Southern Invasion of PA
| River: | Yough |
| Skill: | Intermediate+ |
| Trip Date: | 07/17/2026 |
Participants: ( note – not everyone paddled all 4 days):
Alton Chewing -K1
Julie Vogel – K1
Shiloh Avery -K1 & Shredder
Greg Moon – K1
Kim Halley – K1
Kathy Cusick – OC1
Dave Stockdill – OC1
John McDonald – K1 & Shredder
Jim Wendling – K1
Mark Hoffman – Shredder & K1
Lee Keller – OC1
David Huang – K1
Les Hurrelbrink – K1
Terry Markoff (co-coordinator) – Shredder
Shella Chapelle – K1
Doug Willenborg – OC1 (co-coordinator)
Brian Winkler – K1
Liz Deardorff – IK1
Before I get into the trip report I want to thank everyone who participated. The people involved made this not only an easy trip to coordinate, but they made it safe and fun. Everyone had the right skills and the experienced Yough/Stony paddlers helped the first timers out with the lines. Everyone stayed together as a group which made for an easy 4 days of paddling. I had a blast.
For those of you who have never paddled the Lower Yough, or have only paddled it on a weekend, there is a reason why weekday trips on the Yough are a pleasure. Not only are there fewer paddlers and rafts, but there is no launch fee or shuttle bus. So we were able to run shuttle and park vehicles at the normal shuttle bus loading area.
Day one – Lower Yough (Level 1.88, water temp 67): Ignoring the leaking shredder the day was uneventful with a few exceptions. The first was at railroad rapid where a few people dropped on the edge of Charlie’s Washing Machine. Fortunately they were on the edge so they just got a brief spin cycle (everyone hit their rolls) instead of a complete wash cycle. The second rapid that caused some concern was Dimple. It’s always a bad place to swim, but we knew there was a large strainer in the river below Dimple on river left. Easy to avoid provided you’re in your boat, but a cause for concern if you’re swimming. So to minimize risk we sent the experienced boaters down first so they could set safety. Everyone ran Dimple to perfection. That was not the case for the next rapid which was Bottle of Wine. Somehow Pirate Terry ended up in the water in the calm section above Bottle of Wine. The story they are telling is they hit a rock, but falling out of a shredder in calm water doesn’t sound right. I’m guessing there was some kind of a mutiny going on between Pirate Terry and Pirate Mark. Pirates really should not ground their craft in calm seas. Anyway, team shredder got it together and managed to successfully run Bottle of Wine. There was one other swim at Bottle of Wine after 3 failed roll attempts. The problem with Bottle of Wine is that there is a rock near the center of the hole.
Day 2 – Lower Yough again this time with the $10 launch&shuttle fee(level 2.08, water temp 66). Rain in the area, but magically we only got some light rain while on the river. The other good news was that Terry was able to get the shredder patched overnight. Not only do they build shredders in Confluence, but if you’re lucky they do emergency repairs. Shiloh joined Pirate Terry on the shredder and Mark moved to a K1. Actually Mark decided to take out at the put-in and apparently it was the boat’s fault. Once again an uneventful paddle until railroad. Another close encounter with Charlie’s Washing Machine and another roll. Don’t go there! The name is accurate. Team Shredder also got hung up a bit at Railroad. Another swim at Bottle of Wine. Same line, same result. The only odd thing was after the rain hit the fog rolled in and it made it feel like we were back on the Nanny.
Day 3 – Stony Creek up in Johnstown (level 961 CFS) – Thunderstorms hit over night and spiked the Stony at over 1400 CFS. Joy! Everyone did a great job of checking e-mails overnight and we were able to head up towards Johnstown and run the Stony. The biggest surprise was that there were no swims or even rolls. I thought for sure Pipeline would get someone. And, we had perfect timing to be in some Jeff Macklin photos.
Day 4 – Lower Yough (Level 1.8, water temp 67) – Down to 9 paddlers. To be honest due to time constraints I took out at the Loop and the rest of the group ran the entire river.
Special thanks to:
Ruth Willenborg for the pictures of Railroad rapid from the GAP trail bridge
Terry Markoff for helping out with the trip
Jeff Macklin for pictures from the Stony
Liz Deardorff for instructions on how to line up Pipeline
Dave Stockdill for organizing the drive up to the Stony
John McDonald for Yough pictures
And finally for those of you who venture up to the Confluence, WV, Ohiopyle, or the Johnstown area there is a rivers.run list named “Confluence”.
