This past weekend was a great three day weekend of rivers.  There isn't a lot of great difficult dam released water in the southeast and without rain the creeks haven't been running well this summer, so I looked to the mid-Atlantic for whitewater.  On Saturday, I boarded the Upper Youghiogheny in western Maryland.  It was made out to be a lot more difficult than it was, but still a great river.  The only downside is that it has got to be one of the shallowest rivers I've ever been on.  On the flat water before and the class two rapids after the main run, it becomes a game of how many rocks can you hit.  The main meat of the run is very continuous for a few miles at just over 100 feet per mile.  The lines are very tight and large boulders block the view, so you have to be on your toes and make decisions very quickly.  Another problem was that I set my helmet cam too high and got some great footage of the trees and sky while I was going down the river.  Good one, Kev!

Sunday, we got up early to check out Valley Falls on the Tygart river in WV.  Not quite enough water to run Valley Falls, Hamburger Helper rapid was too narrow, and there was a sign that said no swimming, and I didn't want to test out their definition of swimming versus boating just for a 12 foot, boney falls.  Then, we went to the Adventure Sports Center Int'l, which is also in Maryland.  This is an artificial whitewater channel with fun manmade drops.  The hole at the bottom of the big drop can also be surfed.  The hole was too flushy to allow spins or rolls, but I was able to get up on my knees.  Me and my friend, Bryce, both jumped into the hole at the same time and made a game out of trying to knock the other person out of the hole.  Since his board rides further ahead in the hole, he had the advantage, but at one point we even swapped sides as I passed over him.  I'll get some footage of the park together soon.  My attention was focused on getting the best stuff posted first which brings me to below.   

Monday, we got up early to drive across the state.  Just outside of Washington, DC, the Potomac rivers drops through a series of steep channels know as Great Falls.  The main line on the Maryland side is a class V + monster that probably won't get boarded for a few more years, but is fun to look at and speculate about possible lines.  We turned our attention to the channel closest to the bank, the Fish Ladder channel.  These are manmade concrete slides built into the natural gradient of the riverbed; constructed for the purpose of aiding fish migration along the river.  The result is four long, steep, smooth slides into big holes at the bottom of them.  I scouted this channel just before Christmas last year, but the combination of cold temperatures and high water made me decide to wait before firing these drops up.  I'm glad I waited, as my abilities and comfort in the water have been progressing rapidly these past few months and have served to get me ready for this one.  I was also stoked to discover that the log jam that had blocked the third slide for a few years has been removed.  This was great because the mini channel around it is a very boney series of smaller drops, and yesterday the entrance drop into it didn't have enough water to run comfortably.  If the log jam hadn't been cleared, we would have had no choice, but to portage the third drop, so I'm glad it was open, because previously other riverboarders had ran the Fish Ladder, but didn't do the third. 

We put on and were soon going over the first slide.  The hole was a little sticky at the bottom, but still let me go without having to work, and I hoped that the rest of the holes wouldn't be worse.  There is an observation bridge over the Fish Ladder, and people started to noticed us as we floated between the first and second slides.  The people on the bridge were frantically motioning for their friends to hurry up and get on the bridge to see the spectacle, and people who caught a glance of us while riding their bikes on the riverside trail were peddling like mad to hurry and see us as we hit the drops.  I like having a crowd watching me board, and you just hope you don't screw up and get munched in a hole or miss a line and hit a rock.  We didn't disappoint as the second slide is bigger than the first and is also where the river starts to pick up speed.  What they call the third slide is really two slides with a little bit of boogie water between them, so you really get going fast.  There are two spots (between the second and third slides, and between the two slides of the third one) were the water spills sideways into the other mini channel on river right, so you have to be careful not to get sucked into them as the water falls about 8 feet from either of them and lands on rocks. 

However, the second slide put us into position perfectly to avoid this danger and gave us a straight shot into the two slides of the third slide.  Immediately at the bottom of the of the second third slide, the river makes a hard right turn, and the slot is too hard to get into when you are careening at high speed down the slide.  However, there is an eddy straight ahead of the slide that you can get into, and then readjust and make the move.  At this point, we were amazed at how none of the other holes had been sticky (probably because you go into them so fast from riding down the slides), and ferried across the river five yards to get into the channel.  It is boney for about 10 yards, then gets deep again for the forth and final slide.  It is the longest and steepest of the slides.  It's also the shallowest and was a little bumpy about halfway down, but I was wearing pads on my legs, so it was no big deal. 

I busted through the hole at the bottom of it well, but the hole decided it wanted one of my flippers and sucked it off my foot and ripped the stitching off my flipper leash.  After encountering difficulty getting out of the flow with only one fipper, I sat on the rocks hoping to see my flipper floundering around in the hole or floating in an eddy, but it was gone for good.  With a missing flipper, I was out for repeat runs (bummer too, because it is such an easy and quick run), so  I stood on the bridge to photograph and video Bryce as he came down again.