Gooney Run

I am interested in running this run, but it appears Im 23 years late to the show. Im 17 so you guys have been paddling this run way before I was born. If anyone has any info at all about this run please let me know at VA.liamwolfgang@gmail.com, thanks.

Here's a recent video of the run, at about 3 inches on the painted gauge: https://youtu.be/m2DGkabVzE8

We had 2 mandatory portages, and a few other spots where portages could definitely be considered, and high water would have probably been 5 portages.

FYI The waypoints on the map, showing the put in and takeout are wrong.

Ran it after the big rains we got Tuesday, and Gooney was good to go. Levels were between 9' and 12'. There were two pieces of wood in road-side part, but both were passable to the left and easy to see. First Falls has some wood in the scouting eddy, and a log across the left channel that would be hard to see over 12'. There was also a river-wide must portage log about 5-6 rapids down from that, but, it was pretty easy to spot as the river bent to the right. Other than that, all clear.

I'd say Sandy did minimal damage to the run, this just looked like standard Gooney trees. Didn't see a lot of snapped branches or trees hanging in from the shore like I see a lot in WV now.

Got the follow from the usgs per its non reported gauge reading for Gooney....are there any local folk..boater or otherwise...who could help with acessing real-time levels here???

Thanx Steve Taylor potomacsurf@verizon.net

Hello Mr. Taylor,

Real-time stream flow data collection at station 01630700 - Gooney Run near Glen Echo, VA was discontinued Oct. 28, 2009. This site, along with several others in the area were deactivated as a result of cooperative funding reductions. We apologize for the inconvenience. Historical data for this gage can still be accessed at:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/va/nwis/dv/?site\_no=01630700&referred\_module=sw

Thanks for contacting the USGS.

Joel R. Guyer (jrguyer@usgs.gov)
Hydrologic Technician
USGS Virginia Water Science Center
1730 East Parham Road
Richmond, VA 23228
804-261-2612
804-261-2659 (fax)
http://va.water.usgs.gov

Most of the wood was cleared out at the end of last spring. We ran it a month ago at 6' and there was only one portage. All of the blind drops were clear at that level. MK

The lower Gooney is full of strainers, just about every drop has some wood in it -
this is the worst!
Low water shot of the sieve at First Falls
Low water drop of second falls...fun in a creeky way.

This is not from Philippe Damiano, whoever he is. As of 9/05/06, all drops are runnable, although there is one tree in a trivial rapid that most people portage, and is sneakable only at the minimum level. Also, for you first-timers, there is one rapid down there, almost half-way down, that has a bad sieve on the right side---stay left or portage, please.--Robert Farmer

This was one of several strainers we encoutered on the way down, none were hard to navigate but you always had to make sure there was at least one down stream eddy between oyu and where the river vanished round another corner or over another horizon line
At this level the far left line is the one for 2nd falls. If you stay on line, like Tim did, it is plain sailing!.

Bobby is right over the seive that takes all of the water with less flow.

This is one of the more elusive runs in the area. On this day there was no flow at the take-out, but we decided to drive to the put-in for lack of anything better to do. Much to our surprise is was running.
This is the best rapid on the run. The rest of the creek is fun boogie water.

Check Steve Marchi's Gooney site for more pictures and up-to-date info on Gooney.

This is First Falls at low water. The slab rock in the middle of the picture is undercut. So is the rock in the bottom right. The left line is very narrow and possibly blocked by the tree midway at this level.
Ian is spot-on for the low water left line on Second Falls.
Good thing he got a good boof, cause he's offline.
At low water making your way down this left line on the bottom half of No Place To Swim helps you avoid embarrassing pins.