Youghiogheny Sojourn: Biking, rafting and fishing the Great Allegheny Passage
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Judy Tubbs of Greensburg enjoys a day on the Youghiogheny River with her dogs, Benny and Sissy. Participants will paddle, bike, camp and fish on or near the river during the Youghiogheny River Sojourn, July 17-20.
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A river of the year, a bike trail of distinction, a network of historic towns and an opportunity to enjoy them all.
The Youghiogheny River Sojourn will offer all that and more to participants July 17-20 as they make their way downstream from Confluence to Buena Vista, a journey of approximately 60 miles. Towns along the route include Ohiopyle, Connellsville, Adelaide, Dawson, Layton, Whitsett, Van Meter, West Newton, Smithdale, Sutersville, Blythedale and Industry.
The cost ranges from $145 to $235 per person, depending on boat rental fees and whether registrants choose to go whitewater rafting.
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The price includes all meals from lunch on July 17 through lunch on July 20, camp sites in Ohiopyle State Park and Cedar Creek, and activities including family fishing. Those who want to pedal the Great Allegheny Passage all four days must bring their own bikes or rent them. The sojourn also welcomes those who want to spend only one, two or three days on the trip.
The deadline to register is Friday. Space is limited.
"It's going to be a great trip," said Brad Clemenson, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, which is sponsoring the sojourn. "There are a lot of options for everyone."
The Youghiogheny, commonly referred to as the "Yough" (say "yock"), was selected in March as River of the Year by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for its "magnificent scenery, whitewater and industrial heritage."
A major part of that heritage was coal-mining, an activity "that created significant environmental degradation from which the river has mostly recovered," Clemenson said.
John Markle remembers a time when the river was to be avoided.
"When I was a kid, my mother knew immediately if I had been swimming in the river," he said. "The iron oxide in the water turned my skin orange, and my clothing, too."
"But look at it now," he said, describing the view from his Trailside restaurant in West Newton, where sojourners will stop for lunch on July 20. "There are anglers out there catching a variety of fish, including trout. And the river is a great place to cool off on a hot summer day."
A retired educator, Markle grew up two blocks from the restaurant he bought in December, 2006. After remodeling it once and then again after a fire in February, 2007, he and his wife, Sandy, and partner, Rod Darby, opened for business in May, 2007.
"We're right along the Great Allegheny Passage, a world-class venue that extends 150 miles from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland," he said.
"We have been open for a little over a year and our customers have included men, women and children from 48 of the 50 states and 13 foreign countries, including China, Japan and New Zealand. We recently had about 30 kids from Israel come in off the trail for lunch.
"It's a hard battle to convince the local people of what a treasure they have with the bike trail here, but visitors know what it is. And more and more people are coming to enjoy it, including the sojourners."
Markle said the restaurant has grown from seven to 30 employees to accommodate the increasing number of visitors. And the West Newton Bike Shop, just below the restaurant, now has up to eight employees. A convenience store next door is open 24/7.
"We have a long way to go to provide the amenities visitors expect, but we have come a long way to this point, thanks to Linda McKenna Boxx of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, Mark Ickes of the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau, Hannah Hardy of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Cathy McCollum of the Progress Fund."
The alliance, a coalition of seven rail-trail organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania and western Maryland that built and maintains the passage, is working on completing the final section from McKeesport to Pittsburgh. Some segments between those cities are open now.
The sojourners will begin their on-river experience in inflatable kayaks just below the dam in Confluence. A member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dam, will explain when the flood-control dam was built, the launch and beach areas for boaters and swimmers, and how water is released for recreational purposes, including sojourns.
Then they'll paddle their Wilderness Voyageurs kayaks under a bridge that carries motorists to and from Fayette and Somerset counties on Route 281, and continue under a bridge designated for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Several hundred yards later, the guided group will reach The Point where the Casselman River, joined just upstream by Laurel Hill Creek, flows into the Youghiogheny. The meeting of the three waterways gave the town its name.
The river slowly turns to the left and then to the right for about a mile before it enters the gorge. With the exception of the approximately 30 trains that travel through it daily, the sounds of town and vehicle yield to gentle whitewater and a variety of bird calls, including the screech of bald eagles.
"The sojourners will be taken with the tranquility of the Middle Yough," said Jim Greenbaum, manager of White Water Adventurers of Ohiopyle, one of four commercial rafting and bike rental companies based in that Fayette County town.
"The Middle has become more popular every year," he said. "In recent years, the number of customers has almost doubled the numbers of the previous year. We used to take customers up to the Ramcat put-in in a van; we now use a bus. People on the bike trail, especially families, see how easy the Middle is, and they return to run it in a raft or inflatable kayak."
There are several places on the Middle where sojourners will be able to slide over the side of their kayaks and float. They'll have lunch on one of the islands in the river or at Baughman's Beach, a strip of sand linked to a narrow path that leads to a small picnic area bordered by the bike trail.
Sojourners looking for more of a challenge from the easy Class I and II rapids of the Middle Yough will find it on Friday on the Lower Yough, a 7 1/2-mile trip that begins below the 18-foot-high waterfall in Ohiopyle and ends at Bruner Run. The rapids in that section are rated Class III and IV, depending on the degree of difficulty and water level.
Meghan Kerr, a member of Ameri-Corps, the domestic Peace Corps, who is working with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, said there will be a guide in each raft. She said there will be stops for lunch and interpretive stops to explore geologic and other features in the gorge.
After driving from Ohiopyle to the Cochran House in historic Dawson, the sojourners will travel to Layton and paddle their own canoes or rental canoes from Hazelbaker's Canoes to Cedar Creek Park. Drivers will be shuttled back to Layton to pick up their vehicles and return to the park. There will be a family fishing event that evening.
Sunday's activities include a short interpretive hike to the Tufa, a unique geological formation; a canoe trip to West Newton, lunch at the Trailside restaurant and tour of the Environmental Education Center across the street; a canoe trip to Buena Vista and an optional tour of the Milestone Hydroponic Greenhouse. Drivers will be shuttled back to Cedar Creek.
For more information on the sojourn and to register, go to www.pecpa.org/youghsojourn.
For more information on the Allegheny Trail Alliance, Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau and the Progress Fund, go to www.atatrail.org, www.laurelhighlands.org and www.progressfund.org
First Published June 22, 2008 12:00 am
