Paddling the full 7-mile Lower Yough will become impossible for an undetermined time because repair of the bridge on the shuttle road is taking the Bruner Run takeout out of action. The closure begins Oct. 1 except for allowing the shuttle to run one last time for the season on Oct. 5-6.
The Bruner Run Bridge, which has been held together by C-clamps, will be removed and replaced. The Ohiopyle State Park office could not say how long the construction will take, but the Park home page promises to "update the boating community as work progresses."
The Lower Yough Loop, the first mile-and-a-half or so of the run, can still be paddled, taking out at the Loop Trail back to Ohiopyle. There is a takeout at Connellsville, but that calls for paddling another 11½ miles beyond Bruner Run. Prior to the mid-1970s, there was a takeout about one-third of a mile before Bruner Run on river right, at Stewarton. Paddlers who know of it describe steep terrain and a need to cross active rail tracks—something the railroad would not look kindly upon if attempted now, they predict.