A 2 strawberry pie Cheat Fest

[SwmmrGreg]

It began with plan. A plan to reconnect with friends, to boat, and to attend Cheat Fest. That plan devolved quickly into a dynamic adventure of high water and fun.

Friday rolled in wet. The kind of wet that fills watersheds and makes boaters dance with happiness. The Kinker's and I departed Richmond around noon and almost immediately began the discussion of what river we could catch as we headed West. The Savage River checked our needed boxes: on the way, easy shuttle, and a fast run. We put on about 4 with about 960 cfs of natural flow and sunshine. The river was playful with large waves and boof rocks. A pfd for me. We stopped in Deep Creek for post paddling dinner and stumbled across the Baltimore Ravens Cheerleading Squad. Apparently they visit that area as a group every year for some sort of retreat. Who would have thunk? After settling in to our lodging we enjoyed half a strawberry pie as a late night treat.

Saturday dawned rainy and cool. After a fine breakfast of eggs & sausage the obligatory gauge checking began. Luckily a last minute text invite from a friend of Sejal's provided us with our goal. We met Jeff, Steve, and Helene at Big Sandys Restaurant around 9 and proceeded to Fikes Creek. At the put in we absorbed John and Mark into our group. 7 paddlers hiked the approx 15 min to river in the rain. Fikes is a tight, fun, isolated run with nice ledges and numerous micro eddies to catch. The first named rapid was Hubbard's Cupboard and a few of us portaged this nearly unrunnable drop. There was a tight undercut slot sneak far left that a few enjoyed the option of. Farther downstream a rapid with a "room of doom" was portaged by a few also. 2 boaters ran the "room" and I bumped down a far right sneak. At the end of the run it was declared a minimum flow. This info was gleaned from the very technical methodology of determing how much water was lapping up the side of a center river rock at the takeout. It was also here that we bumped into Hazmat and our afternoon plan was hatched. Pfd #2.
Meadow Run was at 1 foot and together with a few of Matt's group we were to be 5 on it. The run begins with a channelized lead in to a giant horizon line. This is called Cascade and I can only describe it as Swallow Falls meets Oceana. After that gut check the river offered numerous big slides and juicy drops. At the finish I breathed a sigh of relief. Pfd #3, that run made me big eyed.
With daylight still showing it was time to head to Cheat Fest. We arrived with a desire for food and the possibility of bargain gear. Instead we found MUD. Perhaps this year it should have been dubbed mudfest. There was ankle deep, footwear sucking mud everywhere. After making a round, locating some tasty VIP food and beer, and enjoying the live music, we departed for dry ground. Away from the festivities we enjoyed more strawberry pie, some moonshine, and called it a night.

Sunday awakened with light rain and chill temps. A breakfast of buckwheat pancakes and sausage and eggs was devoured. No paddling plans had come together at that point so we opted for some early off river activities. Yoga, photography, and some reading were enjoyed. While that was going on the sun decided to make itself available again. Shortly thereafter our thoughts drifted to paddling options. Sejal, Steve, and I settled on a infrequent running gem north of Cumberland. Wills Creek(by way of Bush Creek) was running about 4.5 ft and was spicy. Wood was an issue in a few places. Boof rocks were everywhere to be enjoyed. Two named rapids, Railroad and Yo-Yo were large, sticky, and technical. One caused me to swim. Farther downstream we bumped into a group who had found two paddles and a boat. I felt a little better about my earlier bobble. At the end of the run I remarked about how our trip was ending like it began. The sun was again out and there was more strawberry pie to finish.

Thanks Coastals

[bwalsh]

It's great you got to do so many cool creeks! I've been on all but Wills.

Meadow run...
The time I ran it we stopped and scouted the cascade on river left. It's difficult to scout with all the vegetation(middle of summer). There was enough water going over the lip in the middle of the creek to make a sweet boof into the midstream eddy below. Then you are in between the left and right channels in a nice calm eddy at the top of the cascade. Then peal out(with a real good downstream lean) and run the right side down to the bottom. It's an incredible view ahead(down) of the rapid while boofing off that lip! Wish we had had a camera. Try it if you ever get the chance.

The slide...
The small drop in the middle of the slide pushed me nose first into the left side of the channel(even though I was anticipating it), popping my skirt and filling with water. I got straightened out just in time to make it thru the narrow ending. Whew! I was in a overflow. I had to run the bigger drop below the slide full of water. I did get over to shore and dump at the bottom of that drop though.

Fun times!!! Thanks for sharing!