CCC Yough Trip 2013
| River: | Yough |
| Skill: | Intermediate+ |
| Trip Date: | 08/21/2013 |
Paddlers- Nancy Guthrie, Joe and Tammy Laurick, Jim Wendling, Allen Freeman, Jamila Squires, Martha Mount, Mary Ellen Griffin, Matt Swaim, Jeff Hatcher, Jen Fahey, and the incomparable Larry Ausley.
We got to camp in Ohiopyle State Park Wednesday the 21st at varying times and in varying stages of rain. By the time we put on the river on the 22nd, it had risen slowly to 2.4 feet. The temps were nice: in the 70s. The rain held off, giving us nice sunny skies for the day. Our first major hurdle of the day was convincing Mary Ellen that the put-in was actually uphill from the take-out where we finished. It wasn’t clear she was ever convinced. This was a first-descent trip for Jen, Matt, Jamila and Martha and we had no swims. Jen did have a great, first combat roll on the right line at Dimple. We had a raft-free day until we got to Dimple rapid as well. Swimmers rapid let Larry, Allen and Matt show us how to spin and carve while the rest of us got a chance at swimming the rapid and letting others throw ropes. Most of us took a jump off Jump Rock and Allen splatted his boat off the drop as well.
By the time we hit the take-out, the thunder started but the rain held off until later that night. We had a great dinner at the Lucky Dog in Confluence and then a nice fire with Nutella s’mores.
Day 2- “It Got Big!”
We woke up to rain and decided to delay putting on for an hour to try to let the lightning pass. The gauge had gone to 2.55 by the time we hit the water at 11AM. We were joined by Allen’s wife Ronna this morning as he traded in his playboat for a shredder. There was a significant inflow of brown water from the creeks as we got started. Jeff hit his first real combat roll of the year after striking out on his own at Entrance rapid. Cucumber rapid was a series of 8 foot crashing waves: awesome fun. We stopped at the Jump Rock where Larry pulled Jamila off and she quickly repaid him by landing on his head. By the time we got to Dimple, the eddyline had changed to an eddy fence and we all opted for the right line. Jen aced a sweet boof off Bottle of Wine and the girl power took over for a 5-way backwards run over Killer Falls
Despite the morning rain, we had a beautiful sunny day on the river.
By the time we got off the river it had gone over 4 feet, making us wonder if we had actually been running the river at a little over 3 feet.
We finished off the day by heading to Falls City Pub behind Wilderness Voyagers. Great food and Jeff ran into his rafting guide pal “BEAR!”. The night was polished off with real s’mores this time and a nice campfire.
Day 3
Casselman
By the 24th, the Yough had gone up to 5.4 feet and we moved on to plan B. Someone in the group mentioned that day 3 was like “8 different people each doing their own run”. Everyone was running all over the river doing lots of surfing, eddy hopping, boofing. splatting or whatever grabbed their fancy. The Casselman has some great rock gardens and a ton of play waves.
Many thanks to Larry Ausley for coordinating this trip and keeping the club’s “collective memory alive” to these great rivers.