Piney Creek, West Virginia, US
|
|
Beckley to the New River at McCreery
| Usual Difficulty |
III-V (for normal flows) |
| Length |
12 Miles |
| Avg. Gradient |
80 fpm |
| Max Gradient |
80 fpm |
Gauge Information
River Description
Lat/longitude coords are approximate, from TopoZone.
From Chris Gorman, 2003-09-22 22:37:49
One thing about the river is the water quality is not great. It runs right past a sewage treatment
plant that dumps into the river. It is a cool run though, it starts with about a mile of boogy
water then there is a 5' drop onto a slide and some more boogy water (about 10' if you run the
left). Then the pace picks up and it gets fairly steep and continuous. There were a couple slides
into huge holes with undercut/sieves on the left side. Then there is one 8-foot waterfall that has
a huge undercut on the left. There are some other cool rapids but everything is scoutable. The one
drawback of this river is the length; it runs right into the confluence with the New and is some
3-miles of tiring rock dodging at the end. Railroad tracks run the entire length of the river.
Mark D'Agostino adds (2003-09-23 20:50:08):
We ran Piney on 9/20/03. It is indeed one of the nastiest smelling creeks I've been on, but still
fun. At 2.6' on the USGS gage, the run was a solid medium level to me. The extended boogie sections
are covered well enough to not detroy your boat. The short steeper stretches at the top (ending in
big rock falls) and after the coal mine (flusher) packed some punch. Not the best run in the area
but still worth a trip.
StreamTeam Status: Not Verified
Last Updated: 2006-01-05 20:39:19
No rapids entered. If you know names, and locations of the rapids please contact and advise the StreamTeam member for this run. 
User Comments
the minimum. The rapids are good, however, the pools are very shallow at 3.1. Fallen trees are
prevalent, especially in the last third of the run. We portaged at least five times due to fallen
trees. Be on the lookout for trees!
downed trees and log jams. Most of the major rapids were the same, but the boogie made from small
boulders will be different. Portaged 3 times for wood either completely across the river or in bad
places, as well as twice more 1 person got out to clear wood out of the way. River is tons of fun
at higher water, but there are some good sized holes.
different places . And there is tons of wood , becareful . rnkc
There's a very small step section that leads straight into a broach on this wide partially
submerged rock. (It was possible to scrape over with the level at about 2.88, but he still got
pulled under) Just be careful; I couldn't find it again if I tried, but there are hazards to be
found on this creek. He dropped his back edge scraping over it and that was all she wrote. It
flipped him in and under, then he washed out two minutes later on the bottom side. His boat came
under a few minutes later. It's in the boogie water after the first class IV (V) rapids. Edit
the doo doo plant was still strong. Good fun - many in the group compared it to Glade Creek. Edit
great run! Constant gradient with big drops interspersed. I think of it as a scaled-down Lower Big
Sandy, which is pretty much as good as it gets! I put on at 3:30 one day when the 8:00am level
(Raleigh) was 2.75 and dropping. When I got to the put-in, the level was an absolute
minimum---abusive at the top, but good farther downstream. At the put-in, the riverbed is smooth,
solid bedrock, giving the appearance of there being more water than what it really has. More fun
than Glade Creek, and definitely worth doing!