Lower Yough 6/20 (well sort of) and 6/21

[keithmasill81]

So, when your heading out to a step up trip with just one other paddler it is important to heed the signs. Ominous sign number 1) It rains several inches the night before your trip and the river rises over two feet (4.5' on the Ohiopyle gauge with oodles of water pouring in from every stream). 2) When asking around for beta on the condition of the river at the much higher than anticipated level your much more experienced paddling buddy sends you a link to the keelhaulers rating system comparing it to several rivers that you have specifically been told to avoid until further review. 3) Minutes before launch your paddling buddy and assumed trip leader gracefully relinquishes any leading duties with these words, "I am no longer the trip leader and this has just become a two man expedition". With no other paddlers in site and the time to either get on or call it approaching fast I decided I would give it the old college try.
I put on the river and started to make my way into Entrance. Shortly after entering the rapid I was pleasantly suprised to find myself being flushed towards a rather large hole. I was wholly unprepared for the pushiness of the water and was swept into the hole. For a split second there I actually thought "huh this isn't so bad another couple of strokes and were on our way". And then everything went dark. The whole sucked me right back into it and flipped me end over end, and then sideways until I decided I had enough. I pulled my skirt and was washed out in front of my boat. I swam for my boat and started for shore with all my gear in hand. The river had other plans. After stroking for dear life for what seemed like an eternity I realized I was making no headway towards shore. At this point I said goodbye to my less expensive piece of gear and tried with one final push to pull just the boat to shore. I was still making no headway for shore and being handed a trashing by every hole on the river. In a moment of relative calm I glanced up and saw the entrance to Cucumber fast approaching. I decided to ditch the boat and swim for shore. Even without the boat I barely made it into a little eddy just before the entrance of Cucumber and was able to pull myself ashore.
Gear gone and spirits low I headed upstream on the bank to meet the other member of my team. We pulled out and headed back to the car so we could head down to railroad and see if my gear would wash up. On the way we saw a few paddlers and asked them to keep an eye out for my gear. Upon arriving at railroad we saw the group of paddlers who had indeed found my boat and placed it on some rocks below Cucumber. No paddle but with a spare in the care spirits were on the rise. I drank my booty and went to bed.
The next day the river had dropped to 3.4' and I was on the fence about giving it another go until we found some other paddlers in a shredder who offered to be my official rescue vehicle should things go wrong again. Ominous signs that your going to have a good day on the river 1) The level drops over a foot overnight. 2) Two people in a shredder offer to be your official rescue vehicle. 3) One of them says "Oh by the way I am a swift water rescue certified firefighter and she is a paramedic". Big thanks to Doug and Annie you guys rock. My second attempt went off without a hitch and was a blast. And along the way Doug even found my paddle.

[DJeffSmith]

Thanks for the write-up and glad you are ok. I've been humbled myself after making questionable decisions.

[bambam]

I'll admit to being a phone consultation contact on this one. (Meaning, Chris called me.)

Gauge geeking, at the time, the river was suggesting a crest but was over four feet which told me that either the Casselman was going off or the flow into the reservoir on the Yough was too high. My guess at the time was that it wouldn't go much higher based on what was happening on the Casselman plus what was coming into the reservoir.

It's nice to guess correctly now and then.

The USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) is VERY good about trying to keep the lower Yough at civilized levels. If they are physically able to keep it under four feet then they will do so. If they can't do that then they will tend to dump the reservoir when boats are unlikely to be on the river.

Thanks for the report, sorry you got trashed, glad you got all your stuff back and had a good second day.

The lower Yough does offer up some interesting times at non-standard levels.

Ken Dubel

[STRAKER]

Well I finally got some time to put in my two cents on the trip to the Yough. River did rise a lot more that I expected up to 4.7. This was the level at Ohiophyle. This does not take into account Meadow Run (you know the fun water slides area just as you get into town on the right that kids slide down on their butts) This had now turned into a major class V+ and sad kids and locals watched with swim suits, towels and their mouths agape as about 500cfs roared down the beast. This, as well as every other creek in the area were all dumping into the Yough. The local raft guides seemed kind of unsure about the level since they said all of it was from natural flow and not from the dam upstream.

The falls as well as the river were big brown monsters, much different then two years ago when I had my PFD here at 1.8ft. After some deliberation and down stream scouting we decided to give “The Loop” a shot, as was our plan from the beginning. The Yough at this level reminded me a lot of the higher water Ocoee run I had a few years ago. If there is anything I learned from that experience is that this big pushy brown water requires powerful strokes of an aggressive nature to avoid holes and good water reading skills. After my first few strokes I felt pretty confident avoiding a large hole and proceeding down towards the bottom of “Entrance Rapid” at which point I turned to check on my buddy only to see him getting munched by said hole. This was followed by the out of boat experience and the resulting hike to the Loop takeout and back to Cucumber to retrieve the boat. It was nice because we got to have a good look at Cucumber for the next days run.

After a night of sleep punctuated by a late night raccoon attack that devoured our leftover pizza breakfast, we awoke with mixed spirits. I was determined to get a run under our belts so we headed to the put in and met Doug and Annie who were fine with joining our group for the days run. This gave Keith the confidence boost he needed. We set out on the river which had come down a bit and was no longer brown and ominous. The push and level felt very similar to the day before but I think the beautiful day was giving us the power we needed to succeed. The river at this level was amazing. I think the gauge said 3.6 but still the creeks downstream were cranking water so I am still not sure. This is definitely the best level on the Lower Yough in my mine and seemed to be the consciences of the other paddlers on the river as well that had more experience in the area. All the rapids were huge, Cucumber had gotten bigger from the day before with the drop in water, Rivers End was a monster, and Bottle of Wine was amazing as well just to list my three favorites. Not much surfing going on at Swimmers this day as the service eddy was washed out and the wave was a five footer that could maybe be caught on the fly for some fantastic aerial tricks.

We laced up the whole run with no carnage to report. Wish we could have got 1 more lap but I had to get back for work the following morning. The trip ended up being a great time even with the shaky beginning. The river is great at this level and I will be trying to get up there again very soon to seek out that same water, I only hope I have not spoiled myself for the normal 1.8 -2.2 level that holds most of the summer. Hope the summer gathering can be blessed with the same water we had. SYOTR Chris
You can check out some sweet pics here http://adventurephoto.exposuremanager.com/g/hour_1145