We are pleased to announce that we will be having our winter pool sessions at the Greenhouse Aquatic Center. This is a larger pool than the one we used last year. The Greenhouse Aquatic Center is located at 5520 Cherrywood Rd. This is south of 161, north of Morse Rd. and west of Karl. From Karl Rd., turn west on Sandalwood Place and turn left on Yellowwood Dr. Shortly after turning onto Yellowwood, you’ll notice a large white dome (the pool covering) and a large parking lot south of the dome. Park in the lot and enter from the west side of the dome.

There are locker rooms on the west end (Cherrywood Rd. side) of the building attached to the pool. Make sure you leave early for your first visit to allow for wandering!

As with any location, there are a couple of idiosyncrasies. The dome is kept aloft via air pumps. There is an airlock door through which people, paddles and gym bags can fit. There is a separate door through which we will pass the kayaks and canoes. This door can only be opened for about 90 seconds during any 5-minute period before enough pressure leaks out to make the roof wobble. Not a big deal although we don’t want it to fall down because it won’t be able to get back up! We held several kayak schools there last winter and didn’t have any problems but it is something everyone should know about. The pool session leaders will control the flow of boats in and out of the pool.

Please make sure your boats are clean enough to eat out of. We don’t want to have to rake the pool bottom! Dirty boaters will be asked to leave. COP will have four kayaks available for people to use on a first-come, first -serve basis. Sharing the COP boats will be necessary. In the past, some people coming to our pool sessions had expectations that they would be taught to learn how to roll. Since we will be offering Kayak I (beginning) classes and also Eskimo Roll classes at the pool this winter and spring, we do not plan to directly offer instruction during the pool sessions. They are simply open sessions where people can play and train for boating season. Of course, anyone is free to ask for help or tips but our instructors and leaders (with the exception of the pool session leaders) need to know that I am not asking them to donate any of their valuable free time for teaching during these sessions. They are certainly free to but that will be up to them.

Cost of the sessions is $5 for COP members and $7 for non-members. The sessions will be held each Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., beginning January 7, 2001 and finishing with the last Saturday in February. We had originally wanted to hold sessions in March but the pool will likely be closed for painting and repairs and when March rolls around it’s time to get outside again!

Thursday, January 4, we’ve rented the Greenhouse Aquatic Center from 8:30 - 10:00 p.m. to let our school instructors and trip leaders get familiar with this new pool facility. I need 2 volunteers from this group for each of the 8 Sundays (January 7 through February 27) we’ll have the pool. One person will manage the door and one will manage the sign-in sheets. Folks fresh from our October leader training are more than welcome to start out here! Since we have de-emphasized the instructional component of the pool sessions, we won’t need to have instructors dedicate their pool time to teaching. This January 4, session is free to our leaders and reserved exclusively for them. See how to get to the pool from our maps and contact John Lane if you have any questions or are willing to sign up as a pool session leader.
 

I went down to Dimple Rock on the Yough This morning with Ohiopyle State Park manager Doug Hoehn and s group of rangers, outfitters, and guides. The dam had shut the river back as much as possible, and it was reading .7'. The water was very clear, and the morning sun was shining down under the rock from upstream. From the river left shore we were able to wade out and probe under the rock with a long pole. Then we looked underneath the rock with a divers mask.

What a sight! Dimple Rock is sitting on a rock outcropping. It overhangs the upstream edge by four to six feet over much of its width. It tops out an irregular "room" roughly four feet high. The water was clear and appeared calm. Even at this low level, the roof of the "room" is a foot below the surface of the river. At 3.5 feet, when the Dimple Rock pillow starts to wash onto the top of Dimple Rock, the "roof" of the "room" will be under roughly 7' of water. The room is so large that the trees removed in the 1996 drowning almost certainly did not fill it. The water was quite murky at that time, which is why no one got a clear view of this area.

My theory is that most rafters who flip above the rock stay in the pillow and are washed to the right and safety. A few unfortunate folks get washed deep, and end up under the rock. They are unable to work their way out the sides and back to the surface before running out of air, but are eventually washed free. This has happened 3 times over the past decade.

So now we know. Dimple Rock is VERY undercut! Doug Hoehn has pulled together an advisory committee to look into safety on the Yough, and Dimple Rock in particular. If you have any comments you may email me at ccwalbridge (AT) cs.com