the flow went under the rock, but the left channel around was easy to make at low water.
Oliver and I headed up and ran the first few slides.
While eddied out under an overhang, I found this rock in the embrace of the roots of a sycamore tree.

Bill Anderson on Drop #2 in the series.


Drop #3 and 4, showing the rather large sieve. Photo by Oliver Grossman.

Once we got everyone worked through here, we portaged around a messy rock pile just below. Just a few eddies downstream and we arrived at the V-slide.

Oliver enters the V-Slide. We were under the impression it went best by driving hard right and falling into the trough late.


JB Seay at V-slide. Photo by Oliver Grossman.
Here I am falling into the V as late as I could, paddle carefully tucked upstream. Upon further consideration, it was smoother to get on the pillow a bit upstream and then rocket down it.

Adam throws a brown claw of joy in the pool below V-slide. Moro Rock looks on in bemused silence from 4,000 above.
Right downstream the river snakes around a blind, fast corner, so I eddied out and was bashing through brush to scout. Ben, Darin, and a group of German? (the Brits guess based on accent) guys rolled around the corner and bombed off. One of the group was portaging, and I relayed his description of Little Niagara to our group and they ran down as well.

JB Seay boofing Little Niagara, photo by Oliver Grossman.
The drop was steeper than I had understood from the German dude, so the guys and I all had a bit of a surprise when we got to the lip. Sorry fellas, my mistake. In the big pool below the drop, we had a dozen boaters, from all over the US and Europe, hanging out. Good stuff.
More fun read and run, and one full scout got us down to (what I later found to be) the standard Hospital Rock put-in.

Martyn Sollars at the bottom of a multi-tiered slide above the traditional put-in.

Oliver Grossman in the midst of the 420 gorge. He who scouts and directs runs last. Oliver is an incredible paddler, and a great asset to any paddling mission. I cannot think of instance, in many class V days of paddling, where I have worried about that dude. Anyway, the biggest drop, and kind of the entrance exam into this gorge was a sweet boulder pile with blind moves and lots of eddy hopping. We had quite a show of traffic direction to get our group of 8 through that one.

Panoramic of part of the 420. One of our group hiked up to the road from this point, bringing us down to 7. Adam and Oliver hiding in the lower right.

Sweet Kicker Falls. We ran out of an eddy on river right, charging across the grain of the current, and then down onto the kicker.

Chris Flavin on a perfect 12' falls.

Zero to sixty.
While scouting this falls, I began to slide down the super slick, polished granite. I looked for something to grab, or a dry place to jump, but finding neither, I decided to commit to the boating line, and ran/skidded/fell down the slide, and jumped over the lip into the pool. I surfaced just in front of the river right wall, and got out on a convenient rock to examine my options.That was dumb. JB Seay feeling foolish at Zero to Sixty. Photo by Phil Higgins.
Adam tried to tow me across the current and out of the LZ, but that did not go well, and I ended up floating back into a cave (to the right of the above photo) out of breath with my elbow pads down around my fingertips, and my pants pulled completely off. I was able to chimney up the back of the cave, and a quick hand from Oliver got me back up on top so I could try the drop in my kayak.
Shortly below there, the 4 Brits wisely decided to take out at a gauging station, and sort out their shuttle up on the road. We continued downstream, passing the Marble Fork and picking our way through boulder gardens in a shallow, widened streambed. With more water, I imagine this section is great fun, but the combination of low flows, being tired, and boat breaking paranoia wore on me. I eventually hiked up to the road, getting nearly covered in burrs and the fine, talcum powdery soil of the canyon walls. I lucked into a ride back to the put-in from our new boating friends. They were on their way back from a supplies run, and took me and all my filthy gear right to Adam's car. Adam and Oliver finally made it down to the confluence just before dark fell, with mixed reviews of the last few miles of river.

I have a few more photos on my picasa account, if you are really bored.
If you know the names of any of the pictured rapids, post a comment or drop me an e-mail.
Stay tuned for day two on the Middle Kaweah.

Captain Thurmond's Challenge 2009

A few weeks ago my friend Jamie 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 Jamie 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 Jamie 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, Jamie 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...

Its A Family Tradition

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.

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)

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 the 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.