Conowingo Creek, MD

Busted Dam

Busted Dam
Photo by Walt Shank taken 6/30/2001 @ Unrunnable

River Description

Conowingo Creek drops significantly over 2 miles before is empties into the Conowingo Reservoir on the lower Susquehanna River. It is a tight technical run, as you can probably gather from the low-water scout pics. The next time it has water in it, I will be down there with the camera to get some good pictures.

It takes a lot of rain to get this puppy up. We ran it on a Saturday morning at 9:00 after an 8” rainfall the night before and it was at minimal level. It had indeed been higher as the water line on the banks was much defined. Some guys told us they dropped by around 1:00 that day and could not run it. The point is, when it rains, get there quick! When the water is pouring over, I plan to get down there at the putin to paint that level on the bridge for future gauging.

There used to be a lot of rebar and big logs and strainers on this creek, but my buds and I cleaned most of them out. We cut ALL of the rebar that was sticking out of the concrete at the dam.

The dam is the first real drop on this run. From there it keeps dropping at a consistent rate.

Lat/longitude coords are approximate, from TopoZone.