Test out your clinic skills on the Elkhorn this Sunday; be at the take-out at noon.

Giddy up!
Bethany

See ya' at noon!

Kim

rain gods, are you listening? just a little, please. but not during the cleanup. oh, and not tonight while im sitting on a patio drinking mragaritas. thank you.

Brandon

Bethany, you just shot me an e-mail questioning the water level for tomorrow. I thought I would post here too in case others were lurking yet planning to show up. It's now at 250cfs and will probably be at 240 tomorrow. There is no rain in the forecast for this evening or tomorrow morning. AWA sets a suggested minimum level of 500. Considering my skill level and that I don't know what 250 looks like, I think tomorrow would be a good flat water day too. I know I could benefit from a roll session and some flat water attempts at playing. I've been behind Riptide and it's a gentle current and fairly deep. Better yet, food and drink are 50 yards away when we're done. 2 pm behind Riptide[u][/u] works for me.

I'd really appreciate some input from an experienced paddler. Does this line of thinking sound right??? Is 250 too low?

Kim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2008 03:58AM by kwildman.

"OHHH" says the newbie..."I gotta' find other places to paddle before drier weather comes."

Kim and I have decided not to scrape along the Elkhorn today--I tried a number of rain dances yesterday, all to no avail.

We are going to meet at Riptide on the Kentucky at 2 p.m. for roll practice. Feel free to join us if you're interested. Or if you want to just drink beer on the patio and make fun of us, that's fine too..........

Kim, the 500cfs minimum that is listed on AW's Elkhorn river page is a subjective minimum for whitewater and your actual fun may vary:--) At 500cfs there is still enough water to paddle without scraping, but if losing a bit of plastic is not a big concern then 250cfs still can still offer lots of paddling fun - especially for the newby paddler.

FYI, another place to practice rolling on the KY River is the beach at Boonesborough State Park just off US 627 and 6 river miles upstream of Riptides. Launching, paddling around and rolling a kayak are all permitted even though there is a sign that says "no swimming" (which has nothing to do with the water quality of the river but instead is there due to the lack of a life guard) The BWA held summer roll sessions there last year. While Boonesborough doesn't have the awesome Riptides only a few yards from the river, the park does offer easy access and a gently sloping (mostly) sandy beach and river bottom instead of mud:-)
barryg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2008 10:49PM by barry.

Barry,

Thanks so much for the feedback and the info. I really appreciate it. It's nice to know Elkhorn is still do-able and to learn of the new roll practice site. I'll be better armed for future decision making.

In an attempt to stop flailing around at the last hour, I think I will commit to Riptide today at 2pm. Come point and laugh.

I once did the 'Khorn at 4" below "0". It wasn't bad at all as the creek channels up pretty well. I don'[t think I scraped more than a couple times ( and that's in a big open boat ).

Bob Bryan once told me he ran it at 9" below "0" ! !

I don't know the actual cfs levels at those visible gauge levels; that was before cfs was available, and the correlation to the old put-in gauge is something I don't know - but many use a direct correlation i.e. 6" is 600 cfs, 2' is about 2000 cfs etc. Therefore "0" on the gauge would mean zero water in the creek - but that is not true.

In the dryest parts of summers past, I did observe that there seemed to be no water movement at all in the creek. Maybe it does continue to flow underground.
Mike