4/2/99

On Friday the early morning paddlers got in a run on Seneca Creek from Onego down to Seneca Rocks. K-1 boaters included Scott Leap, Max Harbet, Mike McClanahan, Bryan Nichols, and Steven Youngblood. I did not hear too much about the trip except that the only one not to flip was the oldest guy, and two or three of the younger paddlers had bloody knuckles.

As soon as the Seneca Creek crew finished we were off to run the Hopeville Canyon Section of the NFSB of the Potomac. Boaters included: K-1: Turner Sharp, Susan Klimas, Scott Leap, Max Harbet, Jim Lakiotes, John Wiggins, Bryan Nichols, Steven Youngblood, and Mike McClanahan; OC-1: Zeth Zajac; DAOB-1: David Lohr (self-described dumb ass open boater).

The Hopeville Canyon is one of the best paddling pleasures in West Virginia. Sure I always want it to be another one or two miles longer and I would not be disappointed if the two cabins on river left disappeared and regardless of water level I always think that Landslide or Rock Jumble rapid needs another inch of water. I think five or six boaters on this trip were first timers on this section and we recorded 5 swims and a lost paddle. Susan’s breakdown came to the rescue again when Steven lost his paddle to a grabby boulder. It was last seen standing upright in the current on the upstream side of a midstream rock. Seven days later a group out of Virginia recovered the paddle apparently in the same spot and the very next day we coincidently met them on the Glady Fork of Cheat. Thanks to Carl Goetz of Rawley Springs, Va. Steven still owns a paddle.

4/3/99

At the Princess Snow Bird Campground the first order of business after breakfast is to sort out paddlers going on different trips. Max Harbet and Scott Leap elected to go with a Tom McCloud (Coastals?) trip on the Dry Fork at 3,000 cfs. Ken Cooper and Todd (I ain’t afraid to write no trip report) Richendollar were off to do Otter Creek from the top. I did not hear much about the trip but they took it easy the next day as they jogged up to the top of Seneca Rocks. Meanwhile the novice trip that was going to prove you can have carnage on a class I–II run was getting organized. The following boaters put in on Seneca Creek by the Campground for a run down to Harmans Cabins. K-1: Turner Sharp, Susan Klimas, Rachael Klimas, Kim Clancy, Cheri Bailey, Greg Phillips, Julie Sharp, Jim Wallace, Mike McClanahan, Jack Nall, Linda Wiggins, John Wiggins; SOT: John Casto; 0C-1: Zeth Zajac; DAOB-1: David Lohr.

This was Cheri Bailey’s second trip on whitewater and she started out by swimming twice by the time we got to the confluence of the North Fork. But once on the North Fork she made it to the take out with no other problems and much to the delight of the other boaters Jack Nall was following her over a river right ledge drop and you guessed it — Cheri had no problem, while Jack had problems as in, over, out, and swim.

We ate lunch on cobble beach in sight of Champe Rocks and it was here that John Casto discovered that he had left his PFD about a mile upstream on a river right rock when asked by a friendly local landowner to quit trespassing and get back on the river. Well John had not had any problem with the river up that time so he elected to continue the trip. After lunch the very first little rapid (probably Class I) was decorated by a ten foot plus diameter root ball of a tree. John decided to surf the small pressure wave in front of the root ball with no easy way to turn his SOT to paddle away from it. So after getting a rope attached to the boat and John holding another one we managed to pull him clear of the root ball and the downstream strainer although he did flip while being pulled to shore. I think the root ball decided to keep one throw rope. The next rapid was a rock jumble with no clean line and John with no pfd did a flip and tore his shoulder out which ended the trip for him and three people who helped him to the hospital. Thanks to Kim Clancy, John Wiggins and especially Linda Wiggins (she was commended for a sling made out of material at hand by the hospital staff) John made it to the Petersburg Hospital and a diagnosis of a slight fracture in the shoulder socket. Greg Phillips and Julie Sharp arranged to drive John’s stick shift car back to Ansted. John is expected to heal fine and be back paddling by late May or early June.

Another unusual occurrence on this run was Jim Wallace paddling a Noah Dragonfly was descending a Class II cobble rapid with a series of two foot waves when his boat went down through the trough of one wave and the nose of his boat pinned solidly to the bottom of the river. At first the water was about one foot over his rear deck and climbing his back but soon the rear deck lifted and Jim was able to exit the boat easily. I did not expect to see that happen on such a mild gradient stream. Even though John Wiggins ended his trip early to help John Casto I can not resist telling there was one long rapid that he really enjoyed. He swam the first part and liked it so much that he immediately climbed back in his boat and swam the bottom part. With 13 or 14 swims on this trip there is a lot of learning going on and this includes ornithology — Susan Klimas will never ever call a Pileated Woodpecker a Redheaded Blackbird again. About a mile from the takeout there were four Great Blue Herons flying in formation and Susan definitely identified them as not Turkey Buzzards.

The Petersburg gauge was in the 3.30 and slowly falling to 3.16 for the two days spent on the North Fork. This is the lowest gauge reading during which I have paddled in this area and yet had some of the best water levels. The Petersburg gauge may not mean what it used to.

4/4/99

Dry Fork River- Wayside Park (not in existence) to Jenningston bridge. K-1: Turner Sharp, Susan Klimas, Rachael Klimas, Scott Leap, John Wiggins, Linda Wiggins, Cheri Bailey; DAOB-1: David Lohr.

After a little confusion about the put- in John and Linda Wiggins arrived and informed us we were at the right place but the wayside park has been gone for years. So I guess a better identifying name would be the bridge which carries Synder Road over the Dry Fork. The river at the put-in was small and low but shortly after passing Red Creek we had good moderate water which made the long cobble bar rapids enjoyable with long stretches of two to three foot waves. Even with the additional water from Laurel Fork the difficulty rating never exceeded class II+. We played hop scotch with an Osprey for about half the trip and Susan identified that as “not a Turkey Buzzard.” At the takeout the Jenningston bridge gauge was still slightly above one foot and the Hendricks gauge was falling from 4.1 to 3.8 during the day.