Lower Yough Kayaking ...

Your author at Ohiopyle Falls on the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania.

 

I've struggled for weeks to try and write this trip report from the Lower Yough, when I hit it at release level (about 1.82 feet) with some friends on a beautiful June weekend.

We spent two incredible days on the river that included a full-length trip from put-in to takeout and two loop runs the next day.

My first run on Cucumber Rapid.

This trip was the culmination of two years of paddling preparation. Every eddy turn, peel out, ferry and boof I practiced over and over on familiar rivers prepared me for the paddling time of my life--so far. I had never experienced a river so wide with such velocity and so many options for lines. It was an unbelievable playground for someone just coming into their paddling skills.

The trip had everything. Thunder, lighting and torrential down pours. Blinding mist. Warm sunshine, bright blue skies and cool, clear water.

It was an unbelievable trip, and I can't wait to go back.

I think I've struggled to write about it because it was so full of fun and joy that, for me, there are few words to describe the experience. Rather, I'll leave it to you to experience for yourself--when you're ready to tackle the challenges that the Yough poses.

The Importance of Scouting

Scouting in kayaking does not involve merit badges and soap carving. 

The act of looking at and examining a rapid from every possible angle is an important learning tool. If you'r ever paddling with someone who is running a rapid for the first time and they say "Let's just bomb through it," you might want to reconsider who your paddling partners are.

Even if you've run a rapid numerous times, there's great value in getting our of your boat, walking the shore to the drop and analyzing the water as it pours over and around the rocks of the river bed. Choose the line you'll aim for once you get back in. Listen to other paddlers talk about their lines. Watch them try to stick it. See how closely they come to running their lines and watch which parts of the river make them either blow it or run it flawlessly.

The river can be like an open book. But you have to be willing to accept the knowledge it gives you.

Scouting a rapid helps you learn to read water. It can teach you to decipher the difference between a hole and a wave.

What's causing the feature? Is it a ledge or a boulder?

How strong is the hydraulic created by the feature? Is the hole a strong recirculator, or will it flush you if you fall into it?

Will I need to boof over it, or can I punch straight through it?

These are all important questions, and if you can learn to answer them, then the language of the river will start to look a lot more like English than Mandarin or French.

The more important question is, will you do your home work and learn to speak the language?

The Awesome Responsibility of Teaching the Roll

I post a hefty amount of paddling tips and information, but I still like to remind folks (myself included) that I'm still hold novice status for a kayaker--unlike motocross.

Recently I found myself on a lake, with a group of inexperienced paddlers, doing something I thought I wouldn't do until my children grew older. And that was teaching someone to kayak roll.

A local kayaker's brace fails him and he rolls just after going over all 8 feet of Rookie Drop on the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

It wasn't exactly the first time I was "teaching" a roll. When I first started kayaking I took my slick new Freeride 57 to a pool session to try and teach myself to roll. I met a new friend, someone I still paddle with frequently, who was in the same boat, so to speak. He thought he could teach himself to roll.

While I've come a long way, I quickly developed a roll and helped my friend with guidance and encouragement, as his roll was slower to come. But I never thought of myself as instructing him because we started at the same place and were more colleagues than a mentor and a teacher.

Back on the lake, after two years of whitewater experience it was clear I had a thing or two I could share to help this rag-tag group. There were four new paddlers, all in expedition boats. Most didn't have helmets. None had nose plugs. Their paddles were too-long and clearly recreation boat paddles. One was wearing a flimsy touring skirt designed for splash resistance and not submersion. 

They joked about my PFD. "What's all that stuff on it?"  

As a more experienced kayaker, it was clear there is some serious responsibility associated with teaching someone to roll. The implications being that newer kayakers, who might not be equipped with the ability to catch an eddy, ferry or read water, might learn to roll and suddenly think they're ready to master the biggest, fastest rapids.

There's more to teaching someone to roll. It's important to instill in them the awesome power of the river. They have to learn to respect it along with all the other techniques that come with becoming a successful paddler. Learning to roll is one thing. Learning to become a strong paddler who can grow into an asset for any paddling group is another.

There's more to being a good paddler than just being able to combat roll.

Cuyahoga River's Sheraton Run

Never been to Ohio? Think there's no good whitewater in the Buckeye state?

Check out the "Sheraton" run of the Cuyahoga River as it runs through Cuyahoga Falls.

The only current Class V section of the Cuyahoga River runs alongside and beneath the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

"Staircase" drop is the second of two large drops on this section of the Cuyahoga.

If the Ohio Edison dam just downstream of this section is ever removed, some more epic whitewater will be reborn to create one of the best stretches of whitewater within a few hundred miles. But that dam removal is a story for another day.

Need more motivation to make the trip? Here's a video of the run.

Get Out and Paddle!

If your car hasn't transformed into a shuttle bus yet this year, you're missing out!

It's been a while since I've had time to write. That's because I've been out enjoying myself on the river!

And that's where you should be. Get out and paddle before the season slips away! Hit your local backyard run the next time a summer rain brings it up off the river bed. Plan a trip to a dam-release run. Or go hit the local park-and-play. Low-water is better than no-water.

Wherever there's water, get yourself there! Or the prime paddling season will slip away before you know it.

It's OK to Push Yourself

From trench to crest, this wave easily topped out at 5 feet. Photo Credit: Matt Jackson

Paddle at your own pace. That's my mantra. By that, I mean know thine own paddling skills and know when you're ready to progress from paddling Class II+ to Class -III rapids.

I've been relegating myself mostly to Class II or Class II+ for the last few years. I've been paddling easy rivers that I turn into personal slalom courses. I've learned almost every move on them and can hit the lines with ease. I could have easily spent yet another season on these waters trying to get creative and find lines that I might not have seen before—and I still will.

But I recognized it was time to move on. I was lacking a challenge. In order to start advancing my skills, I needed to find places where I could try moves and lines that I couldn't do in my sleep without risking the need for a brace or roll. I needed water that would take me not a leap but a step beyond my comfort zone.

And I did it on a river I'd been paddling the last two seasons. This spring after a heavy snow melt some friends and I headed to the lower section of Slippery Rock Creek, which at normal flows is not much more than Class II. Typical summer flows are between 0 feet to 1.5 feet, and we've run it countless times at the median level. This day, we had a healthy 4 feet, which is a lot of water for a small creek like the Slip. 

The nature of this stretch is largely devoid of dangers like undercuts and strong pour-over holes. This means at high water the natural rapids turn into fun slide-like drops with huge wave trains.

One of the normally gentle drops creates a huge series of waves on the lower Slippery Rock Creek. Photo credit: Matt Jackson

That run gave us a big-water feel without the risk of paddling a stretch of river we might not have been prepared for. Still, despite its relative ease we had to be on our guard—particularly for strainers. Plus the water and air temperature combined for less than a total 80 degrees.

A few of us, myself included, were hesitant to hit the water that day. After all, we'd never run it at that high level before. But after the run, we were all smiles and couldn't believe we'd been contemplating passing up a great day on the water and a great chance to advance our paddling experience without stepping too far outside our comfort zone.

Knowing, and paddling, at your own pace is important. But it's also important to know when the time to hesitate is through.

When Kayaking Calls for A Helmet

How many helmets can you count? Here's a weekday group paddling the low-water remnants of the 271 Wave on the Cuyahoga River in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

A friend asked me "When is it time to start wearing a helmet when I'm paddling?" 

Naturally, I started thinking about all the times I'm paddling when it's OK not to wear a helmet. And I couldn't think of any.

Of course, really only one instance came to mind. The only time I would consider not wearing a helmet is if I were paddling on a really deep inland lake, where there's almost zero risk of hitting a submerged strainer, rock or other object if I inadvertently flipped or rolled intentionally to cool off on a hot day.

And even when I do, I still wear my helmet.

So when should you be wearing a helmet? Every time you get into your kayak. I'm not a Class V paddler. I haven't even fired up a Class IV yet. I've paddled my share of flat water—and still do. I got my start in a rec boat. Whether it's a flat-water doldrums stretch between rapids or a lazy Sunday afternoon paddle, I wear my helmet every time. It's incredibly unlikely, yet still not impossible, to flip in a gently moving flat water stream. Even still, the risk of getting walloped by a strainer creeping underneath the surface or a boulder remains.

I was on the Lower Yough recently, paddling with a group of more experience kayakers, when the most-skilled paddler came through a rapid without his helmet. I figured he lost it somehow. His answer? He was too hot. At the standard release of 1.8 feet the Lower Yough is overflowing with boulders ready to jump up and crack your crown. He cinched his chin strap after seeing the dumbfounded look on my face in response to his justification for relying on his skull as his brain's last line of defense.

Are you paddling shallow Class II or better? You should absolutely be wearing a helmet every time. Even if you're just a lazy weekend paddler, a $75 brain bucket is cheaper than any concussion—or worse—you could encounter underneath the surface. 

The bigger question is: should you go full-face or not? And that's a question for another day.