Pictures from today Big Piney 7-17-10

[Phil W.]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosmicdude ... 399315223/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[justanovice]

Beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing. I have never been there, but the photos are enticing!!

[Jaytee]

Thanks so much for putting these up. We've not been to the Piney and were torn about where to go today... wound up at upper Buffalo. But your pics make this a definite "to do" once we are blessed with rising waters... whether again this summer or this fall.

I've only read about the Piney and its range of water from I-II+ but looks like your group had a range from rec kayaks and canoes to ww boats so it sounds about perfect for us.

[Donna]

Thanks for sharing. Here's another from today. Longpool to 164 was fun also!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46186108@N ... 524674066/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Waterman]

Nice pics. I also chose to do the upper buffalo today instead of the Piney, which is my favorite stream. What surprises me about these pics is how muddy the water at the Piney was. The buffalo was muddy today, but the piney looks like it was much more. Oh well. Cannot complain if there is this much water in July.

[Cowper]

We were there, but we thought we had the river to ourselves!

What did you do, lauch before noon or something?

That mud? Yeah, summer rains always bring murkier floating, but WOW! Something new must be going on in the watershed - further speculation to be saved for another thread, or maybe even until I have a fact or two (what a concept....)

[Wildwood]

Four of us went from Helton's to Longpool this afternoon. Got a late start, was getting dark when we took out. What a ride! It was my first trip on Big Piney. :shock: Muddy, fast, LOTS of wave trains. FUN. Thanks for the pics, since we didn't get any.
Jan

[71dartswinger]

We took our first trip on the Big Piney on Saturday. The gauge was 3.8' at Long Pool when we took out there. We almost did the Upper Buffalo, but we were glad we did the Piney. Except for the Louisiana brown water, it was awesome. We never flipped but came really close at the "Surfing Rapid". Did anyone else get rained on? We got a little worried when it started lightening, but we survived. No one else was around when we got to "The Mother" so we went way right and completely missed the rapid. Hopefully we can go back again with more people and try to take on the rapid. I noticed several kayaks taking out right before the rapid on the left hand side. Is there a forest road that takes you down to there or is it private land also? We did the Mulberry Sunday afternoon. Indian Creek to Turner Bend, and the water wasn’t the best level, but it was enjoyable. I think that we like the Buffalo and Piney better though.

[Phil W.]

I don't know of any forest roads around the Mother if that is the rapid your talking about. I'm glad you liked the Piney, I've floated it at many levels in my canoe and Saturday was one of the best. I haven't tipped my canoe in the Piney yet but Saturday I must say I was close a few times. Yes we got rained on and the lightning did worry me some. I think the common thing people I met on the creek said "is this July?" amazing I must say. I'm going to write a piece about the "Mother Rapid" soon so I hope you enjoy it when I post it.

[Cowper]

Did anyone else get rained on? ….I noticed several kayaks taking out right before the rapid on the left hand side. Is there a forest road that takes you down to there or is it private land also?

Yes. But we got lucky; we happened to be near an overhanging bluff as the rain and lightening approached, so we figured what the heck, why worry? ½ of our group sat under the bluff sheltered from the rain, while the other half enjoyed sitting in the warm rain but at least safe from lightening. Seems strange, but I think it had something to do with wading through poison ivy to get to the fully sheltered location… After about 30 minutes to an hour of enjoyable conversations in which many world problems were solved, the rain moved on and so did we…

Are you sure you weren’t still up at Surfing rapid, ~1/2 mile upstream of the Mother? That’s a common spot to pull over, take a break, and watch other folks play the wave. There was a 4WD road that came in on river left above the Mother, but it was closed off by the Forest Service more than a decade ago. Anyone caught riding four–wheeler down the remains of that road would get in some serious trouble with the Forest Service folks. On River right, there is also a four wheel drive road that comes down to the river near the Mother, that I’ve driven in a full-size pickup, but it was deteriorating years ago and I’d be surprised if it is still passable other than by jeep or ATV. Maybe someone else has been down it more recently…

[71dartswinger]

Yes it was right below the surfing rapid. on the right. There was a spot where you could go left or right, and if you went left the people were taking out there. I thought they might have just been getting out of the weather, but there was a well worn path up the bank. Then when we got to Long Pool, two guys were pushing off and asked us, "Where did you put in, The Mother?" I said, "No, Helton's Farm". It was funny because he said, "Wow thats a long float! How long have you been floating, 4 hours? I told him 2.5 hours, but the water was really fast and we didn't stop paddeling once it started raining. I guess maybe some of the locals still take the road. Anyway, I saw a guy that used a little scooter to park at the take out, so he could shuttle back to his truck and park it in the back. I thought that was pretty cool.

[Phil W.]

A scooter is cool. I've thought of using my mountain bike but then I thought, I may be a little too tired to bike after a long float: yeah right, thought you'd be tired!