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Halloween Tune-Down Trip

Howdy folks,

  Last weekend, Friday Oct. 28 to Sunday Oct. 30, 2011, twelve people planned to participate in the annual Halloween Tune-down trip to the Ohiopyle PA area.  Friday afternoon, the following weather report was brought to the attention on the trip participants:

WINTER STORM WARNING FOR OHIOPYLE, PA AND SURROUNDING AREAS:
in effect until Saturday, Oct 29, 8:00 PM

* HAZARD TYPES...HEAVY WET SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS...5 TO 9 INCHES OF SNOW, WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS ACROSS THE HIGHEST RIDGES.

* TEMPERATURES...IN THE UPPER 20S SATURDAY MORNING, WARMING TO THE LOWER 30S BY SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

In keeping with the Halloween theme, the report scared three paddlers away.  The group became nine.  Four of the group (Lee Green, Andrew Wise, Alex Janke, Joe Marincel) were waffling about hoteling or camping.  After seeing the report, the four decided to TENT camp at Ohiopyle!  Lee Green called themselves a “A small but deeply disturbed contingent”.  The rest of the group, Karen Frank, Paul Lange, Linda and Casey Seley and Jeanne Langan stayed at the Melody Motor Lodge in Connellsville, PA.

Friday Oct. 28: Linda, Casey and Karen met Andrew at Rose Point campground to paddle the Slippery Rock creek to Eckert bridge.  The level was 1.25 on the mill gauge.  The water was cold but not evil (two rolls before the ice cream headache).  The weather was a balmy 45 degrees and cloudy.  We all kept warm catching eddies, surfing and doing attainments.  Linda decided to go for an extended surf at Airport rapid.  Linda entered the left side of the hole and started performing a multitude of tricks. First the window shades downstream, roll up, window shades upstream, roll up, spin left, spin right, flip, roll up, cartwheel a few times, roll up.  Getting tired, Linda considered taking a swim and becoming the next honored member of the Airport Swim team.  Considering that her husband, Casey may feel left out and may feel a bit jealous if she joined the highly honorable club with- out him, Linda decided to go for a few more rounds of tricks and catch a front surf in the hole.  During her surf, she decided passing up the chance at such exclusive membership would be foolish.  She then proceeded to exit the hole upside down and join the famous and exclusive Airport Swim Team.  Congratulations to Linda!

After taking out at Eckert bridge, Linda, Casey, Karen and Andrew drove to Connellsville to meet Jeanne (traveling from Buffalo) and Paul (traveling from MI after a seminar) for dinner at Italian Oven. 

Saturday Oct. 29:  We awoke in Connellsville to 2 to 3 inches of snow.  At breakfast at Ed’s Diner behind the hotel, the campers (Lee, Joe, Alex and Andrew) assured us there was much more snow over the ridge in the campground, up to 12 inches!  Since the conditions were perfect for people to try a new river (only Karen and Paul had been on the Little Sandy once before), we decided to paddle the Little Sandy in WV from the church into the Upper Big Sandy river, taking out at Rockville (the Lower Big Sandy put-in).  The level was 6.6 (Big Sandy at Rockville). We put on the river at noon and were off at 4:00.  The three miles on the Little Sandy start out flat for a short time, then the river becomes “ledge-drop” and then continuous, creeky and busy until it spills into the Big Sandy.  The two miles on the Big Sandy has surf wave after surf wave until a it spills over a very large Class IV ledge called “Faulkenstein Ledge”.  After the ledge, it returns to steeper, boulder strewn creeking with lots of eddies until the take-out.  The take-out serves up one to two great surf waves.  The snow covering the river banks made for a peaceful and pretty paddle until the action started.  Everyone had smiles on their faces and enjoyed zipping from eddy to eddy.  The river only ate one person and one boat.  Joe discovered a 10 inch crack in the hull of his Jackson half way down the Little Sandy.  Lee “patched it” with Gorilla tape.  There was no specific incident to attribute to the crack.  Perhaps the cold weather?  Cheap plastic?  Previous abuse?   Later, on the Big Sandy, a different person got caught by a rock, could not work off and had to take a swim.  The person, boat and paddle were collected without incident. 

Sunday Oct. 30:  The snow had mostly melted, the air warmed to 47 degrees and the sun was out!  Due to Joe’s cracked boat, Alex was going to loan Joe,  Lee’s boat (the CR that Alex paddled Saturday) and sit out paddling to study.  Jeanne, who had to head home early to Buffalo, was kind hearted enough to loan Alex her RPM and her paddling clothes.  Alex jumped at the chance to wear Jeanne’s clothes and paddle her RPM.  The remaining eight of us put on the Lower Yough around 10:30.  The level was 5.1 (~3880 cfs).  The water was BIG.  The waves were BIG.  The holes BIGGER. We had BIG fun!  The river was a bit hungry, eating one person at Bottle of Wine in the big hole in the center that is usually a rock and another person at River’s End in the pit that forms behind the giant pillow off Billboard rock.  We were off the river at 2:30 and on the road home by 3:00.

All in all a great, fun day and great, fun weekend.  Everyone handled the snow, water levels and rivers well.

Hope to get out one more time, weather permitting!

Karen and Paul

Rack-O-Rama

The finished and loaded rack

 On Saturday January 28, four intrepid paddlers* set forth building a new kayak rack for the NCRB to replace the racks Jan remembers being there since he was a child (and golly, he's old), holding kayaks that have been there just as long.  This means some of those racks (the ugly metal ones) are more that 30 years old (golly, he's old).  After Jan got done being misty about how long those racks are (and how old he's gotten to be -- in fact, he cried dust instead of tears), our intrepid paddlers, Lee Green, Paresh Patel, Mike Shoemaker, and the old dude set to work.  Before too long, we were packing up our tools and loading the kayaks into their new home.  There will be a few augmentations to the rack to make sure it holds up well, but as it stands, it holds 24 boats neatly in the corner.  

Thanks again to the intrepid paddlers who volunteered their weekend time to make this happen, and with great efficiency!

*NB:  For those of you who are new here,  "n intrepid paddlers" is the kayaking literary equivalent of "It was a dark and stormy evening..."

Tune-up Trip Report

Paul On the Stony

  Last weekend, March 31st and April 1st, eight RSCK paddlers traveled to Pennsylvania for the annual "Tune-up" trip.

  Friday, Dan Lehner and Andrew Wise arrived at Slippery Rock creek just in time to get a shuttle from a lone paddler.  They paddled Rose Point to Eckert bridge.  The level they claimed was 6 inches at the Mill.  They claimed the weather Friday was warm, upper 60's and pleasant. 

  Saturday morning, the rest of us, Lee Green, Doug Heym, Paul Lange, Karen Frank, James Blackburn and Peter Bundarin woke up at the luxurious Budget Host motel to cloudy skies and mid 40 degree weather.  It had rained overnight, bringing the Stonycreek back up to 3.0 on the 601 Bridge (~4.5 at Ferndale), a great play level.  After breakfast at the Summit Diner, we all put on the Stony at 11 a.m. and surfed and surfed and surfed and surfed and surfed, taking a swim or two or three in between to practice rescue skills and getting out of our boats.  The waves in Surf lab, under the railroad bridge at Locomotive and Hydro were all in prime form.  Johnson's ledge was not as retentive at this level.  After more surfing and surfing, we were off the river at ~3:30.  We all went back to the hotel to shower, nap, hang up gear, have in room "happy hour" and then enjoy dinner at the PIne Grill.

   Sunday brought sunny skies and temperatures reaching mid 60's.  The level was still a great play level of just over 2.5 on the 601 Bridge (~4.0+ at Ferndale).  We put on at 10 a.m. and were off the river at 2:00p.m.  Everyone paddled more "tuned", surfing and surfing much better.  Johnson's ledge was great at this level, Hydro not as well formed.  The waves in the section between Surf Lab and the RR bridge were more plentiful and easier to get on, better eddy service.  Because the weather was warmer and sunny, no one wanted to practice any swims and decided to just surf and surf and surf.  We were all on the road home by 3:00 p.m., stopping for dinner on the way home at Chipotle's off the Cranberry exit.

   We are now feeling more "ready" for the 2012 paddling season!

(Non-Religious) Easter Day River Baptism Trip to the Argo "Cascades"

Four of our beginners' first river trip was a great success!  The beginners, Tyler, Emily, Sam and Zach, all did great.  Despite many "overs," NO SWIMS!  Lots of good rolls, and lots of good "hanging in there" until rescues showed up.  "The Cascades" ended up being even better than expected as a beginner training spot.  It's probably not as gentle of an introduction to eddying out/peeling out as is starting at Dexter-Huron, but the new crew all handled it with aplomb.  

Among the many spectators observing the shenanigans were Susan Quackenbush — a club member who hasn't been able to paddle with us yet, Mark-whose-last-name-I-can't-remember, a former club member who has put in his time on the Yough as well as other rivers, followed by Kathy, Thorsten and James after their excursion on the upper Huron.  I suppose the dude with the six-pack (beers, not abs) and chewing tobacco also merits mention.

The attending non-beginners were Lee and Michele Green (in the green QE II), Paresh and Sharon Patel, Greg Weddle, Alex Janke and Jan.  The water was a bit cool; as Paresh said, we could have used another 10 degrees.  We met at the Longshore Park/Argo Canoe Livery; Paresh and Jan drove down to Riverside Park (90% of the parking lot was mud puddle) and ran (well, walked) shuttle.  After a safety talk, we paddled up to Goose-Crap Island to warm up (okay, not really sure of the Island's name, but it is an accurate description), and then down to "The Cascades."  We spent a fair amount of time at the first 3 or 4 chutes, after which the cold set in for a few less-equiped, and so we spent less time on the final chutes.  Some of the skirts were clearly operating under duress, and let their displeasure be known by allowing what their wearers would attest were prodigious amounts of water into their respective boats. 

After basking in the sunlight (and stiff breeze) at the take out, Emily adopted the Patel changing snuggy and wandered around armless-but-warm for a while.  Then we loaded up, returned and washed the gear at the NCRB, and Sam headed home looking forward to writing his paper in blissful warmth.

A fine outing -- we're all looking forward to doing it again soon!

(And yeah, I forgot my camera, so mea culpa on the no pictura).

Intermediate 2012 Trip Report

 Hi fellow paddlers,

  This past weekend, May 4-6, eleven RSCK paddlers traveled to West Virginia for the club "informal-non-sponsered" Intermediate Trip.

Friday May 4rth: Paul, Karen, Rich Cole, Dan Lehner, Joe Marincel and Andrew Wise all met at the fabulous Shoney's restaurant in Summersville, WV.  After a delicious breakfast, we decided to paddle the Upper Meadow river from Burdette creek to Russellville. For those unfamiliar, the Upper Meadow is a fun "creek-stlye" river with one 4.5 mile rapid filled with lots of eddies, slots, boulders, boofs, etc.   It was running a great level of 1200 cfs with room to go up if it kept raining.  We went to the take-out and loaded all of our boats, gear  and people into Dan's huge beast of a truck and then went to the put-in.  We put on around 11:30.  After hundreds of eddy turns, slots, a few boofs and some play, we were off the river at 3:45.  Rex Dalrymple and Jim McHale caught up to us mid-river.  It rained off and on most of the day but the sunshine came out in time for relaxing at the take-out while others went to pick up Dan's beast and Rex's vehicle.  The temperatures were in the upper 70's.

After paddling, we all enjoyed a good dinner at Diogi's Mexican restaurant in Fayetteville.  Good carnitas, fish tacos and microbrew beers.  After dinner, Jim, Rex, Karen and Paul went for a short hike near the New River visitor center on the Burntwood trail.  Rex and Jim then went to camp at Tailwaters, the rest of us camped at the Super 8 in Summersville.

Saturday May 5th:  The morning brought overcast skies, more rain and Lee Green, Paresh Patel and Alex Janke.  Many of our target rivers were now too high and more rain was predicted.  After breakfast at Fran's in Summersville, we elected to paddle the Lower Gauley which was running a fun 1900 cfs at Belva and headed up.  The Lower Gauley offers up multiple BIG rapids and BIG play waves in a 10.5 mile run.  We all went to the take-out at Swiss, got river ready and loaded 10 of the 11 boats into Dan's beast.  One stayed on top of Andrew's car only because it was already happy there.  The eleven of us piled into Dan's beast and Andrew's car and drove to the put-in at Bucklick branch (aka Koontz' put-in).  It rained off and on all day, temperatures reaching high 70's again and sunshine in the late afternoon.  We  were on the river by 11:15 and off at 4:45.  By the time we were off the river, the river had risen to 3460 cfs at Belva!  There was great play all the way down the river.  "Hollywood wave" at Diagonal ledges was in great form as were the surf waves just above.  Paul and Rich showed off "synchro-surfing" and switching sides of the wave, one surfing high, one surfing low to switch positions. Rich Cole had the surf of the day at Lower Mash, catching a good surf in the second monster, munchy wave in wave train.   Dan Lehner had the ender of the day at Junkyard in his Karnali creek boat.  Clearing his boat high enough that it blotted out the sun and caused Dan to land with such a big "sploosh" it knocked him out of his boat!  

After a great day tiring ourselves in the big water and running shuttle, we all celebrated a great day of paddling and "Cinco de Mayo" at Las Carretas mexican restaurant by the Super 8.  After dinner, most of us went to bed.  Dan and Rich stayed up late attending the movie the "Avengers" in 3D at the movie theatre next door to the hotel.

Sunday May 6th: More rain overnight.  To the disappointment of Rex, the Middle Fork of the Tygart had once again teased that it was going to fall to a reasonably runnable level only to rise too high once again. Sigh. Other choices were too high, some too low, some too far to drive on a Sunday.   After breakfast at Shoney's, Rex and Jim headed for the Big Sandy two hours away and the rest of us headed to the New River Dries.  The New River Dries is a section of the New river below Hawks Nest Dam that only runs when the New River is high enough that water spills over the dam.  The river was 14,400cfs at Thurmond, 5.5 on the Cotton Hill Bridge gauge.  We paddled from the Cotton Hill bridge to just above the New River Campground.  We were on the river by 10:15 and off at 1:15.  The water was comfortable, the air warm and the skies sunny.  Temperatures reached 80 degrees!  The Dries were in prime play form, offering up huge waves and big playful holes.  The first "slide" rapid had an awesome twenty foot wide wave hole on the bottom left.  We all spent lots of time here.  "Mile-long" rapid did not disappoint with large crashing waves.  "Landslide" rapid was exceptionally squirrelly, twirling everyone every which way.  We were all on the road home by 2 p.m.

Overall a great weekend.  Kudos to Joe for getting in three new rivers and to Alex for getting in two.  Thanks to Dan for the use of his massive shuttle beast.

Hope to see you all out there!

Fall 2012 Last Chance Trip Report

Spring 2013 Tune-Up Trip

Fall Colors Kayak Trip 2013

Hi All,

 Friday:  Paul, Karen, James and Dawn met Greg in Ohiopyle to paddle the Loop.  The level was 1.82.  Karen demoed a Daggar Axiom 8.0 and Greg demoed a Wave Sport Recon 95.  Karen found the Axiom to be very speedy and super easy to roll.  She had fun zipping around the Loop.  It also surfed well but did not spin as easy as her Fluid.  Greg had mixed feelings about the Recon.  Karen thought the Recon looked like a large enormous barge with a teeny-tiny Greg inside (and believe us, making Greg look small takes some doing!).