We woke up Saturday morning planning to spend another weekend on the good ol’ Yough but after checking the gauges, Bruce found that he would have other options. The Laurel Hill gauge was reading 2.38 which meant there was a possibility that Indian Creek could be running. Creeking in the summer! Unfortunately once we arrived at the bridge to actually check the gauge, we found that Indian was not running. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to run something other than the Yough, we headed for Laurel Hill and found that it had dropped quickly and was too low also. Next stop – Markleton and the Casselman. We arrived around 11:15 and found a crowd. Groups of paddlers from the Three Rivers Turkey Bash were getting ready to put on. We watched as the first group paddled through the first rapid which looked somewhat rocky. Although Bruce had expected there to be more water, he still felt there was enough for a good run so he decided to get ready for a solo Markleton to Fort Hill run. We took a look at Iser Run to see if there was enough flow to put on there, which there wasn’t, and then Bruce started to get ready. I left him to put-on and set off for the take out to relax and read – prepared for a couple of hours wait. To my surprise, he was knocking on the window within an hour and fifteen minutes and ready to head to Rockwood to run the top section! He explained that by the time he put-on, the river had come up about 6 inches and had continued to rise. So off to Rockwood we went. Here the water was brown and swiftly moving. It looked like he was in for a fun run. He put on and once again I was off to the take out and my book. This time it took him about an hour and a half. He ran into some paddlers that had put on shortly after him on his first run from Markleton to Fort Hill as he was taking off. They looked completely confused and asked if he was paddling in circles. He decided to have some fun with them and told them that he was paddling the “Casselman Loop.” I wonder if they ever figured it out! Below are some pictures Bruce took using my new Pentax Optio W30 on the Markleton to Fort Hill run. It’s an awesome waterproof camera. Submitted by: The River Rat
