Whitewater Rafting near Deep Creek Lake

[MickinMD]

Our last full vacation day in Western Maryland looked dim with rain and thundershowers but they ended before our 2 hours of whitewater rafting began in the misty, foggy mountain above Wisp Resort.

It was fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!  Four from our extended family were in one raft and five in another, each with a guide in the rear of the raft ordering us to to row forward, backward, in circles, rest, etc.

I'm in the 2nd row, left from the picture taker's perspective, starboard or right from the raft's perspective - just in front of that cement object in the background.

This is a "level 4" manmade course that's maybe a mile long over numerous rapids but still a tough ride that we repeated several times.

Lori, in front of me, is virtually hidden behind the wave in the 2nd photo below

We're all engulfed here:

We ran into rocks a lot. I'm almost flat on my back in the 2nd picture below:

Our other raft of relatives had a picture that shows more of the continual turbulence and eddies:

 

[donkpow]

The water would hide my wet britches.

[Kirby]

Looks fun, but I think I'd figure out some way to injure myself.  Glad you had fun and those are some great pictures.

[jdc2000]

Looks like fun, but only 1 mile.

If you like that, maybe you should think about trying this:

 

 

[Prophet Zacharia]

It’s not 82 Miles like the Main Salmon, but for $1500 less per person, the New and Gauley River rafting in West Virginia is very respectable.

[jdc2000]

Week long guided trips are pricey, although definitely worth it.  Day trips are also worthwhile and a lot cheaper.

 

[MickinMD]

9 hours ago, jdc2000 said:

Week long guided trips are pricey, although definitely worth it.  Day trips are also worthwhile and a lot cheaper.

 

The four in our raft, in our 60's and 50's, were exhausted after 2 hours. The guy in the blue windbreaker in the other raft is in his 70's and he got out after the third loop. The 2 hours were just right for us.

[MickinMD]

13 hours ago, jdc2000 said:

Looks like fun, but only 1 mile.

It was only one mile, but at the bottom of the run we took a raft-lift back to the top and re-did the mile a lot of times.

And it's long enough and varied enough to be fun to re-do:  "Adventure Sports Center International is an Olympic standard white water rafting and canoe/kayak slalom center located on the mountaintop above the Wisp Ski Resort at Deep Creek Lake, McHenry, Maryland."

As we hit the various sequences of single, double, and triple rapids and the tricky eddies between them, we got better and better at it and that contributed to the fun.  By the last go-round, we were hitting fewer rocks and more centered and aligned through the drops - some of which we went through backwards on the first few runs!  We were supposed to keep paddling through all the splashing and also got better at it by the end.

[Tizeye]

That photographer must walk on water.

[jdc2000]

The Salmon has whitewater sections and relatively calm, flatwater sections, so you have recovery time.

 

[Further]

The Yough River has some pretty good white water near Ohiopyle. The Great Adventure ride passed right along it.

My buddy & I were going to fish a section of it from my canoe. Lucky lives near the river and had gone thru the section dozens of times in inflatable boats, he didn't think it would be much harder in a canoe.

Looking at the water before we launched I asked Lucky how long it would take to go thru the section, he guessed about 45 minutes. I suggested taking a test run without the fishing gear first.

That was the only good decision made that day.

2 hours later, half to three quarter drowned we dragged our asses and a wrech canoe out of the river.

We didn't go fishing.