Muddy Creek (Slippery Rock trib)
to Slippery Rock Creek
| Difficulty | V |
| Length | 0.3 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 180 fpm |
| Gauge | Muddy Creek Near Portersville, Pa |
| Flow Rate as of 44 minutes | 98 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | July 31, 2004 |
River Description
This is one steep set of three waterfalls. The first one hasn't been run, to this writer's knowledge. Something about a shallow landing zone, I believe. This stream has been run only rarely for a variety of reasons, not least because I'm not certain there's any public access to the putin.
The takeout is, of course, on
Slippery Rock Creek.
Boris Glick took a few pics in December, 2001, when ol' Muddy was running. Check'em out
right here.
Here are one man's words of wisdom after running Muddy:
The second-from-the-bottom drop: At low water, dropping into the left chute was a really fun line - but the top of the drop is guarded by a sinkhole on the left, which may start taking in a lot of water on higher flows, and can become extremely dangerous. In addition, the left wall is undercut - you got to point right; that should allow you to avoid both the sinkhole and smashing into the left wall, landing under the center overhang.
The bottom drop: There are two lines, one far left, another far right. Both seemed dicey. The river-left one had a small log jam. Without the logs it could be preferable. The river-right one is a slide along an undercut, lots of scraping and possible pinning hazard. Easy portage on the left.
Private property: When you scout the second from the bottom drop, the windows of the house are in plain view. We remained within the gorge and kept quiet, using hand signals. There were mixed reports about the property owner - some say he doesn't mind people running the creek, some say he does. There are plenty of 'No Trespassing' signs on the shores of Slippery Rock (we avoided private land by paddling up the Slip). I didn't see any signs in the Muddy Creek gorge.
See also the picture and description in the
River Features
Put In
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportFun day on muddy Creek in PA
This drop is said to be unrunnable. The 'non-boater friendly' landowner's house is on river right and overlooks this beautiful view. A paddling buddy (Steve Bloskis) was harassed by the pistol toting landowner a couple years ago near this location.
On 10-13-06 there was a fairly large log just under the surface running perpendicular to and at the lip of this drop. The log is not visible from this angle.
If the wood were cleared, this would be the bottom drop left line. Just above this drop, paddlers need to stay out of sieve on river left. [No Photo...on 10-13-06 the river right line looked like it was free of wood. Stay out of the undercut that will be below your right elbow]
From Steve Bloskis, Three Rivers Paddling Club, Pittsburgh PA:
Hey, I just did Muddy Creek on Wed. And it should be posted that it isn't worth the trouble of doing!!!!! We passed a lady in her yard who told us about private property; then when we reached the unrunnable falls and got out to scout, we found no place to portage due to a doubled up iron fence and the property owner and his gun!!!!!
The way the property is set up, the driveway comes up river left about 1/4 mile to the iron gate which runs up to the edge of the Falls. Then the driveway crosses over the creek and the house sits above a steep embankment (unportagable) looking over the falls. Basically, the property completely surrounds the falls and they like their solitude!!!!
We ended up carrying to Slippery Rock Creek to not make trouble. If you could add this to the Muddy Creek description it would give paddlers more time to enjoy paddling the Slippery Rock. You're really only getting one class IV rapid for all the headache.