Adventure: Toby Creek

Me and the Duke were working as guides for the summer for Clarion River Outfitters when we were informed that a heavy rain can make Toby Creek, just a few minutes drive from my apartment, an exciting Class II-III kayak run. It seemed like just a few days until we got just the rain we needed. The Duke was dyin' to get his Piranha into some whitewater and Kovachu's Otter was collecting dust in my basement. She thumbs upped a spur of the moment kayak run on some rapids me and the Duke knew nothing about. But that sure as shit didn't stop us.

Duke was expected back in Pittsburgh for the evening and I had dinner plans so we didn't waste time getting started. Well except to take the picture above but whatev. We got our gear loaded and unloaded, staged our shuttles, and hit the water.

Pretty smooth water to start us out but we were pretty pumped to reach our first obstacle: a little drop over an old log. Fun stuff.












Some calm water would carry us on for quite awhile; the only real problems were shallow spots rather than rapids. We passed through some foggy pine groves which was cool along with along abandoned bridge. The creek started to drop into a pretty rugged little ravine though and we both knew what that meant... the real whitewater was about to come.






The first rapid on the whitewater stretch of Toby Creek is Mulligans Rapid. Appropriately we each actually portage back above it and did twice. Also appropriately, I fucked up the first time... of course not in the rapid itself, but in the eddy I pulled into after it. FAIL.










The ravine started to drop deeper and we knew bigger challenges awaited. Mulligans Rapid was fun but our upcoming task of paddling through the rapid known as Otter Crotch worried us a bit... it was pretty rocky and I had retardedly forgone a helmet for the day. I bummed Duke's helmet after he pushed through it. My run wasn't pretty but damnit I made it through there. It's one of those things that's way more complicated in real life than on film. Suck it.





The next mile or two was just constant whitewater... nonstop little riffles rather than occasional bigger rapids like what we had gone through. But once we passed the mouth of Rapp Run and the Bigley Bridge came into view we knew that there was one real rapid left.... the exit rapid of Toby Creek, Rapp Run Rapid.






Rapp Run Rapid was no slouch... you're only left with a small chute to pass through and it tries to throw the kayaks right into an old stump. Tricky maneuvering is the only way through what we think is the fastest water in the creek... but tricky we were! w00t!






After pulling through Rapp Run and passing the Bigley Bridge, we were able to calmly paddle the deadwater of Toby Cove past the "Rock" to the Clarion River and to the take-out in Clarion Boro. But damn... that deadwater sure was fucking hard to paddle through after all the whitewater.

I've had the whitewater in rafts and canoes down but this was pretty much a learning experience for a kayak in rapids for me. The creek was pretty impressive if only for the hours immediately after a heavy storm. I did learn some important lessons though. First of all, even if you ace a rapid you can still roll in an eddy if you're dumb (which I am.) Second, damn I gotta get me a kayak!!

Tally-ho!
-Crash