Little Sandy Creek,

1. Rt. 68 to Rt. 26 (Upper)

Usual Difficulty	I-III (may vary with level)
Length	9.3 Miles
Avg. Gradient	30 fpm
Max Gradient	60 fpm

Gauge Information

Name	Range	Difficulty	Updated	Level
BIG SANDY CREEK AT ROCKVILLE, WV
usgs-03070500	7.00 - 10.00 ft	I-III	03h53m	4.28 ft (rc= -0.9 )

River Description

lat/long are approx.

Trip Report
Little Sandy Creek
by Turner Sharp

CR 5/13 Bridge to WV 26 Bridge
November 11, 1997
Boaters (K-1): J. C. Gould, Jim Warlick, Kim McMichael, Bob Buck, Hunt Charach, Mollie Carr, Susan Klimas, Mac Thorton (C-1): Jamie Shumway

His front yard was ankle deep mud, with yard maintenance compliments of assorted cattle, some domestic turkeys, one sleeping hog, and a medium sized black dog (tail wagging). He was the probable owner of the fence stretched across CR 5/13 that we encountered on the way to the put-in, and was quite amenable about taking it down while explaining it was to keep people from dumping debris further down the road. Well, we found the dump. While Mac scouted the road down to the creek, we scouted the windrow of debris that I am sure contained a historical record of appliance manufacturing in the 20th century. Everybody admired and commented about this big dump, but did anyone report it? Does anyone know the procedure? Soon, Mac declared a ¼ mile walk down the hill was in order, so off we marched for a put-in just below the abandoned bridge on the state right-of-way.

The run was nice and scenic, with very little human intrusion visible from the creek. The rapids were all class I – II for several miles, and then a section with a little more gradient developed 3 or 4 class III rapids with the last one being the hardest. It was in this section that we recorded one swim and at least three different lines through the last rapid – with varying degrees of finesse. From this last rapid, near the Brandonville Pike (CR 3) bridge, to the WV 26 bridge is about two miles of flat water and not nearly as scenic. It can easily be skipped.

The water level was low/moderate, with the morning reading of the Rockville gauge on the Big Sandy at 7.4 feet and falling. Joining me on the run were Mollie Carr, Susan Klimas, Mac Thorton, and Jamis Shumway. The run is described in the AYH guidebook Canoeing Guide to Western Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia, 8th Edition. This guidebook describes a put-in near Hazelton that requires one to paddle through a culvert under I-68 and then through a marshy section. We missed this section, but J. C. Gould, Jim Warlick, Kim McMichael, Bob Buck, and Hunt Charach tried to find that put-in but wound up using the same one as we did and finally catching up with us. Their original intention was to run the lower Little Sandy, and as compensation for missing some, carried up a river left tributary for some tight, steep creek fun. It is called Beaver Creek — has anybody run it?

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