“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
~Henry David Thoreau~
There are certain words throughout the hollars of the whitewater world that remind every boater of a particular aspect of our sport and lifestyle. Be it a rivah name, a play boating move, a famous safety spot, or a legendary figure within the community, our sport most certainly has it's own language...........Cheoah, donkey flips, the 420 rock at Sunshine, Charlie Walbridge............any non-boater who just read these examples will see them as nothing more than a foreign language of random names. But for a knowledgeable kayaker or Open Boater who has spent his or her evening intensely studying the narrative history of American Whitewater and the black hole that are the innerwebs, these words echo familiarity within the consciousness. They are the words that create the language of whitewater.
Some of this Dirt Bag jargon is more centrally located to a specific region. For many boaters within the Mid-Atlantic the word "Bishoff" stimulates familiarity within the whitewater obsessed mind. This word alone may be difficult to place, but combined with words like Friendsville, shuttle, Hot Mix Plant, The Wisp, Sang Run, and the Upper Yough, and every boater recalls it's origin...............Bishoff Road..........the gateway to the Upper Yough gorge. I have been traveling this road the past five summers to reach the whitewater playground of the Upper Yough, one of my favorite rivahs. Turning off Friendsville Road in the open fields and rolling hills of Bishoff always warrants a feeling of excitement, knowing that your day is about to be spent stomping boofs, splatting rocks, and styling lines. Once you turn, you descend down a windy road through a labyrinth of farms and fields before entering colorful spring groves and the flats of an elevated valley floor where the fabled UY put-in lies. For every boater of Western Maryland and beyond, the word "Bishoff" has always represented the gateway to the UY gorge.
This fall I met a girl in Ohiopyle, PA who happened to be from McHenry, Maryland...............which is very ironic. I met a girl at the put in to the Lower Yough who grew up next to the put in to the Upper Yough. Long story short, I fell in love with her. So when the holidays rolled around I embarked on the time honored tradition of meeting the family............and trust me when I say that this was quite a large family to meet. Over the past three weeks I have traveled to the high plateaus of Garrett County numerous times to enjoy a Christmas and Holiday season with Marcie's family and friends. It has been one of the more memorable holiday seasons that I have experienced in quite a while and I am grateful for the hospitality that was demonstrated towards me by all.............Thank You.
Before arriving for the first visit I asked Marcie some questions about where she grew up, curious to know due to the location of her upbringing and because of my interest in such a captivating soul. Marcie can be a bit shy, so she didn't fill me in on the details of her home beyond the basics. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised when we pulled in to her mothers driveway and I realized that we were in fact on Bishoff Road, just around the corner from both the put-in and The Wisp, located dead in the middle of what I had always perceived as the nexus of the whitewater universe. It did not take long for me to comprehend that the small crick flowing through Marcie's front yard was in fact Gap Run, the same crick that empty's into the Yough Rivah at the mouth of one of the most famous whitewater gorges on the Eastern seaboard........talk about a small world.
Marcie was an exceptional hostess and Garrett County tour guide. On New Years Eve we traveled from McHenry to Deep Creek to Bittinger to Accident to Friendsville, participating in wing night at the local Bittinger fire department, dominoes and shots with her brothers family and friends, and a nice little New Years Eve affair in the warm and welcoming confines of The Waterstreet Cafe with the TRUTH of the Friendsville social scene present to ring in the New Year with style and class.........I couldn't have asked for a better way to welcome in 2015.
On New Years Day I succeeded in bringing Marcie back to life around noon, giving her ample amounts of time to recover from her late night shenanigans at Waterstreet the night before. She was able to rally and regain life quickly.................I was impressed. We had plans that afternoon to meet Marcie's mother's side of the family and celebrate Christmas on New Years Day. Marcie had informed me that we would be walking just up the road to the Bishoff Family Farmhouse for the occasion. It was then that I realized Marcie was in fact the granddaughter of the Bishoff Farm, and her family lived throughout the valley, still working the dairy farm generation after generation. That's when it dawned on me that Marcie's family were the natives of a valley that withheld 50 years of intimate whitewater history and tradition............it's amazing where the journey of life sometimes leads you.
“I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”
~Herman Melville~
The family Christmas was everything you would picture the holidays on a mountain farm to be..........a beautiful white farmhouse, children and cousins and nieces and nephews of all ages running around the living room, football on the TV, timeless men with the worn looks of sun up to sun down days, year after year, weathered within the lines of their skin, and a feast of legendary proportions.........green bean casseroles, Old Bay spiced steamed shrimp, homemade Mac and Cheese, steak and mushroom grilled kabobs, crab dip, country ham, barbecue wings, sweet potato pie, homemade bread, pumpkin pudding trifles, chocolate cake, jello cocktail, orange whip dessert, and on, and on, and on. I was truly in heaven. I was also fortunate enough to spend the afternoon confabulating (BOOM! Three times!!) with the ole timer of the farm, Marcie's Great Uncle. He told stories from his own history in this fabled whitewater valley. Believe me when I say that he was the TRUTH...........he referenced tales of boaters in the late 70's emerging from the forest at the side of the farm, still dressed in full rivah gear. They had been defeated by the mighty rivah, losing their fiberglass whitewater crafts to the chaos of the UY. Upon hiking out, Gap Run was the most obvious escape route, bringing them up the valley, over Bishoff Hill, and directly into the pasture lands of grazing bovines.
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| My example of the grazing bovines |
You see, I have a slight obsession with maps. It is hard for me to explain and I am trying to gain control of my addiction, but it is difficult. Topographical maps of whitewater rich areas fascinate me...........they truly do captivate my soul. I can stare at them for hours. So when Marcie's Aunt offered the map as a gift, I began my intense study of the lands surrounding the family farm. I quickly discovered just how important the Bishoff Farm was to the establishment of the whitewater culture in this area.
First off, on somewhat of a negative note, the farm is the reason for the two mile flat water paddle that is undertaken before every UY trip. Gap Run is the last drainage available that allows access to the top of the gorge before Gap Hill quickly rises on the rivah left side of the crick. Once it does, you must travel all the way around this mountain before being able to re-access the rivah at Sang Run two rivah miles above Gap Run. Gap Run actually provides perfect put-in access to the UY at Wait Rock, directly above the gorge. The Gap Run valley is flat pasture lands for a half mile before sharply turning directly into the Upper Yough. It enters the rivah at the famous safety spot at the Great Bend of the rivah. The banks of the confluence of Gap Run and the Upper Yough have bared witness to many safety sessions over the years. If that forest could talk it would have many stories about the antics of whitewater Dirt Bags from deep inside the protection of our whitewater utopia.
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| The Great Bend of the Upper Yough |
Gap Run most certainly provided an excellent starting point for the exploration of the surrounding area, however, the expanse of the farm that intrigued my spirit of adventure more than any other was the forest behind Bishoff Hill. Based on my study of the map, Bishoff Farm was the last farm that existed before the earth dropped away into the heart of the Upper Yough gorge. Behind Bishoff Hill lay mile upon mile of steep, wooded forest dropping directly into whitewater bliss................it was an outdoor enthusiasts playground, with no one to explore it but me.
“People don't get it. He didn't even have a fuckin' map; what kind of idiot? THAT was the point. There's no blank spots on the map anymore, anywhere on earth. If you want a blank spot on the map, you gotta leave the map behind.”
~Jon Krakauer~
“People don't get it. He didn't even have a fuckin' map; what kind of idiot? THAT was the point. There's no blank spots on the map anymore, anywhere on earth. If you want a blank spot on the map, you gotta leave the map behind.”
~Jon Krakauer~
After a few hours of pleasant conversation and battling the food coma developing from the feast that had been bestowed upon us, Marcie and I decided to make an adventure to the top of Bishoff Hill to view the sunset and explore the area from a prime vantage point. The Western Maryland air stung with the sharp chill it is famous for, so we broke out the heavy winter gear, packed some Christmas cookies, water, and a blanket, and set out for the top of Bishoff farm.
The walk up the hill was crisp, pleasant, and clear. Bishoff Hill is the perfect vantage point to see the entire flow of the Yough Rivah from the ski resort to the gorge. The tractor artery up the mountain winds through pasture lands and lines of fences before slipping into scattered groves of small trees and shaded fields. We enjoyed the evening walk, and took our time to the top. Once the sharp climb leveled out, we were greeted with a picnic table and fire circle in the middle of a small pasture, looking out over the quiet, elevated cove towards Wisp on the southeastern corner of the valley.
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| Bishoff Farm and The Wisp |
The backside of Bishoff Hill revealed the mystery's of the Upper Yough gorge and the adventures that lay within. Through the broken landscape of trees the Gap Run valley could be seen snaking it's way around Bishoff Hill and into the Yough, were the mighty rivah turned around the corner and dropped towards Friendsville 7 miles to the north.
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| The sun dips behind Piney Mountain, revealing the depths of the Upper Yough from Bishoff Hill |
The sun sank behind Piney Mountain and an icy wind developed, cutting deep into our bones. Marcie and I curled up together on the picnic table and watched as the sky slowly turned a soft pink and purple, before fading off to a palate of deep blues. I sat there thinking about how the landscape below on all sides held decades of whitewater history. Throughout those decades, Bishoff Farm has stood in the center of it all, quietly watching over the valley, from the slopes to the gorge. Marcie and I curled up closely to fight off the biting cold, the sun set slowly in front of us, and Mother Nature delivered one more gift for the holiday season.
“A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going."
~John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath~
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| The sunset from Bishoff Hill..........perfection. |
“A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, and the sky was brilliant over the spot where it had gone, and a torn cloud, like a bloody rag, hung over the spot of its going."
~John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath~
See ya on the rivah.......hopefully discovering as many whitewater secrets as I am. PEACE
For a complete listing of all the short stories within The Island Chronicles, please click here on The Table of Contents.
For a complete listing of all the short stories within The Island Chronicles, please click here on The Table of Contents.
