M.I.S.O.- Mini Invasion by Southerners of Ohiopyle

Although the overall volume of interest waned in years past, I always enjoyed this trip and never felt like we could let the tradition go. I decided to reincarnate the trip and am coining it “MISO” (Mini Invasion of Ohiopyle by Southerners) (sorry for any copyright transgressions, big Russ!). We really had a good number of folks sign up this year including some regulars, multi-timers and a first-timer. The Wednesday-Saturday trip dates are a little difficult for some to swing, but the schedule really provides a superior enjoyability quotient on and off the river. Our group enjoyed nearly sole occupancy of the shuttle bus Thursday and Friday. If you’ve experienced the shuttle bus on summer weekends, you know what a luxury this is!

Trip participants included Joe and Tammy Laurick from KY,  Willy Young from VA, and Bern Lanoue, Sara Schock, Karol Gray, Jim Wendling, Alan Freeman, Nancy Guthrie and yours truly from NC. On Saturday, Terry Markoff from OH joined us for a loop lap.

The weather was great both days and we had the river almost to ourselves, hard-boat-wise. Being a pretty experienced group, everyone picked a variety of lines through Cucumber, experimenting with new ways to get down it. We made a lot of the classic moves: the attainments at Piddly (thanks for adding a new segment in that for us on Sat., Terry!), the boof at Camel and Walrus,  eddies galore at Eddy Turn, frogs-back at Railroad, the “death slot” at railroad, “kiss the whale” at River’s End (we’ll never forget you saying that, Big Russ!), ferries at Double Reactionary, and, of course, the slut slot at Schoolhouse. Nancy nailed a smear-boof off Bottle of Wine. On Friday, we enjoyed almost an hour of lunch at Swimmers, having the site all to ourselves. Alan discovered that Swimmers is now his “favorite hole to play in”. After spinning ourselves dizzy at Swimmers, several of us did a couple of laps sans boats to cool off through the hole. Alan provided a video moment from the Yough launch rock (Post it up Willy!). We paid homage to the river gods at Killer Falls before winding our way toward Bruner’s Run and the takeout Thursday and Friday. Sara was able to fight off “bus booty” on the shuttle bus ride out (you’ll have to ask her….you had to be there).

Ever the energetic group, several of us walked the trails from Kentuck Campground into Ohiopyle for dinner at the Firefly on Thursday. Friday dinner was on everyone’s minds all day on the river. We made it to Highwaters Grill for scrumptious barbecue just before a thunderstorm opened up on the area. We managed to eat our way all the way through it.

Saturday saw the group with several different paths and goals for the day so we all headed our own way. Some paddled the whole river again, some paddled the loop and several of us enjoyed walking around Ohiopyle with the huge crowd that had amassed for the annual Over the Falls festival. We got to watch lots of people huck the 20’ Ohiopyle falls in a steady stream. For future reference, if you can get on the river in the 8-9AM timeslot on the day of the festival, you can avoid a lot of the upstream hubub…..if you want to. We had a great group that enjoyed themselves and we all met new friends. What else would you expect from CCC?

–Larry Ausley
(PS- Thx for the $50 raffle prize for the trip! Looking forward to next year.)