Just got off of a dawn patrol Mann's Run with Todd Richendollar, Justin Burd and Wisconsin John.
(Note: A dawn patrol Mann's run after a night at Charlies is a horrible idea) Great day, good
weather and good water, but LOTS of new wood. We'll try and run tomorrow with a chainsaw, but
there's some bad stuff...here's the skinny. 1) New logs across the top of "Pillage and Plunder" -
blocks the left and center lines at the top. Portage left (sucks) and put in to run the middle and
bottom. 2)Still a log right above "On-Ramp". Eddy out and Portage it on the right. 3) Big branch
blocking the left exit to "Crack". Boof the top, big left stroke on the landing, and the right exit
is good to go. 4) 1 Rapid below "Pick-a-slot", there's a tree in the exit. Easy to avoid...eddy out
right and ferry above it. 5) 2 Rapids below "Pick-a-slot" (directly after the one mentioned above)
there are 2 HORRIBLE logs that block the entire creek. This rapid involves starting on the left
side (going around and island basically) and working back right. The logs are in a blind spot, and
you CAN'T SEE THEM UNTIL YOU ARE ALREADY COMMITTED! There is a SMALL eddy directly on the left
above the logjam. Portage from there. There is also a smaller eddy on the right that works. This is
a horrible place for wood....lots of current, big logs...probably the ugliest wood I've ever seen
on Mann's. The nature of the situation would make it very hard to help a pinned boater....USE
CAUTION! 6) The second rapid below Liquid Drano has a log blocking the exit to the sweet boof in
the center. Run far right.... Hope that helps....Be careful out there! Brian Jennings Edit

Just wanted to give an update on Manns Creek, West Virginia for the AW page:

MANNS CREEK HAS CHANGED (4/8/04)

About two months ago heavy rains made some significant riverbed changes to Manns creek. First off,
the gauge is different (actually that changed a while back when the park people modified the gauge
area). Zero is now more of a true 'zero', with 6 inches getting pushy and 12 inches being really
high.

If you run the creek now and have run it previously, you'll notice LOTS more little rocks in bad
places. Not that there aren't clean lines, just that they are different now and with smaller margin
for error. ON RAMP is now portaged at lower levels due to the water changing course and making the
normal line not so fun (usually a piton to flip into a pourover), but at higher levels (over 3
inches) you can run the nice boof on the right. YOUR NOT GONNA LIKE THIS ONE changed a while back
and now has a worse sieve, but is still run by some. DRANO is the most dramatically changed rapid
and even many of the locals portage on the right. It's still totally runnable, just worse
consequences if you mess up. There's some new wood, but nothing unavoidable. The creek still kicks
ass and is still one of my favorite local runs.

Updated 4/8/04 by Jimmy Blakeney (www.prokayaker.tv)

From Nov. 2002

From Boatertalk:
For those who run Mann's Creek, the river left gauge has changed. They put a bunch of concrete in
around the gauge rock, but the gauge still works. We ran it the other day at +8 inches, which
seemed to us to be more like +3 inches on the 'old' gauge. Some other people ran it around 0 and
said that seemed more like -4. I'd say the gauge actually has changed for the better, with 0 being
more of an accurate 'low' level, and 8 inches (the top mark on the gauge) being more of a realistic
top end. Most first timers run it around -3 or 4, so now I'd say -1 or 0 would be good low
levels.
Jimmy Blakeney
www.prokayaker.tv

A huge group ran Mann's the saturday of Gauley fest at +2 inches. Sept 20 2003. Probably the
biggest crowd Manns has ever seen.

From Boater Talk:
Date: Dec 15 2002, 01:18
From: jblakeney

Updates for those running Manns:
Level today (Dec14th) was +3.5 inches, a great level, comparable to around zero before the gauge
changed. Now zero is a more like a true zero, with -1 being about minimum.

Strainers:
Lunatic Fringe has several trees down across the whole creek just below the drop. You can see them
from river left set up eddy, but be careful if you run it. We've been running it but it is possible
to be pushed into the trees if you screw up.

You Ain't Gonna Like This has changed. We've been portaging it a lot, only running it when it's
higher due to a big sieve opening up (which someone pinned in very badly earlier this year).
Scout/walk river left.

A few other trees, but nothing too bad. You can read trip reports of the past three days on the
creek at
WWW.PROKAYAKER.TV, go to calendar.

Have fun!

Jimmy Blakeney