Jeff Mayfield, a very experienced kayaker from Fairmont, WV, died at Big Splat on West Virginia’s Big Sandy Creek. Mr. Mayfield, who had over 100 successful runs down this challenging Class V+ drop, was padding on April 13th with long-time partner Jason Black. He was in the lead when he lost his line in the entry rapid and dropped into “The Horseshoe”, a nasty three-sided ledge hole. Here he flipped. He attempted two rolls, then bailed out. By now he was right at the lip of the second drop on the far right. He washed over the 15 foot-high ledge and disappeared completely. Jason Black ran the second drop and chased Mr. Mayfield’s boat, but it was empty when he got there. Working with other paddlers, he began a thorough search of the area. Mr. Mayfield’s helmet and sprayskirt washed out after a time, but there was no sign of him.
Firefighters from Bruceton Mills were mobilizing when I arrived at the put-in for a late afternoon run. The Incident Commander asked my group to go down to Big Splat and assist. We arrived and began a thorough search of the base of the falls, supporting the aggressive wading of Jim Snyder and J.B. Sea. Long saplings were cut, and the entire area was carefully probed. We found nothing. We paddled out at dusk, but Black and several friends returned to maintain a vigil.
During the next week the weather remained clear, and the river level dropped steadily from 5.8. Active searching continued until Friday. A search dog alerted at the base of the falls, signifying the presence of a body. Teams of paddlers from Morgantown, Fairmont Ohiopyle, and Friendsville overlapped and worked continuously, supported initially by local Fire and Red Cross Personnel. Signs were posted at all access points asking for clues to Mr. Mayfield’s whereabouts. A generator was brought in to illuminate the falls at night.
Active recovery efforts ceased on Friday, but the vigil was maintained until a scheduled memorial service eight days later. During the service a call was received from a hiker who saw a PFD recirculating at the base of the drop. The core group returned the next day, and Jeff Snyder recovered Mr. Mayfield’s body. The group placed him in a large duffle bag, lashed him to a ladder, and carried him out. While authorities normally prefer that a body be left undisturbed, they were greatly impressed by this group’s tenacity and resolve.
I am not a regular and usually just read thru once in a while...but I had hoped my first post wouldn't go something like this. There was a terrible accident on the Big Sandy this afternoon; while to my knowledge no body has been recovered yet, but it was in all probability a fatality at Big Splat. I don't know his full name for certain, but it was Jeff (maybe Mayfield or somthing similar ?). Extremely sad in that what I understood to be his girlfriend and young son had hiked down to Big Splat and were there as well. Hopefully, Charlie or someone can post soon with more clear details (if they can be gathered) as we arived on the scene at about the 10-15 min point, having been notified above by a boater running up the trail. Several folks were already trying to think of new things to do, but it wasn't looking good. The boat had washed down and some gear (helmet and sprayskirt) as well. No sign of Jeff anywhere, as people dragged ropes, looked under the undercuts, and fished around at the base of Splat rock with paddles and sticks. Plenty of people and gear on hand, but there was just no obvious, even half safe, new tactic to try. His paddle was found snapped in half.
It did seem clear from the somewhat thin second hand information at the time that Jeff had trouble up above and was already swimming by the time he got to the falls. As (from what I heard) he was very familiar with the river/rapid, a theory on the scene was that his paddle may have broken above in the horseshoe drop, thus the swim, which unfortunately took him over to the right side of Splat. Though the river was at 5' 8" (sorta low) he was no where to be seen; but I understand that river right side to be terribly undercut. While we felt bad about leaving the scene (and everyone was feeling so helpless since unlike other potential rescues, where you might have a clear task to focus on, or sight of the body etc) we decided a couple of us should go down stream to look for him, on the very unlikely chance that he had somehow slipped downstream undetected (he had on a bright blue drysuit). I first found his helmet behind a rock maybe a couple hundred yards down stream. The buckle was broken, the rim ripped from rocks and there was a very obvious mark in the forehead area where there had been a blow. There was a brief moment of optimism when I spotted something blue in the water a couple hundred yards laters, but it turned out to be his blue Prijon (Toronado I think, or similar), pinned upside down. It was fairly easily recovered by a couple of us and we put it in plain sight on river right, secured to a tree at the base of the (creek name?) 50' falls/cascades. It had a crumpled nose from a piton, which could have been above Splat or after paddler and boater separated.
This was a very, very sad day on the Sandy, which was otherwise a beautiful Spring day. None of us could seem to wipe away the image of his girlfriend and son, huddled grieving on the overlook rocks. The authorities managed to get there fairly quickly I understand and they were already stationed at the take out when we arrived. I hope I didn't screw up any of the 'facts' as I understood them. To all his boating buddies I don't know what to say, other than I am truly sorry for your loss, and his family's tragic loss. I didn't catch the name of his boating buddy, nor do I know if he is a BT person, but maybe he'll have more facts. They were obviously very skilled, experienced boaters and it looks like just a terrible accident at a very unforgiving rapid, probably caused by a broken paddle above the main drop.I am not a regular and usually just read thru once in a while...but I had hoped my first post wouldn't go something like this.
There was a terrible accident on the Big Sandy this afternoon; while to my knowledge no body has been recovered yet, but it was in all probability a fatality at Big Splat. I don't know his full name for certain, but it was Jeff (maybe Mayfield or somthing similar ?). Extremely sad in that what I understood to be his girlfriend and young son had hiked down to Big Splat and were there as well. Hopefully, Charlie or someone can post soon with more clear details (if they can be gathered) as we arived on the scene at about the 10-15 min point, having been notified above by a boater running up the trail. Several folks were already trying to think of new things to do, but it wasn't looking good. The boat had washed down and some gear (helmet and sprayskirt) as well.
No sign of Jeff anywhere, as people dragged ropes, looked under the undercuts, and fished around at the base of Splat rock with paddles and sticks. Plenty of people and gear on hand, but there was just no obvious, even half safe, new tactic to try. His paddle was found snapped in half. It did seem clear from the somewhat thin second hand information at the time that Jeff had trouble up above and was already swimming by the time he got to the falls. As (from what I heard) he was very familiar with the river/rapid, a theory on the scene was that his paddle may have broken above in the horseshoe drop, thus the swim, which unfortunately took him over to the right side of Splat. Though the river was at 5' 8" (sorta low) he was no where to be seen; but I understand that river right side to be terribly undercut.
While we felt bad about leaving the scene (and everyone was feeling so helpless since unlike other potential rescues, where you might have a clear task to focus on, or sight of the body etc) we decided a couple of us should go down stream to look for him, on the very unlikely chance that he had somehow slipped downstream undetected (he had on a bright blue drysuit). I first found his helmet behind a rock maybe a couple hundred yards down stream. The buckle was broken, the rim ripped from rocks and there was a very obvious mark in the forehead area where there had been a blow.
There was a brief moment of optimism when I spotted something blue in the water a couple hundred yards laters, but it turned out to be his blue Prijon (Toronado I think, or similar), pinned upside down. It was fairly easily recovered by a couple of us and we put it in plain sight on river right, secured to a tree at the base of the (creek name?) 50' falls/cascades. It had a crumpled nose from a piton, which could have been above Splat or after paddler and boater separated.
This was a very, very sad day on the Sandy, which was otherwise a beautiful Spring day. None of us could seem to wipe away the image of his girlfriend and son, huddled grieving on the overlook rocks. The authorities managed to get there fairly quickly I understand and they were already stationed at the take out when we arrived. I hope I didn't screw up any of the 'facts' as I understood them. To all his boating buddies I don't know what to say, other than I am truly sorry for your loss, and his family's tragic loss. I didn't catch the name of his boating buddy, nor do I know if he is a BT person, but maybe he'll have more facts. They were obviously very skilled, experienced boaters and it looks like just a terrible accident at a very unforgiving rapid, probably caused by a broken paddle above the main
drop.http://boatertalk.com/forum/BoaterTalk/372350
