Meadow River, West Virginia
| River: | Other |
| Skill: | Intermediate+ |
| Trip Date: | 05/19/2012 |
May 19, 2012 – Upper Meadow
When I posted this trip back in April, I was hopeful that there would be water in West Virginia on the weekend of the trip. On the Monday before the trip, West Virginia got a pretty good rain, but as the week wore on, many of the West Virginia creeks started dropping out. First the Back Fork of the Elk dropped below minimum, followed by the Cranberry. I was starting to worry. But by Thursday, it looked like the Meadow would hold, so we headed to West Virginia on Friday afternoon.
On Saturday morning, Stephanie Bertham, Don Beyer, Kent French, Sara Haines and I gathered at the Upper Meadow take-out. It was a warm, sunny day, and we had enough water (845 cfs) for a trip. Another group of boaters (from the northeast) were also gathering at the take-out and wondered if we knew the way to the short put-in for the Upper Meadow. After consolidating boats onto Don’s Tahoe, we headed up County Road 2 towards the put-in, with the northeastern crew following behind. Following Chuck Brabec’s instructions to “turn right after you pass the funny looking house”, we wound along on a rough, old logging road down to the Meadow River and found the put-in.
This put-in allows boaters to miss the 8 miles of flatwater upstream of the Upper Meadow gorge and allows the trip to start at “The Rapids”. The Rapid is a 4 mile stretch of mostly uninterrupted Class III-IV whitewater. The run definitely has a creeky feel at the 845 cfs level, and the rapids are constant. There are lots of eddies, but the rapids do blend together. The gradient over these 4 miles of The Rapids averages about 65 ft./mile, with one mile dropping at 80 ft./mile. Some portions of The Rapids approach class IV in difficulty. There are a few places where it is difficult to pick out a route by boat scouting, so we did get out and scout a few of the more obstructed drops. The largest drop comes near the end of The Rapids. This drop, called “The Weir” has a horizon line and deserves a scout from the left bank. We all scouted The Weir, and we all had good lines. Stephanie got the boof-of-the-day award for her line at The Weir.
Soon, the valley widened and the rapids mellowed out. We paddled the last couple of miles of nearly flat but moving water to the take-out. After running shuttle, we headed off to Pies and Pints. Kent said that as many times as he has boated in West Virginia, he had never been to Pies and Pints, so we had to make sure that Kent had the whole Fayetteville, West Virginia experience.
May 20, 2012 – Middle Meadow
On Sunday the Meadow River was running at 640 cfs, so the Middle Meadow was the creeky river of choice. It was another sunny, warm day, and our Sunday crew consisted of the Beyer Clan (Don, Lauren and Jon), Kent, Sara and me. We dropped cars at the take-out (on the shoulder of the southbound lane of Highway 19 just north of the bridge over the Meadow River) and headed to the put-in. The put-in is about a mile upstream of a water intake facility on Highway 41 near Nallen, West Virginia.
The average gradient of the Middle Meadow is 35 ft./mile and the maximum gradient is 45 ft./mile. The section of the Middle Meadow that starts near this put-in is known to locals as “The Miracle Mile”. The rapids from the put-in until the water facility are filled with big boulders, and the banks are covered in Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron. The rapids are fairly continuous class II and III. We did get out and scout one drop in the Miracle Mile where a hole is backed up by a rock that cannot be seen from above. This spot has infamously been the site of some boat pins in the past, so we wanted to be sure to miss that pinning rock.
We caught lots of eddies in this section, and Kent remarked that this section of river would make an excellent location for an introduction to creek boating class. Our group did have a little out-of-boat action in The Miracle Mile, but that’s all that I will say about that.
The Miracle Mile ends just before the water facility, and the river then bends to the left and away from Highway 41. The class II and III rapids continue down to the take-out at the Highway 19 Bridge. As the gorge cut deeper, sandstone bluffs started to appear near the rim of the gorge.
The Middle Meadow is known for having a large number of under-cut rocks, so if we couldn’t see the bottom of a rapid by boat scouting, we got out to scout a few times to make sure that there was no lurking wood. We rounded the last bend and saw the Highway 19 Bridge high above the river. The bridge marks the take-out for the Middle Meadow and the beginning of a fairly steep hike up to Highway 19 and our take-out cars. The keys to making the hike out manageable are to shed paddling jackets and helmets, drink the last of your water and take a cooling dip in the river before starting up the hill. I have heard some folks call this take-out “Hernia Hill”, but it has never seemed that bad to me. Perhaps open boaters gave it that name.
We had a wonderful time on the Upper and Middle Meadow with great boaters and excellent weather. Pies and Pint provided good pizza and locally brewed beer. As we were loading up to drive home, Kent commented that the CCC should run more West Virginia trips, and we all agreed. Maybe I’ll run this trip next year?