Otter creek

Eleven boats and eleven kayakers. One of the longest class iv-v runs in WV. The squad the day before took 6 hours, our squad only 3. Johnny Regan and Mr. Weld knew where to go and the rest of us just followed. The only major mishap being a snapped paddle blade. The paddler, AJ (Garret College Student), took it in stride, and paddled the 4-5 miles left without a problem.

The creek itself is a mix of fike's and morgan's, with a little n. fork of the b. Slides with 3-4 foot drops at the bottom, boulder drops into tight slots, one 12ft? drop onto rock. The best rapid was a series of ledge drops in a tight channel, each one getting progressively higher, like a steeper triple drop? on morgan's. It culminated in a sweet s-boof, left to right and then back to the left, about an 8 ft. drop.

The put-in is a wandering stream that is draining out a swamp. Lots of rhotos and downed trees in this section. After a couple miles it begins to drop a little more. A mile or two after that you hit the first slides and the water fall. Now you are in it and committed, remember this a wilderness run once you are in it ain't easy getting out. It stays pretty active until you hit the bottom section, then it lightens up to class iii iv boogy, just watch out for the trees. Although, they were mostly blown out when we came through, nonetheless there were a couple times where we had to portage.

The shuttle is one of the longest in the state, but it goes through some beautiful country, so as long as you have the leg room, it isn't bad at all. Cold beer helps too. Warm beer is better than none.

Boaters: john regan, john weld, jeremy dicaslo, Eric martin, jake greenbaum, aj, issac (not the space cadet), Matt, jesse shimrock, brain homberg, ben scoville.