WV still has plenty of surprises

West Virginia still has some great surprises if you are into searching out some class 3/4 after a big rain storm. The staple runs in WV never let you down. But there are those days when rain is too much or it just missed your local spot. What do you do? Surf a high water wave? Paddle that local class 5 at mega high water. Or take the risk of checking out an off the radar run?

One of these hidden class fun runs is yet another Laurel Creek. This one comes into the Elk River. Starting in the high county of Webster County, Laurel cascades off the moutnains slowly building volume and keeping gradient for over a dozen miles. A low volume day would keep you busy with rocky turns, little ledges, and bedrock slides. But catching it after a big rain unlocks surf, big hole boogie, and lots of wide eyed scouts!

Few years back now Art Barket wanted to check it out as he is trying chronicle as many runs as he can. We had a nice big rain storm in the area and it happened to be the Webster Whitewater Weekend, a paddling festival like no other in county like no other. Definitely a story for another day. Art brought along Justin Harris and a fella named Nick 🙂 None of us knew what to expect.
The take out is at the start of Sutton Lake. We met up with low expectations of what the day would offer. The Shuttle had us eyeing all the flooded creeks imaging first D’s as we popped over the mtn and into the small town of Erbacon. We had all the water we wanted with the level being on the high side of good.

The first section was spent cruising through the neighborhoods above Erbacon getting a personal look at the locals back yards. It become no surprise when we come around the corner to see something like an old junked, box Chevy with a mass of a 100 years of living free in the hills of WV surrounding it. Surf ledges on bedrock mixed with high water class 3 boogie. One big drop under a bridge had a couple different lines and was challenging to the whole crew.

We exited Erbacon into the meat of the run with heavy water building up. Folds of current formed at each bend of the river meandering through old farm land. We started into the next rapids with big wave trains. Surf ledges were everywhere. Some big bedrock slide rapids with large ledge holes were back to back. The Large Antix was in prime time mode catching kick flips, rocket moves, and the occasional surf. Surf was everywhere.

We scouted several drops faced with some fun decision making. A railroad ran along the river right so scouting was easy. We all took different approaches to the rapids. Some required risking a big hole beat down to get that perfect line. Even though we had high water we felt the run could even be more fun with more flow. The waves would only get bigger.
The run ended with miles of fun boogie. We were all stoked beyond stoked. Another WV gem. Excited to get back in there again one day! The medium Antix would be fun on a warmer day. Hell, even a playboat run in the summer would be epic if you had the water and energy. Can’t wait to maybe get a Clutch run at even bigger flows. So many good launch waves.

And that wraps up another blog post. Here is to more paddling in 2025. This run was extra special as I was teaching in Webster County at the time and my school was a few minutes from the put in. Always cool to tell your students how awesome their back yard is!
Cheers and see you on the river 🙂