Red Creek ELF Run - June 6, 2009

Each time I run Red Creek I tell myself that I'll never run it that low again, and each time I run it lower. Last weekend I ran it at the lowest level yet with Sean Devine, Bobby Miller, Seth Chapelle, and Jeff Wolfram. Despite having virtually no water, the creek was still remarkably enjoyable.

Red Creek drains the Dolly Sods Wilderness of West Virginia and is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I still remember hiking into the creek for the first time in October 2006, when the fall colors were at their peak and I felt like I was walking through a gumball machine. Last year I caught it during blueberry season and gorged myself on the way in. Basically whenever you go to Red Creek it's a special occasion. This time we had 75 degree weather and sunny skies, which made the lack of water less bothersome.

Sean Devine on the 2.2 mile hike into Red Creek via the Blackbird Knob trail.

Sean and Seth at the put-in. You can see a rock dam that hikers have built to aid stream crossings.

Seth on the first big rapid, Super Slide.

Bobby running the Clapper, a 15 foot waterfall onto a rock slab. The rest of us walked it to save our boats from unnecessary abuse.

Seth and Sean airing out the boof at Improvement #2. This rapid used to be a mandatory portage until a hurricane rearranged the boulders in 2003. Now it's one of the best boofs in WV!

Bobby running the Devil's Cauldron (aka Mood Ring). He put together a cool video of the creek, which you can watch here.

After grabbing a delicious meal at Hellbender's in Davis, we bumped into Louis Geltman as he was biking the Upper Blackwater shuttle. He and Andrew McEwan had just run it at around 700 cfs. Yikes! We camped at the North Fork and joined them for another lap on the Upper B the next morning before heading back to DC. It was a great weekend in West Virginia (as usual)!