Spring time class 5 West Virginia Whitewater
Yeeha!!!!!! the refrain echoing off of the canyon walls in the Big Sandy this week. The Ohiopyle area received 1.5 inches of rain in 24 hours, this equals big time fun for us marginally employed raft guide types. During the early spring we all arrive in Ohiopyle, like lemmings, no one is sure where we have been for the winter or exactly how we survived or managed to navigate back to this place. Anyways we do and this picture sums up why we do
Wilderness Voyageurs staff running Big Sandy Falls in West Virginia
This is Ben Scoville, Wilderness Voyageurs‘ operations manager guiding a raft over Wonder Falls. This is an 18 footer folks!
18 foot Wonder Falls on the Big Sandy
The Big Sandy is a tributary to the Cheat River, and is located about 30 minutes south of Ohiopyle. This river is raftable only after significant rain storms, so it is a real treat. It is one of the prettiest places around. The canyon walls are too steep for it to have been logged, thus it is still covered by Rhododendron and Hemlock.
Typical scenery along the Big Sandy
This time of year, there is not whole lot going on in the rafting world, so we all get to run around and kayak and raft all fo these col out of the way places. If you have rafted with Wilderness Voyageurs before, you can sign up for the Adventurers Club and you may get a chance to visit some of these magical places. The Club, gets notified when their is sufficient natural flow in rivers like the Big Sandy and the Top Yough, or Indian Creek. This is rafting that is not for the faint of heart, all class V, in remote locations, usually involving waterfalls! Do it once and you never know, you might become a lemming like us.
See you on the river 🙂