Difficult Run

Just a couple of freind having a blast on Difficult run

Just a couple of freind having a blast on Difficult run

Just a couple of freind having a blast on Difficult run

sick nasty

This picture shows the size of the drop better. It's a really cool spot.
Living large at the Friday Afternoon Paddle Club.

The lead-in is a technical boulder garden with multiple options. There are always plenty of rocks just under the surface to lay waste to your plan. Enjoy.
This rapid is the entry into the gorge proper. Both lines are fun and neither is easy. The landing zone is full of boulders and the left side of the drop goes into an undercut.
Same boof as in the previous picture from another angle. Sweet.
Friday Afternoon Paddle Club agenda: two runs down Difficult Run in the creek boat, ninety minutes of surfing Rocky Island at 4.3' in the long boat.

I've been paddling Difficult Run for years and it's always been fun, regardless of the level. There's many a good story that took place on this small creek, but I digress. What I recently discovered was how low, in terms of cfs, some of those runs were. These are levels at the gauge with their corresponding cfs:

3.5' 67 cfs

3.8' 104 cfs

4.0' 135 cfs

4.5' 220 cfs

5.0' 340 cfs

5.5' 475 cfs

I once ran DR with Jerry Palushock at 3' on the gauge. It was low, VERY LOW, but it was channelized and still floatable. Enjoy.

For good high flow video check out (also includes neighboring Scotts Run): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V7aQYF93QQ

Recent floods have altered the stream bed and opened up the drops more. The right slot at Leap of Faith used to only come in around 5', it was running 3.8' in the photo. We all had similar lines and somehow no one pitoned on any of the submerged boulders in the LZ.
This rapid is a cluster at these levels. There is a strong likelyhood that you'll either piton on the rocks, or broach on the large boulder at the bottom right of the drop. Nonetheless, it is a fun, technical drop. This is the rapid that convinced me to wear elbow pads when creeking.

Another viable option is to boof the pourover above the main 'gorge' drop and takeout river right. After some customary jawboning about running the V+, one can carefully seal launch below the drop. By carefully I mean avoid submerged rocks that are hard to see in the murky Virginia runoff that is Difficult Run.

Another viable option is to boof the pourover among the main 'gorge' drop and takeout river right. After some customary jawboning about running the V+, one can carefully seal launch below the drop. By carefully I mean avoid submerged rocks that are hard to see in the murky Virginia runoff that is Difficult Run.

After a zesty surf session at Rocky Island, we headed down to DR for a little 'Old School' creekin'.
The trick at low levels is to avoid the undercut boulder on river left and the submerged rocks in the right side of the landing zone. At higher flows (above 4.5') the slot on river right opens.

After boofing this hole for years, we realized that it was a great spot to mystery move. Don't try this if the water is rising, the water quality is really nasty and you wouldn't want to ingest any. You might want to note that the left side of the hole is backed up by the boulders of the shore.

The view from the new guy in town. First the good news, there is a nice trail down the whole river left side. Its nicely maintained and goes down to the confluence with the potomac. If it were open you could probably drive a buick down to the confluence on the trail with no problems.

All in all there are about 7 real rapids of varying difficulty, and the nasty looking class 5 drop. The trail on the left makes for easy scouting and relatively easy portaging. The class 5 drop will involve carrying your boat about 100 feet up and around the cliff on the left.

When you see a large rock face/cliff on the left you are right above the big drop. The stream is fairly wide above and split by an island. The last drop is about a 4 foot tall pourover that makes a sticky looking hole, then the class 5 drop. Probably easiest to scout and portage by taking out above the pourover.

Bradley

At lower water the only route is a slot on the left. It's a two foot drop onto a slide of about six feet. It's fun to catch the eddy behind the ledge.
This is a fun 6' drop. The rock in the right side of the picture is undercut.
No swimming allowed (and no, Jerry did not swim... here). Immediately below this drop is a fun (scary) class V waterfall. Make sure to catch the micro eddy under the tree on river left.
This is a long boulder garden rapid with a fun slide at the end. It's a great way to start the run.
At higher water (4.5') you can boof the dry part of the ledge behind Sunshine on the left. It's more technical at the lower levels, but boofing the middle of the ledge and landing on the slide provides a cheap thrill.
This is the undercut boulder at the bottom left of the 6' drop. Of course, most of the water pours under it.

There is a long lead in to the first rapid which at normal flows requires a fair amount of manuevering in a boulder garden. The 1st rapid proper can be entered on river left which requires an 'S' turn around a large ledge hole, or right down the middle off of a smaller ledge.
The second drop consist of a 3' ledge drop that lands on a slide that drops another 8-10'. This rapid is fairly straight forward.
This is the view from one of the eddy's above the rapid. This rapid is more technical at lower flows. A great boof off of the middle of the ledge is available at this flow and above.
This is a long rapid with an approach that takes you either left or right around an island. The left channel has a great autoboof at low water and a good ledge boof at higher flows. The final move is a two foot drop into a deep hole. It's fun to melt down into the hole at low and moderate flows, but at higher flows (above 5.5') caution should be exercised because of what lies just downstream.
This is a great drop of about 6'. This is also the entry into the gorge and the class 5 waterfall just sixty feet downstream. This drop is also complicated by the undercut boulder at the bottom left of the drop where most of the water is pushing.
This is a very technical and 'scary' rapid. There are several must make moves before you get to the actual waterfall. There are several boulders below the surface at the bottom of the waterfall and a large cave below the drop on the left. This is considered by most to be a mandatory portage.
You can see the waterfall just upstream of this rapid. The small chute on river left is a dangerous pinning area. Running this rapid in the middle risks broaching against the rocks in the run out. This is a good one to wear elbow pads on.
The creek splits around an island after the 6th rapid. Both sides are fun. This is the entry to the left side of the island which is an easy boulder garden.
This is the boulder garden to the left of the island. It is an easy run down to the backwater of the Potomac River.
This low head dam is at the put-in. It has a very sticky hydraulic that shouldn't be played with. When the level of the creek rises to 7', it turns into a beautiful, creek wide, breaking wave.

See the larger version of this picture by clicking here.

Todd Henry in Canyon Drop. Can't remember what the flow was.

Great line here by Bryan. Good safety setup strongly recommended!!