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Shohola Cr., from Shohola Falls to mouth
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The Shohola is an odd river. It begins with a runnable (with multiple lines)
70ft waterfall/cascade. Then goes through a box canyon with class III to IV
water for most of it's 1/2 mile length. Then, after another 1/2 mile or so of
good whitewater, it goes through a very flat period where flatwater paddling
is interspersed with a ledge occasionally. Finally, it finishes with some
good slides and another box canyon with a good drop as it's entrance. The
scenery is beautiful at times and nice the rest of the time. It's a fun
creek.
It does pick up wood however, so keep your eyes ahead and scout the box
canyons from the rim (if possible) before entering. This is easy on the first
one (there's a trail along the rim on river right), and not too difficult
from river right on the second one.
This run can be a longish day, so get on early in the winter, when the days
are short.
Most people only run the top box now. It's the most bang for your buck. Just
carry up the trail on river right and repeat offend.
Hiking out from this run if someone gets hurt can be tedious, look at
the map before you get on.
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The gauge on the Bush Kill at Shoemaker should be
over 2.5', and gives a good correlation, but the Shohola drains a large swampy
area above the lake and will generally stay up longer than The Bushkill.
Sometimes for many days longer.
If it's at 2.4 and dropping slowly, the Shohola will most likely still be up.
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The onsite gauge is painted on the river-right, upstream side of the Knealing Rd.
bridge abutment. It is very faded and barely readable.
It should be at 2.4'
See above for more indications of runnability.
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Put-in: Put-in is typically on river right below the dam (to
run the falls) or below the falls to run the top box. If you don't want to run
the falls, or the top box, you'll want to put-in on river right, downstream of
Rt. 6. Park in the small gravel parking lot on the upstream, river right side
of Rt. 6. Cross Rt. 6 and follow the path on river right until you see a place
where you can get to the water.
If you are planning on running the top box (but not the falls) follow the
scenic trail along the river right side of the falls, then head down the gully
which leads to the base of the falls. Watch out for ice in the winter and early
spring.
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There is a lot of private land around here so be careful when scouting. Once
a group of us was paddling on a rare, warm sunny day in April and we came
around a bend to find a man naked on his lawn, sunning himself. He was a
little surprised to see 7 of us paddle by.
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Take-out: Taking out can be an issue. The road which crosses
over the creek just a little ways before the Delaware would seem like a perfect
place, but it is heavily posted. You can take out a few miles downstream on the
Delaware, but a better option is to take-out under the railroad tracks and hike
up the river right bank to the little road which crosses the tracks there.
There is a turn in the road next to where it crosses the tracks and you should
be able to park there.
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Hero route alert! There are a few lines down the falls, but
the most interesting I've heard of is to take all of the small ledges down the
right until the big final ledge. Then, instead of dropping off of it, go left
and drop down into the curtain of water, behind the big rock sitting on the
bottom ledge.
This is called the white room and I haven't tried it.
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No guide books for this stream. If you know of a book that describes this stream please contact and advise the StreamTeam member for this run. 
