Cheat

Cheat Fest 2015

The bottom of maze rapid (between high falls and coliseum ) has a large log blocking the entire right part of the exit. It is hard to see from above and has a sketchy very small exit on the left. This is a very dangerous hazard.

Upper Coliseum, Cheat Fest Saturday, 5-3-14

During the cheat race (2012) I used a raft paddle after I lost my kayak paddle. If you are the guy that loaned your paddle, and you have not gotten it back, then please send me an email.
Thanks,
Joe Schultze
mulgaton@gmail.com

Sadly, Glenn is no longer able to run shuttle. You are on your own. It's not too bad if you have a reasonably high-clearance vehicle.

Ran it on 10/8 at 2.5 ft on the paddlers gauge. Gorgeous and exciting run, lots of good play. I would recommend this to everyone. But the shuttle is no joke. I wouldn't go down there again without 4 wheel drive or expect to do serious damage to your suspension (oil pan too if your car is small!). Some other paddlers had shuttle set up via 4 wheelers, they were smart. Does anyone have an updated phone number to reach Glenn Miller for shuttle service? The number on the main page has been disconnected.

The USGS gauge has been moved from the Albright Power Station to SR26 bridge. Therefore, the only conversion required is to subtract 10' from its reading to get the painted bridge gauge reading. I would appreciate if paddlers could verify this in the next few weeks. Also USGS has promised to eventually add CFS data to the link.

Updated 5/3/2011 2:15pm: Parsons' Gauge link is fixed.

Thanks to the quick action of John Kobal (AW's Streamteam river editor) the link to the Parsons' Gauge has been corrected.

Thanks John.

Kurt

Good Morning,

I apologize if my information is misleading, so please correct me if I am wrong about this.

Thank you.

Kurt

In the 'Flow' tab is the following: 'Another gauge of interest is Parsons, but it's farther upstream, allow 18 hrs for Parsons flow to reach Albright.'

This link to Parsons goes to the http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Gauge\_detail\_id\_1327\_ which shows as USGS Station 03070260 which I believe is the Albright Gauge and not the Parsons Gauge.

Here's the link to Parsons Gauge on the USGS website:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?03069500

Pinned Pyranha Burn in Pete Morgans Rapid in the center right channel. Two hours spent by Louisville Viking Club, Hoosier Canoe Club, and local river guides trying to extract it. If it is still there or if you find a yellow/orange Medium Burn on the Cheat or Cheat Lake please contact Monica at 574-229-3145. The boat has been found and returned. Thank you to all of those involved in the retrieval.

I came on 4/1/09, the Albright gauge shows 0.5 when the real level was up-to 8'.

The Albright Gauge is wrong, don't use it, use the Parsons Gauge instead. By looking at the flow of the Parsons Gauge you can estimate the Albright Bridge Level:

Albright Bridge Level = 1.0 foot at ~ 1000 cfs
Albright Bridge Level = 3.0 feet at ~ 3100cfs
Albright Bridge Level = 5.0 feet at ~ 6000 cfs
Albright Bridge Level = 8.0 feet at ~ 11000 cfs

Adam dropping into one of the big holes on the center-right side of Teardrop.
Adam takes a deep breath as he gets ready to sub through the Particle Accelerator in Upper Coliseum- if you aren't on a riverboard, you might want to be a little farther to the right!
Sean gets some air as he pops out of the backwash of Big Nasty- who says November is too late in the season for some riverboarding?
This rapid never seems to show up in descriptions of the canyon, but it is definitely one of the harder rapids; an approach down the right side of the river drops you into a pretty stiff wave/hole feature, the runout of which is a sievy boulder jumble in the middle of the river. In this photo, Sean is subbing through the main hole and Adam is lining up his approach.
Lower Coliseum is a pretty tricky rapid despite being less intimidating than Upper Coliseum; the safest route is to the river right (photo left) of the large triangle rock (Coliseum Rock) in the center-left portion of the photo. Going left of Coliseum Rock leads you into several big holes- a bad place to be, considering that Pete Morgan's Rapid is just downstream.
Sean has just subbed through the large pourover in the center of Teardrop, and is lined up to punch through some more squirrely water in the runout. For those that don't know (or can't tell by the photo), the easiest line through this rapid involves hugging the far river left (photo right) side of the channel, avoiding the nasty pourover in the center of the river and the ledge holes along the outside river right edge of the turn.
Sean is lined up perfectly to punch through the deepest part of the Particle Accelerator, the big hole on the left downstream side of the second drop in Upper Coliseum. Out to Sean's right and slightly behind him in the photo is the Cloud Chamber, a hole you definitely don't want any part of.
This is a good photo of the two drops of Upper Coliseum, taken from the eddy on river left at the base of the second drop. The hole closest to the bottom of the photo is the Particle Accelerator- big but relatively benign at low water, a boat flipping monster at higher water. On the opposite side of the small tongue behind the Particle Accelerator (and slightly upstream) sits the Cloud Chamber, a nasty recirculating pourover which is boxed in by the current going over second drop- looks like a killer to me. In the back of the picture you can see the ramp dropping down into Recyclotron, a huge, recirculating, nearly river-wide ledge hole that only gets bigger and badder as the water rises. The proper line is easy, but is very intimidating and requires some precision- stay to the left of Recyclotron, then cut to the right towards the middle of the river, riding the tongue between the Cloud Chamber and the Particle Accelerator.

We just ran the Cheat Canyon at 1.2 on the bridge (0.6 on the on-line gauge), and it was delightful, with clean lines, no scraping and lots of play, even though it was slightly below minimum according to this site. It was also quite runnable when I did it at 1.0 a few years ago. Perhaps the minimum level should be adjusted downwards.

Jason Miller throwing ends in Cueball on the Cheat Canyon, WV
Big air on Big Nasty
BRANCH!

Created with GPS Visualizer.

Check out all the Ratt Boy Maps by clicking here.

The bad news was for the third weekend in a month mother nature did not provide enough rain to raft The Big Sandy and we had to fall back to the Cheat.

The good news was mother nature did not provide enough rain to raise the Cheat level above the max for Duckies.

While not at 'The Beast of the East' level, it sure looked that way to six of us who did the Cheat in duckies - Joe Snow, his daughter Jess (Joe, did your wife know your daughter was going to do the Cheat and Big Nasty in a duckie?), three others we did not know and me, Kurt. And while Big Nasty was not up to its raft 'chew you up and spit you out' level (see photo from 2004) it sure provided a wild ride and challenge to those who were low to the water and personal in a duckie.

After swimming (not my choice)at Big Nasty last year at Beast level (6' at put in) in a small 4 person wildside raft, I wanted another shot at it. However when we decided to take duckies instead of rafts I wasn't so sure it was still such a good idea. But with great coaching from the guides and having a great line (more luck than skill), I hit Big Nasty perfectly and punched through it - what a thrill!

The score is now Big Nasty 1 to Kurt 2. The Cheat was the first river I ran in a raft back in 1971 when there were no helmets and no guides in the raft. No swimming that day, however while it rained, the Cheat wasn't at full Beast level and we were in larger 6-8 person rafts. I still want another shot at Big Nasty at Beast level in a small raft.

The Cheat is the biggest free flowing (undammed) watershed in the East. With severe thunderstorms multiple days prior, including the night before, this is the Big Nasty Rapid at Cheat's 'The Beast of the East' level. Rafting is via a 'wild side' small raft - Yeah there is a raft. We held our own here in this section, but see 'Why Called 'The Beast of the East' River and 'Big Nasty' rapids' photo & 'When 'Big Nasty' at 'Beast Level' Chews you up and spits you out' photos when things got even more interesting.

The Cheat is the biggest free flowing (undammed) watershed in the East. With severe thunderstorms multiple days prior, including the night before, this is the Big Nasty Rapid at Cheat's 'The Beast of the East' level. Rafting is via a 'wild side' small raft. Yeah, we all did finally end up swimming here (have never been so deep - could see the light at the surface but wasn't sure I was ever going to get there), but this was the only place swam. Maybe just a bit too small of a raft? - Nah, No way. What a blast. Only regret is that we couldn't go back up and take a second run at 'Big Nasty' with a different technique, especially since it has taken me 33 years (since 1971 without helmets nor guides in the raft) to be fortunate to return to and catch the Cheat again at Beast Level. But we did get to run, try out the new technique and successfully punch through the two nasty hydrolics of 'Even Nastier', the very next set of rapids.

A sad however necessary note of caution, especially for us amateur infrequent weekend warrior rafters, is later this day a small group of three crafts ran Big Nasty (during the day the river rose to 6.25 feet). They all went swimming. I don’t know if it was early in the Big Nasty rapids (which is a challenge in itself) or at the Big Nasty gigantic hydrolic (where we went swimming), but one did not come up. His body was recovered the next day.

Yepper,, this is guy who can start or finish your class 3-4 river run with a class 4+ shuttle ride. No one plays chicken with Glenn on the narrow shuttle road. Just a hint little,, WEAR YOUR HELMET,, unless you like getting whacked by 40 mph tree branches. All kidding aside, he is a nice guy who provides a great service.

If you are standing in the back of Glenn's truck or trailer, be ready to DUCK out of the way of tree twigs and branches. Hopefully, the larger branches will be broken by some unknowing helmet on a previous ride :-)

This is one of three slots in the approach to Cueball. It's not necessary to run any of the slots, but it's fun. Some of the slots get nasty at some water levels.
Cueball's a nice play hole at this level.
Threading the needle between the Recyclotron hole (upstream, river right) and the Cloud Chamber (downstream, river left). At this level, mortals don't play in Recyclotron. At some levels, the Cloud Chamber can be a play spot.
The first of the three slots in the entry to Cueball. At this level, it's not a really terrible slot; at some levels, it's kinda pinny.
I don't think anyone ran this slot that day. Kinda looks undercut, don'tcha think?
From this perspective, you can see the rock that paddlers get shoved into if they're not careful...especially if they flip. It may not be undercut, but I'm sure being up against it feels awfully dangerous, so it's the cause of many swims.
This is the first 'major' rapid. At this level, it's probably class III. You can see that there are a couple holes to avoid. Anyone who has major trouble with this relatively easy rapid should consider walking out...hence the name.
This is an excellent level for playing in Typewriter, the playhole just below Big Nasty. The river-left side is always trashier than the river-right side. Therefore, the line for river left is generally shorter than the line for river right.

Pete (front) and Tim Daly race in a
Topo-Duo in the Cheat Race. See
more pics from this event at
http://www.iplayoutside.com/Events/2
001/05/3066c.html

This was the Albright bridge following the disastrous 1985 flood, looking upstream.

A wild, tight drop on an extremely steep creek that drains into the Cheat. PS Don't go left!

See the Cheat Race Results, courtesy of www.IPlayOutside.com.
Threading the line between Recyclotron (the huge ledge-hole to the river right of the paddler) and the Particle Accelerator (the smaller hole, just downstream river-left of the paddler).

This image is designed to be plotted on 36x24 paper, rather than viewed online.

Memorial Weekend

TA had a long day. He shouldn't have started the day with a safety break. He should have listened to Andy, not once, but twice. He shouldn't have put his car keys in the pocket of his bathing suit. He shouldn't have swam at Pete Morgan's. At least he had an extra key in his truck, but there was no way to open the truck. Oh... look... there's a rock. Hmmmmmm.

TA broke the little window which cost twice as much as the large window to replace. The best part is that I found his car keys in the back of my van the next day.

TA refused to bring his car on the next paddle trip.

5.75 feet on the Albright Bridge gauge
5.75 feet on the Albright bridge gauge

Simon shows how to rodeo a real
kayak.