I guess I’ll go next… So Craig and I left Cville at around 10 PM on Thursday, and we decided to lessen our chances of encountering suicidal animals and took the I-81 – 522 – I-68 route. Brandon and Greg were a few hours behind us, at some point they mentioned that they were going to drive through the night and head straight to the Top Yough and bust out a sunrise lap and then take a nap. For whatever reason that didn’t seem all that appealing, so figured I’d pass on that particular trip. Just for the hell of it, we got off the interstate and did a driveby the Tripple K, I only saw one vehicle and boats that I didn’t recognize, and the house was dark so we kept going to Teters, arriving at about 0230 Friday. We quickly found a large tract of unoccupied space, and setup “camp cville” which included my 12X12 canopy and several decoy tents to reserve as much space as possible for the workaholics that were joining us later Friday.
Friday: My mission for the weekend was to get PFD’s particularly on the Lower Big Sandy (LBS) as it has eluded me the last 3 times I’ve been up in those parts. So sometime around 11 after a campsite breakfast, I began making my way over to the Tripple K to cast my vote in person for an LBS run. There was talk about a Friday UY run, figured I’d save those for the summer when everything else dries up, besides sounded like they were going to be higher than normal flow and no expert guides. Turns out Greg and Brandon napped first, and thennn hit the Top Yough ( I would have come if I knew that
). While enroute, I heard from the AM Cville crew, and turned out they got an earlier than expected start and were heading straight to the LBS
So I said bye to everyone at the Tripple K and went there.
Friday’s LBS run got off without a hitch, the level was 5.64 on the Rockville gauge, and we boogied on down to the entrance to Wonder Falls. There in the process of punching the 3 or so holes above the falls, the 2nd one slowed me down, and the 3rd one got enough of me to get me into a side surf. To the dismay of all eager for carnage, after two 360’s and a whole lot of bracing I managed to pull myself out of it (only a 15’ waterfall not far ahead, no pressure). (Video coming once Josh gets some spare time) When it came time to run Wonder Falls, I followed everyone’s lead and went for the furthest point – which didn’t seem to work so well my boat’s got more of a draft than most of my paddling companions, so I lost momentum on the approach put the boofstroke in at the edge, and still essentially pitoned off the edge, penciling in. Ended up poping up with my right side facing down stream, and was still turning over, little voice in my head said “get the hell away from the falls” so managed to get in 3 good downstream pulls before flipping all the way over. When I rolled up turned out I was clear of the backwash, so further beatdown averted. Rest of the river was fairly uneventful. At the 2nd drop on first island, I attempted to head down the right side which was bumpy as hell at that level. At second island, Josh decided he wanted to try out the backwards facing helmet cam angle so he lead the left side, and I tried to stay on his tail. He ended up getting knocked around and briefly stuck on the rocks, I was far enough back where I didn’t crash into him, and made some adjustments to my line. Zander was a good distance behind us and saw the fiasco unveiling and said the hell with that route! So alas, I finally got on the LBS! Goal for next run is to not pencil wonder falls or get stuck in the entrance to it!
Video clip of that run
here - Thanks Ethan!
Saturday: More Cville boaters showed up Friday night, and some were interested in hitting the LBS as well. I got introduced to some Pittsburgh boaters the night before, and they offered to show us down again, so hooked up with them Saturday morning and I rallied everyone to pull off a Double header! So after breakfast we proceeded to get the shuttle going. The Pittsburg crew was much slower than us, and we probably didn’t get going until around 11. So we dropped boats/bodies at the LBS putin, and then got 3 trucks down to the Cheat Takeout (the takeout was a CF as expected, had to park way the hell up the road on the west side of the bridge), and our floatilla of about 15 eventually launched on the LBS. On the entrance to Wonder Falls, I got stern squirted, turned around, and got my boat facing forward just intime to run the last drop without further incident. The guys leading this said to go just to the right of where I tried yesterday, and put in a delayed boofstroke at wonder falls. Must have boofed too hard because I landed that one nearly flat, thou remained upright for the entire performance. Rest of the run was uneventful, dry hair for me, and no swims from this group. LBS has now made it into my top 5 favorite runs
So we got to the takeout at 1445, and despite having all the shuttling assets in place to get a group back up to either the LBS or Cheat for a double header, everyone else couldn’t resist the temptation of cold refreshments and dry clothes at the takeout, and they quickly lost interest. I kept all my paddle gear on right till the end until the driver of the truck that was supposed to take the 2nd lappers up got his truck, and figured all hope of a double header was lost, so got dressed and had some refreshments myself and proceeded back to Cheat Fest. So word of advice: If you’re trying to pull off a double header, keep the refreshments and dry clothes locked up
Sunday: Saturday night, there were whispers that the Top Yough was on the rise, and that may be the plan of the crew left at the Tripple K, so I passed the word along the cville boaters. Sunday morning it became a reality, so after breakfast I (relatively quickly) herded 5 cats and boats onto the Avalanche, and proceeded to the Tripple K, arriving at 0930 and we launchd 11ish. I think I went down the last 1/3 or so of swallow falls sideways, but to everyone’s dismay no epic carnage for the highlight reels. Swallow Tail falls - I think I was a little right of ideal, but still managed to pull off a sweet landing if I don’t say so myself. Suck Hole – Never saw it, so guess that’s a good thing... Further on down, I had a flip and subsequent roll in some squirrely eddy behind some rock, otherwise a fun and uneventful run, certainly didn’t need that 2nd cup of coffee!
I took Dave K and Greg backup to the TY putin for another lap, and took the cville crew back to Teters, where we quickly broke down camp and went separate ways. On a mission to get a double header in this weekend, and get a big water fix, 3 of us set shuttle for the Cheat Canyon and we launched just before 4 PM. I don’t know what the guy in front was in such a hurry for, but we bombed it in about 2:15 – hell we should have entered the race! Meanwhile, the shuttle bunny of our second vehicle went off for a bike ride and got delayed and didn’t actually get to the takeout till 7 so we indulged in leftover food and refreshments in the meantime.
Lots more river photos
here
Route home FYI: On the way home both vehicles started going south on 26, I stayed on 26 and took the right across the Albright bridge, the other vehicle kept going straight. Wondered WTH he was going, but whatever. Eventualy I got far enough south on 26 where the oracle gave up on trying to turn me back towards the interstate, and told me to get on RT 7 East. While on RT 7, passed the other vehicle going the opposite way, weird. So the oracle took me on WV7 through Terra Alta and into MD, then onto MD560 to US50 back into WV and eventually onto WV42 and then US220. In Petersburg made a 20 min Sheetz stop awaiting one of their pizza’s got a nastygram from dad that I hadn’t made my mothersday calls yet, and then proceed down US220 pulling off somewhere that I had reception to call grandma, and then ended up in Franklin were we encountered the other vehicle again, making their food/gas stop! We proceeded on down US33E got stuck behind a truck, and the other vehicle caught up to me at Harrisonburg. So in conclusion – US220, US219, WV32, WV42, WV7, etc all appear to be about equal time wise and maybe a tad quicker than the interstate. Ended up being just under 4 hours from Teters to Cville!
(you didn't, by chance, snap some photos of me too Mike?)