We had 12 paddlers meet at 10:30 at the Bloomery Road Bridge (WVa 127) take out. They were: Kathleen, Barb, Lynne, John, Pam, Dmitry, Sergey, Marty, Bobbie, Robin, Diane, and Alf. With the 40ish-minute shuttle we were on the river by noon.
Admittedly, there was last minute dithering about the water level on the Cacapon River. Our section is “ungauged” so the Creek Whisperers Guild uses dark arts to predict water levels (models that use known levels from other streams multiplied by a scaling factor). [see the Cheat Sheet for Cacapon]
John took the known current level the night before and calculated the rate of change over the previous 24 hours, then used that rate to predict the future. This yielded a predicted level of 450ish cfs Sunday; well above the paddling zero of 250 cfs. And in fact, we finished the run at 4:00 pm with +2" on the Randy Carter gauge on the bridge pillar (pictured below), and a calculated level of 475 cfs (the Great Cacapon gauge showed 864 cfs at 4:00 pm).
This level provided plenty of water and ample cushioning between boat and rock for the entirety of the run. The only time anyone got stuck (briefly) was when they picked a bad line, but this only happened a couple of times. Following the flow and avoiding hazards, we were all able to have a relaxing float with plenty of opportunities to chat, surf, ferry, and play. The ledges were lots of fun at this level. The usual sneak routes weren’t available on the second two ledges, but no one had problems with the ledge drops. We had lunch across the river from Trickling Mushroom Falls - a travertine limestone formation. There is a fine campground about 6 feet above the river level.
John notes that small creeks change faster than larger ones so as the time from the last storm increases, the correlation between smaller and larger drainage becomes less reliable.
The invasive purple Japanese spirea and exotic orange day lilies added the most color to today's paddle. One canopy tree of note, American basswood or Linden was displaying its showy bracts.
Hazard: there is a river wide strainer (downed tree) after Caudy's Castle where the river splits around an island. The strainer is in the right channel and can be easily avoided by following the main channel. There is also an eye-catching red canoe tangled in it to get your attention.
