lower ashtabula tomorrow 9/30/14
 

A group of paddlers that spend most of their time on French Creek in PA are headed for the lower ashtabula tomorrow due to lack of water in Northwest PA and just to explore a new site. The group is meeting at the Sheetz at the intersection of Rt.20 and Rt.11 at 10:30 AM, if you are interested in joining up with them.

May want to check with Mike Danko on this board to get his opinion on whether there will be enough water. He uses the gage on Conneaut Creek when he paddles the whitewater section of the Ashtabula to estimate if there is enough water. Maybe the section that your group plans to paddle is farther downriver?

Be Warned, you are going to have very very little water. USGS gauge at Conneaut is .44 ft. U need at least 1.5 on that gauge for the Dewey Rd gauge to be at 1ft. From Indian Park to the Harbor you need at lease 1ft to paddle the lower section.

You are better off with Grand river from harpersville to 528 hidden valley park.
it is at 1.53 ft and would be low but do able.

Mike Danko

If you're hard up for some river time you can try to get on the Clarion below Piney dam during their releases. It looks like they usually get about 3 or 4 hours of decent water levels, and it usually happens during the afternoon.

You can check the water levels:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/uv...agency_cd=USGS

Or read the recreational assessment, saying you're allowed to drive in on the dam road, park roadside, and access the river below the dam for boating:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...76477589,d.aWw

I used to do this on occasion. It's not a long trip, but it's secluded and pretty. I dug up a number that I used to call for release info - it may or may not be good any longer: (814) 226-8630 (or there may be a phone number in the recreational assessment - I didn't read every word).

You can take out at Parker, on the Allegheny just downstream from the Clarion mouth.

EDIT: If you want an easier put-in than the haul down the hill by the dam, put in at the mouth of Deer Creek off of Huckleberry Road - easy access and only cuts off a short part of the run.

Steve Z

just now found all the great replies
 

I'm a little late in finding all this great help, but some of it will be very useful in the future. We had like 18 paddlers, and had a good day. We put in at a park near the hospital and paddled from there out under the two drawbridges, then first to the left behind the rockwall into the marsh area, and then out past the lighthouse into the lake. When we returned we paddled upstream to find it impassable only a few hundred yards up as you indicated.
The information about the dam releases was very interesting and I will have to persue that.