wood situation at the fish ladder?

[cramerica]

So what is the wood situation at the fish ladder?

last time I was on it we hit the back channel because the main was plugged with wood. I hear NPS started clearing the main channel -- is it now good to go? obvious stuff wash down to the later slides?

also, how high on the LF gauge have people been running it lately?

Thanks in advance.

[localpaddler]

I saw a big log stuck between slides 3 and 4 on the fish laddler a few days ago. Very dangerous log. The back canyon was good to go. Dan B and I hit it at about 4.4 and it was really fun. -Luke

[MarkInCJ]

There is a big log in the transition between the 3rd and 4th slides. Looked at it on Saturday at about 4.2 on LF gauge and you could sneak by on the left without much problem. You really want to be careful that you don't get pushed into bitch monkey (the waterfall pouring into the back channel after #3) as the log in the transition makes the water mound up more than usual. Don't know about lower than 4' at LF, that strainer might be real bad without the sneak on the left. If you go definately take a look at #4, that's where all the wood is getting stuck. The thing about the Potomac is someboday has probably run everything at any given water level. whether it was clean run is another story.

[cramerica]

Thanks for the info!

[rterry]

Luke - how did the run at 4.4 compare level wise to when we were running it a 3.7 with all the water divered over there?

[thewildwaterguy]

I ran it twice at 4.2, and the 3-4 sequence is very sketchy. that log is laying right where the normal line is, and if you are coming from the right side of the 3rd slide, you could get pinned under it, which could be REALLY BAD. coming middle, you'll be confronted with the stems of 2 broken off branches, which could snag a pfd... the line to go for is down a small slot on far left, but when i was there, the boil at the bottom of 3 was maiking it very tough to get over. i ended up turing to plan b and dropping in between a shallow rock and the log. the 2nd time i got far enough left but then spunout in the narrowness over on the left there. went down one drop backwards. thats bad and all but worse is that i dont think it will be runnable at lower levels. that slot will dry up and all the water will be going under the log. ug

[rterry]

Nice beta, how about the back channel, anyone, the log jam has been there so long I am trying to correlate the logjam and non-logjam levels in my mind.

[thewildwaterguy]

I've not run the box, (back canyon/channel) because it looks much more difficult than the 3-4 section on the fishladder, several moves and a lot of gradient in a very short sequence - but I'll probably graduate to running it this season, especially if the fishladder becomes unrunnable...again. I'm interested in peoples opinions and war stories about the run- has anyone dropped into that 'hole' in the middle of the 2nd drop? anyone swam there? I've heard the ej story.

[mcintyre]

It surprised me how much gradient there is going into that hole under the bridge. I'd guess it's about a 4 foot drop into a mostly closed hole. How I come out of that hole has always determined how my run there goes.

I think it's tougher than the traditional fish ladder slides. The moves are tighter, there is more gradient, and it's fast - there's a lot of water in a pretty tight canyon.

A swim there would be ugly. Lots of unpleasantness in the two drops below the hole. (I've pitoned there.) Fortunately, there's a big recovery pool on the right before you get near the fifth slide.

I'm truly bummed by the big tree between slides 3 and 4. I had hoped the recent high water would flush it out. At least with the previous blockage, there was an eddy created that made running the top two slides (and getting out) possible.

~jeffmc

[rterry]

Geoff,

It is substantially harder and scarier. If you run it at lower levels, again I can't speak exactly for the post log jam conversion, it's good to go. But when we were running it at 3.7 with the log-jam (which I would equate to about 4.3/4 w/o) it was pusy, steep and pushy. did i mention it is pushy? Wait for it to drop for your first run and it get's a lot less challenging, at those higher levels there is a guardian boil at the top of the third drop that makes things, errr.. interseting. I have not swam, but I dig flip once last year and wailed my shoulder... it's shallow, be careful.

Rob

[MarkInCJ]

In the interest of giving myself a good sendoff before my ACL surgery I took the plunge into the Backchannel at about 3.7 (post logjam 3.7). I'd been looking at it for a while and this was the most "doable" level I had seen it at. I opted for the boof in since going from the top was boney at that level. Everything went well under the bridge and I made the move left for the second drop. However, I missed a stroke going into the second drop and got stern endered. All I could think of while upside down was how much skin I was about to lose. Luckily the hole held me in between the second and third drops, and I paddled out next to bitch monkey thanking my lucky stars for a clean getaway. Yep, its steep, pushy, pushy, and commiting. It also looks different from water level, the hole under the bridge was a lot flatter than I was expecting. At 3.7 the boil under bitch monkey is actually this cool sloping ramp of water unlike anything I've ever paddled. At higher levels that boil could be problematic as Rob mentioned.

[localpaddler]

Rob at 4.4 the other day...it was pushy I subed out over my head twice in the canyon...it was still clean but definitely a power stoke style run....I am not really sure how it compares to the 3.7 run from when the log jam was around...I guess it was about the same.
-Luke

[thewildwaterguy]

Dont worry, I fully plan on waiting till it gets low to run it. I know if i were to do it first time at this level I would be up to my eyeballs before i even noticed my feet were wet. I looked long and hard this morning before my ritual fishladder run, threw some sticks, etc and everything is moving so fast... I'd need to know the line like my hand and have a good feel for how the water behaves to feel comfortable doingit. oh well - its getting down close to center lines level - that'l keep me occupied. anyone going out soon?

[thewildwaterguy]

now thats its below 4 feet the move left to miss the death log looks easier - the boils and curlers at the bottom of 3 are still pushing right, but it looks a bit more user friendly. having said that i passed on it today - still sketched out from my improvised lines earlier in the week. put in at a micro eddy above 4 and ran down from there. fun. jason beakes is running the whole thing without issue...what a bad ass. he was telling me that a lot has to do with how you hit the curling hole at the bottom of 3.

[rterry]

The way I look at it that log eliminates the margin of error. It is pretty clear that you would miss it if you were on line, upright and where you wanted to be, but what if you weren't. Factor in the breaking a paddle, blowing your skirt, or any of the myriad of weird things that can happen on the water (but generally don't) and it just doesn't seem worth it to me, particularly with the back channel right there. Even though the back channel is more challenging, and the consequences are unpleasant, they seem far less "terminal" to me. I guess I would just take the higher liklihood with lower consequences over the lower liklihood with higher consequences.

[localpaddler]

Bottom line...have a good line or no line.