MurPHEST
| River: | Yough |
| Skill: | Intermediate+ |
| Trip Date: | 07/14/2017 |
Murphy's Law definitely presided over MurPHEST. We may have to change the name next year.
We arrived Thursday night at camp and the rain came. Camp was great with two of our old friends from New York (Mike and Billy) and 4 of their other friends (Pedro, Rope, Phil, and Duncan) that joined them this year.
Friday Greg, Ucilia, Allen, Jeff, and I drove all over the area looking at water levels, looking for something that was an appropriate skill level and wasn't blown out. The Lower Yough was our original plan but it went up close to 6 ft. We ended up at the Cheat Narrows section, level was probably around 1000 cfs but doable for the group. We had 7 boats on the river and got to witness a military training drill in swift water rescue by helicopter. A good run by all. Big thanks to Jeff for knowing all the possible runs and levels to check. Dinner at Lucky Dog Cafe. Friday night, more rain.
Saturday we took the safe route instead of driving all over the place looking at rivers to go to Stonycreek River (Stony Canyon). It is a dam release but had some extra fluff to it. We had 8 people on the trip: Greg, Dan, Allen, Ucilia, Lucas, Mary, John, and myself. A great run and dinner at Boulevard to finish it off. The Lower Yough crested over 10 feet that day.
Sunday we paddled with John Lichter the founder of Riversport paddling school in Confluence, PA who we had first been introduced to two years prior to this trip. He mentioned paddling Laurel Hill Creek (the third part of the "turkey foot" in Confluence, PA) 30 years ago and told us it was continuous with great scenery. The river was very low but definitely pretty. The gauge was being affected by lots of runoff along the way. It was a long day of 5 hours on the river. We had some wood to deal with but we only guessed the wrong channel once where we had to drag boats back up the river and choose a different path. 5 people on the trip: Greg, Dan, Lucas, John, and myself. We ate lamb sandwiches at Shepherd's Farm after the paddle.
Monday most all of our friends had to go back to work so Greg, Lucas and I did a Loop lap on the Lower Yough at 4.5 feet. It was gauley-esq still but manageable.
Hope next year more people will join!
Donna 🙂