Mahoning 11-11-12

[mfdanko99]

Chuck Miller is unable to post so he called and ask if I could.

Sunday at 11am meet at the B & O Station downtown Youngstown.
530 Mahoning Avenue, Youngstown Ohio

and then do the shuttle and pull out in Loweville on West Water Street.

Chuck would like to be in the water by noon.

Mike Danko

[mfdanko99]

I will be paddling sunday, but do to my ankle and putting pressure on it I might pull out at the industrial bridge, Also I might have a newbie with me who never paddled so going that far might not be fun for a rookie.

I will deside on sunday
Mike Danko

[champ]

Patty and I will finally be able to make a paddle with the club

[Greyhounds2]

Right now, we are planning on coming. Unless I can get off work a little early, 11am is going to be tight for us but we'll try to make it.

Hopefully this section is good for novices.


Mark & Kathy Murtha

[mfdanko99]

Greyhounds,

As long as you are there by 11:30 at the latest you should be ok. At 11 is the meeting time then the shuttle down to loweville and back is a 1/2 hr.

Chuck will have his trailer so long as you are at the put in by 11:30 or so chuck can load your boats on his trailer and give you a ride back to your car when we are done.
Mike Danko

[Greyhounds2]

Hi Mike,

We are not going to be able to make it tomorrow. I threw my back out bending over to tie my boots. It's crappy getting old. I wanted Mark to go and I'd just wait in the van but he's staying home.

What a bummer to miss such a nice day. Hope you all have a great paddle.


Kathy Murtha

[mfdanko99]

Bummer about your back, I hope it's ok. I more than understand that it is crappy getting old. I sprain my ankle and it is taking longer than usual to heal due to getting older my self. I can't use my kayaks yet, I paddled my canoe.

Nice paddle on a pretty day
Total of 10 boats in two groups- group A 6 kayaks
Group b 3 kayaks & 1 Canoe

Mike

[debra witowski]

Sunday was a beautiful day, some even thought of it as swimming weather in November. Mike's Dad who said I hate skirts, every time I wear a skirt I swim, swam. Patty who had never paddled running water, charged right through the rapid, yelling "I want to go." She was on a sit on top kayak and discovered unless she paddled it was a sit in water. Chuck got most his group through the rapid relatively dry, his brand new paddler was wearing cotton sweatshirt and jeans. Then Mike came sailing through the rapid in a canoe, two ladies following. Mike gets up on a rock with throw bag in hand and motions for the first lady to come down, she makes it through the rapid, but the eddy current grabs her and the paddle doesn't go down, she rolls over. Mike throws her the rope and she looks at him on the rock through the rapid and I know she thinking that is the last place I want to be. I have to give her credit, she kept the sun glasses on through the whole ordeal, She grabs a boat and gets towed to the bank empties out the boat and gets back in. Other lady won't even get near the rapid she was about block away when she decides to walk around,NOTHING WRONG WITH WALK AROUND I DO IT. Chuck then decides we got to go we got miles to go to get to our cars.But caution won over trills when we portaged around the dam at the baseball fields, Chuck's boat mde it over without him it got stuck some, But then my boat has made it through Rooster Tail without me. I was glad to see Mike's post today so we know he still alive, but are either of those girls still talking to him?

[jimbo]

Originally Posted by debra witowski

Sunday was a beautiful day, some even thought of it as swimming weather in November. Mike's Dad who said I hate skirts, every time I wear a skirt I swim, swam. Patty who had never paddled running water, charged right through the rapid, yelling "I want to go." She was on a sit on top kayak and discovered unless she paddled it was a sit in water. Chuck got most his group through the rapid relatively dry, his brand new paddler was wearing cotton sweatshirt and jeans. Then Mike came sailing through the rapid in a canoe, two ladies following. Mike gets up on a rock with throw bag in hand and motions for the first lady to come down, she makes it through the rapid, but the eddy current grabs her and the paddle doesn't go down, she rolls over. Mike throws her the rope and she looks at him on the rock through the rapid and I know she thinking that is the last place I want to be. I have to give her credit, she kept the sun glasses on through the whole ordeal, She grabs a boat and gets towed to the bank empties out the boat and gets back in. Other lady won't even get near the rapid she was about block away when she decides to walk around,NOTHING WRONG WITH WALK AROUND I DO IT. Chuck then decides we got to go we got miles to go to get to our cars.But caution won over trills when we portaged around the dam at the baseball fields, Chuck's boat mde it over without him it got stuck some, But then my boat has made it through Rooster Tail without me. I was glad to see Mike's post today so we know he still alive, but are either of those girls still talking to him?

Now that?s a story right there, great trip report!

[rickjamm]

I?ve enjoyed surfing this forum and hearing everyone?s personal experiences of traveling the Mahoning River and this is my first post in this forum. I work in the downtown area and my office is perched with a distant view of the river and it?s something I've wanted to do for some time.

This past Sunday with the unseasonably warm weather & I persuaded my girlfriend to accompany me with navigating the river. We put-in our borrowed canoe at the B & O Station and proceeded downstream.

It was surreal navigating downstream and I was finally living my dream.

As we crossed under the Mahoning Avenue Bridge we approached the Marshall Street Bridge & observed an orange sign on the north bank of the river. Paddling towards the sign we read it and discovered it was an arrow pointing towards the 'other' side of the river as being the 'safe route' thru an approaching rapid / dam.

We managed towards the south bank, but by now we were nearly over the fall. In hindsight we should've paddled upstream and back towards the rapid to give it an honest run. But instead, no sooner we straightened the canoe up to head into the rapid did we tip and enjoy our first swim of the river.

Floating in the water (wearing our life-vests of course) on top of our overturned canoe 10 minutes into our maiden voyage was a disappointment. But looking back I wouldn't have done it any other way as we laughed and joked kicking our legs in the current safely towards the southern bank.

It makes for a funny story --- As they say its not about the smiles not the miles LOL...

I've been a resident of this county all of my life and the Mahoning River is a valuable and untapped resource to our community & I am looking forward to my next river adventure.

*I am taking a kayak next time & hopefully able to hook up with planned group trip?