rain day

After along dry summer,,with very few trips to the upper yough and my annual trip down the gauly during fest weekend. A welcomed inch and  a half of rain fell locally.Which interfered with my outside work,to let me play in the rain.meet up with Corey to run Bridalveil falls creek to tinkers ,,then tinkers at good flow ,,then went and played on a wave on the cuyahoga river, then stopped by branywine falls and noticed there was enough water for another run below the falls. all and all ,,about the best day one can have on whitewater in Ohio

the melt of 2010

   My paddling adventure started with a 2 mile bike shuttle in shorts for a solo run down a class 3 micro creek to tinkers creek,then meet up with Jon to run tinker at the perfect level of 1000 cfs,,,,for a warm up day before traveling to WV.
    Friday ran into a group of 8 paddlers looking to boat  roaring creek ,but because of the high level and story's of alot of down tree's ,,we chosen to paddle muddy creek for a warm up,,,,,,we thought?                3 swims,lost paddle,lost hand paddles and messed up hand later,,we were humbled by the creek.
Off for more fun most of us went to sovern run , sense we new there was no wood in the creek.
After looking at the flow at the put in,some wisely said no thanks,5 of us put on,and after surviving 3/4 of the run and finding just my second edy,,i choosed to take out,with one other seconding the decision. the 3 finished and then 2 of them went for another run.  
    

      Saturday started off with upper Laural run to the big Sandy,,a fun high water class 3 with a cool put in.
Then off to friendsville area, were 3 of us ran Glade into Buffalo run,,,,,,Glade started out with a great rapid above pic then continued 2 miles of fun to the confluence,, ,,then 2 more miles on Buffalo run.It was so much fun we had to run it again.  Special thanks to the group before us for clearing wood out,,,,,later that day,i got  an invite to join a group going to high ridge run.

       Sunday morning drive to Canaan .Meet up with 7 other paddlers,,and began to hike 2 miles up hill with kayak,then one more mile,,,,,,,,,,when we got to the micro creek,,the hike was well worth it,,Disney land for kayakers ,to many good drops to count.  2 miles of over 1000 feet of  vertical drop,,,thanks to all that cleared wood and made this run possible ,,after that run i was invited to check out a near by creek rumored to have a clean 30 footer.


for more pics

Russell fork

after boating a descent bit in the spring and summer,kayaking for me tapered off.
only getting out 6 days after august.
3 of them days were my first trip to the Russell fork
first day lucked out and ran into some new friends from Kentucky that showed me the lines.
without release,the river was elf,that was perfect to see the river for the first time.
with low water,you can see all the undercuts and bad spots of the river,so you know were to avoid at release level.one of the high lights of the run was checking out the cave of El Horendo.
on day 2 and 3 got i got 3 runs in with my friends Bob and Willis at release level.
with just over a 5 hour drive,it is my favorite fall release river