With the Lower heading towards going above 3 feet, what is our cutoff for running the Tandemonium? I am asking this because goofing off and possibly swimming at 1.5 feet is one thing, but swimming at 3.5 feet is a whole nuther iss-eww. The Casselman is dropping rather slowly, the Stony has got juice, so the rain event was significant.
I ain't scairt for myself, but the point of all of this is safety FIRST, fun a very close SECOND, and kayaker aggravation THIRD, IMO.
How do we agree what is OK and what is pull-the-plug territory? When do we resolve this? I'll be watching the USGS PA realtime gauge very closely this afternoon.
Ironic that I would post this question after the drought we had all summer.
Doesn't Bloomington run this weekend, too? I know that it's no Lower, but it is a good fall-back.
Pete and I may have to pull the plug if levels remain up. I am not sure what our personal PtP level is - but we have not done anything harder than Bloomington/Lehigh and we haven't paddled tandem in several years -
Would Stonycreek be a possible alternative if levels stay up on both rivers? Seems like it could be a fun run in open boat - but I am basically a kayaker/Shredderer so what do I know???
I have not done the tony River since the last tectonic plate shift. But I don't remember it being harder than the Lower Yough. PAC would know for sure, but I think he is on vacation somewhere, so that's an unknown at this point. Anybody else know?
I seem to recall that the Ferndale minus 1.75 gives the Hollsople Bridge Gauge. You want that bridge gauge to be about 2 to 2.5 feet, I THINK.
Too many unknowns on my end, so unless somebody else chimes in, we may not want to make that trek to unfavorable (low OR high) conditions.
Well I sure would not have guessed we would be having this conversation!!!!
I would expect that the LY would drop pretty fast, IF things have been as dry there as they are here. BUT it has not peaked as of 11AM, though the curve is starting to flatten which hopefully means it is almost topped out.
Casselman has already peaked and is headed down - My uneducated guess is it will contribute 400CFS tomorrow. Of course if it rains again, all bets are off.
Jay you are correct about the Stony - minus 1.75 get the bridge gage.
2.75 on the bridge is nice. Difficulty similar to LY but I find the character more Kitzmiller like with lots of ledges/holes. Though my guess is it will drop pretty quick as it is starting to do right now and I expect it will be under 2ft (converted tomorrow).
As to a cut off level - each will have their own - heck 2.7 would be GREAT IMHO
Any locals out there care to chime in as to a prediction?
Stoney Creek is a great run, but it is a lot tighter that the LY. I'd feel more comfortable on the LY at around 3 that on the Stoney (with decent water in it) in a tandam boat.
The guage had not peaked last time I checked but the slope of the graph was decreasing rapidly. My prediction is for a peak a little higher than 3 and it will drop to between 2.5-2.7 by the time we get on. Let just keep an eye on it and make the call early tomorrow morning. Hopefuly enough of us know each others cell#s to do a phone relay.
Worse case scenerio: Bring the solo boats as backup.
Stonycreek at 4.5 Ferndale (2.75 bridge) was great fun in a solo open boat. More continuous than the LY, but I didn't think it was any harder. Stonycreek at 3.5 Ferndale (which supposedly is still a foot above 'minimum' on AW's site) is sheer boat abuse. I can't imagine people running it at that level, let alone another foot lower. But maybe the locals know about some hidden access points that let them do park and play. At 3.5 the play features were still nice - it just was a bash/scrape fest getting to them.
Wish I wasn't working this weekend. I love the Yough at ~3.5.
The Casselman is dropping rather slowly, the Stony has got juice, so the rain event was significant. 
Even ran Whitehorse twice - catching differant eddies....
