Explorers take the Fence!
Ohiopyle, PA
Today's beginner/intermediate trip was awesome! I had sooo much fun on the water. In the morning, we practiced maneuvering in class II whitewater in Elephant rock and Zee rapids. There was even a friendly hole to work on learning to spin! For this part, we had Glenn, Andy, Peter and Hugh show up to work on skills, with Matt, Cornell and Laura helping out. Everybody had clean runs down Zee at the end. For the afternoon, we took a trip down the Lower Yough. For this, Christine and Jeff joined Glenn, Matt, Cornell and Laura to put on at ~2:30. I'd forgotten how much fun the river is at three feet - I hadn't seen this level in months, and there were features to play in all over the place. This was Glenn's first trip down the Lower, and by far the highest that Cornell & Christine had ever seen it ... by the time we took off, it was 4.6', and the rapids were closer to being class IV. Despite 5 swims and everybody surfing multiple times at Swimmer's rapid, we got off the water by 6pm.
-L. Lindzey
Middle Yough, PA
The Youghiogheny river is the local whitewater playground. Different sections of it are suitable for anybody, ranging from novice to expert. For Sunday's beginner trip, we chose the Middle Yough, a class II river. The purpose of this trip was to introduce complete novices to whitewater kayaking, and to start working on the skills necessary to become a competent river runner. Thanks to the experienced kayakers who helped out - Ivan, Cornell & Nik (who handled most of the teaching - thank you!).
Most of us met at 8 am in the storeroom, and after a chaotic 30 minutes, everybody had boats and gear. Eli and Francesca had left the night before - by luck, we ran into them in Ohiopyle right before we were about to leave to put on to the river. At the put-in, everybody practiced eddy turns and peel-outs, and we had our first swimmer. Everybody learned these new skills remarkably quickly, and we headed on downriver. Class II water is fairly straightforward, but definitely has big enough waves to flip an inattentive paddler. We stopped at a few more rapids to work on paddling technique and/or to fish swimmers out of the river. Despite the temperatures in the 40's, the wetsuits did their jobs, and there was no visible shivering or blue lips - I at least was quite warm =)
As we got off the river, I ran into a friend who was heading off to paddle the Lower Big Sandy, my favorite run, so I hopped in his truck to join that trip. Many thanks to whoever fetched my car from the put-in!
-L. Lindzey
Canton Air Sports, OH
Don Burnette put together the largest skydiving group that the Explorers Club has ever had: 25 students plus Greg MacLean, Mike Jehn, and Don.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not play nice; windy conditions and near-total cloud cover for most of the day prevented a lot of students from jumping. A brief mid-day period of slightly clearer skies allowed Mike, Don, and Greg to make two jumps each. The tandem students who didn't get to jump were luckily refunded, and we hope that they'll all come back in the future. On a positive note, this trip brought 25 new members to the club! Don worked really hard to put this trip together; we can only hope that we'll luck out with nicer weather on our next trip!
-M. Jehn
Greg, Mike, and Don:
Oil Creek
