Sherman's Creek Covered Bridge Trip

Enticed by my intriguing description of the covered bridges of Sherman's Creek, an intrepid group of paddlers gathered at the Enslow Bridge Sunday morning the 10th of April. Many started at the Flying J Truck stop in Carlisle to "boat pool" (a term coined by Arlene Taylor). After dodging a large contingent of Canadians flying back north for the summer we set out for the put-in with a caravan of 6 vehicles loaded with boats and paddlers. We met the other half of the group at the put in, already unloading and getting ready. All totaled there were 19 paddlers and 18 boats. No, nobody was swimming, we had one tandem canoe as well as a handful of solo canoes and all kinds of kayaks - rec boats, long sea kayaks, white water boats, and Al in an old school Hurricane. We ran shuttle down to Cisna Run and the Adair Bridge take-out with 10 cars, and found plenty of parking at the take-out next to the bridge. We made it back to the put in with only two vehicles - Jennifer had them stacked like cord wood in the back of her SUV and it looked like a clown car as they kept piling out. After a quick group photo we got everyone into the water and headed down stream. The water level was up a couple of inches from the level two weeks ago when I scouted the run so dragging boats through the shallows wasn't an issue and made sliding over the first strainer log easy. Just down stream we found a downed tree all the way across the stream. This tree was not there two weeks ago and the banks were not really suited to getting into and out of boats. Getting back into boats proved to be a little more challenging than getting out. We did a team brace for the canoeists who had to step down the muddy, slippery, three foot bank, and we seal launched the kayaks. We only had one casualty when one of the seal launched kayaks tipped and deposited it paddler in the drink. Due to proper, non-cotton clothing and fleece, this paddler was none the worse for the dunking and finished the run with no problems. We had a couple more tight squeezes around wood choked braided channels and under another downed log, which had a convenient head high arch close to the bank. We paddled through a couple class I riffles, and finally rode the tongue on a gap in a small low head dam before ending the run at Adair Covered Bridge. All in all it was a great day with great company; next time you should join us.

Chris H.