A robust Thursday turnout of 10 kayakers, 6 canoeists, and 1 packrafter (inflatablist?) shrugged off mid-90s temperatures and high humidity for a great couple of hours on the Needles. Harpers Ferry Adventure Center let us leave two cars at their takeout, giving us a bit of a logistical challenge given 14 cars, but we rose to the occasion. (They declined my meek request for three cars or more at the takeout, but looking on the bright side, did not charge any fee notwithstanding my offer to pay.)
The hardest part of the trip was getting to the put-in, because one lane on 340 along the river was closed for roadwork, and our shuttle was significantly delayed by a combination of heavy traffic in both directions, a traffic light, and questionable bidirectional equity judgments by the flaggers (which is an actual job title—check it out at https://www.oshaeducationcenter.com/what-is-a-flagger). Note: the Thursday management team denies all responsibility for roadwork-inspired delays. We do take responsibility if the number of paddlers starting the run does not match the number finishing the run, but fortunately, this was not a problem we had; everyone made it to the finish line, including two personal first descenders who did just fine.
The greatest excitement on this admittedly not overly exciting (but pretty and fun) run was when a young tuber got separated from his tube in mid-river by a matter of about a thousand yards, which occurred during our knee break. (Said tuber was a boy maybe 14-15 years old and was not, as you may have thought, a potato.) We leapt to assist, with Ken Cohen being the first to ensnare the tube and with Gary Steinberg doing yeoman's tugboat service to bring the lad's friend and him across the current—by then, they were sharing a tube—to reunite the lad and his own tube.
The level was about 2.52 feet (2240 cfs) on the Shepherdstown gage. The level was higher that morning (2700) and rose again in the evening (3000). So it was rather impolite that the gage dipped sharply just for our run, as 2700-3000 is a better level.
Good paddling was done by all, and no one had any problems (aside from the young tuber, who doesn't count because he wasn't part of our group). Participants were Tony Allred, Mark Brenneman, Pete Chapelle, Sheila Chapelle, Ken Cohen, Diane Hobbs, Marilyn Jones, Wayne McDaniel, John Snitzer, and Gary Steinberg (K-1), Gary Quam, Ginny Quam, Tim Tilson, Hendrik van Oss, Mark Wray, and coordinator Larry Lempert (OC-1), and Steve Chapman (packraft). Many thanks to all for great, proactive teamwork on shuttle logistics.
- Larry Lempert