From: rsk@aspen.circ.upenn.edu (Rich Kulawiec)
Newsgroups: rec.boats.paddle
Subject: Trip report: Letchworth Gorge of the Genessee River
Date: 7 Sep 92 13:54:36 GMT
Organization: Cardiothoracic Imaging Research Center

Genessee River, Letchworth Gorge, 8/16/92
The Boaters: Waggles & Chumley (OC-2), Toast (K-1), Crash 'n Burn (K-1)

Level: 9.25 feet
Difficulty: II (II+)
Length: 6.5 miles
Shuttle Length: 8 miles
Time: 3-4 hours
Rescue Index: Accessible (put-in, take-out, halfway point) to impossible (rest)

This trip consists mostly of class II drops, with a couple of these
tending to be more II+ in character.  It's about 35 miles south of Rochester,
New York, so it's reasonably accessible to paddlers from Syracuse, Pittsburgh,
and the Penn State area.  The biggest difficult is catching the river
when it's up; the 9.25 level that we encountered was not much more than
a bare minimum.

The Letchworth Gorge ranges from 400 to 600 feet deep; most of the rock
layers exposed are shale and limestone.   This rock is quite crumbly,
and it's not a good idea to drift along just under the cliffs, especially
when they're loaded with water after a hard rain.  Most of the rapids are
formed by ledges of this same rock, with a few boulders here and there to
make things more interesting.  Wildlife is abundant: we spotted herons
and hawks, and saw evidence of racoons and deer.  The water isn't all
that warm, but it's certainly warmer than the Yough or Lehigh.

The trip starts at Lee's Landing, after a put-in carry of about 400 yards down
a well-defined trail.  The first rapid is visible (and scoutable) from
the put-in, so you might want to paddle upstream and warm up in the tail
waves from the rapid above.  (We thought about running this one, but at this
water level, the entire right 3/4 of the river dropped over a cobble bottom
too shallow to run, and the left 1/4 smacked into a rock face before making an
abrupt right turn and dropping into a small but deep hole.  It didn't seem
like a good place to loosen up.)

Anyway, the first rapid consists of a quick drop into a pulsating wave train.
It's a bit difficult mostly because of the current speed; it's not hard
to stay on line.  Blundering off to either side would land a paddler in
fairly stiff reaction waves and pourovers, so it's not recommended.

Most of the following rapids are similar, and all of them are followed
by recovery pools with nice eddies.  The current does tend to move a
bit faster than it appears at first, so swimmers should work for the
eddies quickly.  The only features to really be aware of are (1) most
of the fast water is really shallow, so tuck quickly if you roll, and
(2) some of the rapids involve 90-degree turns in front of cliff faces
which may be undercut.  (In particular, there's one about 3 miles down
where the stream splits; the right side is a shallow 100-ft wide drop
over cobbles and the left is a 15-ft wide chute that tries to paint you
onto the rock face.)  Large parts of this trip take place deep in the
gorge, where it would be difficult to evac someone.  Luckily, the trip
isn't very long, and there is an access point about halfway down -- it's
a rocky beach used by fishermen on river left on a 90-degree left hand turn.

About 5 miles into the trip, the river makes a 180-degree sweeping right turn,
(called "Big Bend"), turns slightly left, and then makes another 180-degree
right.  Visitor overlooks may be seen at river left, several hundred feet up.
Wolf creek enters from the left, dropping over a little two-foot ledge almost
directly below the overlook points.  There is a I+ below this and then the
river begins to bend back to the left.  Here is where a particularly
interesting II+ presents itself.  It's not particularly big or long,
but it does have a unique feature: a hole which is nearly *parallel*
to the main flow.  What happens is something like this:


          \                                `  \    
           \               phew!          `    \    
            \                \         E `      \    
             \                \       L `        \  cliff
              \                \     O  `         \  face
               \                \   H  `   <-flow  \   
   /||\         \                \     ``           \  
    ||           \                \____  ``          \ 
    ||           |                     \   ``         |
DOWNSTREAM       |                      \    ``  ^    |
                 /                       \    `  |    /
                /              :::::::::: \    flow  /
               /         OO     pourover   \        /
              /     OO   OO  O ::::::::::   |      /
             /              OO              ^     /
            /    O  boulder                 |    |
           /  O  O   garden   OOO OOO       ^    |
          /  OOO    OOO   O     OOO         |    |
                                          boat    

The hole here is formed by water ricocheting off the cliff face and dropping
over a ledge; most of the rebounding flow is at right angles to the main flow.
The casually paddling boater will find him or herself dropping right into
the corner of the hole and parallel to it.  Judging from how tightly the
corner of the hole is curling back on itself, this is probably not a good
drop except for those with very strong bracing skills.  The move to the left
to avoid it is not hard, but it's not obvious from the top.

The take-out is on the left at St. Helena; it's marked by a single
rock bridge pier at river right.  (In wet weather, a pretty waterfall
is visible ~800 yards downstream, falling down the cliffs on river left.)
It's a muddy climb up a six-foot slope followed by a 400-yard carry to
the parking lot.

Permits are required to run the river. :-(  They're $5, and must be picked
up at the park office (regional admin building) which is on the main park
road just about where the side road to the put-in forks off.  They must
be picked up between 9 and 10 AM the day of your trip.  Everyone in the party
has to sign in, and the party has to check out when off the river.
Admittance to the park itself is $3 car/day.  There is a small amount
of commercial rafting traffic on the river: 8-10 rafts/day.  We saw one
trip of 5 rafts + 1 kayak at the put-in, some fishermen at the halfway
point, and nobody else.

While you're in the park, check out the three waterfalls; the largest one
is about 100 feet, but they're all impressive.  (They're upstream of this
run, so you don't have to worry about them if you miss the take-out.)

---Rsk