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AW River Pages Continue to Evolve, but …

By Larry Lempert


Some things have gotten better and some have not, as American Whitewater continues to refine the redesign—launched two years ago—of its state-by-state River Info pages.


A key safety-related issue remains, although it was called to AW's attention two years ago (and was written about in the Cruiser of March-April 2019—can you imagine that failing to have an impact?): "High Runnable" and "Low Runnable" levels are not stated. There's still one, less informative "Runnable" category, an invitation on some runs for the unwary to get on a river that's flowing well above their skill level.


Kayaker and gauge maven Tony Allred also has emphasized in discussions with AW that the state summary page and river detail page typically are out of sync when multiple gauges are referenced for a particular run. This is particularly confusing when the gauge worth relying on is an algorithm-based "virtual gauge" drawing information from multiple real gauges (good local examples: Lost, Lower Gunpowder, and South Branch Patapsco). 


If you're really dedicated, you may be able to get the virtual gauge reading to display by using the "Selected Gage" dropdown on the Flow tab. For example, for the South Branch Patapsco, you have to know that the virtual gauge is the one labeled "Woodbine to Henryton"—which is not necessarily the one displayed on the Flow tab by default, on the General tab, nor on the Maryland summary page. Hint: the Flow Range on the General tab probably will not refer to the virtual gauge, and if it doesn't, this information is not stated on the Flow tab either. You might be able to get a visual display of the data, though, depending on how high the river ran during the past year, if you select the virtual gauge on the Flow tab and then use the Data Timespan dropdown to show a full year of readings in the graphic. How's that for Gauge Geeky!


This confusion is a shame, because refinements like virtual gauges are one of the ways in which the AW site can add significant value beyond what paddlers can get simply by bookmarking and going directly to their favorite USGS pages.


On the plus side of the ledger: 

  • The river detail pages and their multiple tabs are nicely presented now with a prominent map of the run at the top of the General tab and useful River Description and River Features information under headings below that. 
  • It's now somewhat less cumbersome to find links to the underlying USGS gauges—follow the gage link on the General tab to an intervening AW gauge page, which has a Source Gauge's Page link to USGS. 
  • They've made it a little bit easier to navigate to the state summary pages: at the top of any page, click on River Info and scroll down to the list of states. Hint: Because this is still awkward, bookmark the darn state page when you get to it the first time.


Feedback on the AW site can be sent to info@americanwhitewater.org.


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