Laurel Hill Creek
2. Whipkey Dam to Humbert Covered Bridge Nr. Ursina
| Difficulty | II(III) |
| Length | 9.9 mi |
| Avg Gradient | n/a |
| Gauge | Laurel Hill Creek at Ursina, Pa |
| Flow Rate as of 48 minutes | 71 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | May 21, 2026 |
Lat/Longitude data are approximate, from TopoZone. Ed Evangelidi shared: This is a scenery creek. Not only does it have flora and fauna but it is loaded with covered bridges. The rapids have pretenses towards Cl 3 in spots but are all fairly straight-forward. The creek quickly becomes wide enough to shrug off river-wide strainers except for a long stretch in the lower part where the creek braids and braids again. Pick the correct channels and have fun. Pick the wrong channel and you might have to carry around a tree.
Tony Allred Jr -- Below:
Starting at Whipkey Dam Road, the river starts out easy with some small ledges to practice eddy turns and peel outs. The middle part of the run picks up some gradient and there are three (or is it four?) Class 3 rapids at medium and high levels, all on river left turns. The gradient then flattens out and enters a serpentine section where it braids and braids again (miserable in low water, but very pretty at medium or high levels). At the bottom of the serpentine section, the braids come together and go under a foot bridge. This can be a short take-out at a Pennsylvania fish and boat commission access point on river left at the foot bridge. Or you can continue another couple of miles down to another access at the Humbert Covered Bridge on river left just below the bridge.
The river is scrapey below 2.2 (roughly 550-570 cfs) through the serpentine section. Above 2,000 cfs in the middle section, stable eddies to assemble a group after a swim are hard to find.
Easy with scrapey small channels in serpentine section: 500 - 700 cfs; Low Intermediate: 700 - 1000 cfs; Intermediate: 1000 - 1,500 cfs; High Intermediate: 1,500 - 2,000 cfs; Advanced with pourovers, big holes, and squirrely eddies and boils: above 2,000 cfs.
A common put-in is on Whipkey Dam Road, below the Whipkey Dam. Parking is rather limited here, but there is a gravel road on the west side of the bridge which has a wide spot on the river side at the top of the first rise where you can leave a few cars. The bridge itself and the approaches on Whipkey Dam Road are wide enough to do unloading.
This rapid is the first Class II drop on the Laurel Hill Creek and consists of a river-right hole and a nice surfing wave on river left. The river widens and braids once below this drop.
This is a very long Class II+(low to moderate levels) to III (higher levels) rapid (approximately 4-5 miles into the run) that may be recognized by small ledges leading into a 90 degree left hand turn. Immediately after this turn to river left, there is a big rock in the middle of the channel. Best line is to power to the river left of the rock. Moving right of the rock may also be an option, but this right hand line gets difficult at higher water. At low water, there is an eddy behind the rock; at high water, that turns into a boil. The gradient is 70 feet per mile for over 1-1/2 miles.
A couple of miles can be cut off the bottom of the run by using a short take-out at a Pennsylvania fish and boat commission access on river left at a foot bridge that crosses the river.
For the full run, the take-out is at the Humbert Covered Bridge just upstream of Ursina, PA.
Feb 11, 2018
Ran the lower section today from Kings covered bridge to the walking bridge at the states game lands. Level was a little over 3ft and just under 2000 Cfs.
No major strainers thought we took the main lines at the braids.
At this level there were big wave trains and a few solid class 3s mostly at left hand turns.
Jul 26, 2017
USGS manages the gauge, but they already know. If you go to the actual USGS page (https://waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/current/?type=flow), you'll see that they list 'eqp' malfunction for the gauge. It appears to still be reporting, however, but maybe it got stuck at 1,200 cfs when you were there. It looks like it's sticking as the level goes down -- it seems to be stuck at 3950 cfs right now (July 23 - 25, 2017). Anyway, when this happens, there is a very short drive to the Casselman.
There appears to be a pattern of 'Ursina' getting stuck when the creek has been high and is dropping. It's possible that the current location of the 'Ursina' gauge is one that picks up a lot of trash in the gauge, which, I'm guessing, is why USGS has created an auxillary gauge. My guess is that they'll run them together to make sure they track similarly and then USGS will move the gauge to the new location.
