Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek
 

Saw the information below on the Columbiana County Park District Facebook page. As of May 1, there was no name or contact information provided for the trip leader.
JP

MAY
11

Kayak and Canoe Run Trip
Public · Hosted by Columbiana County Park District

Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 8 AM – 11 AM

Teegarden Road Covered Bridge

Are you ready to brave the Middle Fork of the Little Beaver Creek? We will put in our craft at the Covered Bridge on Eagleton Road and go downstream to the Lisbon canoe launch area by the PL&W railroad station. This event depends on the weather and creek levels.

Last year's (2018) trip
 

I "tried" to do this trip last year (2018). Be aware that this is NOT an organized with a shuttle as you might expect with an event listed on a county park website. I was unable to contact a trip leader via the park office and the phone number they gave me did not return my message. I'd like to think they would do better this year.

This was discussed at length last year on TCT. See link below. Also, the story by Erin (erbego) is quite entertaining although it involved an unfortunate accident.

--Ken

http://www.trumbullcanoetrails.org/f...ht=middle+fork

Thanks for the reminder Ken.

I asked yesterday (5/1) about contact information for a trip leader on the park district's Facebook page, but there has been no reply yet. I will post the contact information here if I receive a reply.

Jess and myself will be their (have Saturday off)
We can always do our own shuttle.

If there is enough water we could paddle down to Elkton launch

Lin and I did a bike ride from Lisbon to Leetonia and back this past Wednesday, May 1st, along that section of Little Beaver Creek on the Little Beaver Greenway Trail. The water in the creek had a rather unusual green tint to it the entire time we were next to it on the bike path. No idea why, just thought I would let you know. Farm run off? Algae? Minerals in creek bed?
On the other hand it looked to be clear of obstructions and was flowing at at good rate.

Grimms gage 5-26-18 12 noon 3.49 ft (368 cfs)
 

Ref: Grimms gage 5-26-18 12 noon was 3.49 ft (368 cfs).

On 5-24-18 12 noon (when I scouted) Grimms gage was 589 (3.99 ft) and declining slowly. Middle Fork was low but looked doable in small boats.

Tough to judge level from the Grimms gage as it's so far downstream.
Attachment 193

For this reason it would be useful to have a painted gage on the bridge abutment at Teegarden.

Change in meeting time
 

The Columbiana County Park District has changed the time for the trip from Teegarden to Lisbon on the Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek this Saturday, May 11th. Below is taken from the district's Facebook page earlier this evening (May 6th):


Saturday's Canoe/Kayak Trip Will Start at 9 a.m., not 8 a.m. But note, this trip depends on the weather and creek level. I will post on Friday night to let everyone know if it's on.

9am Tuesday
 

Thanks for update. I can NOT see any such update even if logged in.

Grimms gage was 4.14 ft at 9 am (Tu) and dropping about 2" a day. Might be some showers/thunderstorms Thursday? I'd guess that 4.0 ft would be the absolute lowest for small boats (with some walking on gravel bars) but as we keep saying... the gage downstream is too far away and un-reliable for this section.

I would suggest that JP go down to Teagarden about 6am Sat and measure how high up on his ANKLE the water is.

Oh...while you're painting marks on the bridge, maybe you could install a webcam ? That would be handy.

Based on the FB message, it appears that there is a trip leader. However, his or her identity remains a mystery. Below is the link to the park district page. Scroll down the page a bit to see the update on trip starting time.

https://www.facebook.com/CCParkDistrict/

Don't count on a 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning scouting report:1:. But I will post anything I see from the park district on Friday evening.

Yesterday (5/8/19) I scouted the low-water bridge immediately downstream of the Route 164 bridge over the Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek in Lisbon. The low-water bridge is NOT EASILY VISIBLE from the Route 164 bridge. So I pulled into the business on river left and, with permission of one of the employees, walked down to the bridge and to the creek beneath. The employee stressed NOT to drive across the bridge because its condition is questionable.

Little Beaver was running 3.99 on the gage at Grimm's Bridge, and I estimate there was six feet of clearance from the water to the bottom of the bridge. There was an eddy immediately upriver of the bridge on both sides of the creek. The eddy on river right would probably remain with an increase of a foot or two in the water level. The one on river left might wash out. The current was moderately swift. Assuming that the clearance will change in direct proportion to the river level gage reading (and that may not be a valid assumption), clearance would be approximately five feet with a river level of 5.0, four feet with a level of 6.0, three feet with a level of 7.0 etc.

There was also a piece of wood sticking out about four feet from the bridge structure on river right, about one to two feet beneath the bottom of the bridge. So steer clear of it.

It would be possible to carry around the bridge if necessary from the eddy on river right, though putting back in will be a bit rough and steep. The bank is cemented for dozens of yards down river from the bridge with a very rough aggregate.

The moral of the story is to be aware and, if possible, to scout the bridge before putting on the river, especially if the water is above 5 feet and rising. Having good boat control for a quick eddy turn, if necessary, will also be helpful.

I talked to Ron today he scouted about a mile hike on the creek he found three to four portage's in the first mile of the trip because of that he is not going to paddle I also will not be paddling as I am fighting bronchitis this week

Mark and I are planning on coming if the creek conditions are acceptable. Let us know what time we are meeting. I'm really not familiar with the Teegarden Bridge but I'll google it. We did a section of the Little Beaver from Lusk Lock to the Pioneer Village in the park and it was a walk through the rocks and took us forever. It was quite beautiful with lots of wildlife probably laughing at us dragging our kayaks.

Kathy and Mark

Keep in mind that this is a trip sponsored by the Columbiana County Park District, not Trumbull Canoe Trails. So the park district is making the call on the trip. They are supposed to post something on their Facebook page tonight. I will try to post anything here that the park district posts of Facebook.

Late this afternoon (5/10) the gage is reading 5.22 and rising. Anyone who goes on the trip would be wise to scout the creek underneath the low water bridge just downriver from the Route 164 bridge or ask the trip leader for a report on it.

Beaver Creek Run
 

I am planning to be there in the morning. As long as we have 2 vehicles from our group we can do our own shuttle. I had talked to Mike at Sundays trip, but looks like he won't be there now. Hopefully we can work something out.

I'm going to wake up early and if i feel decent I'll probably come down but if I don't feel good I'll stay home

Been really wanting to do this section for a long time

Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek
 

I'm planning to be at the Teegarden Bridge parking lot at 9:00 regardless of what the county park district decides. (They have not posted a trip status update.) So that makes Stan, Kathy, Mark, me, and possibly Mike from TCT that I am aware of. There should be enough water, but as Mike mentioned, Ron said there will be some wood to carry around.

JP

I had hoped to do this section but need the time to pack for an upcoming trip.

-Ken

Mark and I have decided that we are not going to come because of the various portages. Mark has had a very tough week at work with some days having only 1-2 hours sleep. He needs relaxing and fun and this doesn't sound like it's going to be that in spite of the good company. Hope you all have a good time.

Kathy

Beaver Creek Teagarden
 

Well JP and I made it. We decided to stay with the park's run. 2 from TCT and six for the park. Grimm's was at 5'2" and water level was perfect. Took about 2 1/2 hours, including time to drain a few damp kayaks. All in all another fantastic day on the water. AND MIKEY MISSED ANOTHER CHANCE. See you all on the river.

Great trip on the Middle For of LBC!
 

I have to echo Stan's assessment of a great trip on the hard-to-catch section of the Middle Fork from Teegarden to Lisbon. It's a very pretty run. High point for me was the heron rookery about half way on river right. Herons were actively coming and going. Lots of wildflowers, too. Also had a glimpse of a bald eagle.

There were a couple carnage incidents–one less than a minute into the trip and another about five minutes later. The current is fairly swift for a good part of the run with a number of class I and a few low class II rapids. We never had to carry around a downed tree, but there was one we kind of slid over and another we had to walk through some low water or scrape bottom to get around.

One interesting angle was the shuttle. We never set shuttle before getting on the water. The trip leader just pulled out his phone once we reached Lisbon and called a fellow who is associated with the county park district who showed up a few minutes later and took us back to our cars at the put in. Just like calling a cab without the fare!

About the only downside was that the trip ended too soon on such a beautiful day.

Beaver Creek Teagarden
 

Follow JP's link to Columbiana Park facebook. Someone posted pics already.

Entertaining, Ken? Really? LOL :D

Glad to hear a couple of you made it down yesterday. Wish I could have been there! Here is a little more "entertainment" for ya'll. More LOL. (No hard feelings, Ken.)

Last summer after the break healed I was able to get back in my boat, but had to start with 15 minutes at a time. By the time I had built up to about of an hour and a half on lakes I still didn't have enough range of motion to even consider a river. Still had lots of pain in one spot and when a cortisone shot didn't help in September I ended up having another surgery in late October. Fast forward to today and I am still in therapy in a desperate attempt to regain my range of motion and muscle strength.

Unfortunately, early last autumn my cats got flees and I spent 6 weeks vacuuming top to bottom every 3 days, finally stopping the day before my surgery. This gave me tennis elbow in BOTH elbows, which showed up right after the surgery when I was totally dependent on the right arm for everything. When you have tennis elbow the first thing you do is rest the elbow by not doing movements which irritate it (which is just about everything you do), then you start doing eccentric exercises. Due to the surgery on the left wrist I could not rest my right elbow so it became super painful, too painful for me to be able to do my wrist exercises. I was now in a catch-22, needing to rest the elbows yet exercise the wrist and unable to do either. On top of that my wrist therapist was afraid of aggravating my left elbow by doing therapy on my wrist that I couldn't do for myself. Despondent, I gave up all therapy for a month before making a very good decision to change therapists. I knew the elbows would eventually heal, but I was working on a fast approaching deadline for the scar tissue in the wrist.

As of today I cannot kayak at all due to the elbows, which are still painful but beginning to improve. I hope to start paddling short distances again in a few weeks. Therapy for the wrist is excruciating, but I am making progress. Though the doctor thinks I'll only get 60-75% of my range of motion back, the therapist thinks he can eventually get me to 100%. He says I'll be able to do whitewater again. Sure hope he is right! He is now able to push and pull my wrist to the same range of motion as the other wrist but my muscles are lagging way behind to do it myself. It is normal for active ROM to lag behind passive ROM by about 3 weeks but due to the tennis elbow my strengthening exercises have been extremely limited. Thank goodness the TE is finally healing and I can now work on strengthening!!

Barring another mishap, I have set my sights on joining you guys somewhere on the water sometime the first half of this summer. I've enjoyed reading this thread. Ken, you definitely made me laugh. Mike, sorry you missed your opportunity yesterday. Let's both plan on completing this scenic stretch next year! Ken, you are invited to join us. :-P

Ouch!
 

Erin... Wow! What are we going to do with you??

You might have to look into a whitewater Hobie!

Ken

Well, I'm glad someone got to do this section finally (with the park). So was this trip really as un-organized as it appeared?

And the shuttle... Hummmm.... We need to get Mike to try that!

Ken (again)

Actually I've got my eye on the creature craft inflatable roll cage. Talk about fun!

Wow! Just saw this discussion and read about Erin's adventure last year- pretty damn scary hope she's doing better now!

Hi JP....Thx for the great info. With the gauge at 5.2, how much clearance did you have under the low bridge downstream from 164?

With the gage at 5.2 and falling, we had about five feet of clearance at the low water bridge downstream of the Route 164 bridge.

Nice Pedal-n-Paddle trip
 

Floated this on Fri after getting some excellent advice from JP.

Gage was at 6.5 and falling.

Scraped in about 3 spots. Can’t imaging doing this when it’s much lower. Lots of spots looked pretty shallow.

Had about 5’ clearance below the low water bridge.

Took us about 2 hrs, but wasted 1/2 an hour fighting a tree across the river.

Two trees completely across the river. One a few minutes after Teegarden. Was able to duck under. One about half way. No way over or under. Water was about 3.5 ft and fast. Amateur mistake got me swamped. Had to portage around on right bank. Luckily it was flat and just weeds and mud.

Beautiful scenery. Great flow. Very little padding required.

For anyone considering this trip, want to share two excellent pieces of advice that I got from JP.

1. Scout the low water bridge for clearance and especially for wood caught under the bridge. River is very narrow and fast. I didn’t see any eddies. River banks are steep and jagged concrete. Portage is impossible in my opinion. I’d hate to come down there and find a problem. Park in the feed store at the NE corner and checkout the bridge.

2. Scout the Lisbon takeout to be sure you can recognize it from the water. Very small bare spot on the left bank. It’s immediately after the red Market St bridge. Tree growing in the water and a 12” rock marks the spot. River pretty fast here too, so be ready to paddle hard left when you pass the bridge. Nice eddy that easily fit a couple kayaks or more. Be careful when stepping out. Had a small ledge with about 1’ of water, but slipped off and had 2’ or more. Nice gravel ramp up to parking.

We considered taking out at Willow Grove, but bank was about 3’ vertical mud. Didn’t look like fun.

Really easy pedal-n-paddle. Might be one of the nicest bike trails in OH. Nice to have a picnic table to sit on to change into the water shoes. Very nice to have a bathroom at the end to change out of wet clothes.

We did this section because the main river in the park was too high. No complaints as a backup trip. Glad we did it. Thx JP for the original post that caught our eye and the great advice....Mike

p.s. If you find a yellow and blue bilge pump or gray and white polar bottle, they’re mine. Last time I saw them, they were headed for the gulf :-)

Need for Painted Gage
 

Thanks for the trip report, Mike. Sounds like you had a good run despite a little carnage.

This is a good illustration of the need for a painted gage on the Teegarden Bridge. Ran this section (Teegarden to Lisbon) when the Grimm's Bridge USGS gage was 5.2 a couple weeks ago, and we had probably three to four inches of water. The GB gage is just too far downstream for it to provide a reasonably accurate measure of paddling zero. Flow entering from the North Fork, West Fork, Elk Run, etc. below Lisbon can lead one to believe there is plenty of water at Teegarden based on the level at Grimm's Bridge, but that may not necessarily be the case. The river at Teegarden might already be too low by the time water from the upper watershed reaches the USGS gage.