Kayaking the Lower Stony River, WV

5/23/2025
Level: 620 CFS, normal medium flow. We were told this by a friend who is a dam operator at VEPCO dam. 620 CFS is approximately 20% of the release capacity. Sadly there is no way to find this gauge online.
Paddlers: James Malek, Levi Richman
Boat: Jackson Gnarvana M

Put in: route 50 bridge
Takeout: town of Kitzmiller, MD. Must run the bottom 2/3 of the Kitzmiller section of the North Branch Potomac.
Total length: 6.4 miles on the Stony, another 8-9 miles on the NBP for a total of 15

This is a really fun big water section, very continuous, and very fluffy. The first time I did this section it had double the flow in it and was a much stouter piece of whitewater. Coming back, it's still a ton of fun, but slightly easier haha. If you run this section, you must run the bottom 2/3 of the North Branch Potomac, as that is where this river drains into. This is harder than the rarely run upper section, solid class 3-4, and class 5 at huge flows. We did the Upper Stony before this, and it was really cool to see the entire river from Dam to mouth, I posted a video of the Upper Stony as well. I decided to not include the Kitzmiller/ North Branch Potomac footage as my Gopro was dying and I didn't get that much footage anyway, so I just made a Lower Stony vid. Enjoy!

In association with Jackson Kayak, Highwater Hobbies, and Demshitz
Instagram:   / _jimmythegem_