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The Susquehanna River was flowing higher than any of us had ever experienced before, and we just couldn't miss the opportunity to paddle that much water. Hurricane Frances had saturated the ground a week before and Hurricane Ivan finished off the job dumping lots of rain all over the east coast. The section of river that the group of four of us paddled is just downstream of the Holtwood Dam and usually has good playspots between 50,000 and 260,000 cfs. At the 525,000 cfs that it was flowing on this day all the normal features were 10 to 20 feet under water. In fact almost all of the recognizable island features upstream of the 372 bridge were under water, with some treetops showing where the islands were.

The group decided to put in about 100 yards upstream of the normal Holtwood put-in (on river right just below the dam) and take-out at Cold Cabin Rd. (the normal Muddy Creek take-out). This run would normally take well over an hour to paddle and on this day it took us around 15 minutes! The normal flatwater section at the bottom was probably moving at 8-12 mph.

There were 2 ft+ waves lapping at the shore in the trees with a strong down-stream current at the cleanest put-in that we could find. After breaking out through the waves and trees the group had to ferry strong towards the middle of the river so as to not get swept into another thick section of trees just downstream. From scouting from the bridge we knew that there were no major hazards upstream of the bridge, besides the huge amount of debris and the trees. Once out in the main flow of things the objective was to paddle down the main wavetrain and go under the bridge somewhere in the middle of the river. Just to help with the scale, the wave train consisted of 8-12 ft rolling waves. After passing under the bridge the plan was to head down the main middle channel of the river, which looked like it would have the best options for "play" waves. Most of the waves on the river were not surfable by playboats and all were catch on the fly with very few eddies anywhere. Half of the group ended up breaking off the plan and going down the Beartrap channel, while Joe Stumpfel and I stayed in the main channel. Just at the split Joe and I encountered a HUGE standing wave, which we both were afraid was going to be a HUGE hole as we approached it. With no where to go but down stream Joe and I were happy to find it to be an awesome wave. We both turned to catch it and Joe was all lined up and rocketed down the face while I just flushed off the corner. Joe had one of the biggest front surfs of his life with some huge bounces down the face before carving off the side of the wave. Just below, the group rejoined and floated down the current to the take-out.

This experience was absolutely amazing and one that I hope I can relive in the future. The Fluid Flirt was an awesome boat for this adventure, with three members of our team paddling M Flirts. The boat ferried extremely fast, carved across wave faces, and above all else was extremely stable in these turbulent conditions. I also want to thank my trusty Fluid Beach Ball for keeping my skirt in place when one of the many exploding waves desided to crash onto my spraydeck.

I hope that everyone who is capable and experienced enough is able to go this big at least once in their lifetime.

Enjoy and Respect the River- Bryon Dorr