Monday, February 09, 2009

A Break from the Cold



This weekend’s warm temperatures have broken the cold spell and spilled a LARGE quantity of water into our region of the world. Sunday turned out to be a day of choices in the local creeks and ours was Daugherty.

Nori

The last time I was on this run it was pretty low and full of wood, which left me with a less than excited feeling about the creek. Looking back this is likely the reason for my not returning in the last three years. Sunday was a different story. John Rudland and I (Jason Hilton) met up with Art, Sam and John from the Chambersburg crew, as well as Nori and Adam from the Morgantown area to give the dog another chance. The flow was probably double the flow of my previous run, which allowed us to bag an additional action-packed mile above the traditional put-in. I really have to thank John Giorgini for this stretch as it was the steepest and most exciting part of the run.



John Rudland

The mile above the normal putin gave us a long wood free series of slides and boulders drops that had to be in the upper 200 or lower 300 fpm range. From here the added water really padded out the many bedrock slides that characterize this run. Having Sam Burke along for the ride meant that the pace for the run was somewhere between fast and hyper drive making for an excited flurry of rapid after rapid linked together.



Adam

The run turned into a continuous stream of slides and smaller ledges, nestled amongst the mountain laurel, that left all of us smiling when we paused in the few eddies around. While there was wood, it wasn’t nearly the problem it used to be, thanks largely to the work of some mystery creek cleaners from the area.



All in all it was a great day and a needed break from my current graduate school misery. Let us hope it forecasts the nature of the spring to come!