May 28, 2017
Level 3.4 ft. at the Albright bridge gauge
Wow – what fun day it turned out to be! The Cheat Canyon is 9.5 miles of beautiful isolated Class III-IV scenic West Virginia river.
The river levels had been expected to be about 1-2 ft. at the Albright bridge gauge, and I’d advertised it as a friendly level for first-timers; we had about a dozen eager beavers signed up. However, week-long rains brought the river up well above 4 ft. in the days before the scheduled trip. I had decided that we’d only run the CCA trip at levels between 1 and 3 ft., so I officially cancelled it 48 hours in advance, but let everyone know that I’d still be at the putin at the pre-scheduled time to run the river, and folks that felt comfortable at that level would be welcome to join me. Most folks opted out (letting me know in advance – thanks so much!), and look forward to joining another trip soon when the levels are more welcoming. We ended up with a small but mighty group of three hard boaters and one catarafter.
We had a perfect day! No swims, a few great whitewater rolls, and miles of smiles. Big Nasty was surprisingly easy at this level, with the left half the river providing a smooth line down. Typewriter offered up some nice surfing. High falls had huge holes and laterals; everyone agreed it was our favorite rapid! The cataraft found a good line down the far left, but still with some pretty juicy holes. Coliseum was huge, and flipped a few of us, adding to the adventure. The current made the last few miles a pretty lazy easy float to the takeout, and the extra water padded out the rocks nicely.
The river was a thick red muddy color – some was expected muddy rain runoff, probably enhanced by agriculture topsoil runoff from recent spring planting, and some was the characteristic iron red from acid mine drainage (AMD) that comes in downstream of Rowlesberg. Friends of the Cheat (FOC) continues to do the daily heroic work of cleaning, protecting, and maintaining the Cheat River watershed in addition to improving public road access for kayakers, so please support them if you can.