For many paddlers like myself, we have told ourselves “I’ll run it next time.” We might be talking about an intimidating drop or a creek as a whole. Being afraid to run the hard drops and creeks is a good thing, and each paddler should take their time and decide if they should run or walk a certain drop. Raymondskill creek is one of finest creeks in PA; I first dipped my paddle blade in the tanned waters of R-kill back in 2006. At that time there was a portage in the middle of the run which consisted of a 20ft waterfall that lands onto a tilted Rock slab, then off another 6 ft ledge. Later that year a dummy boat was launched over the drop with a sweet line, soon paddlers began to follow and the former portage became known as Flirting with Disaster. Over the past years I have run Raymondskill 25+ times each time contemplating a possible run of Flirting, each time I left thinking, “I’ll run it next time” finally on a warm beautiful fall day in October, the stars aligned, my paddling partner Jeff Ackerman layed down a sweet line, the water level was just right, and I had been nailing my lines that mourning. I decided this was next time.
- Art

Enjoying the pool at the bottom. All photos by Jeff Ackerman