Finding Nirvana in the Cuyahoga Upper Gorge

Me going for the boof line at Welcome to the Jumble/Staircase rapid on the Cuyahoga River Upper Gorge (Sheraton) section. I nailed it, despite some low-water scraping at the lip and plugging hard. Photo credit: Shawn Yingling

I embarked on my meager whitewater kayaking journey five years ago. That’s when I first set my sights on the Sheraton section, or UpperGorge, of the Cuyahoga River. My kayaking quest started in 2010, in a rented kayak, using a rec paddle to struggle to stay straight on a 5-mile flat water trip down the Cuyahoga River between Kent and Munroe Falls. I was hooked instantly.

I quickly bought a crossover rec boat of my own and was running entry-level sections in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park every chance I got. I soon progressed to a true whitewater boat, met some “real” paddlers and learned about our area’s hidden gem – a Class V stretch with two small waterfalls hidden in plain sight between a highway and a huge hotel in Cuyahoga Falls.

As I learned to paddle, the Cuyahoga Upper Gorge remained the carrot-stick dangling in front of me, driving me on. Although it took a few years for me to stop thinking of it as a never-going-to-happen paddle experience and start imagining myself running between the gorge’s steep, rocky cliffs.

Almost six years after I started paddling the season had finally come. In 2016 I truly started to believe I would paddle the Upper Gorge. I had a near bomb-proof roll. I’d been running Class III-IV for two years. I felt ready. But I wanted my personal first descent to be in optimal conditions. That meant I was waiting for warmer weather, longer (and brighter) days, a level that wasn’t above recommended flow or below bare-bones flow, and a solid group.

Finally, in late July, a summer rainstorm delivered just enough water to bring the Upper Gorge back to life. It was 80 degrees. The level was low-runnable. And a few of the local shaolin masters who could run the Upper Gorge blindfolded, regardless of level, including Tommy Piros, Shawn Yingling and Don Howdyshell, thanklessly agreed to set safety and guide me down.

I won’t detail how I navigated every nuance of the run. There’s a great video that does that. Instead, I wanted to express the larger-than-life feeling that comes from floating in a place where only an exclusive group of people have ever been. As the Upper Gorge bent from south to west, and the run started to level out in the Gorge Dam pool, the setting sun set the gorge walls ablaze just as we were paddling out. The roar of the adjacent highway and bustle of downtown Cuyahoga Falls faded away. The mind-altering peace of this special place settled in, and it felt like home.

Truly there is no better feeling than a first descent. Four years of anticipation, the unmatched positivity of the group and a gigantic feeling of accomplishment left me truly and spectacularly amazed by the power of this short, urban whitewater trip. I hope someday, when the time is right, you too will know the best whitewater the Cuyahoga River has to offer.

*Disclaimer: the Sheraton section of the Cuyahoga is for experienced paddlers only. If you don't know what the word "boof" means and don't have a bomb-proof roll, do not attempt this run.