The Savage is probably Maryland’s most famous whitewater river and is the site of national championships in the 1972 Olympic Trials, international races, and the 1989 World Whitewater Championships. This section is very rarely runnable but is as beautiful a whitewater run as you will find in Maryland. The creek winds through a tight little gorge in complete isolation with rock cliffs and formations all around with lichens and ferns accenting. The rapids are almost continuous on this section and are formed by cobble bars, lots of ledges, and some boulders and there are many sharp turns requiring technical paddling to navigate. One difficult rapid, about four miles into the run on a straightaway is steep and clogged by jagged rocks and undercut boulders, may be carried on the right. Because the stream is so narrow, trees are an occasional problem and there is a strand of barbed wire by the camps above the take-out.