Go with the Flow: GA Trip Becomes PA Trip, June 17-21

By Larry Lempert

An anticipated CCA trip to run Georgia's celebrated Chattooga River in June morphed into a Pennsylvania two-fer on the Lower Youghiogheny and Lehigh Rivers, less dramatic but still providing four very satisfying days of paddling.

Months in advance, Hugh Hilliard and David (Cotton) Cottingham had put a Chattooga adventure on the club calendar for the third week of June. As the dates approached, however, the river waffled between almost too low (most days) and probably too high (a few days). And the would-be participants waffled too. With just a few days to go, Hugh and Cotton deemed it too iffy for the 9-hour drive and called off the trip. Attention shifted to a Plan B that would rely on dam-controlled rivers and would be much closer to home. 

That's how the Yough and the Lehigh became the destinations of some of the Chattooga refugees plus a couple other folks, in varying combinations: Hugh, Cotton, Gary Steinberg, and Sergey Grinkrug (K1) and Larry Lempert (OC1) on the Lower Yough Wednesday, June 17; Gary, Larry, and Jason Scull (K1) on the Lower Yough Friday, June 19; and Gary, Larry, Sergey, and Chris Kelly (OC1) on the Upper Lehigh Saturday and Sunday, June 20-21, joining a group of five paddlers coordinated by Lehigh aficionado Phil Dawson for the Saturday run.

Weather was delightful all four paddling days, mostly sunny and in the 70s. The paddling on both rivers was equally delightful, with no mishaps to report. Jason, an experienced kayaker whose career had somehow missed the Lower Yough, accomplished his personal first descent down the Loop on his own on Thursday and then joined Gary and me on Friday, paddling with distinction. Four of us who had planned on paddling the Yough Thursday decided to forgo the river that day due to wind gusting up to 40 mph (!!), but the wind did settle down for Jason's Loop run mid-to-late afternoon. Thursday morning we all enjoyed some of the architectural and historical enrichment that Ohiopyle area has to offer—touring the Frank Lloyd Wright house at Kentuck Knob and then catching a ranger's talk at Fort Necessity, where a 22-year-old George Washington started his career with a resounding defeat in 1754 against the French and their Native American partners.

The Yough was running at 1.7 feet. As for the Lehigh, the dam release brought the river level to 750 cfs, which is at the low end of the summer whitewater release range of up to 2000 cfs. AW puts this at the low end of medium runnable. (In October, if water conditions allow, there is a high runnable 3,000-plus mega-release.) So we didn't get our trip on the nationally designated Wild and Scenic Chattooga, but we did get to enjoy the Pennsylvania-designated Wild and Scenic Lehigh.

The Upper Lehigh runs 9 miles from White Haven to Rockport and the Lower 13 miles from Rockport to the Glen Onoko access at the town of Jim Thorpe. Consensus among Lehighers in the know was that the Lower's flatwater, which separates its long, rollicking wave trains, is tediously boney below 1,000 cfs. After our day on the Upper at 750, we looked at each other and said hey, just what we need is 4 more miles of scrapey flatwater—NOT. So we ran the Upper again on Sunday, still another fine day on the river although the ideal Lehigh weekend in my book would include both the mostly Class II Upper and more Class III-ish Lower.

The Upper does have a couple of Class III-minus rapids, in the early part of the run and about 4 miles in. The latter is a rapid called No Way, although we adopted the name offered by Chris, who remembered it as Oh No. Which was quite appropriate on Saturday, when the rapid became choked with hung-up rafts. The Lehigh is a heavily rafted river, and traffic was typically knotty on Saturday, but extraordinarily light on Sunday, when after the first mile we had that lovely river almost entirely to ourselves, quite a gift. Another gift was the sight of a large eagle serving as a stone-still sentry atop a towering bridge abutment.

While some intermediate and advanced paddlers might shrug off a low-level Lehigh release as too tame, the river is swift-moving and entertainingly bouncy for the most part, and it lives up to its wild and scenic designation with nary a human habitation the whole way. It is Class II water that offers those so inclined any number of opportunities to challenge themselves by throwing down Class III moves. A bonus is that the shuttle for the Upper is remarkably short (15 minutes one way) and straightforward (from the put-in, Lehigh Gorge Road to Rockport Rd provides a one-left-turn route). The state park's highly improved access points require no carries. (The shuttle for the Lower is longer and somewhat involved, and the takeout has an easy carry.)

Gary and I, driving together, were at the mercy of Google Maps for wayfinding most of the time. Like-minded paddlers should be wary of overreliance in the Lehigh Gorge area, where internet connections quickly come and go (mostly the latter). Learning the Saved Maps function on your phone is well-advised. Gary did buy a nifty, laminated PA roadmap in Ohiopyle, just for old time's sake. It didn't help much as older eyes attempted to parse teeny tiny print, until I thought to invoke the iPhone's Magnifier app.

Speaking of Google Maps, this normally fine application slapped Gary and me with a startling misdirection as we drove from the Lower Yough takeout on Wednesday to a motel we'd chosen for the two nights, the Lodge at Chalk Hill. As we approached Route 40, Google Maps insisted we go left, following up that direction by displaying a 5-mile back roads loop to arrive at the lodge. As Gary wisely pointed out, however, a large sign for the lodge loomed in clear view almost immediately across Route 40—to our right. Boldly ignoring Google Maps, we turned right and arrived at the lodge approximately 700 feet—rather than 5 miles—later.

Speaking some more of Google Maps, think twice before following its advice too slavishly in Central PA. Various interconnections involving Interstates 76, 80, 81, 83, and 476 (to name a few) create routes between the Lehigh Gorge and the DC area that are equal (roughly 4 hours) but for differences of 10-20 minutes, and Google Maps will relentlessly shuffle you among these to save 2 minutes depending on traffic. This, in an area where internet connectivity can be marginal, leaving you scratching your head as you, no doubt paper-mapless, attempt to find your way.

This trip report would be sorely lacking if I didn't note some of the excellent dining opportunities of which we took advantage. Standouts were dinners at Braddock's and the Stone House, both on Route 40 west of the Lower Yough turnoffs; dinner at Valerio's in Albrightsville, near where we stayed for the Lehigh; and breakfast at the Broadway Grille in the Jim Thorpe historic business district. This historic district, downstream and across the river from the Lower Lehigh takeout, is well worth a look around, even if you're not in search of Bananas Foster French Toast (understandably placed under the "Heavy Hitters" heading on the Broadway Grille breakfast menu). In the food delights category, big thanks are due to cookies from Sergey's daughter and Gary's wife.

Speaking of Albrightsville, its Old Stage Road is home to what is beyond doubt the area's most patriotic dachshund, a photo of which is provided below. Albrightsville provided three of us with a well-appointed Airbnb chalet that, in addition to being well-appointed, comfortable, and not very expensive, had every wall—indeed, every nook and cranny—decorated with black bear photos and tchotchkes (see one of the latter, particularly well-suited for paddlers, below). Many Lehigh paddlers camp at Hickory Run State Park (reserving ahead, because it gets crowded), but the Airbnb revolution has given less hearty souls a compelling alternative.

So, fellow DC area boaters, if you don't want to undertake a 9-hour drive to paddle a beautiful but temperamental Georgia river, try a shorter drive to paddle two beautiful, reliable Pennsylvania rivers instead.