Want to protect your FREE, unlimited access at Panther Creek (AKA Mason Branch)? Then don’t camp at the site, and don’t build fires in the field.
Most importantly, if you see campers at the site, take charge of the situation and ask them to move along to a campground elsewhere.
If boaters blow our access at the Panther Creek take-out, then there is no other access point until you get to Bucklick (the put in for the Lower), and it simply can’t handle the extra vehicles.
To put it bluntly, campers are close to screwing the private boaters out of access on the Upper Gauley.
Some people have called and asked why American Whitewater is closing the campground. The truth is that camping has never been allowed at the site by request of the land owner. Before folks criticize the owner, think about how amazingly cool she’s been to permit free public river access via her property for the last decade! All she asks is that we limit the site to day-use only. How hard can it be to find alternative camping spots, in order to protect our access, YOUR ACCESS, to such a cool river?
We don’t want to lose access, and we don’t want to waste your membership money by hiring a security guard to patrol the site.
Don’t camp at Panther Creek. Tell your friends. Tell your paddling partners. Tell anyone you see with a boat. Tell anyone you see at the site with a tent. Camping is not permitted at Panther Creek.
I hate this part of the job, and hate being negative about such an awesome deal. But, if anyone knows who burned the haystacks and rolled one down the hill, please let me know. That person, or group of people, owes the farmer for the hay and will have hell to pay if we lose our access. UPDATE 9/27/01: Good news. It is clear from several eyewitness accounts that the hay was torched late on Wednesday night (9/19/01) by local yahoos in a pick-up truck and station wagon. I have received several reports corraborating this. If you have more information about this incident, please forward to me.
There is camping near the put-in at Battle Run, at the put-in by the dam, and just down the road from Panther Creek at the Middle Gauley Campground.If you have questions, please call or email me. We need your support and the support of the whole boating community on the Gauley. We’re in this raft together, please don’t tip it over.