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Unusual facility for rafters and paddlers provides families a whitewater adventure on mountaintop
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Jun 29, 2008
McHENRY, MD.: There's a man-made river atop a mountain in western Maryland.
The $24 million splashy concrete-and-rock course operated for paddlers by Adventure Sports Center International stretches 1,700 feet and drops 24 feet through nearly nonstop rapids.
Rafters and paddlers then ride a conveyor belt from the pool at the end of the C-shaped course back to the pool at the beginning of the run and do it again.
The unusual facility sits atop 3,115-foot Marsh Mountain and next to the Wisp Resort, a ski area, in Garrett County in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains.
It adjoins Deep Creek Lake, a 13-mile-long reservoir popular with boaters. The area is a summer vacation spot for people from Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., and is about four hours from Akron.
The water from the lake is pumped to the top of the mountain in the winter to make snow for skiing. Now it's being put to use in the summer.
The whitewater course holds 2 million gallons and is fed from a mountain-top pool that holds up to 13 million gallons, said Brian Homberg, the center's whitewater program manager and a University of Akron graduate.
The center, open from May to late October, is aiming to attract families to a whitewater run that is several steps beyond an amusement park ride and without the problems you might find on a natural whitewater river. It has hosted competitions for world-class paddlers.
What the center offers is a more-compact trip with guaranteed water levels. That makes the rapids less remote and the whitewater more accessible.
There are no shuttles, no hauling rafts and no boring flat-water paddling.
There are no hazards typically found on whitewater rivers, either: undercut rocks and strainers or places where feet can get caught.
And you can do it all in only two hours, not the eight to 12 hours you might have to invest in a river trip.
In fact, ASCI touts that it offers ''a seamless whitewater adventure perfect for every experience level.'' It modestly calls itself the world's premiere adjustable whitewater course. Its advertisements tell paddlers they can control their adventure.
The facility drew about 12,000 rafters and 2,000 paddlers in 2007.
The rapids have names like Pinball Alley, A-Drop, Monkey Face and the Alley. One rock is dubbed the Dark Destroyer.
Picnic tables surround the course and many come just to watch the whitewater fun.
''It's really a nice whitewater park with something for everyone,'' Homberg said.
Changing rapids
The course features a high-tech design that enables the run to change dramatically from easy Class 2-3 whitewater to more intense Class 3-4.
It produces great waves for paddlers to surf and play, and the appeal of the center is likely to grow as kayakers learn about its man-made waves, said Homberg, 44, who grew up in Columbia Station, paddled the Cuyahoga River and got a business degree from UA in 1986.
The volume of water can be changed quickly by adding or subtracting pumps.
Rapids are typically rated on a scale of Class 1 (the easiest) to Class 6 (the riskiest and most dangerous).
The high-volume flow is called Deep Creek Rapids. The low-volume river is called the Cascades.
In addition, the course features a patented system called wave shapers that alter the pitch or steepness of the drops.
That enables the center to change the course from a river with big drops, waves and pools popular with rafters and freestyle kayaks to a continuous-action river that is ideal for whitewater slalom.
The whitewater course can be intense. The facility has hosted U.S. National Whitewater Association championships since it opened in May 2007.
Training offered
The main way to run the course is to raft: at high volumes in self-bailing six-person rafts with guides.
In two hours, rafters will get 30 minutes of instruction and then five to eight descents down the course.
That means paddlers will be exposed to about one mile of nonstop rapids during their two hours on the water.
The fee is $65 to $75 for adults and $55 to $60 for youths under 12. Group rates are also offered.
The minimum age is 10.
The training is generally offered from 2 to 6 p.m.
The center also offers duckie or inflatable kayak trips.
Paddlers sit on an inflatable kayak with their feet stretched out in front of them. There is no deck or hard shell, as in a regular kayak. You use a double-bladed paddle.
A guide will provide instruction and directions on self-rescue and then duckie paddlers are free to run the course.
For a single duckie, the fee is $80 to $90 a person, depending on season and day of the week. For a two-person duckie, the fee is $125 to $150 per boat.
The minimum age is 7.
These courses generally are offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Paddlers with their own canoes and kayaks can paddle the course for a fee.
Instruction is available and wet suits can be rented in the spring and fall when the weather gets cold.
Paddlers are asked to arrive 30 minutes before their trips.
River guards armed with rescue ropes stand along the course when paddlers are on the water.
ASCI also hosts friendly paddling competitions on Friday evenings throughout the summer.
One of two in U.S.
The impetus to build ASCI came after Garrett County in 1989 hosted the whitewater slalom world championships on the nearby Savage River.
That led to discussions about boosting outdoor adventure in western Maryland as a way to boost economic development.
The course was designed and built by McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group in Denver. The firm built the whitewater course on the Ocoee River in eastern Tennessee that was used for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.
Construction required the excavation of 40 million pounds of rock. Many of the boulders ended up in and along the whitewater course.
The complex is one of 10 pump courses around the world and only two in the United States. The other is at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C. But the Charlotte course cannot change the pitch of the drops or the resulting waves.
The depth depends on how many of the four pumps are turned on. Each pump can handle 65,000 gallons a minute. With two pumps, the water is about 2 feet deep; three pumps, 3 to 4 feet deep; four pumps (the maximum) produces about 5 feet of water or 550 cubic feet per second, the way flows are measured.
The result is a course that looks and feels more like a natural river than other man-made courses, Homberg said.
The course is designed to accommodate 120 rafters and 30 boaters at one time.
Last year, the center drew about 200 paddlers a day.
Many of the key people involved with ASCI have experience with U.S. whitewater and Olympic teams. For example, Homberg is a veteran of the U.S. national team and just missed qualifying for the 1992 and 1996 Olympics.
Rocks and a coaster
Rock climbing, rappelling, bouldering, hiking, orienteering and mountain biking are offered by nonprofit ASCI at its 550-acre Fork Run Recreation Area just down the road.
It has competitive training camps, corporate and team camps and youth programs.
For information, contact Adventure Sports Center International at 250 Adventure Sports Way, McHenry, MD 21541; 301-387-3250 or 877-300-2724. You can also check out http://www.adventuresportscenter.com.
Interestingly, ASCI is surrounded by natural whitewater rivers with outfitters that offer spring-to-fall trips on the Cheat, Youghiogheny, Savage and Potomac rivers in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
You can also ride a roller coaster on the side of Wisp Mountain.
The Mountain Coaster, in its second year, features 1,300 feet of uphill track. The run then dips and drops for 3,500 feet — with a vertical drop of more than 350 feet on the east side of Wisp Mountain.
You ride in two-person coaster cars and hit speeds of 26 miles per hour. You regulate the speed by hand brakes on your car.
It operates from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays to Sept. 1.
Rides are $10 for a single rider or $15 for double riders. A three-ride ticket costs $25 for a single rider or $40 for two riders. Ten-ride tickets are also available.
Call 301-387-4911 or 800-462-9477 or visit http://www.wispresort.com.
For travel information, contact Maryland's Garrett County at 888-387-5237 or check out http://www.visitdeepcreek.com.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
McHENRY, MD.: There's a man-made river atop a mountain in western Maryland.
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