Legendary Waterfalls- Crazy Creek Falls, Harpers Ferry, WV by Bobby “The Dogg” Miller
Crazy Creek (actually called Piney Run) drains the valley nestled between Blue Ridge Mountain and Short Hill Mountain. Native Americans and early colonial settlers occupied the land and this area was used as a pathway for troops during the Civil War. Some of the first structures in the area were inhabited by the Demory and Derry families. Of course, Mahlon Demory and Philip Derry would probably be spinning in their graves if they knew that some kayakers were intentionally paddling over the falls! What? Is that really how a corpse demonstrates its disapproval over something? Who came up with that anyway?
Every paddling area seems to have its own legendary spot, a drop so heinous that regular paddlers shake their heads while a chosen few intrepids dream about the possibilities. Crazy Creek Falls is that legendary drop in the Harpers Ferry area. It is the takeout for the hundreds of raft trips that occur each summer. People walk by the falls all the time. Some look at it and admire its beauty while others find refreshment under the cool cascading waters. It is right here where Crazy Creek empties into the Potomac River that the creek tumbles over a 25-30 foot cascading waterfall onto a jagged rock pile that has more nooks and crannies than your mom’s cellulite. On the mank scale, if it’s not a 10, it’s at least a 9.9! During periods of flooding, the Potomac backs up to the falls and fills in a pool to create a reasonable landing zone. It was during the flood of 1996 when the river hit an incredible 29 feet on the gauge that the falls was first run. With the landing nice and full, Kevin O’Neil made the first descent of the falls followed by Tim Gavin and Mike Moore. It wasn’t until the spring of 1998 when I first laid eyes on the falls at a runable level. The Potomac was at a typical spring play level and offered no assistance to pad out the landing zone. I opted to try a right to left line near the lip but didn’t make it far enough left. i got hung up on some rocks at the lip and fell straight down, pitoning and crushing the bow of my boat like an aluminum can. I did not own a video camera back at the point in time but I decided to reenact the event one day when I was bored. Click HERE for the footage.
During the spring of 2003, there was a major flash flood event that brought the tiniest of creeks up to runable levels. Crazy Creek was running out of its banks and I decided that I would run the falls. This time, I stayed left and launched a huge boof falling almost 30 feet flat into the chaotic landing zone. Footage can be found HERE at 13:58. WIth such a perfect run, I made a promise to myself that I was content to leave it at that and I didn’t need to run that falls ever again.
However, as the years rolled by, I thought more and more about running the falls again. I knew that it would be unlikely to catch the creek at the flooded level that I had before. I started to scout out and think about a lower water line down the right. About halfway down the falls, a sharp, tooth-shaped shelf sticks out. I felt that the right water level would create a scenario where you could use the tooth rock to raise your bow and land with a clapper on the rocks below. There also was the potential that the tooth was too sharp and would never provide the friendly ramp needed to get the launch.
On September 18, 2012, after a long period of drought, we finally got a period of torrential downpours. I got on the phone with the Chapelles, trying to talk them into going to the Catoctin mountains, where every creek was running bank full. However, Seth needed to go to work that evening so we had to stay local. Plus, they had been driving around for an hour or so looking for a runable creek and weren’t going to spend another red cent on gas money! What does that mean? I have never seen any legal currency that was red! The rain didn’t hit the Harpers Ferry area as hard and none of the small streams had enough flow. Luckily, Crazy Creek is a little larger of a stream and holds its water fairly well. Since it was the only horse available, our choices were to ride it or eat it. Speaking of eating, I had an Unreal 5 candy bar on the way to the creek and, let me tell you reader, after tasting that chocolate, caramel, and nougat, I felt unreal times 5! But I digress.
We put on a couple miles upstream and enjoyed the continuous Class 3 rapids through a pretty gorge. Once we reached the takeout bridge above the falls, Sean and I decided to go scout. There was a good amount of flow going down the right and this flume created a fairly padded ramp off the tooth rock. Upon first scout, things looked ugly but the more I looked at it, the better it looked. I had a choice: I could be content to run a pretty Class 3 run or I could step it up, run the falls, and make it a marshall day! I think you know what choice I made! The idea of skipping this legendary falls didn’t do P Turkey for me. If there is a SIK drop out there to be run, it is my duty to go out there and drop it. I don’t read the script, the script reads me! I like to live on the edge, the edge, the EDGE! I risk my life to go into the hood to buy my lottery tickets because I know that that the states target lower income areas for big winners! You can’t win if you don’t play!
I walked across the highway and got in my boat, ready for battle. The stadium bleachers that we had flown in for this event were filled to capacity with the MILLIONS…. AND MILLIONS of the Dogg’s fans. There were no seats available, all the way up to the nosebleed section. What? How can you get a nosebleed watching a sporting event from far away? I don’t get it! With such a large crowd, the pressure was on to give the performance of my life. I knew that any mistake could result in a huge beating (from my wife). The rocks are very exposed at the bottom and the lip is so junky! I was basically floating and counting on a well timed stroke on the tooth rock to raise my bow. A mistiming of this maneuver would result in a crash that would deliver more pain and agony than that time that a caddis fly crawled up my pee hole. I sailed through the darkness of the tunnel, a calm adjournment before the pandemonium that lies on the other side. Oh yes, I was as cool as a cucumber. What? What makes a cucumber so cool?It would seem to met that a cucumber is susceptible to the same temperatures as any other vegetable. I emerged on the other side of the bridge with a short distance to the edge. I slowed my speed and, using a curler in the center and the rocks on the right bank as navigational beacons, I lined up in the correct spot. I floated down with some angle to the left so that I would land on the slide and shoot out away from the rock pile. However, the tooth rock caught my stern a little weird and turned my bow slightly so that I ended up pointing straight downstream. I landed at the 45 degree angle that I was planning, which saved both my ankles and my back. The landing was softer than expected and I skidded sideways down the slide below into the pool. I was so proud that I was busting my vest! All 17 muscles for smiling were frozen in a grin so wide I could have eaten a banana sideways! Who says stuff like that!
Sean and I discussed the line and he decided to go for it. He decided, based on my strange kick off the tooth, that it might be better to come at it with a straight on approach. Soon, he was in his boat and heading for the lip. He floated over the edge and lined up straight, catching the tooth nicely and landing smoothly on the slide. He cascaded down the exit slide and celebrated his perfect run! That falls certainly is a drop worth crossing the Atlantic for! After some high fives and chest bumps, we downed a couple 40’s of King Cobra and headed to Longshots for some celebratory karaoke action. If you weren’t there, you missed Sean’s best Steve Perry impersonation with an emotional performance of Don’t Stop Believing. But that is another story.
