Coastals

Had the oppurtunity(thanks KeelHaulers) to PFD the Top Yough over the weekend w/12 paddlers on Sat; about 700cfs/maybe 7 swims(myself included) and 10 paddlers on Sun; about 500cfs/no swims.
Full carnage report to follow

Also a big thanks to Peter T for puting this trip together

werd. Peter is the bomb. thanks for the PFD on the Top Yough. it was a hoot.

Alright....... Here's how it really went down: The original plan called for Guy, Monster, FatDoug, Marshal, and myself to head up and connect with Shaggy's group for fun and play on the Cheat. But wait; no water was to be found. OK, backup plan, we'll go to the New River Gorge. Marshal cancels due to unforeseen tumorous bruise ; Monster cancels due to......well he always get sick whenever there is an epic weekend to be had
The weekend comes and lo & behold: some active water rituals cause copius amonts of water to deluge upon the Cheat and the original plan is back in motion less two paddlers. Friday finds me, Guy, and Fattie loadin up and headin out for Teeters in Albright, W Va. If you haven't had the pleasure of staying at Teeters, then go, this is perhaps the nicest(at least in my opinion) camping experience to be found . We arrive in W Va. about 10:30 pm to the welcome sight of a roaring campfire and the smiling faces of Shaggy and Jer. Set up camp, heard that they got in a run on(I believe) the Upper Yough, and began discussing the weekends options. Some beer drinkin and a whole lot of BSing later it was off to the sleeping bag and whitewater wet dreams.
More to come................................

SwmmrGreg wrote:More to come................................

Serial trip report. A new one. The ending better be good.

I met Shaggy around 5:30am Friday morning to head to the UY. We took the short cut, got a little lost and pulled into Friendsville around 11:00am. It was raining the whole trip. There wasn't another boat in town. I am use to seeing both sides of the road parked with boaters. We continued to the put in, there were ten people there. They were Peter’s friends from Ohio; we hooked up with them and ran the river. It was running 2'3". Everyone had a great day, no swims and ran some new lines. It was cool to have the river to ourselves, we saw maybe ten other boaters later in the day.

Saturday we ran the Top Yough, running about 700cfs. The first rapid I believe was Swallow Falls, we had one swimmer there (me). I thought I had a good line, hit the horse shoe hole, side surfed, window shaded, hung out for awhile then said to myself, check please. After swimming out, I had a boat in front me sideways, I didn't get the grab loop. I heard Guy holler about the rock about ten feet away, no pillow on the rock probably under cut. I swam around the rock, through another hole and to the other side of the river. I was about 10' from the bank when Peter assisted me, gave me his stern and got me to the edge. Thanks Peter. My boat got there shortly, thanks Elliot. While I was dumping my water, the string that secures the drain plug gave way and I lost my drain plug. By the time I made one from a stick, the crew had scouted and run Swallow Tail. I took a quick look and peeled out. This is one rapid you don't want to swim, trust me!!! I missed my boof stroke, boinked the hole and was sucked under. I went deep, punched out and surfaced. Got sucked back in the hole and disappeared for about five seconds, it seemed a lot longer. I was swimming with everything I had to break the hold and was slowly being pulled back in. I really didn't want to be sucked under again. My air supply was dwindling. Just when I thought I was going under again I broke loose, swam to a rock. While I was pulling myself up, another boater who was on the rock helped pull me up. Thanks, I needed that. I was pretty whipped and shaken up, it took me a few minutes to get my strength back. My boat stayed in the hole a long time before exiting. After that I stayed in my boat the rest of the day. I was weak but was able to make it. I had a couple of good braces to help me out. There were other swimmers that day. They will have to tell their own story.
It rained most of Saturday night. So Sunday we ran the Top Yough again. It was running 500cfs. I made all my lines and had an awesome day. I had several good braces, and an offside roll. A no swim day for the kid (LOL). It was a fun weekend, met some cool people, and hung out with the Corn, Thanks Peter. The things that stick out in my mind are Dougie getting tossed around in a playboat, rolling up and having a great day, sitting in the eddy above a drop watching Guy throw ends till he got out of a sticky hole and a woman, I think her name is Kara, do the coolest boof at Popular Popper. This was an awesome trip, maybe next year we will get on the Big Sandy.

No way this trip would have happened without Shaggy. That man knows his thunderclouds. Great job all around, a very satisfying weekend indeed.

BTW: The saturday level for the Top was around 400-500cfs depending on put on time and the level for sunday was 200-300cfs depending.

oldskool wrote:BTW: The saturday level for the Top was around 400-500cfs depending on put on time and the level for sunday was 200-300cfs depending.

As I recall, Saturday was running 11-teen thousand cfs. it was "poofy"

oldskool wrote:BTW: The saturday level for the Top was around 400-500cfs depending on put on time and the level for sunday was 200-300cfs depending.

Do you know the level in feet by any chance?

BTW, the figures used in the trip report are what someone in the group said it was.

I was hoping that someone would bring up the flows/levels question about the Top Yough. What is the way to determine the level? How much addition for Muddy Creek?
My weekend highlights were seeing JR survive his beat down (then pushing on) and seeing Fat Doug style it in his ZG plus all the other playboat tossings. I also want to add Swallow Falls to my “damn did I just run that” list especially with the added poofyness on Saturdays run. Also can't wait to see the pics, thanks Greg for taking some cool shots. Also to note that it's always a pleasure to paddle with the Keelhaulers. Happy 70th to John K.

oldskool wrote:BTW: The saturday level for the Top was around 400-500cfs depending on put on time and the level for sunday was 200-300cfs depending.

If you are just looking at the oakland gauge for the top yough, you are missing the contribution from muddy creek, which spills in just below the first drops of the top yough. Look at the UY at friendsville and you'll see quite a bit more water in there than in oakland. That extra water comes from the outflow from deep creek lake, and/or muddy creek. Kobak lives and breathes yough, and he also checked the gauges all weekend. He's probably correct about the 700cfs on saturday, and 450 cfs for sunday

straight from the man himself:

No release from Deep Creek.

Flows were deduced by the time differences between the gauges.

Oakland level is about 3 hrs upstream of put-in.
Friendsville is 5 1/2 to 7 hrs downstream depending on water level. Higher levels, time is shorter.
Muddy Creek is usually 1/2 of TY flow if rain is uniform.

So putting all that data together I came up with the actual flow below Muddy creek at the time we paddled.

Sat - 750 cfs
Sun - 450 cfs

SwmmrGreg wrote: More to come................................

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NeatoMan wrote:

SwmmrGreg wrote: More to come................................

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Yeah! What's up?