CCA Cheat Sheets INTRODUCTION 10 Jan 2024
The Trip Coordinator Stream Sheets, informally known as the CCA Cheat Sheets, are the single-page trip descriptions for coordinators organizing a paddling trip to a particular destination. They do not tell how to run the river - for that we have guidebooks, American Whitewater online, and other knowledgeable paddlers who have already been on the stream.
Co-leading with a more experienced coordinator on your first time on a new stream is highly recommended. We welcome new trip coordinators and want to help you set up a variety of trips that are safe and enjoyable. Unlike the usual form of stream description, these cheat sheets tell how, having chosen a creek or river, a trip coordinator should budget the group's time, including on the road both to and from the stream. They also suggest whether to meet at the put-in, take-out, or also at a meeting point nearer Washington to consolidate boats and drivers, where the public toilets are, what is canoe zero, etc. They suggest a "Plan B" in case the target stream is blocked, too high, or too low. GPS coordinates are sprinkled about to show the way. The cheat sheets are almost all one page to facilitate printing them for your trip. First you’ll want to check out the information linked to other internet locations. Trip coordinators should be familiar with the wealth of coordinator and river information on the CCA’s Website, on the HomePage or in the Trip Planning tab. These are:
● American Whitewater's State Rivers Lists, by state: MD, PA, VA, WV
● the USGS Stream Gaging System, (Our four-state ones are most swiftly accessed in: the River Level Forecast )
● the CCA Stream-Finder, ● Ron Knipling’s 68 Whitewater Rivers Ranked in Difficulty, ● the NWS Weather Forecasts,
● Ron Canter's set of stream maps,
● Trip Reports on the CCA Website (use the search function – top right with light-bulb). The online American Whitewater citation is linked on each stream sheet, although several streams escape AW’s notice – often for lack of the essential whitewater. Also indispensable are the paddling guidebooks – particularly
● Steve Ettinger’s Paddling within Two Hours of Washington (2013)
● Ed Gertler’s Maryland and Delaware Canoe Trails (1996, 2002, 2021)
● Ed Gertler’s Exploring Virginia’s Whitewater (2022) Out of print, though thoroughly useful are several books on Virginia streams:
● Ed Grove’s Classic Virginia Rivers (1992), ● Roger Corbett’s Virginia Whitewater (2000), ● Matacia and Cecil’s The Shenandoah River; An Illustrated Canoe Log (1974) and (including Maryland) - excellent maps and photos ● Corbett and Matacia’s three volumes of Blue Ridge Voyages. maps & photos And for West Virginia this book in many editions has rather lapidary description of the streams in the Eastern Panhandle (For W Va has an impossible amount of whitewater to cover!) ● Paul & Ward Davidson , Ward Eister, & Charlie Walbridge’s Wildwater West Virginia (1991). ● Ed Gertler’s Keystone Canoeing (1993) features Eastern Pennsylvania, but also covers the “Best of the West”
Ron Knipling’s 68 Whitewater Rivers Ranked in Difficulty, is quoted in each stream sheet by its place on his chart, which runs from an easy #68 for practiced novices to #1 `(the Upper Yough) for advanced paddlers. Thus, the Patapsco is cited as “Knipling Ranking: 51/68.” Where Ron does not list a stream, it is interpolated from the Monocacy Canoe Club’s 180-stream compendium. See CCA Website: Trip Planning >> River Difficulty.
WHERE ARE THESE STREAMS? This Google Map shows where. Its drop pins are colored according to the difficulty of the named stream. Maps of many of these streams appeared in Ron Canter’s 1978 and 1985 Nearby Paddling Streams, which he kindly let us place on the CCA website: see Trip Planning> Maps. You can send these to your trip participants - and print off a bunch to distribute when you first meet with them. In many narrow valleys, cell-phone reception is bad, so maps on them are useless. Otherwise, for the Free State, consult the precise maps in Ed Gertler’s Maryland and Delaware Canoe Trails, and for the Old Dominion, his 2022 Exploring Virginia’s Whitewater. You can also access the regional map on the American Whitewater website and drill down into the maps offered on the websites for the USGS’ individual gauges. Equally, coordinators should know the basics of trip coordinating – also on the CCA website under the Trip Planning tab (in the left column). Charlie Duffy's Trip Coordinator Presentation
See the Trip Guidelines, American Whitewater Safety Code, . Avoid coordinating a trip on a stream where no one in the party has ventured, though this is not unknown (See the stream sheet on the North Anna !). CCA Trip Guidelines Stream-Finder. This listing, focused on the weather and the stream levels, is in the first part of the CCA’s online Stream-Finder. We are just now (Dec 2023) starting to fix its errors accumulated over the years. Membership in the CCA – is not required for paddlers to participate in our trips, although we hope that after coming out with us several times, they may join. Coordinators should bring CCA calling cards to the river to pass the word to trip participants and chance encounters. Also please keep the CCA’s tri-fold recruitment sheets in your car to hand out to prospects. Since the covid, most new CCA members are being recruited on the river – a younger and more active crowd that are the Club’s future. Collecting Trash – During or after trips, participants should try and pick up small river detritus. Coordinators should bring a larger trash bag to haul back home to their recycle or trash pick-up. Letting others know that this is a paddling club activity will only enhance the sometimes-tatty reputation which we river rats suffer. Announcing (and Canceling) Trips – Other trip coordinators will help you post your prospective trips on the Club Calendar – a very easy process, for which you must be a CCA member. But few prospective participants will notice your trip there. You also must send out a Call to the River, the APB telling paddlers that your trip is being planned. Since this is difficult, you may ask the Trips Committee to send it out. Send a message to trips@canoecruisers.org with your copy, and they will check it out and send it. If you can, give your participants several days to make plans; otherwise you may not get a lot of folks. People tend to wait until the last moment to commit; be kind. Last-minute Pick-Up Trips are to be expected - as when you’re catching the fluke rainstorm. People signing up for that mailing list have already bought into the short-notice feature of these trips. And don’t be shy about telephoning. Not everybody lives on his computer! There are “How to” directions for doing many of these on the “Members” part of the CCA website. We suggest NOT using the “registration” feature – too complicated. Once you have a trip announcement posted, don’t forget to “tend” it – changing it if your meeting time or place changes – and especially if you have to CANCEL your trip. Trip Reports – Please post a brief TR after returning from your adventure, which should help the next group heading out to that stream. And that is the easiest function on the website. Trip participants, water level (gauge) in cfs (or feet) are essential parts of a TR. Mishaps and hazards encountered are helpful. Note the CCA’s “Incidents & Hazards” page – any such report is transmitted instantly to all CCA members. Later trip coordinators planning an outing can easily pull up the relevant TRs by using the “Search” button (magnifying glass icon) on the upper right corner of the Trip Reports screen. Non-members can also read the TRs. Tell your trip participants to look for the TR or send them a copy. Since affording the paddling community a large variety of safe and well-run trips is the Club’s primary activity, we keep records of our trips to assure that we are maintaining tempo. TRs are key to that effort. Trips Committee – The 30-odd paddlers running the various trips groups (Sunday, Thursday, Wednesday, Pick-Ups, and Weekenders) are happy to be contacted directly or via the group email trips@canoecruisers.org for advice of any kind.
The Stream Sheets currently number 50, and are (alphabetically): Accotink Fall Line, Anacostia, Anglers to Lock 10, Antietam (Upper + Lower), Bloomington Release, Brandywine Cabin John Ck, Cacapon, Catoctin MD, Catoctin/Middle Ck MD, Catoctin VA, Casselman, Cedar Creek (Lower + Upper), Codorus, Gettysburg Rock, Goose Creek (Lower, Lower Mid, Reservoir), Hopeville Canyon, with Potomac No Br (Cruiser Section), Hughes, James, Kellys Ford, Lehigh, Little Patuxent, Marsh & Middle Creeks, Lost River Dry Gorge, Mather Gorge, Moorefield Canyon, Muddy, Needles, North Anna, Passage, Patapsco, Patapsco So. Br., Potomac No. Br. (Westernport), Rappahannock-Fredericksburg, Seneca (Montgomery Co) Shenandoah (US 50 to Locke Landing), Shenandoah (N. Fork, Brocks Gap), Shenandoah Staircase, Sideling Hill Creek, Smokehole, Stony Creek VA, Thornton, Tye, Violettes Lock Loops.
4 more are planned: Gunpowder Falls (Lower, Upper) MD, Mallows Bay Wrecks MD, Moormans R. VA
THE STREAMS, LOCATED by WATERSHED Here is another display of these streams - grouped by their watershed. The streams in the list below debouch into these major rivers. They are listed, starting from the river’s lowest point and going upstream. For Ron Canter’s meticulous hand drawn PADDLING MAPS of each, see CCA Website>Trip Planning> Maps of Local Streams. Other online maps of the surroundings of each stream are at each USGS gauging station. POTOMAC – Main Stem: Mallows Bay, Little Patuxent, Accotink Ck, Cabin John Ck, Anglers to Lock 10, Mather Gorge, Violettes Lock Loops/Breaks/George Washington Canal, Seneca Ck, Goose Ck, (MONOCACY - Marsh Ck & Middle Ck, Gettysburg Rock) Catoctin VA, Catoctin MD (Middle Ck), Needles, Antietam Ck, Cacapon R, Lost R, Sideling Hill Ck POTOMAC – North Branch: Westernport, Bloomington Release – South Branch: The Trough, SoBr/North Fork: Smokehole, Hopeville Canyon SoBr/South Fork: Moorefield Canyon SHENANDOAH – Main Stem: Staircase, Rte 50-Lockes Ldg North Fork: Passage Ck, Cedar Ck, Stony Ck, Brocks Gap RAPPAHANNOCK/RAPIDAN: Fredericksburg Fall Line, Kellys Ford, Thornton R, Hughes R SUSQUEHANNA: Muddy Ck, Codorus Ck DELAWARE: Brandywine Ck, Lehigh R JAMES: Richmond/Fall Line, Tye R PATAPSCO – (and its South Branch/Gaither Gorge) - CASSLEMAN (SW Penna – Youghiogheny) ABBREVIATIONS in the Cheat Sheets AW = American Whitewater, CZ – Canoe Zero, cfs = cubic feet / second Cl. Class, LWB = low water bridge Max, min = maximum, minimum, N,S,E,W – the points of the compass OTR = on the river CG = campground P.I., T.O. = Put-in, Take-out **, ***, **** - Attractiveness of the run (Steve Ettinger) RC Gauge - a canoeist’s painted gauge, usually on a bridge abutment - for paddling pioneer Randy Carter - where the canoe zero is indeed the lowest level the stream can be run Knipling Rating = placement on Ron Knipling’s List of 68 Rivers Ranked by Difficulty – (with No. 68 being the easiest) Alternate/ Nearby Stream – if underlined in the text, look for one of these Cheat Sheets describing it. Otherwise, they’re in the guidebooks. Alf Cooley -Trips Committee Canoe Cruisers Assn. alfcooley@gmail.com (703) 397-6882 If you would like to write one of these Cheat Sheets, please let me know, copy the SAMPLE, and start writing. For those streams I’ve written, please send me your corrections and updates. The river is always changing Thank-you - 10 Jan 2024