Maury
2. Rockbridge Baths to Alone Mill Rd.
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportRan 5/11/2014 for Mother's Day with my wife and 7 and 10 year old kids. ~320cfs and 2.1' on Rockbridge Baths gauge. Tandem canoe (me plus a kid), solo (wife) and sit-on-top kayak (kid, with regular changeouts). Post office to Copper Road.
A little scrapey in 3-4 spots in the tandem canoe, ample water for the solo canoe and sit-on-top. Some fun waves and nice long Class II rapids. It was a wonderful family run. I had to bail a bit from the tandem after a couple of the rapids from some waves.
I'd estimate my minimum for this run would be about 200 cfs on Rockbridge Baths gauge. We will definitely come back to this stretch.
This section should really be broken on American Whitewater, and would be better linked to the Rockbridge Baths gauge also.
Ran today at 2.1 feet on Rockbridge Baths gauge from Post Office to Copper Road, a good zero level for kayaking. There was plenty enough water to avoid scrapes as long as lines were chosen carefully. Good wavetrains and some nice holes with opportunities to practice skills. This 32 mile section really should be broken up into a few separate sections since the difficulty varies a good bit down the run. The topmost section we ran is definitely the most challenging part of the run.
Due to high water today, we went out at Jordan's Point. The level was around 9.1 ft in Rockbridge Baths, so it would be safe to assume a level of 9-10 feet here. We put in underneath the Route 11 bridge and floated 4 miles down to where the South River enters the Maury. This took approximately 1 hr (including getting out to scout the broken dam/lock @ mile 3). Excellent run. We decided to run river right and went around the right side of the old dam. After going through and looking at the left side, we figured it was possible, but most likely sticky (maybe next time) Overall smooth run, no major holes at 9 ft, just lots of fast moving water. The random currents would occasionally shake the boat, but not so much as to grab and edge of the kayak.
the second hole the comment below speaks of starts to munch at about 4.5...it back surfed my budy last year and after a reverse flip he came out with a 90 degree paddle! (we know call it marks hole:) but its wave train city the whole way no rocks....
Ran Rockbridge Baths to Alone Mills today in an open canoe with decent flotation. Buena Vista gauge at 5 feet. The river is pretty intense at this level with lots of waves! Be prepared to constantly bail. Two big holes are worth mentioning, one forms just downstream of the putin. We punched it perfectly but it still completely swamped the boat. The other hole is somewhere around mile 5 or so, and there's a small slot in the center to avoid swamping. Use caution at this level.
the rockbridge baths post office to the rt 622 alone mill rd. bridge can be run lower than the lower maury. ran it at 1.9 last year and there are lots of 'lava' rock in the river that test boat toughness. ran it again on mem.day at 2.2 and the couple extra inches let you run the class 2plus rapid on the left side of the first island you come to. also agree with the previous comment about the no tresspass/conoe portage only signs at takeout parking. i actually talked to the guy that lives there while he was tubeing with some friends and he was very nice. plus i noticed a kayak laying in the yard when we took out so he's definetly boater friendly...warning i did see broken window glass at the parking area not sure if someone forgot keys or there was a breakin, i didn't leave anything worth stealin in my car) this section is 8 miles ..copper road is full of no tresspass/parking signs so dont try to shorten the trip, lots of big smallies here! these levels are the rockbridge baths guage; not the beauna vista one.
Rockbridge bath=2.7 or 700 cfs..
This was a very nice level !
Gauges are Buena Vista @3.0 or 1,150 cfs.. or Rockbridge Baths @ 2.7 or 700 cfs
Makes an excellent desktop background
Typical rapid on Buena Vista run.
Beautiful run
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