A dozen of us met at Myersville Sunday morning to sort out the options following the intense but narrow rainstorm from Friday and Saturday. Our target was North Branch of the Casselman River with Casselman River, Hopeville Canyon, Laurel Hill Creek, and Stonycreek River as options. Gauges were consulted. Driving times were discussed. We settled on Laurel Hill Creek as rarest, best available, and most geographically desirable.
Laurel Hill Creek seems like Passage Creek lite. Dividing roughly in thirds, it starts with a fast water section with a few little surfing ledges. It picks up gradient and boulders in the middle section then reverts to fast water and braids through islands before the takeout. The difficulty approaches class III in the middle section at yesterday’s water level (below). The attraction is the spectacular forest and the continuous rapids. Rather than the stop and go disjointedness of pool and drop rivers, LHC offers long long stretches of tumbling water. Paddling there feels like dancing versus than the broken rhythm of queueing up before and reassembling below each rapid.
The river valley is lush and green with this year’s rains. The whites and pale pastels of spring wildflowers are gone, replaced by the rich dusty purple of Joe Pye weed, a golden sunflower, and small patches of crimson Cardinal flower. We had the tail end of the Rhododendron bloom and a few flowers remaining on a sweet-smelling white azalea along the rivers, maybe R. arborescens. This stretch of stream has only a few green ash trees, many dead or dying. The dead trees are a reminder that we will have ash tree strainers to deal with for years to come as EAB killed trees come down.
Details: Gauge readings were not completely clear. At 1:00 pm Laurel Hill Creek Ursina read 2.51 with the backup gauge (apparently there are issues) at 2.43. The painted staff on the bridge river left at the put in read 2.56. At takeout around 6:00 pm Ursina had dropped to 2.31. The range for the day was given as 884-695 cfs. We chose the left option in the island section and had enough water to get through. There was a stream-wide strainer there that had to be carried. Paddlers: Mike M, Miki, Court, Beth K, Linda in her C-1, Lisa, Jim, John, Kim and Jenny, Kathleen, and Carrie. All paddled elegantly. There are nice descriptions and details of this run at the AWA website with great comments from the masters, Ed Evangelidi and Tony Allred. Thanks to Mike and Miki for making all the arrangements, firing up the CCA pickup trips email, and moderating the dither. Trip was rated 10/10.
John Snitzer