Beaver River Trip: Labor Day weekend 2006

Andy and I headed up to upstate NY to meet Maggie, Mark, and Scott Anderson (among others), for our first shot at the Beaver River. After a loooooonnng drive through rush-hour Beltway traffic and all the way up through PA and NY, we arrived at the campground around 2 in the morning. We woke up to grey skies, a greasy-spoon breakfast, and our first run of the weekend: the Taylorville section of the Beaver.

It was a cool scene: buncha boaters out in the NY pines, with a big drop right at the put-in.


Within seconds of getting there, we saw a couple people swim, so the pressure was on! Luckily the drop went on the left no problem.


We decided to bomb on through the crowds in hopes of getting some solitude and a second run in before the release ended.


The big slide, ending in a big muchy hole. We all ran this one a couple times.


This drop was on a back channel which we got to by paddling across the pool right after a fun creeky steep section.


The second to last major rapid. We ran this one a couple times too.



We ran Taylorville again - but unfortunately I broke my AT2!!! Not sure exactly when it happened, but I'll bet money that it was bracing on the slide.


The next day, we headed to the Moshier section. I had some butterflies for this one, since we'd heard it had a big class V drop. After the putin on a big pool under the INSANE class VI outflow from the dam, we arrived at a wide 10 ledge with two main lines that we ended up running a couple times each.


One was a multi-tiered drop on the right that that pretty technical.


The right side of the ledge, a 10ft vertical drop that was harder than it looked to boof (as you can tell by my crummy line).


Mark with a better line.




Immediately after the ledge was this drop, a two part rapid with an off-vert ledge straight into a strainer. You had to come off the ledge in the right spot, then ferry across the outflow and down the second part of the drop which had a couple tricky holes.


Maggie running the second part of the drop.



I portaged Moshier Falls almost immediately when I saw it, and was glad when I did when our friend James got scraped all over the nasty part of the drop. Definitely a class V drop.

We then headed to the Eagle section, which Andy styled, but I decided not to run after having a good line on the first drop (the man-made slide).



Incredible scenery on the Eagle section.



All in all, a SWEET trip. Can't wait to go back - I mean, great rivers, great drops, and a town with a cream cheese festival and a giant statue of a cow with sunglasses!!! Good times.

Wild weather in WV

Great weekend out in WV. Maggie and I ran the Upper Yough at 2.4ft on Saturday, and then met up with Doug, Lissa, Justin, and Drew that night at Teeter's campground at the put in for the Cheat Canyon. Woke up next morning with nothing to do but go boating!

Justin killing spiders in his boat at the putin.


The cliffs and rock formations along the river are part of why the Cheat is such a great run



We hung out at the Cueball wave for a while, surfing it up and enjoying the sun


After a long day's paddle, what better way to spend the last mile or two than being drenched in a torrential WV midsummer thunderstorm??! It was actually a little terrifying - after the initial novelty, we realized that lightning was striking the ridges above us with regularity. We ended up paddling under the trees along either shore, and darting across the river as fast as we could when we needed to cross.