Pringle Run - a Shim-terpretation

WOWAWEEWA! This creek defines brown. Its the perfect winter creek, there is road access all the way from takeout to put-in, it's only about 3/4 of a mile long and there is no such thing as a pool of flatwater in this little monster. I would recommend building a fire on the sandy beach at the takeout, bringin someone to fire up NA hot totties and grilled steezes, as well as a dedicated shuttle driver (aka Russell Bounds is our pick). With proper setup of these crucial elements, you should be able to lap this creek approximately 80 times on a normal winter day (This will be explained below).

Our crew for this epic was Myself, Issac “Jewbaca” Levinson, and Matt “Dadd-0-5” Taylor. Unfortunately our 4^th person, Matt Fithian had to call in sick, so we did not have a camera to film and take pictures with. The pictures I have used for your reference are from http://www.americanwhitewater.org/. We arrived at the creek just in time to see the steamy brown ripping through the boulders of Pringle…great success yezzz. To our left the Cheat River Narrows looked like the rain gods were thirsty for some chocolate milk, as well; they must have been really thirsty cuz it was rippin' faster than maple syrup through an Amishman’s farm in the spring!

Driving up the creek we could tell that we had no shortage of water and only a shortage of time, so after a quick look at Pringle Falls (which we have renamed because naming a falls after the creek is a bit redundant) we went straight to the put- in. New name for the falls, “Sick-n-more Falls.” Why, you may ask? Because there is a huge Sycamore tree jetting up from the base of the falls, which serves as the perfect marker for scouting from the road and from the creek. Also, the falls are sick….n then there is more. Very Nice.

Putting on the creek requires a very short jaunt through some rhododendron and then you open up right on the creek. After putting on you have about ohhh 50 yards of bebop and then it's onto the first 3 foot ledge that can be run about anywhere. I recommend center right to avoid the rock just downstream on the left. After you bahoos this little drop, it's game on. The creek narrows and things become a bit more one lined. The next drop is the only one that had wood in it but still runnable. After sliding through the center channel at top , you make an immediate hard right turn and take the right slot that will glide back to the left, rail grinding the small tree in the drop. Good to go. Following that maze, you are just above the sliding approach to Sick-n-more Falls. This slide is low angle and probably about 30 feet long but it pushes hard to the left. Not good. So if you stay up on the right side you can cruise right into the shallow right channel of the approach slide. Sliding down the channel will plop you in the frothy waters making up the lip of the 20couple footer. Line it up, grab some brown, and bahoos the shizer out of it. The beauty of this drop is that just after you land and take about 3 strokes you drop in to an extremely fun and wide open 75 foot long slide. Run this slide starting on the center right side of the creek and then just enjoy the flight. After running the slide you have about 30 yards of bepop until you drop into the most technical section of the creek. The boulder garden drops are steep, narrow, fast and really fun. I will let you be the adventurer and discover them for yourself. They kindof remind me of a little steeper and cleaner version of the North Fork put-in rapid stacked back to back. We took 3 runs yesterday before running out of daylight. We also hiked our boats back to the put-in. The gravy train method is outlined below in the Shim-nalysis.

Shim-Nalysis

Flow:

Many people use the Big Sandy as a gauge comparison which seemed to work on this occasion, however, the Sandy drains from an entirely different direction. I feel that Three Fork Creek near Grafton is a better representation because it comes from the same drainage and direction. So choose for yourself but the details are below.

Conditions:

Big Sandy = 7ft and rising

Three Fork Creek = 500 and rising or just spiking straight up

Directions:

Take Rt.72 from Albright towards the Cheat Narrows. After you pass County Hwy43/3 (on the right) it is the next creek on the right side. There is a road that goes up the creek on river left and river right. On river right is a military road called “Pringle Road”, don’t go up it but it’s a good reminder that you found the right creek. Use the access road that follows the creek up the river left side. You will see an official game checking station to let you know you’re on the right path. During hunting season the gate is open. Follow the road over its crest and then park on the left side pull off just after the road flattens out ((about 3/4mile).

Shim-Notes:

This creek is made for lapping. Our fastest run down the creek was 5 minutes flat. So, indulge in the equation below.

1 Run= 5 minutes

1 shuttle (with shuttle bunny) = 1 minute

Time to drink 1 NA hot tottie – 4 minutes

Time to eat 1 grilled cheese – 1 minute

Time to jump in the water and cool off in an Immersion Reasearch Drysuit without getting wet – 2 min

In one hour you can take 8 runs – with shuttles, drink 2 hot-totties, 2 grilled cheeses, and cool off once.

Conclusion – with 10 hours of daylight in the winter, you can take 80 runs a day, but make sure those Hot Totties aren't the leaded version!

Play Hard, Have Fun