Playground
NO SHUTTLE REQUIRED. PHOTO: COURTESY ASCI
RIVER OF DREAMS.
PEAK-TOP PARADISE
ADVENTURE SPORTS CENTER INTERNATIONAL BRINGS FASTER WATER, FEWER HAZARDS AND CUSTOMIZABLE CURRENT
IT’S A VIEW RARELY SEEN BY RIVER DWELLERS. From the top of Wisp Mountain in McHenry, Maryland, rafters, kayakers and canoeists look over the lush mountains of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, across the top of the nearby Youghiogheny River valley. As the crow flies they’re within a few miles of the rock climbing, paintball, golfing and mountain coaster rides that characterize the area in the summer, and spitting distance from the Wisp Mountain ski slopes, which unravel all around. Perched on a peak more than
3,100 feet above sea level, Ad- venture Sports Center Interna- tional draws river folk out of their valleys and onto the only mountaintop whitewater course in the world.
30 | RAPID ASCI—”askie,” as the regulars
call it—boasts world-class rapids with the convenience of park ‘n’ play access and a well-stocked on-site café. ASCI’s executive director Mi-
chael Logsdon swears it “looks no different and feels no dif- ferent” than any other river, but some paddlers have noted artificial-feeling quirks. Jim Snyder, whose revolution-
ary boat building makes him one of the forefathers of freestyle, spent a half hour on the course and says the water runs much faster downstream than in a nor- mal river—even the eddies churn harder—since water surges unim- peded over the smooth concrete riverbed. No foot entrapments here. ASCI’s water is about four degrees warmer than regular lake
temperatures and aeration keeps the water remarkably clean. In September this peak-top
paradise will host the 2014 ICF Canoe Slalom World Champion- ships, and paddlers worldwide will come to sample the arti- ficial frenzy. The course offers a consistent, controlled flow that can push a calm river to a thrashing class IV set in a mat- ter of minutes—the “soup to nuts factor,” as Logsdon calls it. The current can be customized to suit seasoned freestyle kay- akers or first-time rafters. When the course operator
flicks a few switches, four pro- peller-style pumps with more than 2,000 combined horse- power shoot water from nearby Deep Creek Lake through the course at 250,000 gallons per
minute, easily filling an Olym- pic-size pool in less than the time it takes to suit up and slip into a kayak. Like a kettle on a burner, it doesn’t take long for the water to start boiling. The approximately 535-me-
ter-long course has six adjust- able features controlled by air bladders the size of Volkswa- gens. The bladders are hidden under movable hinged steel plates on the riverbed, and can create a surfable hydraulic, tighten up a hole, or send a sea- soned vet to instant humiliation. As Logsden puts it, “The
course can transform from a very family friendly river all the way to the home of the World Championships.” KATRINA PYNE
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