2023 Paddling Year in Review

JPTolson · 12-25-2023, 07:40 PM

TCT,

It’s that time of year again. Time to review the high points and low points of the paddling year. I hope a number of club members will join in and share their best and best-be-forgotten paddling experiences. Mine are below in chronological order.

High Points in Chronological Order

1. Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek, Elkton to Echo Dell Road

I had not been on this section of Beaver Creek in probably 50 years. So it was like a new run. The level of back and forth dithering the night before the trip over whether there would be enough water or whether to move the trip to the Mahoning/Beaver rivers was a little nerve wracking. Thanks to help from Stan Shiderly and Dave Manevich, we made the right call and a small group of TCT paddlers enjoyed a beautiful run with just barely enough water. The upper section of the run is especially pretty, remote and intimate. There are enough class 1 and 1+ rapids throughout the trip to make things interesting and fun. The rapids near Route 7 are especially neat.

2. Guilford Lake

Though it was not a club trip, this run on a beautiful August Sunday afternoon was the first time out in my boat since late May when my canoe transport vehicle suffered a permanent breakdown. This outing was a test of loading and unloading the boat by myself on a new and taller vehicle with a new rack. So with my friend Joyce Norris, who helped me assemble and install the rack, standing by and ready to call 911 if the canoe landed on top me, I managed to successfully get the boat on and off my vehicle at home and Guilford Lake. In between Joyce and I enjoyed a beautiful three mile traverse of the lake and back.

3. Presque Isle Bay and Lagoons

This paddle made the high points because it was a personal first, a beautiful run, and much different from most club trips. It features the open waters of Presque Isle Bay with the city of Erie in the distance, an interesting small embayment with about 20 floating seasonal dwellings, Perry’s Monument at the tip of the Presque Isle Peninsula, and channels through expansive wetlands between the bay and Lake Erie. The trip was on a beautiful summer day, and a number of paddlers capped off the trip with a swim in Lake Erie at one of the many beaches in Presque Isle State Park. Paddlers who have not done this trip should consider adding it to their paddling bucket list.

4. Pymatuning Creek

Though the date for this trip makes it the club’s frostbite run, the weather was anything but frosty. This trip makes the high points because it was a gorgeous day on a beautiful creek with not a cloud in the sky, air temperature at 50 degrees, and no wind, quite unusual for northeast Ohio in mid-November. The weather was nice enough to attract 10 paddlers for the trip. The virtually current-less pool of water created by the dam below the put in at Andy Dorick Park in Orangeville makes this ideal for an up and back trip (no shuttle required). We paddled upriver 2.5 miles, farther than I recall on previous Pymatuning Creek trips when trees across the creek made it impassable. The trip scores bonus points for the church bells ringing at noon as paddlers gathered at the put in!

5. Chilly Chili Run on the Mahoning River and Eagle Creek

Soon after arriving for the Chilly Chili Run, I met Minnie Wolf, a spry, polar plunging, nonagenarian who greeted me with a friendly fist bump. We first met at Riverfest 2022 where I had given her a canoe ride. And now she wanted to go for another ride with the air temperature about 40 degrees lower! I was happy to oblige and offered Minnie the bow seat of the canoe for the three-mile up and back trip between Canoe City and Eagle Creek. It was such a privilege to have Minnie back in the boat. And she was so appreciative that she gave me a beautiful Christmas ornament.

Low Points in Chronological Order

1. Cuyahoga River

On Memorial Day I drove to Akron to scout the put in, take out, and shuttle route for the club’s Cuyahoga River trip from Cascade Park to Bolanz Road scheduled for late June. Less than 100 yards from the put in on Cuyahoga Street, my car suddenly began making horrible metal-on-metal clanging and grinding sounds. After a $300 tow back home, I learned the next day that the top of the right rear wheel well had rusted through and was now encircling the shock absorber causing the grinding noise when going over the slightest bump. There was no way I would attempt to get such a serious problem fixed on a 19 year-old vehicle. And the chance of getting a new vehicle and rack in time to scout the run and lead the trip was slim. So I was forced to postpone and ultimately cancel the trip.

2. Mahoning Riverfest

About midway through the afternoon of canoe rides for the public, the chatter on one of the club’s marine radios said that cars parked in the old Mr. Anthony’s parking lot were being towed! That was where I had parked the car that I drove to Riverfest! I learned of the towing at the point on the river farthest from the dock at B&O Station. Immediately turning the boat around, I apologized to my guest rider and went into sprint mode to get back to the dock and reach the parking lot as quickly as possible. Fortunately, my car had not been towed and Stuart Smith, a member of Friends of the Mahoning, was there to intervene with any tow truck driver before those parked in the lot could move their vehicles elsewhere.

3. Midwest Canoe Symposium at Camp Butler, Peninsula, Ohio

One of my knees had been giving me some arthritic pain for several weeks prior to the symposium in early September. But I wasn’t going to let it stop me from participating in this annual gathering of freestyle canoeists. So for three hours during a class in the morning of the first day I knelt in my canoe while the pain grew worse. Still undeterred when it came time for the three-hour afternoon class, I soldiered on. Only now it was a struggle to move about in the boat due to the painful knee. So at one frustrating moment when I could not move the knee as necessary, I yanked it to one side of the boat where it “needed” to be. The sudden movement also caused my head and shoulders to cross the gunwale plane and I quickly found myself floating in Lake Litchfield staring at my upside down canoe! It had been awhile, but I had helped to lend credence to the paddling aphorism ‘we are all in between swims.’ LOL!

dm7211961@att.net · 12-26-2023, 11:36 AM

Great write up John Paul. Looking forwards to enjoying more club paddles in 2024. Hopefully we will be able to do the cuyahoga trip this coming year, I was especially looking foward to that trip myself.
I was also wondering if you would be interested in maybe putting on a few classes here and there on freestyle canoeing for club members interested in learning new skills. I would be very interested myself since Ive gotton my canoe, Im trying to increase my skills with a single wooden paddle.
As i was writing this i started thinking you or someone else might have already done this in the past and i just didnt know about it.
I enjoyed the reading
thanks again, JP
Have a great holiday week and New Year

JPTolson · 12-28-2023, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dm7211961@att.net

Looking forward to enjoying more club paddles in 2024. Hopefully we will be able to do the cuyahoga trip this coming year, I was especially looking foward to that trip myself.

Dave, I intend to offer to lead the Cuyahoga River trip from Cascade Metropark to Bolanz Road during the 2024 planning meeting. Hopefully we can pull it off this time.
JP

JPTolson · 12-28-2023, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dm7211961@att.net

I was also wondering if you would be interested in maybe putting on a few classes here and there on freestyle canoeing for club members interested in learning new skills. I would be very interested myself since Ive gotton my canoe, Im trying to increase my skills with a single wooden paddle.
As i was writing this i started thinking you or someone else might have already done this in the past and i just didnt know about it.

Dave,
I am barely beyond a beginning freestyler, but I would be happy to show you what I have learned in freestyle paddling (if I can remember LOL). One way to get a flavor of this canoeing subculture at little cost (just admission to the campground) is to attend the Western Pennsylvania Solo Canoe Rendezvous. It is held annually on the first weekend of June at Cooper’s Lake Campground in Portersville, PA. By glomming onto some of the more experienced freestylers, they will generally be happy to demonstrate freestyle strokes and techniques in an informal setting.

The best way to learn, in my opinion, is to attend the Midwest Canoe Symposium (MCS) in Peninsula, Ohio, the weekend after Labor Day. It is freestyle immersion for three days. It can cost several hundred dollars depending on how many classes you take and whether you camp or stay in the dorm. Meals also add to the cost. But in my opinion, it’s well worth it. Jim Satrape, who used to paddle occasionally with TCT, and his wife, Manon, organize and run MCS.

JP

mfdanko99 · 12-30-2023, 10:40 AM

Mike Danko Highs and Lows paddling of 2023

1-Lehigh River, PA
Jessica and myself took a vacation to Lehigh Valley and made several trip on different parts of the Lehigh Rver
- White Haven to Rockport. We were able to meet up with Matt Brady a club member from New York for this pure whitewater trip. 9 miles @ 795 CFS dam release. Tons of class II and several class III. It tested everyone of my paddle strokes and reading water. One of the best whitewater trips I have paddled. Had a water safety guide come flying up to me in my canoe to make sure I could make this trip at the beginning and once she saw my set up she just started yelling I am old school with air bags and a 16ft canoe. That tickled me pink. Great Trip

-Glen Onoko to Bowmantown, 11.25 Miles @ 819 cfs Several Class I and several class II but a beautiful trip and got to paddle through the town of Jim Thorpe.

2- Beaver Creek
-Getting to do a club trip on the West Fork which is scenic and very wild with some class I water. We had several portages but still a great trip with several newbies to that section

-In August Jessica and myself made a great trip from Sprucevale to Ohioville 11 Miles. Water level was 5.69 which made for some great whitewater specially at fredrickstown

3- Connoquenessing Creek-
Before our vacation we made a trip dpwn the connie to warm up on some whitewater. Always a great whitewater trip 2.13 ft

4-Mad Hatter Race -Grand River
Watching Jessica win her division in the race was an amazing event to watch.

5- Mahoning River Girard to Struthers
I got to paddle tandem with my father-in-law in his aluminum canoe for his first trip with the club. Had a blast in the rapids with him specially Marshall Street Bridge Rapid

6-Frost bite Paddle -Pymatuning Creek
Great Fall Paddle for November with an amazing group that day. Very calm water with beautiful scenery along the way. Did it as a up and back for a total of a 5 mile paddle.

Low Points
1-Ashtabula River
Made several attempts to paddle my favorite whitewater section but never could make it work out due to weather or water levels

2-Mad Hatter Race Grand River.
I missed the cut off for sign ups and was unable to paddle the race.

3-Several Cancelled Club trips
I always look forward to club trip and we had several get canceled and Jessica and myself had to miss the yough trip.

12-25-2023, 07:40 PM	#1
JPTolson Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Salem, Ohio Posts: 902 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	2023 Paddling Year in Review TCT, It’s that time of year again. Time to review the high points and low points of the paddling year. I hope a number of club members will join in and share their best and best-be-forgotten paddling experiences. Mine are below in chronological order. High Points in Chronological Order 1. Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek, Elkton to Echo Dell Road I had not been on this section of Beaver Creek in probably 50 years. So it was like a new run. The level of back and forth dithering the night before the trip over whether there would be enough water or whether to move the trip to the Mahoning/Beaver rivers was a little nerve wracking. Thanks to help from Stan Shiderly and Dave Manevich, we made the right call and a small group of TCT paddlers enjoyed a beautiful run with just barely enough water. The upper section of the run is especially pretty, remote and intimate. There are enough class 1 and 1+ rapids throughout the trip to make things interesting and fun. The rapids near Route 7 are especially neat. 2. Guilford Lake Though it was not a club trip, this run on a beautiful August Sunday afternoon was the first time out in my boat since late May when my canoe transport vehicle suffered a permanent breakdown. This outing was a test of loading and unloading the boat by myself on a new and taller vehicle with a new rack. So with my friend Joyce Norris, who helped me assemble and install the rack, standing by and ready to call 911 if the canoe landed on top me, I managed to successfully get the boat on and off my vehicle at home and Guilford Lake. In between Joyce and I enjoyed a beautiful three mile traverse of the lake and back. 3. Presque Isle Bay and Lagoons This paddle made the high points because it was a personal first, a beautiful run, and much different from most club trips. It features the open waters of Presque Isle Bay with the city of Erie in the distance, an interesting small embayment with about 20 floating seasonal dwellings, Perry’s Monument at the tip of the Presque Isle Peninsula, and channels through expansive wetlands between the bay and Lake Erie. The trip was on a beautiful summer day, and a number of paddlers capped off the trip with a swim in Lake Erie at one of the many beaches in Presque Isle State Park. Paddlers who have not done this trip should consider adding it to their paddling bucket list. 4. Pymatuning Creek Though the date for this trip makes it the club’s frostbite run, the weather was anything but frosty. This trip makes the high points because it was a gorgeous day on a beautiful creek with not a cloud in the sky, air temperature at 50 degrees, and no wind, quite unusual for northeast Ohio in mid-November. The weather was nice enough to attract 10 paddlers for the trip. The virtually current-less pool of water created by the dam below the put in at Andy Dorick Park in Orangeville makes this ideal for an up and back trip (no shuttle required). We paddled upriver 2.5 miles, farther than I recall on previous Pymatuning Creek trips when trees across the creek made it impassable. The trip scores bonus points for the church bells ringing at noon as paddlers gathered at the put in! 5. Chilly Chili Run on the Mahoning River and Eagle Creek Soon after arriving for the Chilly Chili Run, I met Minnie Wolf, a spry, polar plunging, nonagenarian who greeted me with a friendly fist bump. We first met at Riverfest 2022 where I had given her a canoe ride. And now she wanted to go for another ride with the air temperature about 40 degrees lower! I was happy to oblige and offered Minnie the bow seat of the canoe for the three-mile up and back trip between Canoe City and Eagle Creek. It was such a privilege to have Minnie back in the boat. And she was so appreciative that she gave me a beautiful Christmas ornament. Low Points in Chronological Order 1. Cuyahoga River On Memorial Day I drove to Akron to scout the put in, take out, and shuttle route for the club’s Cuyahoga River trip from Cascade Park to Bolanz Road scheduled for late June. Less than 100 yards from the put in on Cuyahoga Street, my car suddenly began making horrible metal-on-metal clanging and grinding sounds. After a $300 tow back home, I learned the next day that the top of the right rear wheel well had rusted through and was now encircling the shock absorber causing the grinding noise when going over the slightest bump. There was no way I would attempt to get such a serious problem fixed on a 19 year-old vehicle. And the chance of getting a new vehicle and rack in time to scout the run and lead the trip was slim. So I was forced to postpone and ultimately cancel the trip. 2. Mahoning Riverfest About midway through the afternoon of canoe rides for the public, the chatter on one of the club’s marine radios said that cars parked in the old Mr. Anthony’s parking lot were being towed! That was where I had parked the car that I drove to Riverfest! I learned of the towing at the point on the river farthest from the dock at B&O Station. Immediately turning the boat around, I apologized to my guest rider and went into sprint mode to get back to the dock and reach the parking lot as quickly as possible. Fortunately, my car had not been towed and Stuart Smith, a member of Friends of the Mahoning, was there to intervene with any tow truck driver before those parked in the lot could move their vehicles elsewhere. 3. Midwest Canoe Symposium at Camp Butler, Peninsula, Ohio One of my knees had been giving me some arthritic pain for several weeks prior to the symposium in early September. But I wasn’t going to let it stop me from participating in this annual gathering of freestyle canoeists. So for three hours during a class in the morning of the first day I knelt in my canoe while the pain grew worse. Still undeterred when it came time for the three-hour afternoon class, I soldiered on. Only now it was a struggle to move about in the boat due to the painful knee. So at one frustrating moment when I could not move the knee as necessary, I yanked it to one side of the boat where it “needed” to be. The sudden movement also caused my head and shoulders to cross the gunwale plane and I quickly found myself floating in Lake Litchfield staring at my upside down canoe! It had been awhile, but I had helped to lend credence to the paddling aphorism ‘we are all in between swims.’ LOL! Last edited by JPTolson; 01-06-2024 at 08:43 AM.

12-26-2023, 11:36 AM	#2
dm7211961@att.net Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Austintown Posts: 15 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Great write up Great write up John Paul. Looking forwards to enjoying more club paddles in 2024. Hopefully we will be able to do the cuyahoga trip this coming year, I was especially looking foward to that trip myself. I was also wondering if you would be interested in maybe putting on a few classes here and there on freestyle canoeing for club members interested in learning new skills. I would be very interested myself since Ive gotton my canoe, Im trying to increase my skills with a single wooden paddle. As i was writing this i started thinking you or someone else might have already done this in the past and i just didnt know about it. I enjoyed the reading thanks again, JP Have a great holiday week and New Year

12-30-2023, 10:40 AM	#5
mfdanko99 Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Champion, OH Posts: 1,267 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0	Mike Danko Highs and Lows paddling of 2023 1-Lehigh River, PA Jessica and myself took a vacation to Lehigh Valley and made several trip on different parts of the Lehigh Rver - White Haven to Rockport. We were able to meet up with Matt Brady a club member from New York for this pure whitewater trip. 9 miles @ 795 CFS dam release. Tons of class II and several class III. It tested everyone of my paddle strokes and reading water. One of the best whitewater trips I have paddled. Had a water safety guide come flying up to me in my canoe to make sure I could make this trip at the beginning and once she saw my set up she just started yelling I am old school with air bags and a 16ft canoe. That tickled me pink. Great Trip -Glen Onoko to Bowmantown, 11.25 Miles @ 819 cfs Several Class I and several class II but a beautiful trip and got to paddle through the town of Jim Thorpe. 2- Beaver Creek -Getting to do a club trip on the West Fork which is scenic and very wild with some class I water. We had several portages but still a great trip with several newbies to that section -In August Jessica and myself made a great trip from Sprucevale to Ohioville 11 Miles. Water level was 5.69 which made for some great whitewater specially at fredrickstown 3- Connoquenessing Creek- Before our vacation we made a trip dpwn the connie to warm up on some whitewater. Always a great whitewater trip 2.13 ft 4-Mad Hatter Race -Grand River Watching Jessica win her division in the race was an amazing event to watch. 5- Mahoning River Girard to Struthers I got to paddle tandem with my father-in-law in his aluminum canoe for his first trip with the club. Had a blast in the rapids with him specially Marshall Street Bridge Rapid 6-Frost bite Paddle -Pymatuning Creek Great Fall Paddle for November with an amazing group that day. Very calm water with beautiful scenery along the way. Did it as a up and back for a total of a 5 mile paddle. Low Points 1-Ashtabula River Made several attempts to paddle my favorite whitewater section but never could make it work out due to weather or water levels 2-Mad Hatter Race Grand River. I missed the cut off for sign ups and was unable to paddle the race. 3-Several Cancelled Club trips I always look forward to club trip and we had several get canceled and Jessica and myself had to miss the yough trip. __________________ Mahoning River-Home of the Trumbull Canoe Trails 1975-2024 49 years