An Epic Weekend in Appalachia
May 28th, 2008
Well the past few weeks have been quite relaxed as far as paddling goes. I spent 3 weekends in a row paddling in the north woods of Wisconsin. We had some pretty good levels on the Wolf River and had an amazing time at Pabst-A-Palooza but the whitewater was tame by most peoples standards…up until this weekend anyways.
Bebop (Zach), Jeff, and I took off Thursday evening, crammed in Jeff’s truck with our creekers and playboats in the back bed. For anyone who owns both a play and creek boat…you know it’s gonna be a good weekend when you must bring both. We got to the B&B/campgrounds around 4:15am and quickly went to sleep..we knew the weekend would be good and needed our sleep.
In the morning, we threw around a few ideas of what to paddle and “settled” on the Tip Top Yough even though none of us had been on it. We ran into Jeff’s friend Brad at a local paddle shop and again at a cafe. Now I don’t believe things happen for a reason…but we were destined that day to run the Upper Yough. Brad and his friend Steve were heading that way and it just so happened they were more then happy to take a few Midwesterners down this stretch. Zach and Jeff had both been on the Upper a few times while this would be a personal 1st D. The level read 2.5 on the gauge, well above the normal release level during the summer. This is a river where inches on the gauge translate into feet on the whitewater portion. It was gonna be JUICY!
Nervous and tweaked nearly the entire way down, I was in a constant battle with myself about this run. Our pace was brisk during the first half down to National Falls. Remarkably, everyone cleaned the top and most steep section of this juicy creek run. Our fatigue began to show through after National Falls when we had 3 swims between the 3 of us Midwesterners (swimmers will remain anonymous). After much doubt, head games, and my swim (ok, not compltely anonymous) it became apparent to myself that this river at this level was just within my range of abililty. Instead of “wow, this is crazy,” my thoughts turned to “This is awesome, I should be here, and I don’t wanna be anywhere else.” Everything in my life (past and future) melted away and I became focused on the task at hand. For most people, a swim would shake them up, for me, this swim and on previous at Daddy’s Creek shook me and made me realize what kinda paddler I am and acts as a stern reminder…be aggressive and trust yourself.
Upon completion of this run, I was flying high and felt on top of my game. Reaching the take out, we realized the gauge read nearly 3ft, a full foot above a “normal” release level. Very few paddle the Upper Yough at levels like this and for it to be my first time down, I will always view that river differently then anyone else.
Saturday ended up being a more relaxing day on the Cheat River. This was a personal 1st D for Bebop and myself and we were excited to not be wide eyed the entire day. We played, took different lines, and had fun on the big water. Coliseum contained the 2 biggest holes I had ever seen. The perfect end to an awesome run came at the waves down at the bottom. Bebop and I threw our very first Blunts. Once again flying high, we returned to the Yough area and did a quick run on the Lower’s Loop.
Sunday turned into our third amazing whitewater day in a row. We got on the Upper Yough and upon our decent, realized the leve was just a bit lower then it was when we had started on Friday (all were thankful.) Jeff and Bebop felt confident enough in their skills and knowledge of the river that we would be fine. My skeptic nature was unsure but I wanted to run the Upper at a lower level so bad that our relatively inexperienced crew would be fine. It was amazing to see the same stretch of river at two drasticly different levels so close to eachother. Lines had changed, some holes got smaller, some got munchier, and all 3 of us nearly cleaned the run (a flip here and there did not sour the occasion.)
The bright idea was then brought up to run the Lower Yough at a level none of us had seen. The office at the lower had closed and the shuttle at the end would probably not be running…but we had the river to ourselves. We had a fun time running the Lower up untill time that we realized the walk out of the lower would be epic. After 3 days of hard paddling, we carried our creekers uphill for 2 miles. After each steep incline, around the corner was a steeper and taller hill. Now that, is a class V takeout.
Intially we had planned on paddling 4 days in a row, but our epic weekend ended early and the 3 of us just wanted to go home. We were fatigued and happy and wanted to make the crammed ride home as enjoyable as possibly.
Sunday, our Upper and Lower Yough dual run was day 50 this calender year for me and as the iceing on the cake for an epic weekend I will always remember.
River Junky